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The Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday new federal rules that set greenhouse gas emissions standards and will significantly increase the fuel economy of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States.

The new guidelines will affect 2012 model vehicles and will require manufacturers to achieve a fleet average of 35.5 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. This could potentially save the average buyer of a 2016 model-year car $3,000 over the life of the vehicle and. Nationally, these changes will conserve about 1.8 billion barrels … Read more

People are flocking to a new generation of smartphones with rich applications, high-powered Web browsers, and large touch screens. What those products lack, though, is a camera that's equally transformative.

A start-up called InVisage expects to change that for consumers next year with a new approach to digital camera image sensors. Its technology, called QuantumFilm, is four times more efficient at capturing light than traditional silicon-based image sensor chips, meaning the company's sensors will offer either higher sensitivity in low light or more megapixels in resolution.

"With a tiny smartphone 3-megapixel sensor, we could make that a … Read more

The FAA has asked Boeing to prove that its new connected airplane isn't so connected it can connect hackers. We also discuss why folks think women aren't as good at math when all the women we know are great at math. And we hash over some Apple tablet rumors. I mean, how could we not? We also have special guest host Clayton Morris from Fox News, and Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective.

OnLive responds to bad press, more beta testers … Read more

The humble drinking glass has been redesigned countless times, but Belgrade-based Damjan Stanković has dreamed up one that knows what you're drinking.

The Cipher concept drinking glass indicates when you're quaffing orange juice, milk, or Coke. An apparently random mosaic of colorful squares on the wall of the glass turns into letters and words as it's filled with the appropriate liquid.

The visual trick is possible, thanks to the way the colored squares are arranged on the glass and the color of the liquid.

The designer says each "side" of the Cipher glass is reserved … Read more

Occasionally we come across a program that has the potential to be really great but is ruined by a terrible interface. LEC Translate DotNet is one such program. This suite of translation utilities allows users multiple ways to translate text on their computers, but the way the program is laid out makes it utterly frustrating to use.

The program is composed of five different utilities, ClipTrans, FileTrans, LogoTrans, and MirrorTrans. Do you have any idea what any of these do? Neither did we. And opening each one revealed interfaces with absolutely no direction. The only way to figure out what … Read more

Facebook's executives have been saying for a long time that they believe they've built something that can make the world a better place. And now they've launched a hub for that, called "Peace on Facebook."

"Facebook is proud to play a part in promoting peace by building technology that helps people better understand each other," the site explains. "By enabling people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share their ideas, we can decrease world conflict in the short and long term."

It appears to be part of something launching from … Read more

SAN DIEGO--For better or worse, text messaging has become, according to a company called Scientific Media, the most popular mobile application on Earth. And while many companies are trying to build marketing efforts around people's use of texting, it's clear there is a long way to go before those efforts are coherent.

At the DemoFall 09 conference here Wednesday, Scientific Media unveiled its Dot Go service, a tool it hopes large numbers of companies will employ to try to boost their text messaging-based marketing.

The idea? Blow apart the current texting/marketing dynamic, in which companies try to … Read more

A group of engineering students has developed a portable, low-cost Braille printer that lets the blind and visually impaired easily label objects that feel similar to the touch, like DVDs.

The 6dot Braille Labelmaker is cheaper and easier to use than other label makers, according to the students from MIT, the University of Toronto, and Stanford University. Still in development, it might cost as little as $200 when released, less than half the cost of some other Braille label makers.

Users push six keys on the ergonomic device--one for each of the dots that make up a Braille character--to emboss … Read more

The real estate market is in trouble and housing prices are plummeting. In other words, it is a great time to buy a house.

That's why we've compiled a list of real estate search sites and examined how well they can help you find your next home.

DotHomes If you're looking to find homes, but you don't know where to start, DotHomes might be it. It's not the best real estate search site in this roundup, but it does a fine job of taking listings from across the Web and getting them to you quickly.… Read more