Glow-In-The-Dark Smart Highways Coming To the Netherlands In 2013

An anonymous reader writes “The Netherlands is moving forward with plans to build ‘smart’ highways that can become more easily visible in the dark or communicate weather conditions to drivers. Work will begin as early as next year. ‘Special paint will also be used to paint markers like snowflakes across the road’s surface — when temperatures fall to a certain point, these images will become visible, indicating that the surface will likely be slippery. Roosegaarde says this technology has been around for years, on things like baby food — the studio has just up-scaled it. The first few hundred meters of glow in the dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Brabant in mid-2013, followed by priority induction lanes for electric vehicles, interactive lights that switch on as cars pass and wind-powered lights within the next five years.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continued here:
Glow-In-The-Dark Smart Highways Coming To the Netherlands In 2013

Disney acquires Lucasfilm

The Walt Disney Company today announced that it has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction valued at $4.05 billion, with Disney paying “approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing.” Press release announcing the deal here . Here’s a list of all the media Disney already owns: ABC; Pixar; Marvel; as well as Hollywood, Mammoth and Buena Vista Records, just for a start. So here’s one interesting snip: “Our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years.” Reached by phone, here was Vader’s comment to Boing Boing. (Shoop: Xeni)

Read More:
Disney acquires Lucasfilm

New York Data Centers Battle Floods, Utility Outages

miller60 writes “At least three data center buildings in lower Manhattan are struggling with power problems amid widespread flooding and utility outages caused by Hurricane Sandy. Flooded basements at two sites took out diesel fuel pumps, leaving them unable to refuel generators on higher levels. One of these was Datagram, which knocked out Buzzfeed and the Gawker network of sites. At 111 8th Avenue, some tenants lost power when Equinix briefly experienced generator problems.” The NY Times has a running list of Sandy-related problems, including 5,700 more flight cancellations, 6 million people without power, rising water levels at a nuclear plant, official disaster declarations from President Obama, and a death toll of 38. On the upside, and despite the high water levels, the Nuclear Energy Institute was quick to point out that all 34 nuclear facilities in Sandy’s path made it through without problems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more here:
New York Data Centers Battle Floods, Utility Outages

Take that linear algebra to go: Intel’s 48-core chip targeting smartphones and tablets

Intel’s taking its 48-core processor and applying it to a field beyond academia : the world of mobile electronics. The company this morning announced intentions to slip the 48-core bad boy into future tablets and smartphones (emphasis on future ), with CTO Justin Rattner saying the mobile implementation could arrive “much sooner” than the 10-year window predicted by researchers. Aside from the thrilling world of linear algebra and fluid dynamics that the chipset is currently used for, Intel says it could offload processor-intensive functions across several cores, effectively speeding up various functions (say, video streaming). The availability of so many cores also means faster multitasking possibilities than the current dual- or quad-core offerings in modern smartphones and tablets — just imagine a world where two Angry Birds games can run simultaneously in the background without affecting the paradoxical game of Tiny Wings you decided to play instead. Hey, we understand — it’s just a better bird game. No big. Sadly, few software developers are crafting their wares (warez?) to take advantage of multi-core processing as is, so it’s gonna take more than just the existence of Intel’s 48-core chip to make its vision a reality. Filed under: Cellphones , Handhelds , Tablets , Mobile , Intel Take that linear algebra to go: Intel’s 48-core chip targeting smartphones and tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  Computerworld  |  Email this  |  Comments

More:
Take that linear algebra to go: Intel’s 48-core chip targeting smartphones and tablets

Ballmer: four million Windows 8 upgrades in four days

Greetings in beautiful, gray Redmond, WA. What better time to kick off year’s Build event at the Microsoft campus than four days after the launch of Windows 8 ? CEO Steve Ballmer started the developer-centric event off with a nice little number: four million. According to the enthusiastic exec, that’s the number of Windows 8 upgrades MS has seen in the four days since launch — and there’s certainly a lot of excitement around the operating system this tent full of developers. Filed under: Laptops , Microsoft Ballmer: four million Windows 8 upgrades in four days originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

Continue reading here:
Ballmer: four million Windows 8 upgrades in four days

Sweden Imports European Garbage To Power the Nation

Hugh Pickens writes “NPR reports that Sweden’s program of generating energy from garbage is wildly successful, but recently its success has also generated a surprising issue: There is simply not enough trash. Sweden has recently begun to import about eight hundred thousand tons of trash from the rest of Europe per year to use in its power plants. Sweden already brings trash from Norway and hopes to get garbage from Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic countries. Sweden creates energy for around 250,000 homes and powers one-fifth of the district heating system. Its incineration plants offer a look into the future where countries could potentially make money off of their trash instead of dumping. Landfilling of organic materials – a highly inefficient and environmentally degrading system (PDF) — has been forbidden in Sweden since 2005 and emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from landfills has fallen dramatically (PDF). ‘I hope that we instead will get the waste from Italy or from Romania or Bulgaria or the Baltic countries because they landfill a lot in these countries,’ says Catarina Ostlund, a senior advisor for the country’s environmental protection agency. ‘They don’t have any incineration plants or recycling plants, so they need to find a solution for their waste.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the original post:
Sweden Imports European Garbage To Power the Nation

Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging

Design by committee might not be the death knell for technology after all. Over four months after the Alliance for Wireless Power was founded in earnest, the coalition has already greenlit a specification for its partners to work from. The guideline lets device makers start building devices that charge through a magnetic resonance technology more forgiving of distance and material than Qi while simplifying the process through short-range wireless formats like Bluetooth 4.0 . While the A4WP group hasn’t made all the details public, it’s holding meetings this week to speed up the commercialization process — it’s here that we’ll learn whether the corporate bureaucracy is just as quick at getting wireless charging hardware into our hands as it is handshaking on standards. Continue reading Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging Filed under: Cellphones , Peripherals , Tablets Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

Read the article:
Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging

Hands-On With LG And Google’s First Smartphone Collaboration, The Nexus 4

After having seen its mug plastered all over the internet in the days leading up to its release, actually playing with LG and Google’s new Nexus 4 seemed a bit anti-climactic. I mean, when you’ve seen a device like that cracked open and posed for your pleasure , it felt like there wasn’t much I didn’t already know about the thing. Oh how wrong I was. The first thing I noticed when I picked up the Nexus 4 is how remarkably sturdy it feels. Despite being an LG device, the Nexus 4 doesn’t really feel like one — it’s far more solid and slab-like than the plasticky handsets that the company has churned out in the past. This may sound weird, but I once I picked it up and got a feeling for its heft, I couldn’t resist the urge to tap the thing on the table a few times just to see how it held up (the answer: quite nicely). Turning the thing over reveals the funky patterned finish that reflects light we’ve seen before, and it catches and reflects light in some interesting ways. To be honest, it seems a bit too flashy for a Nexus device (previous Nexus phones were largely free of visual flair), but that’s just me picking nits. I get the feeling that Nexus aficionados will either love or hate the way the Nexus 4 looks, and for now I’m caught right in the middle. Speaking of looks, the Nexus 4 (as you’ve probably already heard) runs Android 4.2 , which doesn’t too far from the aesthetic seen in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. You can check out a more detailed list of tweaks and additions here, but one change threw me for a bit of a loop — the app launcher now sports five columns of apps instead of the customary four. Meanwhile, the Nexus 4’s display represents a big step forward from the one seen in its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Galaxy Nexus to bits, but the Pentile sub-pixel configuration meant icons and text didn’t appear as smooth as I would’ve like. Thankfully, the Nexus 4’s 4.7-inch 720p IPS panel rendered colors brightly and accurately, but I think my eyes have grown accustomed to the way colors pop on AMOLED panels. That’s all well and good, but how does the thing run? Well, it’s always tough to judge a phone’s performance after only playing with it for a few moments, but the whole thing — from swiping through pages of widgets and apps to scrolling through long lists of emails — was as snappy as you would expect from a top-tier Nexus handset. Of course, we’ve got LG’s Optimus G to thank for that since both devices share the same 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. To trot out a well-worn Android cliche, the experience was downright buttery, and I’m really looking forward to really putting this thing through its paces. I’ll refrain from making sweeping judgments for now, but the Nexus 4 managed to make a strong impression during the few brief moments we shared together. Expect a deeper dive into Google’s newest Nexus phone later this week after I’ve had some serious playtime, but in the meantime enjoy the rest of these photos.

More:
Hands-On With LG And Google’s First Smartphone Collaboration, The Nexus 4