From MAKE: Inductively Charged PVC LED Lantern Mod

Fifteen-year-old John Duffy is the subject of Gadget Freak Case #216, over at Design News, with his clever modification of Steve Hoefer’s Eternal Flame Indestructible LED Lantern from MAKE Vol 30. Though Steve’s “floating throwies” can be opened, when the coin cell is dead, to change it out, John’s wirelessly-rechargeable version is both greener (because you don’t have to throw out the dead battery) and tougher (because it can actually be glued closed). See the full build deets at the link, below, and Steve’s original project here. [via Hack a Day]

 

from MAKE

From Engadget: Calxeda benchmarks claim that its server chips are 15 times more power efficient than Intel’s

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Calxeda may have been given the bum’s rush by HP’s Project Moonshot, but the company isn’t taking it lying down. It’s released benchmarks for its ARM-based server technology that claims it’s 15 times more power-efficient than the comparable Intel Xeon. Rigging up a 1.1GHz Energycore ECX-1000 with 4GB RAM against a 3.3GHz Xeon E3-1240, the former consumed only 5.26 W compared to the 102 W of Intel’s high-spec chip. While it certainly wasn’t faster, power efficiency is a key concern for data centers looking to keep costs down, and if the trend continues, Santa Clara will come to regret AMD’s recently announced love-in.

 

from Engadget

From Engadget: Shaka turns smartphones into wind meters, gives surfers and kiteboarders the gnar they need (hands-on)

Shaka turns smartphones into wind meters, gives surfers and kiteboarders the gnar they need handson

Ever missed an amazing set in spite of your sick surfboard because you packed it in not knowing that the wind was picking up and about to deliver the perfect wave? Or maybe you didn’t realize just how hard the breeze was blowing and as a result, your tee shot wound up deep in the rough. Good news, sporting friends, because start-up company Shaka is here to make you more air-aware with a wind meter that plugs into the 3.5mm jack on your smartphone. It’s a small, plastic fan, not much bigger than a box of matches, that pairs with the company’s app to deliver wind speed and direction wherever you are — and it works by simply holding the thing up in a stiff breeze. The app then keeps a record of all your measurements and allows you to share them via your favorite social networks. Not only that, it also overlays the results on a map so you can see where the wind is just right for all your favorite wind-reliant activities. It’s currently iOS-only, but we’re told Android and Windows Phone versions are in the works as well. The price for knowing when wind perfection is upon you? For now Shaka’s seeking to sell them for around $59 bucks, but that could change if the powers that be (read: investors) decide otherwise.

 

from Engadget

From Technology Review RSS Feeds: Statistics Unmask Phony Online Reviews

Computer analysis spots the fingerprints that fraudulent raters leave behind.

Searching for hotels in cities they’ve never visited, people often turn to customer-written reviews on websites such as TripAdvisor. But how do they know those reviews weren’t written by the hotel manager, or by someone paid to post fake opinions online? The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued fines when it has uncovered such “opinion spam,” but there’s no easy way to spot it.




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