Tech Today w/ Ken May

We’re used to batteries powering a lot of devices , but the University of California, Riverside is upping that a notch by charging up a whole floor’s worth. The school’s Winston Chung Global Energy Center is walking the eco-friendly walk and has started using a huge bank of rare earth, lithium-ion batteries from Balqon to produce 1.1 megawatts, enough to keep Winston Chung Hall’s entire first floor humming along while tapping renewable energy sources like solar and wind power . The batteries bank their energy overnight, keeping the throngs of students happy without having to recharge as much or use the regular power grid as a fallback. While it’s considered a testbed, the university’s giant battery is considered a blueprint for cellular towers and the green power sources themselves — the combination of which could keep your smartphone up and running with a lot less of an environmental hit. University of California, Riverside runs entire building floor off of 1.1-megawatt green battery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 21:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  UCR Today  |  Email this  |  Comments

Yeah, yeah, we all knew that Rovio was doing gangbusters with Angry Birds series, but here’s a little number to put it all into perspective: one billion. That’s how many times the slingshotting birds have been downloaded, when you add up all of the titles and all of the platforms. Naturally, the company made a video to celebrate the accomplishment. You can find it after the break. [Image credit (McDonald's Sign): Alexis Bea / Flickr ] Continue reading Rovio marks one billion downloads, untold pig casualties across Angry Birds games Rovio marks one billion downloads, untold pig casualties across Angry Birds games originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 12:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

Those of you looking for a fresh, Ivy Bridge-powered gaming rig may want to look ASUS ‘ way. The Taiwanese outfit just welcomed a trifecta of new ROG TYTAN machines to its lineup, which include the CG8580, CG8270 and CM6870 — all sporting similar aesthetics as that CG8490 we showed you a while back. For starters, the higher-end CG8580 packs a quad-core, 4.6GHz Core i7-3770k CPU alongside a single-touch Turbo Gear button for overclocking, a twin 128GB SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 graphics card. As for the CG8270 and CM6870, you can choose between Intel’s third-gen Core i5 or i7 for processing power, up to 16GB of RAM and, of course, a DVD or Blu-ray player. ASUS hasn’t given official pricing yet, but we’re sure that’s going to depend heavily on how souped-up you want your future gaming beast to be. Gallery: ASUS ROG TYTAN press shots ASUS intros three new ROG TYTAN gaming desktops, Ivy Bridge on board originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink   techPowerUp  |  ASUS  |  Email this  |  Comments

If there’s anything that Google doesn’t like, it’s things that collect dust. The company is famous for its annual spring cleaning efforts, in which the firm rids itself of redundant and dead-end projects , along with more bullish moves, such as its push to overhaul the internet’s DNS system . Now it’s looking to replace HTTP with a new protocol known as SPDY , and to that end, it’s demonstrating the potential speed gains that one might expect on a mobile network. According to the company’s benchmarks, mean page load times on the Galaxy Nexus are 23 percent faster with the new system, and it hypothesizes that further optimizations can be made for 3G and 4G networks. To its credit, Google has already implemented SPDY in Chrome, and the same is true for Firefox and Amazon Silk. Even Microsoft appears to be on-board . As a means to transition, the company proposes an Apache 2.2 module known as mod_spdy, which allows web servers to take advantage of features such as stream multiplexing and header compression. As for HTTP, it’s no doubt been a reliable companion, but it seems that it’ll need to work a bit harder to earn its keep. Stay weird, Google , the internet wouldn’t be the same without you. Google badmouths HTTP behind its back, proposes SPDY as a speedy successor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 14:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  Google Developers Blog  |  Email this  |  Comments

For fans of HD and / or nature documentaries, the BBC Planet Earth series is the unquestioned champion, and to provide a proper followup the Brits are improving it the only way they know how: doing it live. What the broadcaster calls its “most ambitions global wildlife series ever” will air simultaneously in 140 countries (more on that bit later) starting Sunday May 6th, then every Thursday and Sunday for three weeks. The plan is to track animals in seven different locations around the world in real time as they struggle for survival and broadcast it all in HD. One segment features Top Gear’s Richard Hammond following a pride of lions across southern Kenya, while another will track black bears in Minnesota. The bad news? If you’re in the US or Canada you’re not on that 140 country list and won’t be seeing any of this live. We’re not sure if there’s time to make this a campaign issue in the 2012 presidential election but we figure that, or at least bugging BBC America (while we’re on the subject — where’s our global iPlayer ?) is worth a try. Check after the break for a press release with all the details on where and when it is airing, as well as a trailer. Update : While we won’t be getting the live simulcast, BBC’s Paul Deane dropped in a comment below noting it will air the next day on National Geographic Wild retitled as 24/7 Wild . We haven’t located a program description yet, but there are already listings in the schedule starting May 7th — schedule your DVRs accordingly. Continue reading BBC’s Planet Earth returns as a live simulcast next week — but not in the US (video) (Update) BBC’s Planet Earth returns as a live simulcast next week — but not in the US (video) (Update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  BBC Planet Earth Live , YouTube , @BBCPlanetEarth (Twitter)  |  Email this  |  Comments

If Amazon’s been your internet safe haven from the ravages of sales tax , you may want to sit down. As part of a settlement with the great state of Texas, Bezos’ baby will start collecting the state’s requisite 6.25-percent sales tax on July 1st. The settlement resolves the online retailer’s ongoing dispute with the Lone Star state , which claimed that Amazon owed $269 million in back taxes. In addition to taking up collection, Amazon has agreed to create at least 2,500 jobs and invest a minimum of $200 million in capital investments, though it admits no fault, and believes “the assessment was without merit,” according to its latest SEC filing. Grouped in with Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington, this agreement makes Texas the sixth state to collect sales tax from Amazon — and California, Nevada and Arizona will join the collection club in due time. Check out the source links below for the Texas Comptroller’s official statement and more reading on Amazon’s tax agreements across the nation. Amazon to collect sales tax, create 2,500 jobs in Texas originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink   The Verge , GeekWire  |  Texas Comptroller , SEC  |  Email this  |  Comments

That 802.11n router not keeping up with the gigabit pipe to your homestead? Netgear’s latest may just give you a much-anticipated boost. The R6300 Dual-Band Gigabit WiFi Router is the first to utilize Broadcom’s 5G WiFi IEEE 802.11ac chips , making it roughly three times faster than aging 802.11n. This means the R6300 could be an excellent fit for folks lucky enough to take part in Google’s Kansas City fiber experiment , assuming of course that they that also adopt yet-to-be-announced 802.11ac-compatible gadgets . For its part, the Netgear base ships with the usual suite of features, including Netgear Genie for configuring the network from a computer or smartphone, MyMedia with DLNA support, AirPrint (there’s two USB ports built-in) and pre-configured wireless security, keeping your hotspot off the neighbors’ radar right out of the box. The Netgear R6300 will ship next month, letting you future-proof your home for a mere $199.99. Continue reading Netgear’s R6300 router is first to use Broadcom 802.11ac chipset, will ship next month for $200 Netgear’s R6300 router is first to use Broadcom 802.11ac chipset, will ship next month for $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  Netgear  |  Email this  |  Comments