tech

Say what? Americans and their God-given right to air conditioning

John Berger, chairman and CEO of Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy, knows that in selling Americans on energy efficiency and green technology, it doesn't pay to appeal to their guilt.

Instead, you've got to appeal to their pocketbook. They'll buy solar panels and new types of insulation or even biodiesel cars as long as they save money and don't have to curb their lifestyle.

"We believe Americans believe they have a God-given right to have their cake and eat it too," he said.

It will never happen, but that's the kind of quote I'… Read more

Harman Kardon turns drive time into play time--again

Harman Kardon is just about to unleash the successor to its Drive + Play iPod interface, and we got a sneak preview of the new system this week. Imaginatively called the Drive + Play 2, the stylish device offers tons more features than its predecessor did, including the ability to show album art, an alphabetic search function, and a unique means of refining playlists on the move. The DP2 will be hitting shelves next week with a price tag of around $400. Check out our Crave slide show for all the info as well as some beauty shots.

Shifting your way to cheaper gas bills

Many of us are more than willing to do our part to fight global warming, but not everyone is quite ready trade the family gas guzzler for a Prius or a diesel Honda. Yet you can still take a small step toward lessening your environmental guilt with a new shift knob designed to promote fuel efficiency.

The "Gaslock Indy Cater" has an LED indicator that reminds the driver what gear the car is in. Some might think it's about as useful as the "qStart"--the gadget that tells you which side of the road you'… Read more

USBCell Battery: A darned good idea, if it works

A few minutes ago, I was crawling through the oft-dull posts that turn up in my RSS reader on Saturday mornings while downing the day's first cup of coffee. Not particularly momentous. Then I saw this TreeHugger post, and I was all wow, you know, in the way that Microsoft was hoping I'd react to Windows Vista. (I didn't, for the record.)

So what are these? They're called USBCell, and they're AA batteries that you charge in a USB port. What a cool idea! Of course, there's always the quality issue, but TreeHugger seems … Read more

Pikspot launches, joins media mashup fray

Pikspot is a new social network for groups to upload and share media. Each group can create its own themed page and add various pieces of content such as audio, video clips, and images. It's not a P2P network per se, consider it a media-hosting site like SplashCast with extended group features. Will it be the next big thing in media distribution? I'm not so sure about that, but it is launching with a lineup of content from several TechTV notables who have formed a channel called UndoTV. For any Webware readers who have watched CNET TV's new call-in help show CNET Live, this might be right up your alley.

Adding media to Pikspot channels is fairly simple. There's a batch uploader for photos and plenty of options to tag and credit content. Channel owners can also opt to let subscribers (registered users who have added the channel to their subscription list) add their own content. To sort through it all, there's a simple search. You're also able to browse through tagged content in a cloud, which is pretty neat looking.

Any Pikspot channel or piece of content can be embedded off-site on blogs or social networks. Like some of the embeds we've seen recently with SplashCast and Kyte.tv (hands-on), Pikspot lets users browse through the channel's entire content catalog and interact with other community members via comments without leaving the embedded player.

To customize a Pikspot channel, owners can select from a large selection of templates, or make their own using a fairly full-featured editor that gives complete control over the color scheme and branding. Any site still retains a small banner at the top of the page to bring you back to Pikspot, like you get on Blogger, Ning, and other networks.

The Pikspot experience is fairly slick, but I do have my nits to pick, mainly the upload speed for adding media to the service, which I found to be really slow. I'd like to see the inclusion of a live chat for each channel, as I had a lot of fun with this feature using Kyte.tv recently. That being said, the commenting system is really simple and includes a Digg-like way to vote on which comments are (and aren't) worth reading.

I'm very interested to see which other content providers stick their work on Pikspot. Since anyone can upload content, we're bound to see some copyrighted items on there. If it's anything like Joost, with the right people in charge, we'll see more partnerships and content provider-sponsored channels fairly soon.

I've embedded a Pikspot player below.… Read more

A computer chair worthy of The Matrix

Calling the "G-Tech Neber" ergonomic is like saying Al Gore is an environmentalist. But to truly appreciate the understatement, you need to see a photo of this unique piece of computer furniture, if not actually sit in it.

Shiny Shiny describes it as "part dentist chair," but the "Personal Computing Environment Station" has a lock on that hybrid. We think it actually bears a closer resemblance to the "Alternative Computer Control System" featured awhile back, mostly because of their curved frames.

Regardless of how well the Korean-made Neber compares, at least it … Read more

Taxis getting greener, one hybrid at a time

If you're lucky, as I have been in several cities, you might occasionally flag down a rare taxicab bedecked by its driver with disco balls, mood lighting, tinfoil hearts, or even a menagerie of stuffed animals. This week, San Franciscans got the option to hitch a ride in a novelty taxi of a different sort, as start-up Green Cab's single hybrid Honda Civic hit the road. Next month the fleet could total five gas-electric taxis painted in low-toxic green paint.

"It's not only environmentally friendly, it's good financially for the driver," said Green Cab … Read more

Route 66 takes the high road

When Crave mentions sat-nav, our beloved readers probably think TomTom, possibly Garmin, or maybe even Navman. But, you guys should probably start adding Route 66 to your mental Rolodex of cool GPS devices.

We've just taken receipt of the trendily named Route 66 Chicago 9000, part of the new line of Route 66 sat-navs announced at CeBIT earlier in the year. The 9000 is the big daddy of the bunch and incorporates a 2GB SD card with detailed European maps, plus an RDS/TMC receiver--the anti-traffic missile of sat-nav warfare.

The unit looks fairly innocuous. Its 4.3-inch screen … Read more

Judge tosses out Jack Thompson's lawsuit against Gawker Media

GamePolitics.com is reporting that U.S. District Judge Paul Huck has dismissed anti-video game crusader Jack Thompson's lawsuit against Gawker Media, the publisher of game blog Kotaku. Thompson had claimed that Kotaku and Gawker Media had failed to honor his requests to remove "threatening" comments from several of their blog posts that were critical of his eagerness to blame video games for the tragic Virginia Tech shootings earlier this month.

On Wednesday, Thompson had added the blog-publishing company, which also operates other popular blogs like Gizmodo, Wonkette, and Valleywag, to a list of defendants in a … Read more