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Apple wins patent for new way to send power to homes

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for a new way to supply power to a home through the use of an "intelligent power-enabled communications port."

The inventor was Tony Fadell, a key executive who worked for Apple on the iPod and iPhone, until leaving to found Nest, a company that makes a 'smart thermostat,' the idea being that it will be able to plug in to "the Internet of things."

You can read details of the patent filing here. Patently Apple also offers a write-up.

Smart glove gives voice to sign language gestures

I have a very basic grasp of sign language, including the alphabet and few simple words like "thank you," "snake," and "chicken."

The last time I spoke with someone who was speech impaired, we resorted to a scrap piece of cardboard and a pencil to get our messages across. A new invention may help break down those barriers.

The EnableTalk smart glove recognizes sign language gestures and sends them for text and voice translation to a smartphone or other device. … Read more

EnableDisable for Windows turns your Office add-ins on and off

Office add-ins range from indispensable to strictly optional, but they can pile up, which sometimes slows down your Office apps. Of course, minutes after you disable one, you'll need it (we exaggerate, but not much). If add-ons cramp your style when you open Word, Excel, or other Office tools, take a look at EnableDisable for Office. This standalone freeware lets you enable or disable Office add-ons as needed. It works with all versions of Office and Windows 2000 to 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

EnableDisable's simple interface has tabs for each Office application: Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, … Read more

Use iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot to add GPS to Wi-Fi-only iPads

Zachery Bir, on his Urbanape blog, explains how he used an iPhone 4 with the new Personal Hotspot feature in iOS 4.3 to add GPS to his Wi-Fi-only iPad. A tweet from Bir earlier in the day caused some skepticism when he posted:

From a technological standpoint, I must admit I was a bit skeptical as well. When deciding on which iPad 2 to get, I debated many of the same pros and cons as other customers wondering if the $130 upgrade to enable 3G on an iPad was worth the money.

Ultimately, I decided to put the extra money toward more storage and I settled on a black, 32Gb, Wi-Fi-only iPad 2. Upon seeing a post from Daring Fireball's John Gruber about Bir's findings, I feel as though my decision may well be completely justified. … Read more

At your service(s)

Programs like automatic update checkers and "helper" apps create Windows services that on startup whether you use them or not. You can manage Windows services from the Windows Task Manager or Microsoft Management Console, but it can be tedious to turn services on and off that way. Mz Services Manager is a free tool that builds on Windows' native services management capabilities with custom services profiles. You can create special gaming profiles, or a home theater profile, or custom profiles optimized for specific software or processes, then save them and load them almost instantly.

Mz Services Manager's … Read more

Sam's Club to offer Wi-Fi access, mobile app

Sam's Club is hoping that free Wi-Fi access will be one way to lure more buyers into its stores, especially those who are shopping for Wi-Fi TVs.

The warehouse membership club owned by Wal-Mart announced Tuesday that it plans to upgrade its more than 500 U.S. stores with Wi-Fi by November.

Provided by AT&T, the free Wi-Fi will enable shoppers to try out the full features of Wi-Fi-enabled TVs. Customers will be able to check out Facebook, Pandora, and other online services on TVs in the store to get a better sense of how they might … Read more

Samsung takes top spot in LCD TV market

Boosted by growing consumer demand for advanced TVs, Samsung carved out a leading share of the U.S. LCD TV market in the first quarter, according to data released Monday by iSuppli.

For the quarter, the South Korean company shipped 1.1 million LCD TVs. Though that number was down 33 percent from the fourth quarter, Samsung still beat out the overall industry, which saw its shipments drop by 35.8 percent. This difference helped Samsung inch its market share up to 18 percent from 17.3 percent in the previous quarter.

The overall decline in LCD TV shipments is … Read more

Most Internet users to watch video online by 2014

As more people turn to the Internet to catch movies, TV shows, and other content, 77 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. will watch videos online by 2014, according to information released Wednesday by eMarketer.

The last few years have witnessed huge growth in online video watching, with an 11.3 percent rise in viewers from 2008 to 2009, says eMarketer. The number of people catching full-length movies on the Web more than doubled between September 2008 and October 2009, according to a report by Ipsos.

The overall growth in online video viewing will likely slow to … Read more

More TVs hopping onto the Internet

Eager to watch the likes of Hulu and YouTube on the big screen, more people are hooking up their TVs to the Internet, says a new report from iSuppli.

A survey of 800 U.S. consumers who bought TVs in January found that 27.5 percent of them have connected their new sets to the Internet, either through the TV itself or via an external device such as a game console or digital video box. That compares with 24.3 percent in December.

Almost 42 percent of the sets that were purchased in January and are now connected to the … Read more