Mizzou's nuclear battery to power things smaller than your brain can imagine

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/mizzous-nuclear-battery-to-power-things-smaller-than-your-brain/

Oh yeah, everyone loves the extended battery, but are we really kosher with the added bulge? A team of boffins at the University of Missouri certainly aren't, as they've spent the last good while of their lives researching and developing a new nuclear battery that could be used to power devices much smaller than, well, most anything. The radioisotope cell, as it's called, can reportedly "provide power density that is six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries," and while some may question the safety of this potentially volatile device, the liquid semiconductor (used instead of a solid semiconductor) should help ease concerns. The current iteration of the device is about the size of a penny, and it's intended to power a variety of MEMS systems. Now, if only these guys could find a way to make a standard AA last longer than a week in our Wiimote, we'd be pleased as punch.

[Via BBC, thanks Jim]

Filed under: Peripherals

Mizzou's nuclear battery to power things smaller than your brain can imagine originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-we-probably-lost-all-your-sidekick-data/

Well, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of cloud computing, and certainly the largest blow to Danger and the Sidekick platform: T-Mobile's now reporting that personal data stored on Sidekicks has "almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger." They're still looking for a way to recover it, but they're not giving users a lot of hope -- meanwhile, servers are still on the fritz and customers are being advised not to let their devices power down because anything that's still on there will be lost the next time the device is turned on. Another communique is promised from T-Mobile on Monday to give everyone a status update on the recovery efforts, but at this point, it's not looking good at all.

Update: Apparently T-Mobile has paused the sale of new Sidekicks, as all models are now listed as "temporarily out of stock" on the company's site. Additionally, a warning as been added to the post on T-Mobile's forum which reads: "Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power." Scary stuff, Sidekickers.

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Mitsubishi's modular, scalable OLED display goes 155-inches at CEATEC, could go way bigger (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/mitsubishis-modular-scalable-oled-display-goes-155-inches-at-c/

Something tells us that whenever we do round two of our Time Square signage Engadget Show, Mitsubishi's modular OLED display will be amongst the highlights. Aimed at outdoor applications (but obviously ready for your living room), the scalable prototype shown here at CEATEC was 155-inches in size. The wild part, however, is that it could grow infinitely larger -- at least in theory. The whole panel that you notice from afar is crafted from smaller OLED blocks that snap together like a puzzle; the more you add, the larger your screen can be. Unfortunately, resolution is still relatively low and longevity is a definite concern, but if you can manage to stand a few feet back, the result is simply stunning. Hop on past the break for a new take on "immersive."

Continue reading Mitsubishi's modular, scalable OLED display goes 155-inches at CEATEC, could go way bigger (video)

Filed under: Displays

Mitsubishi's modular, scalable OLED display goes 155-inches at CEATEC, could go way bigger (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Eye-Fi bringing trio of WiFi-enabled SD cards to UK

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/eye-fi-bringing-trio-of-wifi-enabled-sd-cards-to-uk/

If you're an US-based company, you'd be kidding yourself if you said you didn't want to take advantage of the pound-to-dollar exchange rate. We can't say for certain that the current Forex ratings on currency is why Eye-Fi is suddenly barging into the British market place, but whatever the case, UKers can look forward to slapping a WiFi-enabled SD card into their digicam starting on October 19th. The Eye-Fi Home Video, Eye-Fi Share Video and Eye-Fi Pro will all be splashing down in 4GB flavors, with prices set for £49.99, £69.99 and £199.99 in order of mention. Got it, chum?

Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless, Storage

Eye-Fi bringing trio of WiFi-enabled SD cards to UK originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Google Sites Adds Picasa Imports, Feeds, and Templates [Web Publishing]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/VFlRsu4ayug/google-sites-adds-picasa-imports-feeds-and-templates

Google Sites, the visual web site builder that's been fairly quiet since it launched publicly, just picked up a laundry list of features. Easy importing from Picasa, Docs and other Google apps, site RSS feeds, and templates have all landed.

For a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web editor, having to manually insert HTML embed codes for a Picasa album slideshow, YouTube video, Google Doc, or other related apps seemed kind of perfunctory, and Google's obviously gotten hip to that. From the Insert menu on Sites' page editor, it's now pretty simple to drop any of those objects into a page or site element.

Google also allows Sites creators to offer up feeds for any page that regularly changes by adding posts.xml to the end of that URL. And if you're happy with what you've created on a Sites page, you can save a template to work off for other sites, or create sub-templates to maintain a consistent look across a site.

Picasa Web Albums integration, site feeds, and page templates in Google Sites [Official Google Docs Blog via Google Operating System]

Read More...

Summary only...