Category: Cool

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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

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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

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From Engadget: Big Fish Unlimited lets gamers resume play on mobile, PC and TV, stay distracted at all times

Big Fish Unlimited lets gamers pick up where they left off on mobile, PC and TV, stay distracted at all times video

The perpetual crisis of casual gaming is that need for just one… more… turn. After all, those 29 levels of progress aren’t coming with you to the office, are they? Big Fish Games wants to ease our consciences (or at least our egos) with Big Fish Unlimited. By using HTML5 to constantly save progress, the cloud service remembers exactly where a player was and ports it to the next device: it’s possible to hop from a Android tablet, to a Roku box, to a Windows PC’s browser without having to replay anything. The nature of the streaming games themselves won’t give OnLive players second thoughts, but their lighter footprint won’t demand as much from an internet connection, either. Most of the intended audience will appreciate the price — the now active service costs $8 a month for access to more than 100 games from the full catalog, and free play is on tap for 20 of the games as long as you can endure periodic ads. Whether or not coworkers can endure another round of your hidden object games is another matter.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Fujifilm unwraps FinePix F800EXR camera with wireless sharing to Android, iOS

Fujifilm unwraps FinePix F800EXR camera with wireless sharing to Android, iOS

If your company doesn’t have a camera with WiFi sharing somewhere in your lineup, many will say you’re not even in the photography game. Fujifilm is definitely playing: welcome the FinePix F800EXR, its first camera with wireless sharing as part and parcel of the experience. Its centerpiece is a free Photo Receiver app for Android and iOS devices that will catch as many 30 images at a time from an ad hoc WiFi camera link. The matching (if unceremoniously named) Camera Application can return the gesture by geotagging shots as well as finding existing photos on the map. Fujifilm will even pre-Instagram the photos through six new on-camera filters for those who can’t stand posting images online without at least some Lomo or tilt-shift effects thrown in.

As for the actual camera part of the camera, Fujifilm is keeping afloat in the competitive waters with a 16-megapixel, CMOS-based EXR sensor that can widen the dynamic range or lower the noise if sheer resolution isn’t all that vital. An equally noteworthy 20x (25-500mm equivalent) lens out in front will zoom in a lot closer than any phone camera — well, most of them. We’re otherwise looking at the technology we’d expect in a point-and-shoot of this class, such as full-resolution burst shooting at up to eight frames per second, 1080p video and a RAW mode for image quality sticklers. Stores should have the F800EXR in August for about $350, or about as much as the Galaxy Nexus that just might serve as its companion.

 

from Engadget