Archive for April 29th, 2010

Tech News for the Day, Thursday, April 29, 2010

We’ll start with this Puppet Pouch, a cute Nintendo DS cover.

Here is Skyfire 2.0 for Android.

Here’s Chopper 2, an iPad game that uses the iPhone or iPod Touch as a controller.

This is the Booken Cybook Opus e-book Reader.

Here is an iPhone 4G clone.

This is an iPad case designed by Louis Vutton.

We’ve been discussing the Gizmodo/iPhone 4G controversy for a while, and Jon Stewart had something to say about it. See what he had to say here.

Apple has acquired the company Siri.

Speaking of acquisitions, HP has acquired Palm for 1.2 billion.

Vizio is working on a low-priced Blu-ray Player with a VBR200W.

Sony is bringing Android and Intel chips to their TVs.

Amazon has a cool deal with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1/H.

Here’s a terrific video taken with a normal Nokia N8 cellular phone.

Polaroid 300 does the instant photo printing.

This is the BenQ E1260 HDR camera.

This is the HICE Hydrogen-powered vehicle, made by high schoolers, actually.

Lastly, McGill University has created a haptic floor. Read the article here to find out what that is.

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Posted by Techno_Mark on April 29th, 2010 No Comments

A Seaworthy, Floating Power Plant

500x_poseidenpowerplant

In the ongoing search for better sources of available energy, researchers not only try to develop alternative forms of power but also look for alternatives to conventional power plants. Besides electrical and nuclear power plants, some energy facilities are designed to generate hydro power instead. Thus, a Danish company called Floating Power Plant is developing their prototype for a nautical power plant, which generates hydro and wind power.

They call their creation the Poseidon 37. It was designed to have the durability of an oil rig and the capability to generate up to fifty gigawatts of hydro and wind power per year. According to its design, the Poseidon is 230 meters in length and will have a weight of 30,000 tons, giving it the proper size, weight and elevation to withstand tempests on the water and make effective energy production possible. The Danish company also plans to include three 1.5-2 megawatt turbines or one 5 megawatt turbine in the completion of this floating power plant.

Currently, Floating Power Plant expects the energy cost for their creation to be eleven cents per kilowatt hour. Sounds quite reasonable, doesn’t it? Furthermore, Poseidon 37 represents the creation of a more environment-friendly power plant as well. Perhaps, it will be an effective, seaworthy alternative to conventional power plants if it fully comes to fruition.

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Posted by Ikester on April 29th, 2010 No Comments

The US Could Get Its Own Offshore Wind Farm

wind-farm

In today’s society, researchers and scientists continue to look for alternative sources of energy that are more environment-friendly than oil, coal and natural gas. Common options for other power sources include electricity, solar energy and wind power. However, wind power may have been an unrated alternative energy source in America since countries like Europe and Asia have used offshore wind farms for a while unlike the United States. But now the U.S. federal government has approved the launch of a project to provide the United States with its very own offshore wind farm.

For this project, a twenty-five mile, one hundred and thirty turbine farm is to be built and located on the waters five miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Nantuket Sound. Once completed, this wind farm would generate enough power to meet seventy percent of the energy requirement for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantuket. In addition to state and federal government, this project is also supported by Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. However, this alternative energy venture could take years to be fully realized since several groups are strongly opposing it.

Stiff opponents of the U.S. wind farm project include local government groups, the Kennedy family, the coastal Wamponag tribe and numerous environmentalist organizations. Their complaint is that this project would kill the pristine view of the waters, harm the tourism industry and violate tribal rights of Native Americans by obstructing their view of the sunrise in the area. Thus, court battles and financial deals between groups are probably on the way before the U.S. offshore wind farm truly becomes a reality. Nevertheless, the development of wind farms in the United States could provide cleaner and more renewable sources of energy in the long run.

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Posted by Ikester on April 29th, 2010 No Comments

 

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