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This week at TreeHugger: We celebrate the festive holiday season with a peek at the year’s 10 wackiest ways to hack the planet. If you believe one Stanford scientist, one small modification could increase lithium ion battery storage by 10 times; that’s right: 40 hours of laptop battery life per charge. Lastly, we put hands…
That TV set of yours still sips power even when it’s turned off, to the point that phantom power use can add 10% to your electricity bill. In fact, the average US household consumes about 50 watts of standby power per hour. There’s a lot of talk about Energy Star ratings for electronic devices, but…
Bad news: Rhys Millen, the crazyperson who’s been prepping to do a backflip in a truck on New Year’s Eve all week, had a little accident. OK, so not that little of an accident, but that’s not going to keep him down! https://gizmodo.com/crazy-person-to-attempt-a-backflip-in-a-truck-335717 After successfully landing the 360-degree backflip three times into the cardboard boxes…
For those audiophiles to whom the word “overkill” means less than money itself, these 6-foot G1 Giya speakers by Vivid Audio might be the ultimate audio accoutrement. They’re created by Laurence Dickie, designer of the gorgeous and respected B&W Nautilus speakers that take advantage of the secrets of the mathematical curve that ends up in…
The country that invented Scotch is paying to have virtual billboards implanted in Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 4 and other titles, telling 15-to-24-year-olds not to drink and drive. At least not in real cars. It’s probably okay for them to drink and drive virtual cars, because all they risk there is hitting…
Check out these guys who took a radio-controlled airplane with an 80-inch wingspan capable of a 120mph top speed and flew it through tunnels under Stockholm, Sweden, as they followed along just behind it in a car. A stunt like this is certainly not recommended for those of you who just got a radio-controlled airplane…
A genius and Ph.D. of Aerospace Engineering who goes by the name of Hoseong Han has popped in our tips line today with what could be The Best Three Inventions of the Year 2007: the “Waist Computer,” which also converts your laptop into a hanging tray for cigarette girls; “Folding cloth,” to fool everyone with…
Our hats go off to Sam King aka Samu aka SunFish7, inventor of the JediPad, the most original rethinking of a handheld computer interface since the Wiimote. It’s got seven pressure sensitive ThinkPad-style trackpoints plus internal gyros, so you can move the cursor by waving but change the speed and accuracy of the movement as…
It may be the world’s fastest, a maglev bullet train capable of exceeding 500 kph (310 mph), but it feels like the world’s slowest to arrive. JR Central announced today that it would deploy its maglev system in 2025 to carry commuters between Tokyo and central Japan (despite one test of the technology resulting in…
If you can believe the video, it looks like the Asus LS201 LCD monitor is not only scratch-proof, but marker-proor, knife-proof, hammer-proof and crossbow-proof. According to Asus, this Jack Bauer of displays can resist anything thanks to a sapphire glass surface that protects its 1,400×1,050-pixel 20-inch LCD. They may as well have told us that…
Zyrus Bandi (which sounds like the name of the baddie in the next James Bond movie) is a flip-up USB drive that’s just been launched in Korea. With a read speed of 18MB and a write speed of 4.5MB, the Bandi has a light-up trim in blue and a cord for you to sling it…
Russians have finally completed GLONASS, which means “Vodka without hangovers” or “global navigation satellite system.” This military project began in the mid-’70s as a response to the US-based GPS to languish in the post-Soviet economic crisis until the always nice and charming ex-KGB Vladimir Putin decided to push it big time. They launched the last…
Victor (JVC to you and me) has brought out a set of earphones with a vibrating plate, apparently to enhance the listening experience. The plate is made of birchwood, with a thin film stretched over the top and, according to the blurb, gives you a rich sound while reducing noise at the same time. I’m…
This fridge magnet has a screen that displays a calendar, a whiteboard and a camera for video messages to family members.
Of course they fit in your wallet, they’re probably vaporous non-ships like the Emtrace’s last project, the Widgetstation. Looks like this digital photo frame, 5mm thick, and 9 by 7 cm wide and high, is what the station vaporized into. There’s a dock that syncs data for stocks and other info via PC. The Linux-powered…
Zink’s zero-ink technology was developed in Polaroid labs, so its nice seeing the tech making it back to its home marquee. More on Zink’s cellphone printer and camera with the printer built in, here.
Walt Disney Productions published a book in 1956 titled, Our Friend the Atom. A television episode of Disneyland aired in 1957 under the same name and can be found on the DVD set Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond. In the book, the promise of the atom is illustrated quite literally as a genie, ready…
Samsung’s 3-way speaker dock has a Bluetooth connection that detects when your cellphone gets a call, and turns down the volume. Neat trick.
This Coby Keychain LCD is about 50% off at Amazon. It holds “62 photos” in undisclosed amounts of memory, but with a 1.5-inch screen, you’re not talking more than postage-stamp-sized shots anyhow. Anyone ever try one of these? [Amazon]
Japanese paper Yomiuri is reporting that Panasonic will unveil a 150-inch plasma to show the world who has the biggest flatscreen manufacturing capability. That above is the photo of the now second-place 103-inch plasma as big as a queen-sized bed. (Sharp has the current title of biggest at 108-inches). If your mcmansion isn’t big enough…