power

Implantable device propels itself through bloodstream

As implantable medical devices become smaller and less power hungry, they are taking on a variety of new roles. What began as largely stationary objects, such as pacemakers and cochlear implants, are becoming small enough to actually pass through our bodies (i.e. in the form of pills) to deliver drugs and perform diagnostics.

Now, a new class of medical devices is emerging that adds a twist to the traditional implant: the devices are so small that they can travel through our bloodstream, not to mention are powered wirelessly via electromagnetic radio waves, according to Stanford electrical engineer Ada Poon.

By moving through the bloodstream, these tiny implants will be able to perform minor surgeries such as removing blood clots, Poon told an audience at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week.… Read more

Android Atlas Weekly Ep. 86: Jelly beans, Android sunglasses, and another dang pen phone (Podcast)

Rumor Has It host Karyne Levy joins us as we discuss Androids Jelly Bean possibly launching in Q2, the pen-friendly LG Vu which will be on display at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, and a couple of crazy Android implementations including Google's HUD Glasses and an Android Toothbrush.

NEWS:

-Android 5.0 ‘Jelly Bean’ launching in Q2? Eh, maybe

-Android 5.0 Jelly Bean is Android@Home

-LG Optimus Vu is official: 5 inches, pen-friendly

-BlackBerry OS 2.0 arrives, supports Android apps, sort of… Read more

Microsoft Office for the iPad: To be or not to be

Is Microsoft cooking up a version of Office for the iPad? News site The Daily says yes, Microsoft doesn't exactly say no but claims that The Daily's story is inaccurate.

Yesterday, The Daily's Matt Hickey reported that he had seen a working prototype of Office on the iPad and that sources indicated the app would soon be sent to Apple for approval.

Microsoft quickly went into denial mode, saying The Daily's story was "based on inaccurate rumors and speculation" and that the photo displayed by The Daily is "not a real picture of … Read more

Scared of Anonymous? NSA chief says you should be

Anonymous has so far plied its trade in "hactivist" exploits. But according to the director of the National Security Agency, it might soon turn its focus to U.S. infrastructure.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, Gen. Keith Alexander has said in private meetings at the White House and elsewhere that the U.S. must keep a close eye on Anonymous' growth. He reportedly warned that if the organization continues to gain power, it might even take down a part of the U.S. power grid within the next couple of years.

How serious might such … Read more

Thief urinates on transformer, gets burns, jail

Copper theft has become something of sport of late. Even Facebook's new HQ endured a little.

However, sometimes the thieves aren't too sophisticated, which can lead to certain unforeseen problems.

A tale emerges from Leicester in the U.K., in which two copper thieves last year went to an electricity sub-station in order to steal copper cable from the sub-station's transformer.

The way the Leicester Mercury wraps it, Michael Harper, 36 and Richard Boyce, 50, went to the sub-station in order to steal the copper and, while they were at it, take some heroin.

It is unclear … Read more

Silicon Power Armor A80 review: Double A(lpha) male

Unlike most external drives I've seen, the Silicon Power Armor A80 portable hard drive uses A-male-to-A-male USB 3.0 cable.

This means the drive will not work with the more popular type of USB cable, which has an A male port on one end and a (Micro) B male port on the other. More than making up for this, the new drive offers alpha male performance all the way.… Read more

Sony envisions future with pay-as-you-go power

Sony is looking to revolutionize the inefficient way in which we consume power.

A new concept video from the electronics giant shows how we could use power more efficiently in the year 2030 by switching to smart outlets with authentication and wireless charging on a broad scale, assuming we survive the zombie Mayan apocalypse.

The prototype power outlet, integrated with a short-range wireless FeliCa transmitter (and a new RFID over power line technology), allows the user to swipe a pay card across the faceplate and pay for energy on the spot. What makes it truly interesting is if humankind keeps progressing towards alternative energies (such as wind, solar, and biomass), then our outlets could give us options as to what source from which we obtain our power. The video description notes that with this outlet, "the user can actively control and manage power consumption on a user basis as well as on a device basis." … Read more

Manage animations in Keynote

Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation software is to some degree an industry standard, and its presence on both Windows and OS X allows for a decent level of cross-platform compatibility that new Mac users might gravitate toward; however, there are other options besides Office that might perform as well as if not better than PowerPoint, which you might wish to consider.

As I mentioned in a previous post on Apple's alternative to Excel called Numbers, there are a few Office programs out there that have good offerings and which can import and export PowerPoint file formats. These include the free … Read more

First nuclear reactor approved in U.S. since 1978

Years of shifting and smoothing Georgia red clay paid off last week, as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to allow construction of two new nuclear reactors near Augusta.

Atlanta-based utility giant Southern Co. will soon have permission to complete construction and operate two AP1000 type nuclear reactors (PDF) at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power station.

But what were initially lauded as the first reactors of a nuclear renaissance when proposed are more likely to be the exceptions that prove the rule of no new nuclear construction in the U.S. Only this twin set of Westinghouse-designed reactors in … Read more

It's time to move on from power testing most desktop PCs

Perhaps you are aware that we conduct power consumption testing across a number of review categories.

David Katzmaier started it with TV reviews in 2006. We rolled it out to desktops, laptops, and monitors in 2009. At least for most desktops, measuring power consumption no longer makes sense. So we're going to stop.

I wish we'd started testing energy usage on desktops earlier, particularly with Intel's old power hog Pentium D chips. The problem is Moore's Law. Intel's Sandy Bridge chips (sorry, "second-generation Core") are too damn efficient. They're also pretty much everywhere.

The result is that our power draw tests aren't all that interesting anymore for mainstream PCs. The chart below helps illustrate the point.… Read more