Month: July 2012

Posted on

From Engadget: US launches first commercial tidal power project this summer, Maine to reap moon’s gravitational benefits

US launches first commercial tidal power project this summer, Maine to reap moon's gravitational benefits

Solar may be the green energy source that’s been hogging the headlines lately, but there are other fossil-fuel free ways that can help meet society’s electrical needs. One of these is tidal power, and the US is set to start harnessing the ocean’s electricity-generating potential this summer with the TidGen Cobscook Bay project — the first such commercial project in the States. Located just off the coast of Eastport, Maine, turbines will be placed in 50-100 feet deep water to take advantage of the 100 billion tons of water that flow in and out of Cobscook Bay each day. When the project goes live, it’ll feed into the public power grid and generate enough juice to power between 75 and 100 homes, and the plan is to eventually install enough turbines to generate 3MW of power — which should cover the needs of over 1,000 homes and businesses. There’s more info, plus plenty of political self-congratulation in the source below.

 

from Engadget

Posted on

From Autoblog: Report: New iPhone 5 may come with incompatible connector for cars

Filed under: ,

Nearly the entire auto industry has finally caught up with the world of consumer electronics, offering a way to connect the iPod/iPhone – be it via USB, Bluetooth or official Apple connector – in most new cars. The 30-pin Apple connector was first incorporated in a car by BMW in 2004 and was significant because it meant inclusion of a connector that only works for a single brand’s products.

Automakers like Audi and Volkswagen also offer an iPhone-spec cable, allowing access to your music through the car’s own audio system and changing tracks on the steering wheel controls.

Now, prepare to be frustrated.

Now that everyone finally offers the same cable for the iPhone, Apple may reportedly move to a 19-pin connector that is smaller than the current 30-pin cable. If the reports are true, then the new iPhone 5 will be instantly incompatible with the built-in 30-pin connectors that come equipped in Kia, Hyundai and Nissan vehicles.

It may not be cause for a total freak out, as most vehicles on the market offer integrated USB ports, which can accept any cable where at least one end is USB. As long as Apple doesn’t decide to piss everyone off and move away from as USB on the non-iPhone end, you will still be able to connect the next-gen iPhone this way.

Additionally, most new vehicles come equipped with Bluetooth, and an increasing number of these vehicles allow for streaming music. If all else fails, you can tell the new 19-pin connector to take a hike and stream your music wirelessly.

 

from Autoblog

Posted on

From Droid Life: Qualcomm’s Quad-Core Snapdragon S4 Pro Benchmarks are Beyond Impressive

Yesterday, we jokingly shared that you could purchase Qualcomm’s newest developer tablet that features the new Snapdragon S4 Pro chip and Adreno 320 GPU for a whopping $1300. Well, the chip is most definitely coming to tablets sooner or later (and maybe some high-end smartphones), but it still has some tweaks to work out. Here are some of the initial tests by AnandTech of its quad-core power that are beginning to surface on the web.

For a good comparison, keep an eye on the MSM8960 S4 and Adreno 225 that is found in the HTC One X throughout these tests. For reference, here is the spec sheet of device running the benchmarks:

 

GLBenchmark – Pro – Offscreen 720p:

GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen 720p:

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark:

Vellamo – Qualcomm’s In-House Web Performance Benchmark:

To summarize, this is one of the faster Android devices ever created and I wish I had one. This is not the final production model and things could differ from what we see hit the market, but still, it’s a monster. According to the folks at AnandTech, who do happen to have one in their hands, we can expect the same great performance from the S4 Pro that we have with the current dual-core Snapdragon chip, but with the added cores and greater multi-tasking capabilities.

The main seller in our eyes would have to be this new Adreno 320 GPU. With stats nearing that of Apple’s iPad, we know that this is the direction that SoC manufacturers should be heading in order for Android users to experience the highest quality games and apps our devices can deliver.

Via: AnandTech

from Droid Life