A couple of weeks ago Apple announced plans for a new iPhone.  Word is that they filed a patent to have solar cells on portable devices.

Outfitted with such technology, Apple’s devices, like the iPhone, could have photovoltaic cells stacked underneath LCD touch screens, thus maximizing the area available for harnessing the sun.

You’ll be able to see your device’s solar cells performance information on the main screen next to the battery power, text message alerts and clock.

 

One related product is the 6.4-ounce Solio Mg, $200, from Better Energy Systems. Its three magnesium blades fan out to reveal solar panels, which can store enough power to charge most phones and PDAs twice; an hour of clear sun will give most cell phones 25 minutes of talk time or an iPod an hour of playing time. It takes ten hours of direct sun to fully juice the device. (See Off The Grid But In The Game)

Also, the world’s first solar bag–the Voltaic Systems’ Generator laptop bag–is covered in solar cells and can charge a laptop. It generates up to 14.7 watts after a day of direct sunlight, can carry a 17-inch Apple Powerbook and comes with adapters that allow other electronics, such as cell phones, to be charged.

 

So go off-the-grid with Apple’s new patent, which is said to be out on the market with their new generation of iPhones.

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Wow, that is quite the video there. This reports on Chrysler’s offer to cap gas prices, which have skyrocketed to a whopping $3.63 in my area recently, to $2.99 a gallon. Of course they have their stipulations, but who doesn’t.

Microsoft has signed a world wide deal with Kia and Hyundai so their customers will have the ability to use voice commands to control a number of different features with the use of their in-car software. For already is in the contract with Microsoft, but theirs will expire in November.

T-mobile has already launched their 3G network in New York, but now they have announced that Seattle is the next lucky city to get their 4x faster download speed. The new network launch will take place this fall, so get ready you Seattleites.

I don’t know many Zune people, but there are some out there, and this should excite them. Microsoft Zune fans will soon have the ability to download popular t.v. shows directly to their Zune!! At $1.99 each you can get shows like South Park, Battle Star Galactica, Heroes and my favorite The Office.

Webby Awards took place and guess who are the winners! That is correct, buzz travels fast, but Colbert is the Webby Person of the Year for connecting to his fans using the Internet. Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas won Webby Artist of the Year for his music video supporting Barack Obama. A few others are

Best Political Blog - Huffington Post

Best Cultural Blog - Post Secret

Best in the Politics category - FactCheck.org

Best Community - Flickr

All that in one video, how informational! Enjoy!

This “lovely young woman Tonya” was featured on BoingBoing yesterday for her “I love my Mac” music video.  The blogger over there had said:

Speaking as a daily Mac user myself, kudos to this lovely young woman Tonya who has completely captured the ethos and spirit of the average Mac user. Mac users can be dorky, too, haters!

To be quite honest though, I am a daily Mac user and the first thing that came to mind is, “how obnoxious it is for other Mac users to beat that stereotype.”   I take my Mac nearly everywhere, but I definitely don’t act like an ass in the process.  Granted, my Mac is better than the Windows options, but that is my opinion.  I cannot stand those Mac users who think they are higher than thou just because they have a Mac.  On top of that, who wants to be known for being dorky?

This is hilarious, this bar owner, Rufus Terrill of Atlanta, decided to take matter into his own hands and built a robotic security guard. He calls it the ‘Bum-bot,’ while the rest of the neighborhood calls it ‘Robocop,’ because he uses it to deter homeless from trespassing on his property.

He made use of an old barbecue smoker and mounted it on a three-wheeled scooter. The bot is equipped with an infrared camera, loudspearker, spotlight and an aluminum water cannon. He uses the camera to watch his property, the loudspeaker to yell at people from his walkie-talkie and the water cannon to shoot a stream of icy water about 20 feet.

On this night, as Terrill and his robot make their way to the street corner, he shines the robot’s spotlight on the parking lot of the daycare center. One by one, the shadowy figures stand up, walk away and saunter down the street.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, when I go up there and once I turn the spotlight on and I talk to them through the speaker, they leave,” he says.

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I know it is dangerous to text while you drive, but is it really that dangerous to do while you walk?  I read over on Engadget about the people in Brick Lane, London having padded lampposts to shield their noggins when they walk into them.  Apparently 1 out of 10 people have actually injured themselves when they hit the lampposts while texting.

That sounds a little pathetic if you ask me.  I text a lot, almost non-stop at times and I walk just fine.  If the padded lampposts end up helping prevent injury, “there are plans to roll out the idiot-proof system in Birmingam, Manchester, and Stupidton.”

Another mod for the Rock Band game!  This one is particularly interesting, although I believe that they should mod it to where you don’t need the drums at all.  A beatbox Rock Band would be pretty neat, My favorite unsigned beatboxer is [Beware, that is a MySpace link, so if you oppose that don’t click].

This guy, Kevin Child, threw together this video for his YouTube stardom.  In the video he uses a Thumper Throat Mic to do the foot pedal in the game.

Enjoy Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead of Alive in the video, since he used that to show off the throat thumpin’ moves.

Rock Band is better than Guitar Hero

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Technology is getting more and more strange as the days go by.  Engadget had on their site today the new technology of infrared blinking sensor.

The sensor allows you to simply blink and eye and flip through your iPod, or possibly your Zune if that is what you are into.

a group of researchers led by Osaka University’s Kazuhiro Taniguchi is looking to take things one step further, with them now touting their wink-based control system. Apparently consisting of a “a single-chip computer and a couple of infrared sensors,” the system, dubbed the Kome Kami Switch (or Temple Switch), lets you perform basic tasks like skipping tracks on an iPod with the blink of an eye, and is supposedly fine-tuned enough to be able to distinguish natural blinking from a deliberate wink.

Kind of scary to think how technology is advancing these days.

Another designer advert for the designer brand.  Anyone care to say otherwise?

Apple is just showing off the iPod’s ‘new’ fancy maneuvers, let me know when they get a bigger selection of memory.  Starting out with the 8 Gb and now the 32 Gb?  Yeah right, still too small for the amount of stuff you can put on it.

Any could easily fill that little gadget up, and not with just porn.. C’mon people that’s not what Apple intended, is it?  What perverts.

I do [in most cases] like Apple’s choice in music.

It is rare that I pay any attention to Engadget’s reviews on products, but this one made me laugh. I was not sure what Wow-Pen, the makers of the Joy Mouse, were thinking when they designed this. It either looks like: the more PG version, a hand about to beat you in thumb wrestling, or the more adult version, tiny but fat dildo.

I realize that Joy Mouse could be for joystick, but the fact that it is called the Joy Mouse and has that design just does not pair right.

Read over at Engadget what they had to say

It’s strange how “ergonomic” devices rarely look like they’d be comfortable to use. Such is the case with the Wow-Pen Joy, a new mouse that conforms to the hand like a pen would, apparently making your computing experience a little less tough on the wrists.

These three chaps got together to make a gadget band using the Nintendo DS and the fine products by Apple.  The applications used are: iAno, Pocket Guitar and a game called Electroplankton for Nintendo DS.

Pretty neat so I posted, plus I had talked about the iAno yesterday.  These three consider themselves the first iBand, so challengers thinking they were first get out there and YouTube it!

Check out their homepage here.