We’re here at the Tesla Design Studio in Los Angeles, where Elon Musk just unveiled his startup’s third vehicle: an SUV it calls the Model X. The ‘ute sports some rather unique looking double-hinged “falcon wing” rear doors which makes loading people and things easier as you reach into the car, not over it. According to Musk they’ll open in tighter spots than a traditional door, opening high enough to fit even a standing human. Powered by an AWD variant of the Model S drivetrain, despite the larger shell, its most performant offering still clocks in at a 4.4 seconds to go from 0-60MPH — matching the most brawny variant of the Model S. And because it’s devoid of a space-hogging ICE, that front portion’s a trunk that Elon lovingly calls the “Frunk.” Per GigaOm, the seven-seater will cost in the $50,000 to $70,000 range, with first deliveries of the “Signature Series” arriving in 2013 before mass production begins in 2014. If that sounds like you’re kind of beat, Those interested can begin reservations on Tesla’s website tomorrow at noon.

Tesla unveils Model X SUV, wants to be your all-electric crossover originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesla unveils Model X SUV, wants to be your all-electric crossover

So this happened. It’s a father reacting to a post his daughter made on Facebook. He wasn’t happy. You can skip ahead to 7 minutes for the big reveal. More »

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Dad Shoots Daughter’s Laptop With .45 Because of Facebook Post [Video]

So.
Do you carry reusable bags to shop at the grocery store? Do you sort empty
plastic containers into the correct recycling bin? Did you trade-in your
gas guzzler for a well-worn pair of sneakers?

Do you think that all those enviro-goody-two-shoes things you did matter?
Think again.

No hate mail, please! That’s what economist Gernot Wagner at the Environmental
Defense Fund said. He argued that in order to save the planet, we need much
more than environmentalists. Instead, we need smart economic policies.

Here’s an interesting interview at Co.Exist:

Co.Exist:What does the average environmentalist get wrong?

Wagner: Environmentalists, all too often, think that the best way
to go about solving the problem is to get everyone to do as they–we,
I included–do. I don’t eat meat. I don’t drive. But individual
do-gooderism won’t solve global warming.

And it may actually be counter-productive, for two reasons. First,
there’s a well-documented psychological phenomenon called “single-action
bias.” You do one thing, and you move on. You carry your groceries
home by foot, in a cotton canvas bag, and you think that single act
of environmental kindness makes up for other sins.

Second, you spend all your energy thinking about these tiny things.
Should you buy the local apples that have been stored for months in
a cool house somewhere, or should you buy the fresh apple flown in from
across the world? Or should you not buy apples at all when they are
not in season and risk not getting enough vitamins?

You’d go positively crazy trying to figure out what to do,
and you’d miss the big picture: That, at the end of the day, none
of that really matters.

So what should we do? Read on at Co.Exist: Link

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Psst, Environmentalists! Earth-Friendly Lifestyle Actually Doesn’t Matter

Ever since Microsoft decided Windows 8 will support ARM-based CPUs, many wondered if that meant the traditional desktop experience would be supported as well. And if so, what about all the legacy apps developed for x86 CPUs? Windows 8 boss Steven Sinofsky has spoken. Yes, desktop mode is coming, but the old apps aren’t. More »

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Windows on ARM Will Support Desktop Mode, But Won’t Emulate Legacy Apps [Windows 8]

JoeRobe writes “For the first time in 30 years, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved licenses to build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. These are the first licenses to be issued since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. The pair of facilities will cost $14 billion and produce 2.2 GW of power (able to power ~1 million homes). They will be Westinghouse AP1000 designs, which are the newest reactors approved by the NRC. These models passively cool their fuel rods using condensation and gravity, rather than electricity, preventing the possibility of another Fukushima Daiichi-type meltdown due to loss of power to cooling water pumps.” Adds Unknown Lamer: “Expected to begin operation in 2016 or 2017, the pair of new AP1000 reactors will produce around 2GW of power for the southeast. This is the first of the new combined construction and operating licenses ever issued by the NRC; hopefully this bodes well for the many other pending applications.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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US Approves Two New Nuclear Reactors

This Sensory Substitution Device uses the camera to gather visual data and then uses a rather nifty computer algorithm to translates this data into sound. With a little practice, blind users can identify complex objects, and even read words. More »

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New device hacks into blind people's visual cortex to let them "see" [Neuroscience]

We’ve been hearing a lot about how the future of electronics will involve stretchy circuit boards, or circuits you can glue to your skin. In this video, you can see one crucial ingredient in bendy electronics — stretchable, electrically-conductive gold that can bend with the rubber it’s printed on. University of Cambridge engineering researcher Ingrid Graz has been working on creating this type of gold, and here she shows us what this gold looks like on a microscopic level. It’s both beautiful and fascinating. More »

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This is the "stretchable gold" that will power rubber circuit boards [Video]

We’ve been getting some mixed signals about Windows 8 for ARM-based devices as of late, but Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky has now returned with another of his exhaustive Building Windows 8 blog posts and cleared up some of the confusion. The short of it is that Windows for ARM promises to offer the same out of the box experience as the x86 edition of Windows 8. That includes the full Windows desktop (complete with File Explorer and the like), and the same desktop Office applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint (but only Office applications, it seems). So-called Metro-style apps from the Windows Store will also be able to support both Windows on ARM and Windows for x86/64, and you can expected hardware-accelerated HTML5 support with Internet Explorer 10.

What’s more, Sinofsky also notes that PC manufacturers are now working on devices designed specifically for WOA (or Windows on ARM), and that their “collective goal” is for them to ship at the same time as PCs designed for the x86 edition of Windows 8. While details on those devices remain light, Sinofksy did offer a new peek at one of the devices Microsoft used during the initial development of Windows for ARM when ARM-based tablets were hard to come by: an early Windows Phone. You can see it running the full desktop environment after the break (along with a video overview of WOA itself), but Sinofsky emphasizes that it is “not a product plan or even a hint at a product.” Plenty more details can also be found at the source link below, though you may want to prepare a cup of coffee before diving in.

Continue reading Microsoft details Windows for ARM at length: desktop Office applications confirmed, first devices expected with Windows 8 release

Microsoft details Windows for ARM at length: desktop Office applications confirmed, first devices expected with Windows 8 release originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft details Windows for ARM at length: desktop Office applications confirmed, first devices expected with Windows 8 release

After witnessing a fellow train passenger swiping an unattended iPhone, one brave chap decided to take action—in the form of video taping and yelling. Oh, the yelling. This could not be more hilarious and silly and proper and kind. More »

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iPhone Thief Confronted in Extremely British Fashion [Video]

Not sure what this says about the state of streaming video online, but while the first live internet stream of the Super Bowl was watched by a record 2.1 million unique viewers, it didn’t receive glowing reviews. The best indicator, though, is that the engagement for the three (plus) hour event was only 39 minutes. We think the folks over at Streaming Media got it right when they called it the Super Bowl Streaming Fail. It was bad enough that only Verizon Wireless customers could watch it on anything other than a laptop, but even those who could see it were left searching for a TV once they saw the quality. Big sports fans who might’ve been checking it out for the additional commentary and camera angles were also left wanting more, as the stream was plagued with lag. This meant that the other angle you were in search of was as much as a minute behind the big screen. Ultimately, we’re sure everyone’s glad the Super Bowl was extended to the smaller screens, but one thing sure seems true, broadcasting an event like this to millions of people is unlikely to ever be replaced by unicast internet streams.

Super Bowl internet debut breaks records, disappoints some viewers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Super Bowl internet debut breaks records, disappoints some viewers