Crave

Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off the second day of the LA Auto Show here today by telling carmakers that clean energy is the future of the auto industry. Surrounded by a collection of alternative-fuel vehicles, including BMW's Hydrogen7, Tesla's electric-powered roadster, and Honda's hydrogen fuel cell-powered FCX Concept, the California governor said that it was time for automakers to "get on the train" to alternative energy.

He also thanked car manufacturers for what they have done to date in their efforts to produce vehicles that run on alternatives to gasoline. A troupe of automotive executives joined … Read more

Technology demonstrations at hotels are always sort of weird. You go to the hotel, the staff knows you're not a guest but they still let you walk on by, and then you go to a suite. The door opens and there are a bunch of guys with desktops and half-eaten lunch plates. Now I know how gigolos feel.

This week Intel is showing off how machines outfitted with its new quad-core chips perform on games at the Palomar Hotel in San Francisco. The topper of them all is pictured here, a custom desktop with two four-core Xeon chips. The … Read more

It's been no secret that Cingular would get its own version of the BlackBerry Pearl, since the company announced the news at the fall CTIA 2006 show, but we really haven't heard much since then. However, it seems the little gem of a smart phone is on its way; the carrier has quietly posted an advertisement on its business Web site, taunting customers with "coming soon" promises. Still, no details on exact availability date or pricing, but we've contacted Cingular reps to see if we can get them to spill the beans. In the meantime, … Read more

Blog noise earlier this week documented news from the recent Electronic Home Expo that Windows Vista-based CableCard recordings will come with some heavy restrictions on what you can do with those files. As CE Pro reported, the only way you'll be able to send CableCard-recorded content to another display is if that display is connected to a Windows Media Center Extender. You can't send it to another PC on your home network, for example. Blogger Chris Lanier followed up that report with his own, declaring that you also won't be able to put CableCard recordings on a … Read more

Feast your eyes on this, gadget kooks: a pre-standard HDMI 1.3 cable. This baby can transfer up to 10 gigabits of data a second. Plus, if you have a digital TV and surround-sound speakers, it replaces about a whole mess o' cables.

HDMI, which came out of a company called Silicon Image, has been incorporated into a lot of devices, but the 1.3 version is greatly improved. It doubles the bandwidth, for one thing. By 2010, there will be a billion HDMI devices out there in the wild. You knew, of course, that 63 million HDMI devices have … Read more

The battlefield medic is a staple of war movies, but rarely depicted is one challenge that goes beyond dodging bullets: noise.

U.S. Army acoustical engineers have developed a new stethoscope that can outperform its electronic predecessors by detecting a human heartbeat in intensely noisy environments, such as inside a military helicopter, according to LiveScience. Unlike others before it, the new stethoscope has a special head that can generate ultrasound waves, or sound frequencies that can cancel out external noises as high as 120 decibels.

Background noise on ambulances, helicopters or within crowds typically render electronic and traditional stethoscopes useless. … Read more

So that's the reason: We have an "overactive mind," and that's keeping us awake at night, not the three triple lattes.

This, at least, is the thinking by the people behind "GLO to Sleep," a product designed to cure your insomnia. (Full disclosure: They didn't actually mention the lattes.) GLO is essentially an eye mask lined with glowing bars of "photoluminescent pigment" that supposedly lets you "fall into the relaxed alpha-waved state and eventually into dreamland," according to Chip Chick.

If you're still having trouble nodding off, we … Read more

We firmly believe in freedom on the road, but we have to draw the line at watching TV in the car. After all, if we're already concerned about using the phone while driving, how do you expect us to feel about channel surfing?

We hope, therefore, that KVH's "TracVision A7" is designed for the passengers in the vehicle because it would be dangerously distracting to anyone behind the wheel. The mobile receiver provides up to 185 DirecTV channels and XM Satellite Radio, as well as standard broadcast transmissions. And if you can't resist sneaking a … Read more

Earlier this morning, fellow Craver Erica Ogg talked about how DNA-related gifts are all the rage this holiday season. Well, here's another option for genetics aficionados. A company called DNA 11 has several options for turning your biological fingerprint (or your physical fingerprint) into visually-pleasing artwork. Here's their gift-giving M.O.: you pay for the artwork before the fact, and then give a DNA collection kit to your favorite Watson & Crick fan for his or her winter holiday of choice. The recipient completes the instructions for a DNA sample, sends it back to the company, and in … Read more