The artificial leaf has been a target of solar research for years — an object that creates fuel sources out of sunlight, mimicking photosynthesis. But this solar energy breakthrough has always been thwarted by the need for rare components… until now. More
Last month’s handheld cancer-sniffing device (pictured) has already met its match in a tool that's the size of a dime—a tool that can spot cancer, but also HIV. The engineers who invented the microfluidic device are hopeful it can be used in developing countries. More
Here’s something I’ve never been able to remember: when I rent a car I forget to notice which side the gas cap is on.
For the rest of my trip, I don’t think to look. I only think about it when I’m driving and it’s time to fill up the tank. I try to use the side view mirrors to see which side the gas cap is on. It never works. Then I look at other cars on the road, hoping to spot one that is the same model as mine so I can see which side the gas cap is on. Unfortunately, I’m car blind in the way that some people are face blind, so that usually doesn’t work. I usually end up driving to the pump and finding out if I got lucky.
But last month someone I met at TED told me (and I apologize to the person who told me, because I can’t remember who told me) that most late-model cars have a little arrow on the gas gauge that points to the side of the car with the gas cap. This information has changed my life.
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How to tell which side of your rental car the gas cap is on
Where would we be without Google? Well, we wouldn’t have pretty charts to gawk at, for starters! The Mountain View squad has pulled 10 years’ worth of fiscal data from the US Census Bureau and compiled it into some gorgeous, infinitely sortable, and re-organizable graphs. They inspire both our admiration and apprehension, as their lines illustrate most starkly the shrinkage that replaced US economic growth over the latter half of the last decade. We’ve only picked out a few of the big states here, but all 50 are in Google’s public database — why not hit the source link and check up on your local governors’ pecuniary (mis)management skills, eh?
Continue reading Visualized: Google charts the rise and fall of United States revenues
Visualized: Google charts the rise and fall of United States revenues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Back at CES, Samsung pulled out quite a few surprises, and no, we’re not referring to its Zoll-infused press conference — although, that performance still gives us the willies. Of all the Korean company’s announcements at the show, which we’ll remind you included an impressive new LTE phone and range of SmartTVs, it was its Series 9 laptop that left us the most stunned. And well, a glance at that picture above should explain why we found ourselves counting down the days until its March launch date. The 2.8-pound system is a complete and total 180 from Samsung’s typical bulky mainstream systems, yet its 0.64-inch thick chassis still crams in quite a bit of horsepower with a Core i5-2537M processor, a 128GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. It’s also built from some of the toughest stuff on earth, has a backlit keyboard, and an incredibly high quality 400 nit LCD. You see, the $1,699 machine teeters on having the absolute perfect balance of beauty and brawn, and certainty has the core ingredients to compete with that other extremely popular and super thin ultraportable — but when you get it home and out of its fancy box, does it truly have the chops? Or is this just yet another rail thin and expensive Windows laptop that falls short? The time has come to find out – hit the break for our full review.
Gallery: Samsung Series 9 review
Gallery: Series 9 unboxing / Air compared
Continue reading Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review
Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you've noticed that your iPhone or iPod touch's battery life has declined since the iOS 4.3 update, you may find that disabling a few services—namely the Ping social network—will help your battery last longer. More
Millions of retired and disabled people in the United States had better brace for another year with no increase in Social Security payments.
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Medicare rise could mean no Social Security COLA
Uh-oh, it's catching—Warner Bros has seen fit to offer up two Harry Potter films; Life as We Know It; Yogi Bear and Inception to the Facebook audience. Cue status updates on a whole new level from those finally catching up with Inception. Like with The Dark Knight, they can be digitally rented using $3 worth of Facebook credit. [Reuters] More
Surely you’ve heard of graphene, the one-atom-thick layer of pencil lead that has the potential to change the world of computers, batteries and screens? You might want to familiarize yourself with the term “silicine,” too. It’s basically a version of graphene constructed out of silicon, which doesn’t naturally align itself into the same eminently useful honeycomb shape — but, given a little prod here and a layer of silver or ceramic compound there, can do much the same thing, and with better computing compatibility. First proposed around 2007, it’s reportedly been produced twice now by two different teams, which gives physicists hope that it could actually be useful some day. For now, researchers need to figure out a way to easily produce it so detailed experiments can be performed — from what we understand, the good ol’ scotch tape method just won’t do the job.
Silicine might be the new graphene, now that it’s been physically constructed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
After dipping a toe in the waters with The Dark Knight, starting tonight Warner is offering five more movies for streaming on Facebook including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Inception, Life as We Know It and Yogi Bear. The deal remains the same, with United States viewers able to pay for a 48-hour viewing window instantly in Facebook credits then enjoy the flick with full functionality on the page, and pause/resume tied to their login on the site. Even with an increasing number of movie titles including recent ones like Yogi Bear that just debuted last week, it’s hard to see any VOD service seriously challenging the current video rental incumbents like iTunes and Netflix, especially one that offers only SD rentals viewable on the PC. What it does offer however is a quick way for Warner to monetize the significant Facebook communities around popular movies, which may be enough to keep this program growing for the foreseeable future. Either way, the pages should be live starting at 1 a.m., check the press release after the break if you need more details.
Continue reading Warner Bros. expands movie rentals via Facebook with five more high profile titles
Warner Bros. expands movie rentals via Facebook with five more high profile titles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.