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Sunday, August 17, 2008

EnergyHub minds your electricity, saves you cash

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/366065369/

We've seen electricity-monitoring / controlling devices similar to the EnergyHub before, but few have provided such a handsome interface or modular, expandable options. The device uses a touchscreen control panel (familiarly referred to as a "dashboard") to help gauge and adjust energy levels for satellite outlets that it communicates with. The data will be accessible and adjustable online, and users will also be able to compare their stats with other eco-tweakers or neighbors. The company claims the devices could reduce energy costs by 20 percent for homes that employ the system. There's no word on a release date or pricing, but we'll keep you abreast of any exciting developments.

[Via Inhabitat]

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Lenovo slips out the new ThinkPad X301: new CPUs, 128GB SSD, still thin as hell

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/366046083/

Filed under: Laptops

In a weirdly casual move, Lenovo has let details slip on the next iteration of its MacBook Air-challenging laptop -- the ThinkPad X300 -- unsurprisingly dubbed the X301. The new device ups the processor ante by adding the as-yet-unreleased Intel Core 2 Duo ULV (ultra low voltage) U9300 (1.2GHz) and U9400 (1.4GHz), both with a 6MB L2 cache and 1066MHz FSB. Additionally, the X301 will support up to 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and Lenovo will offer SSDs of the 80GB or 128GB variety, as opposed to the last generation's 64GB option. A new DisplayPort jack is included, along with boosted mobile broadband quality, GPS, and plans for a WiMAX version later this year. The laptops start at $2,599 and will be available August 26th, though the 128GB option doesn't show up until September. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Lenovo slips out the new ThinkPad X301: new CPUs, 128GB SSD, still thin as hell

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Leaked Intel slides reveal 8-core CPUs, AVX instruction set

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/366526250/

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

We recently learned that Intel would be (officially) calling Nehalem Core i7 and Centrino Atom, um, Atom. Now, however, we've got a few more related details for you to digest thanks to a stack of leaked presentation slides. The Tick Tock Development Model explains that both Westmere and Sandy Bridge (codenames, of course) will be fabricated with 32-nanometer technology in 2009 - 2010. Moving even further into the unknown, geeks can expect Ivy Bridge and Haswell (both doing the whole 22-nanometer thing) to surface between 2011 and 2012. The Sandy Bridge architecture will reportedly "double the number of cores per die to eight," while a new instruction set coined Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will likely get most of the attention. For those of you who haven't conked out yet (you know who you are), hit the links below to get a better idea of what your future rigs will likely house.

[Via Electronista]

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Video tech uses photos to enhance, alter shots: it's the Photoshop of video, and no one is safe

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/366883344/

Filed under: Digital Cameras

We've seen some decent video alteration in our day, but this new research project by some folks at the University of Washington has the potential to turn the entire concept on its head. Using some rather advanced algorithms to analyze video and photographs of a the same scene, the software can meld the two into something slightly better or even dramatically different. In effect, it's Photoshop for video, since it brings your Photoshop chops to bear on video effects: edit up a still shot or two of the scene, and then meld that with the video, and your edits can be seamlessly integrated into the scene, without all that nasty manual labor required by Shake or After Effects. It's not the end all be all yet, since the tech only works with static scenes so far, but the researchers are working to rectify that. While video evidence hasn't been a sure thing for years, it's always been significantly harder to fiddle with than still shots. With that barrier removed, we might be in for a whole new generation of video that lies and a reality we can be none too sure of. Oh, and really good looking indie flicks. Sample vid is after the break.

Continue reading Video tech uses photos to enhance, alter shots: it's the Photoshop of video, and no one is safe

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Athlon 64 2000+ at 8-watts outperforms, draws less energy than Atom

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/367154014/

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

AMD's going through some rough times, no doubt about it, but for fanboys of the CPU maker (wait, do CPU fanboys still exist?) here's your feel-good story of the year. The always-thorough Tom's Hardware has pit Intel's 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against AMD's Athlon 64 2000+, and the results just might surprise you. The 1GHz Athlon (with a core voltage of 0.90 volts and a power draw of just 8 watts) managed to best the aforementioned Atom in both energy consumption and processing power tests. The gurus at Tom's credited the more modern 790G platform and the highly efficient K8 architecture as big players in the Athlon's strong showing, finally deeming said chip "more economical, faster and quieter" than the Atom. We know you're in disbelief -- good thing there are 14 pages of proof waiting in the read link.

[Thanks, Carl]

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Friday, August 15, 2008

Baja BBQ

Source: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2008/08/baja-bbq.html

"The Baja BBQ firepack is a charcoal packaging that lights instantly and burns away in the grille, making the barbeque experience simple, clean and chemical free. Made from 100% recycled biodegradable paper pulp, the package contains 2lbs of natural lump charcoal and features an integrated chimney that creates perfect hot coals without the aid of chemicals or light fluid."

It's good to see the package being used as the product and innovation that looks at stripping away and not adding, that is sustainable but well designed.

More pictures after the jump.

Paper Torn with a Document Shredder Can Be Reconstructed

Source: http://www.labnol.org/software/reconstruct-documents-torn-with-paper-shredder/4202/

paper-shred

You may feeling safe after tearing all those “secret” documents into tiny strips of paper using the shredding machine in the Office but wait, there’s a Windows software that can recreate the originals even from those torn noodle-like pieces.

Called Unshredder, this software analyses all the torn pieces of paper and reconstructs the original document without requiring human intervention.

shredder

Of course you’ll first need to scan those pieces into the computer using a scanner machine but this is anytime more efficient method than asking an employee. Pic: Flickr.

Paper Torn with a Document Shredder Can Be Reconstructed - Digital Inspiration

Make Your Desktop Icons Smaller or Larger with the Mouse Wheel

Source: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/make-desktop-icons-smaller-larger-with-mouse/4209/

When you right-click on the Windows desktop, there’s an option to change the default size of desktop icons - you could either choose medium, large or the default "Classic" size.

desktop icons size

Now if you are looking for something extra and don’t want to limit yourself to these three default sizes, try this trick:

Left-click anywhere on the desktop, hold the ‘Control’ key and move the scroll wheel on the mouse - the desktop icons will grow smaller or larger depending upon the direction of your scroll.

Uncheck the "Auto Arrange" option for some more interesting results. Now I use this on a Windows Vista desktop ~~but the trick should probably work on XP systems as well~~ (sorry, its a Vista specific feature).

Also see: Access Desktop Icons from your Web Browser

Make Your Desktop Icons Smaller or Larger with the Mouse Wheel - Digital Inspiration

Send an Anonymous Email Message With Note2Email

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/send-anonymous-email-messages-online/4240/

anonymous-email Note2Email is a simple web form that you may use for sending email messages anonymously to just about anyone - no need to create any account.

Your IP address is not passed in the message header so your identity remain hidden and the email recipient will never know who exactly sent that message and from where.

Other than sending anonymous emails, this service will also come handy if you are sitting on a public terminal and want to quickly send yourself an email without logging into your own web account for security reasons.

You may send unlimited number of emails with Note2Email but one at a time. Obviously there’s potential for misuse so you can ask them to blacklist your email address so that people can’t send you messages anonymously.

Send an Anonymous Email Message With Note2Email - Digital Inspiration

Interact with Websites via Easy to Remember Email Addresses

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/interact-with-websites-via-easy-email-addresses/4230/

You know how easy it is to interact with websites through email. For instance, you can upload photos to Flickr, publish blogs on Tumblr, add tasks to your To Do list in Remember The Milk, upload files to Google Docs, save notes in Evernote, send videos to YouTube, convert documents .. and so much more with a simple email message.

Each of these services provide you with a secret (and often impossible to remember) email address that you are not supposed to share because anything sent to that address will instantly get published / uploaded on to your account.

emails

Since it is fairly hard for anyone to remember these addresses, the alias feature of Gmail can come quite handy here. Lets see how using Flickr as an example.

Setup a Gmail account (say labnol@gmail.com) and create a new filter. In the To: field, type labnol+flickr@gmail.com and then put your secret Flickr email address in the "Forward it to:" field. Save.

gmail-filter

Now any picture attachment that is addressed to labnol+flickr@gmail.com will get published on Flickr. You can create similar aliases for other services like labnol+youtube@gmail.com for YouTube, labnol+gdocs@gmail.com for Google Docs, and so on.

So your single Gmail account acts as a central hub and redirects messages to the relevant service based on the alias used in the address. And since these email aliases are so logical, you will probably have no trouble remembering them even if your email address book isn’t around.

Also see: Create Email Polls using Gmail

Interact with Websites via Easy to Remember Email Addresses - Digital Inspiration

Intelâs Remote Wake Gives PCs a Super Poke

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/364881169/

It isn’t quite earth-shattering, but Intel is introducing a technology that could make computers more useful. The company has developed ways to power up PCs remotely, allowing people to, say, retrieve files, according to the Wall Street Journal. Intel calls this Remote Wake, and it will work on forthcoming desktops with a new chipset that will have the new software embedded in the memory. Apparently, this will be much easier to use than the current options.

Intel is working with Jajah, CyberLink, Orb Networks and Pando Networks. Because of Remote Wake, a PC will also be able to make and receive calls over the JAJAH network and wake up from sleep mode to receive a call. This is improvement over the current scenario, where you can’t quite use your PC as your phone, because when it’s in sleep mode, you miss the calls. Pando’s service could deliver video at a dedicated time to a PC after waking it up remotely, an option that could make Pando quite viable as a desktop-oriented content delivery network.

If you are an expert on remote access and have some opinions about Remote Wake, please share your opinions with us.

Wuala Launches Social Grid Storage In Public Beta Tomorrow

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/q38f8FUMp6g/

This has to be some kind of record - a startup launching a public beta on the day it said it would. Wuala, the P2P ’social grid storage’ startup from Switzerland, launches its public beta tomorrow at www.wua.la. Users will be able to simply click on a button on the site to start the service (it’s a Java app). That’s it. You can drag-and-drop stuff into it for file backup, photo and video sharing, or making files available publicly.

Here’s a more detailed description, from our post on the company last month:

The underlying core tech behind Wuala is based on research conducted at ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). The files are held in tiny encrypted pieces distributed across the "Wuala Grid" of users, and mirrored on Wuala's servers - so you don't have to rely on other users being online to access your data. Users start with 1 GB of storage but can get as much as they want, either by trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage. You start off with 1GB of free storage, and then if you want more, you can make more space available on your own hard drive for other Wuala members. But users don't have to trade storage - you can buy extra storage, like 100GB is 100 Euros. All files are encrypted on the user's computer and the user chooses who gets access to which folder. No one else - including Wuala - gets to see the files. None of the fragments of files from other people stored on your computer are executable. Unlike Web storage, you can drag and drop files into Wuala on or offline.

Wuala competes in the storage space with Xdrive or Box.net, but it has a number of significant differences. The files are held in tiny encrypted pieces distributed across the “Wuala Grid” of users, and mirrored on Wuala’s servers. Unlike Web storage, you can drag and drop files into Wuala on or offline. TechCrunch UK broke the story about Wuala back in October last year. Last month, the site offered a sneak preview to the public.

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