Wednesday, April 14, 2010

MIT researchers demonstrate more efficient wireless power

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/14/mit-researchers-demonstrate-more-efficient-wireless-power/

MIT researchers have been working on wireless power longer than most (Nikola Tesla aside), and it looks like they've now made a somewhat surprising discovery that could lead to more efficient wireless power. In addition to reducing the size of the transmitters and receives used in their system to something approaching practical, the researchers found that the system's efficiency at transmitting energy increased "significantly" if multiple devices are charged at the same time. What's more, while the amount of power transmitted in the latest experiment only amounted to 100 watts, MIT's André Kurs says that is only limited by the amplifier used for the transmitting coil, adding that the system could easily "feed power to a medium-sized room and power a dozen devices."

MIT researchers demonstrate more efficient wireless power originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMIT News  | Email this | Comments

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Dragoman Batch Converts Nearly Anything with Drag and Drop Simplicity [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5516265/dragoman-batch-converts-nearly-anything-with-drag-and-drop-simplicity

Dragoman Batch Converts Nearly Anything with Drag and Drop SimplicityMac only: We recently featured a multiple file type converter for Windows, but now Mac users can share in that same drag-and-drop joy with Dragoman, a free app that can batch convert images, photos, music, documents, and archives with minimal effort.

Dragoman could not be more simple to use: All you do is drag one or more files into its window, choose a compatible file type for the output, and wait for it to pop out your shiny new files. It can convert tons of different file types, too, like images (including many RAW formats), music, documents, and even archives—useful if you start using a different camera or program that can't open a certain type of file (like Apple's TIFF or Webarchive formats). It can also convert multiple files at once—even if your original batch contains files of more than one type, you can convert them all at once to one. In addition, if applicable, you can edit image preferences like JPEG quality and DPI for your converted files. If you're still not convinced, be sure to check out the full list of supported file types—it's nothing to sneeze at.

Dragoman is a free download, Mac only.

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Viewsonic rolls out energy-efficient VT2300LED LCD TV

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/viewsonic-rolls-out-energy-efficient-vt2300led-lcd-tv/

Well, it's taken quite a while since its debut at CES in January, but Viewsonic has now finally managed to get its 23-inch VT2300LED LCD TV out the door. While there's not exactly a ton of stand-out features here, the side lit LED backlighting does apparently help to deliver energy savings of 30 to 50% over traditional LCDs, and you'll get some decent specs all around, including a full 1080p resolution, a 5 ms response time, an ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner, and three HDMI ports, among other standard fare. What's more, while this one has a list price of $399, it looks like some retailers (including Amazon) are already selling for it as little as $299.

Viewsonic rolls out energy-efficient VT2300LED LCD TV originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceViewsonic, Lewis Wire  | Email this |&nbs! p;Comments

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Spring Design Alex starts shipping tomorrow

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/spring-design-alex-starts-shipping-tomorrow/

We'd gripe about the wait, but given all the e-book readers we saw at CES that've fallen off the radar or been delayed to oblivion, we're actually pretty proud of Spring Design for shipping the Alex at last. Orders will start going out tomorrow for the $399 dual screen reader. Not sure it's worth the price? Well, we're not positive either. Check out our review for a bit of help deciding.

Spring Design Alex starts shipping tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSpring Design  | Email this | Comments

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Intel wraps up 'best first quarter ever' by teasing new dual-core Atoms for Q2

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/intel-wraps-up-best-first-quarter-ever-by-teasing-new-dual-cor/

Android support for Moorestown isn't the only morsel of Intel news to come out today. In an earnings call today that kicked off with word of a 288 percent year-over-year net income increase -- its "best first [fiscal] quarter ever" reportedly -- Intel CEO Paul Otellini said, "the next innovation coming out on Atom is dual core, which comes out in the second quarter." Given dual core Atoms already exist for nettops, we're gonna guess he's referring specifically to netbooks. That jibes pretty well with what we heard about the supposed D510 remake as N500. Guess we've got something to look forward to in the netbook category over the next few months.

Intel wraps up 'best first quarter ever' by teasing new dual-core Atoms for Q2 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCNET, Macworld  | Email this | Comments

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