Items tagged with Power
Lockheed Martin Claims Breakthrough In Fusion Reactor But Scant Details Imply More Sizzle Than Steak
Yesterday, Lockheed Martin made major headlines across the Internet with claims that it was developing a new compact fusion reactor that could be deployed within the next decade. This is a bold claim -- researchers have been able to create fusion in a lab for decades, but the problem isn't creating fusion -- it's creating a sustained fusion reactor that generates more power than it consumes. "Our compact fusion concept combines several alternative magnetic confinement approaches, taking the best parts of each, and offers a 90 percent size reduction over previous concepts,” said Tom McGuire, compact fusion lead for the Skunk Works’ Revolutionary Technology Programs. “The smaller...
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Battery life has long been the bane of the mobile market, hamstringing laptops, tablets, and smartphones even as processors, graphics, and storage have increased in both performance and efficiency. Apple is reportedly tackling this problem head-on as it looks to other forms of power for its impending smartwatch device. The New York Times has found that Apple is exploring options including solar power, inductive charging, and kinetic charging. The outlet spoke to Tony Fadell (he of iPod and Nest fame) who said that Apple has experimented with solar power on its devices for years (and still does), with limited success due to those devices rarely spending time in sunlight. That wouldn’t necessarily...
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Rosewill is showing off a number of new products at CES this year including cases, keyboards, portable power banks, headphones, and kitchen appliances. In all, Rosewill is showing off over 50 new products during CES 2014. The new LEGACY Case Series was among the new products we saw. This new line of cases is built with aluminum alloy and steel interiors. Rosewill also showed us their follow-up to their best-selling BLACKHAWK mid-tower case, the BLACKHAWK II ($99.99, targeted for Q2). Other additions to the lineup include the RISE ($119.99, targeted for Q2) and STEALTH ($69.99, targeted for Q2) cases. Rosewill's latest cases (left), Blackhawk II (right) Stealth (left), Rise (right)...
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Despite having risen to popularity only a few years ago, it's become increasingly clear that electric vehicles are the future. Versus gas-powered vehicles, electric ones are safer on the environment (this is oft-debated, however), are generally cleaner, and are also less-expensive to refuel. Who wouldn't love to rid the need to hit-up a gas station? That latter point does lead us to one downside of electric vehicles: The need to find charging stations. The risk of running out of power while on-the-road and being nowhere near a charge station is real, and it requires close attention to your power use and also advanced planning. The risk is greatly minimized with gas-powered...
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As expected, IDF13’s day two keynote was mostly about Bay Trail and Intel’s continued push into thinner, lighter, and smaller, mobile devices. The keynote was handled by a trio of execs, Douglas Fisher, Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Software and Services Group. Herman Eul, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Communication group. And Kirk Skaugen, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the PC Client Group. Douglas talked about how Intel is optimizing services to expand the ecosystems surrounding mobile devices, Herman ran some fun demos featuring Intel-powered devices. And Kirk talked about the constant evolution of the PC and demoed...
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I think it's safe to say that a generally agreed-upon thing in tech is that cords suck. You might have way too many of them to deal with, or you might be tired of plugging one in the wrong way all the time (I'm looking at you, USB). It's for these reasons that wireless power is an interesting topic, and while there have been some solutions released and other more advanced ones talked about, there hasn't been a solid design win up to this point that people have gone nuts over. Ossia, with its upcoming Cota, is looking to change that. Until just this week, Ossia was a total unknown, having preferred to keep out of the limelight no doubt to keep its product as competitive as possible. Using the...
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Ten years after a major blackout affected at least 50 million people in the northeastern US and some parts of Canada, physicists in Israel and the United States are calling attention to the fact that it could happen again, and that its affects next time could be even worse. The studies have revolved around spatial networks and their inherent flaw of relying too heavily on central points, or nodes. On the surface, creating a power grid based on geography makes complete sense - at least if you believe neatness and order is the best way to do things. Here, though, spatial networks rely on a number of critical nodes, and if one of those happens to fail, it'll lead to a blackout. According to these...
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Apple is certainly no stranger to dealing with counterfeit goods. In fact, entire counterfeit Apple stores have emerged in certain parts of Asia. It's easy to be a cynic and suggest that Apple simply overcharges for certain first-party accessories and cables, but then there's a story like this to bring it all into focus. Apple is currently investigating a situation where an individual was electrocuted (and subsequently died) when answering a plugged-in iPhone. It's unclear if the charger they were using was a spoof, but Apple's not taking any chances. The USB Power Adapter Takeback Program has just launched to address the issue. Here's a bit from Apple: "Recent reports have suggested that some...
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While it's obvious that innovation is on the fast-track when looking at consumer electronics as a whole, one has to wonder how long it'll take for the USB port to do more than it does. Perhaps that time has come. Texas Instruments has issued a new single-chip DockPort solution that enables DisplayPort, USB and power over a single cable. Talk about high efficiency. The HD3SS2521 delivers audio/video (A/V), USB data and power over a single cable between a notebook, ultrabook or tablet PC and a docking station or dongle. The HD3SS2521 enables system designers to create smaller, more affordable docking stations that connect and synchronize computers with LCD monitors, dongles, keyboard/mouse,...
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If you've done any shopping for a tablet lately, you’ve probably realized that they are not one-size-fits-all devices. While one person may use his tablet for business meetings and presentations, another may use it for watching movies and playing games. Some people prefer a smaller, 7-inch model while others want a larger 10-inch screen. Then there’s the choice of OS with Apple’s iOS, Android, and Windows all competing for a slice of the pie. Regardless of how you use your tablet, though, there are plenty of tablet accessories that can add to the enjoyment and functionality of your device. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular ones, some of which...
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If you've done any shopping for a tablet lately, you’ve probably realized that they are not one-size-fits-all devices. While one person may use his tablet for business meetings and presentations, another may use it for watching movies and playing games. Some people prefer a smaller, 7-inch model while others want a larger 10-inch screen. Then there’s the choice of OS with Apple’s iOS, Android, and Windows all competing for a slice of the pie. Regardless of how you use your tablet, though, there are plenty of tablet accessories that can add to the enjoyment and functionality of your device. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular and useful...
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Google is officially a technology empire, as it expands its domain into an ever-increasing number of markets. The latest area that Google is toying with is renewable energy, as the company has acquired Makani Power, a company that Google has apparently been investing in since 2007. To be more specific, the wing of Google that bought Makani Power is the somewhat mysterious Google X lab (birthplace of Google Glass), which is Google’s moonshot think tank and makes the acquisition all the more intriguing. Makani Power makes autonomous unmanned wind turbine aircraft that are tethered to a terrestrial source--in other words, kite power. The company has just recently been making successful flights...
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In the midst of Google's Android growth, Chrome explosion, Chromebook entries and Fiber roll-outs, it's actually easy to forget that Google does other things as well. There's search, Glass, and energy. Yes, energy. Google has been dabbling in energy for some time now, which makes sense given the tremendous amount of power that it uses worldwide. This week, the company announced an expansion of options for companies to buy renewable energy. To date, Google has committed more than $1 billion to renewable energy project investments, signed agreements to procure wind power near our data centers, and installed solar panels at our corporate headquarters. To go along with that, Google is expanding its...
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In the world of consumer technology, innovation is moving ahead at a breakneck pace. But there's one area in particular that's struggling mightily: batteries. We just can't seem to keep up with power demands, and as newer and faster gizmos come out, it's requiring an awful lot of energy to keep them lit and online through all hours of the day. So, if we can't make batteries any better, stronger or longer-lasting in the short term, how about making them recharge 1000 times faster? That's the idea put forth by a new project out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These new microbatteries are said to "out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio...
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