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Retailers adopting renewable energy

Big-box retailers are increasingly adding solar panels and wind turbines to sprawling stores to offset rising electricity costs and groom a "green" image.

Last week, Wal-Mart Stores announced it will add wind power to 360 Texas outlets. The company aims to power all stores with renewables eventually. So far, the retailer counting the largest amount of photovoltaics is Wisconsin-based Kohl's. Whole Foods is likely the first big name to add solar panels, starting in 2002 in Berkeley, Calif.

In the latest sign of government support for such efforts, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick called last week for all … Read more

2Wire debuts MediaPoint set-top box, but you can't buy it--yet

2Wire has unveiled the MediaPoint, a thin-client set-top box that's designed to deliver HD video via broadband. The MediaPoint box will have a small footprint (just 7 inches square) and a good array of features, including HDMI output, wired and wireless network connectivity, USB expansion options, and UPnP and DLNA compatibility for streaming media from sources on the home network. The catch? MediaPoint won't be available to consumers--at least, not directly.

That's because 2Wire is effectively acting as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer). 2Wire's customers--broadband service providers--can customize the MediaPoint box to their specific needs, and … Read more

Get a balanced lunch, perfectly portioned

Most days I can't remember how many servings of fruit I'm supposed to have, let alone the correct serving size. I don't have a food pyramid poster handy and, as much as I'd like to make sure I'm eating all my food groups in the correct proportions, it's not particularly easy to determine just what should be in a healthy meal. The Pyramid Lunch Box simplifies matters. Designed by Li Jianye from Yanko Design, the Pyramid Lunch Box is a triangle divided into three compartments of varying size. The largest is meant to hold … Read more

Box.net brings cloud storage to the iPhone

If you're done playing around with Google Earth for the iPhone, you might be interested in checking out something with some everyday utility. Last week Box.net dropped its iPhone application on the App Store. Just like the mobile Safari-friendly version of yore, this lets you access your cloud-stored files on the go, including documents, music, and movies.

The big difference is that this new version takes advantage of your phone's hardware, letting you upload snapped photos and keep an eye on any updates.

In the future, once Apple flips the switch on its live notification service this … Read more

Trimming the fat? This fryer spins it

We all know George Foreman. Some from his boxing days, but perhaps more of us know him from his role as pitchman for kitchen appliances that "knock out the fat." We were first introduced to this new wave of kitchen-counter gadgetry through the "Lean Mean Fat Fighting Machine," which channeled fat (and juices) away from meat as it cooked. Now, George is taking it up to a whole new level with the "Lean Mean Spin Frying Machine."

Distributed and marketed by Applica, the Lean Mean Fryer claims to "knock out" up to … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings us two balance-board-compatible titles along with a duo of Turbografx 16 games.

WiiWare Tetris Party (Tetris Online Inc., 1,200 Wii points): Tetris Party puts a new spin on everyone's favorite shape-shifting puzzle game. Not only does the title introduce various new modes of play, but you can now dust off that Wii Fit balance board and use it to control Tetris pieces! The Incredible Maze (Digital Leisure Inc., 500 Wii points): Use your Wii remote to balance your way through various mazes and puzzles. Or if you prefer, use your balance board to do your … Read more

FCC official says DTV transition will be 'messy'

One of the five members of the Federal Communications Commission, Republican Robert McDowell, said Tuesday that the DTV transition "will be messy...but we'll get through it."

The statement comes three weeks after Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, a Democrat, warned that the next presidential administration may inherit a "communications crisis."

McDowell urged broadcasters, the party he identified as having the most to lose in the transition, to step up their informational campaigns and to tailor the information to local markets in the months leading up to the transition. As an example, he said that technical differences between local markets may require campaigns that urge consumers to also purchase a new antenna to get their DTV converter boxes to work.

To parse McDowell's statement, he's probably referring to the fact that, even if consumers buy a converter box and hook it up to their current antenna, they may not receive as many channels as they did before the transition. Digital TV signals use a completely different transmission method from analog, and in many cases we've heard reported, people often can't get the same number of digital channels as analog ones.

As reported in Broadcasting & Cable, FCC chairman Kevin Martin told Congress last month that, after the switch, approximately 15 percent of digital TV stations will not reach as many viewers as their analog signals did.… Read more

Virus prompts Asus to recall Japanese Eee Box PCs

You click OK on a message while surfing the Internet and suddenly your computer is full of malicious software and viruses. That's bad. What could be worse worse, however, is when your brand new computer comes preloaded with malicious software.

Tuesday, according to ChinaTechNews.com, Asus announced a recall of it's Asus Eee Box PCs that it had sold in Japan because it was shipped with a virus.

The computers had a file called recycled.exe, residing on the D drive. Once executed, the file would copy itself to other drives, including USB drives, and install malicious software … Read more

2009 Dodge Ram is tough outside, tech inside

When we first laid eyes on the Dodge Ram, a few words came to mind: gargantuan, behemoth, colossal. The words that didn't immediately come to mind when the big ol' truck rolled into the CNET garage were "high" or "tech." However, after--literally--climbing into the Ram's cab and spending some time behind the wheel, we found a surprising amount of drive-train tech and, more surprisingly, some very sophisticated cabin tech.

Satellite TV, a hard drive-based audio system, and in-vehicle Wi-Fi are just some of the ambitious, if unrefined, tricks the Dodge Ram has up its … Read more

Winegard's RCDT09A is the first battery-powered DTV converter box

One of the often overlooked aspects of the analog-to-digital TV transition is that the vast majority of portable TVs have an analog tuner and won't be able to receive signals after the big switch on February 17, 2009. Earlier this year, we wrote a blog titled, "Don't buy a portable TV this year" to warn consumers about the coming switch, plus the fact that the FCC had stated that it didn't expect any battery-powered DTV converters to be released. Well, that prediction was a little off the mark, as we recently posted our review of … Read more