royals

Spain, Abu Dhabi royals gather for molten salt solar

It's not often that a solar installation gets the royal treatment, but in the case of Torresol's molten salt solar plant that's exactly what happened yesterday.

King Juan Carlos of Spain and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, along with Masdar CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Sener President Jorge Sendagorta, and several other royals from the United Arab Emirates, oversaw opening ceremonies at a 19.9-megawatt solar plant in Fuentes, Andalucía, Spain.

The plant, which uses molten salt thermal storage to generate electricity, is the result of Torresol Energy, a … Read more

Reports: U.K. paper paid police to 'ping' phones

The scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's News of the World is growing, with new allegations that his papers bribed police to use cell phone-tracking technology to find the exact whereabouts of news subjects, as well as to obtain information about the royal family, and also targeted former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, according to reports.

Two former News of the World journalists said the practice of using the illicit cell phone tracking was known as "pinging" in the newsroom, according to The New York Times. The technology, for which one reporter said the News of the World paid nearly $… Read more

Lexus builds a hybrid for a prince

Environmental responsibility is all the rage with European royalty these days. Prince William and Kate Middleton drove away from their nuptials in a bio-ethanol-powered Aston Martin DB6, and now Monaco announced that Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock will make a post-ceremony procession in a Lexus hybrid.

The Monaco royal car won't be a humble HS 250h or even an RX 450h SUV, but a flagship LS 600h L, specially converted with a Laundelet roof. To install the new roof, Belgian coachbuilders Carat Duchatelet had to remove the existing roof and strengthen the car's body with Kevlar and honeycomb structures to restore lost rigidity.

The roof itself is a polycarbonate transparent shell covering the rear seat. It was designed by a French company that also builds canopies for helicopters and other aircraft. The 8-millimeter thick shell weighs 57 pounds and can be removed for an open-air rear seat.

The Lexus 600h L retained its original drivetrain, a 5-liter V-8 enhanced with an electric propulsion unit. The wedding procession, which occurs July 2, goes from the palace down to Monaco's harbor, and then along Boulevard Albert I to Sainte-Devote Church. The procession's slow speeds will allow the LS 600h L to operate under electric power for most of the route, according to Lexus.

After the wedding, the car will go on display at Monaco's Oceanographic Museum. … Read more

Digital City 126: Apps a-go-go (or no-go), and the social media effect

In this episode, we talk about how cable companies' attempt to port their services to digital apps both frustrates and confounds us, the debut of the NFL 2011 iPad app, what's new in Netflix streaming, and how busy broadcast news was this week--from the royal wedding to the reported death of Bin Laden.

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time! … Read more

Web finds new 'Shut Up' meme in Royal Wedding

You are, no doubt, catching up on your sleep after getting up in the middle of the night to watch all of the Royal Wedding.

You will have enjoyed your favorite moments: admiring the slimness of the bride, the baldness of the groom, or the wonderful joy of the cartwheeling clergyman.

However, the Web seems to have spoken with a resounding definitiveness and taken one small image of one small girl and turned it into a meme for the ages. Or at least the week.

The picture in question involves neither kissing nor hugging. Instead, it is one small section … Read more

Rolls-Royce app lets you live (pretend) swank life

If you dream of riding around in a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but can only afford a rusted old beast with the fender hanging off, take heart. Rolls-Royce has released a free app for enthusiasts wanting to create a virtual customized version of the luxury car.

Using the Phantom app, users can apply any mix of trims to their car from a choice of 44,000 colors. If that's not enough variety for you, you can use an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch camera to capture a new color from any surface (even nail polish--ever seen a Rolls in Miss Bossy Pants?) to create a completely unique version of the luxury car.

Users can experience interior ambiance interactively through features like a starlight headliner, where hundreds of illuminated optical fibers are woven into the roof lining of a virtual vehicle. The app even has the ability to turn up or down the degree of illumination.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom app features 360-degree exterior views and three interior angles from the front, side and rear seat. It can be used to create a virtual Phantom, Phantom Coupe, or Phantom Drophead Coupe.

Or users can recreate the Royal Wedding bride ride. Kate, you may have heard, was transported to Westminster Abbey in a 1977 Rolls Royce Phantom VI.

A similar app for the Ghost came out in March of last year.… Read more

The 404 810: Where our tablet could eat your tablet (podcast)

Stupid Andy returns to the show and delivers an impressive cover of Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" using just an iPad and the Classic Guitar app! Andy also shows off his new non-Apple tablet, so be sure to check out Wilson throwing a schoolboy fit in the studio in protest. Plus, be sure to listen to hear how you can enter to win a pair of Gunnar indoor eyewear!

The 404 Digest for Episode 810

Google Doodles and Maps pay tribute to the royal wedding. Stupid Andy's new toy runs Windows 7 and has a Core i5 processor, but no kickstand. This November, San Francisco will vote to ban circumcision. Jenny Lawrence leaves us a video voice-mail, and here's the video she's referencing: Analog Pants: Rick Roll by the Red Balls.

We also have two pairs of Gunnar Optiks indoor eyewear to giveaway, but you only have this weekend to enter! Just follow us on Twitter and shoot us a tweet mentioning #Gunnar404 and why you deserve a pair of performance glasses optimized for the digital screen. We'll announce the winners on Monday, so good luck!

Episode 810 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Royal wedding a top destination for Web users

The royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton went off without a hitch today--both in Westminster Abbey and online.

According to global CDN provider Akamai, "early data" has revealed that the number of concurrent users streaming the royal wedding around the Web outstripped the highest peak of concurrent users who watched the World Cup last year. Akamai plans to provide final numbers on that later today.

Even so, comparing the royal wedding's performance with other major events can be difficult. For one, workers in the U.K. were given today off, which means many of them were likely watching the festivities at home from their televisions. Moreover, the event occurred when many in the United States were still sleeping, which could have negatively affected the live feed of the event, but buoyed viewership figures on videos watched later in the day.

"There are a lot of factors involved with these live events, which is why we can't call one event the biggest or larger than another," an Akamai spokeswoman told CNET in an e-mailed statement today. "It's like comparing apples and oranges sometimes."… Read more

A Twitter ban at the royal wedding? Tripe

Tomorrow, the world will witness one of the most beautiful and joyous anachronisms known to humanity.

A royal prince will marry his commoner bride, as tears are shed from London to Liverpool. Clockwise.

And yet reports have emerged that the likes of the Norway's king, Australia's prime minister, David Beckham, Sir Elton John, Guy Ritchie, Joss Stone and Mr. Bean will be prevented from letting the world instantly know their own feelings. (If you need the full guest list, it's here.)

For Yahoo itself has reported that a Twitter blanket is being thrown around Westminster Abbey, scene … Read more