Feel Good Cars To Use EEStor's Green Technology

EEStor, a stealth company in Cedar Park, Texas, is working on an "energy storage" device that could finally give the internal combustion engine a run for its money -- and begin saving us from our oil addiction. "To call it a battery discredits it," says Ian Clifford, the CEO of Toronto-based electric car company Feel Good Cars, which plans to incorporate EEStor's technology in vehicles by 2008.

EEStor's device is not technically a battery because no chemicals are involved. In fact, it contains no hazardous materials whatsoever. Yet it acts like a battery in that it stores electricity. If it works as it's supposed to, it will charge up in five minutes and provide enough energy to drive 500 miles on about $9 worth of electricity. At today's gas prices, covering that distance can cost $60 or more; the EEStor device would power a car for the equivalent of about 45 cents a gallon.

And we mean power a car. "A four-passenger sedan will drive like a Ferrari," (Click Here To See The Car) Clifford predicts. In contrast, his first electric car, the Zenn, which debuted in August and is powered by a more conventional battery, can't go much faster than a moped and takes hours to charge.

The cost of the engine itself depends on how much energy it can store; an EEStor-powered engine with a range roughly equivalent to that of a gasoline-powered car would cost about $5,200. That's a slight premium over the cost of the gas engine and the other parts the device would replace -- the gas tank, exhaust system, and drivetrain. But getting rid of the need to buy gas should more than make up for the extra cost of an EEStor-powered car.

EEStor is tight-lipped about its device and how it manages to pack such a punch. According to a patent issued in April, the device is made of a ceramic powder coated with aluminum oxide and glass. A bank of these ceramic batteries could be used at "electrical energy stations" where people on the road could charge up.

By Using water as a fuel(spliting hydrogen and oxygen in its water stage it is more compressed than if it was put in a tank as pure hydrogen)

Courtesy EEStor

Emperor Workstation A Command Center At Home

The Emperor Workstation is for the hard core gamer and in case your current multi-screen setup with the overclocked glowing tower and your water cooled CPU wasn't earning you quite enough nerd cred. Enter the Emperor Workstation: a hardcore techno-cocoon that cradles you in ergonomic comfort, three 19" screens, THX Dolby Sound, Air Conditioning, and tanning therapy since you will probably never leave it. This would be the perfect set up for Eve-Online.

Instantly Turn Your PC To A Mac

Ever wanted to convert a PC to a Mac? With the Efix USB adapter you can. This USB dongle by EFiX, that once you instal it on the motherboard of your PC will allow you to install the Mac Leopard OS X on your PC from a standard retail DVD.

This the Efix USB comes in two versions:

1. Version 1 is the hand-made version that supports a few more mobos. Since it’s hand-made, there are 200 units of this version have been produced and they carry price tag of $125.
2. Version 2 will be a mass-produced version, which is expected to be shipped a month later, and should cost cheaper than the version 1

The EFiX USB dongle is to be installed internally, which you need a vacant USB header on your motherboard. The device now has a limited number of hardware compatibility. Hardware such as nVidia is almost all supported, but for mobos, you can only find the Gigabyte in the list. The more detailed of the hardware compatibility list is here.

So far, the maker, EFiX has made deal with distributors in Taiwan and Bulgaria only, so it will only be available in those two countries for now. I wonder how Apple feels about this?

Nvidia Launches GeForce GTX 200 GPUs

Competition is molten on the graphics front, Nvidia and AMD - having unveiled next-generation graphics processors at one and the same time. While AMD has unveiled its Gen-Next stream processor FireStream 9250, Nvidia has also introduced its GeForce GTX 200 series graphics processor units (GPUs) comprising the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs.

The GTX 200 series aims to take graphics and gaming beyond anything that's been possible on a consumer computing platform. Equipped to do twice the work that other GPUs are capable of, the GTX 200 series is touted to be the most advanced GPU ever built.

As PC applications become increasingly visual, many ordinary tasks will benefit from the graphics horsepower provided by this new GPU. These tasks range from editing photos to encoding/playing high-definition videos, even getting driving directions off the Internet to running a new operating system like Windows Vista. A simple task like converting a home video to upload on video-sharing sites or download on to media players will be executed 18 times faster by the GTX 200, claims Nvidia. So, a transcoding process that a normal CPU needs over five hours to execute will take the GTX 200 a mere 35 minutes, according to Nvidia.
Now Thats what I call impressive power!

Via Techtree

Super Earths Found Orbiting Far Off Sun

As NASA scientists search for water on Mars with the Phoenix Mars Lander, astronomers are finding Earth-like planets orbiting around other suns. Yesterday they found three planets they called “super-Earths” orbiting a star that’s 42 lights years away from us. They found the planets by using clever tech – they can’t see the planets themselves, but measure the affect they have on a star, making it wobble as they orbit.

Using a new Chilean telescope system of planet discovery called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), the astronomers say they can now detect planets as small as two times Earth’s mass. The three planets found yesterday are 4.2, 6.7, and 9.4 times the Earth’s mass, and all three of them orbit their sun in less than 20 days.

This is huge, especially considering that most all the other 270 planets detected around other stars using other methods are Jupiter-like gaseous planets. Another promising fact: One-third of the stars the scientists have studied using the HARPS system of spectrographic instruments have planets orbiting around them that resemble super-Earths or Neptune-like planets. It looks very possible that we are not alone.

Via News.Com

Samsung SGH-i900 Amazing Features

Samsung announces its new Smartphone OMNIA aka SGH-i900. It comes with a 3.22″ screen with 400×240 resolution, 5Mpix camera (wth smile detection and geo tagging), a GPS receiver, and running on Windows Mobile 6.1. The i900 will be quad-band GSM/EDG , 3G/3G + compatible (up to 7.2 Mbps), WiFi 802.11 b/g, and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR.





















Via

Sanyo HD1010 Xacti - Just Amazing

Sanyo Xacti HD1010 offers the HD recording in 1080i. It has the face detection feature which can detect up to 12 people at once. This camcorder comes with a 300fps slow-motion video mode, a 10x optical zoom lens, image stabilization, a 2.7 LCD and capable of shooting a 4.0-megapixel still image. The video can be saved on a SD or SDHC cards.


• HD 1080i, MPEG-4, AVC/H.284 Digital Video
• 4 Megapixel Still Images, CMOS
• 2.7″ LCD Display
• 10x Optical Zoom
• Video and Still Image Stabilization
• Sequential Shooting - 7 Frames Per Second
• Face Detection “Still Images” - Up to 12 Faces
• Face Chaser “Video” - Up to 12 Faces
• High Quality Audio Recording (AAC)
• Wind Roar & Red Eye Reduction
• Web Cam Function
• PictBridge Compatible
• USB 2.0 and S-Video Output
• Built-in, Pop-up Flash
• SDHC Flash Memory Compatible, 40 MB Internal Memory (up to 1 hour video recording per GB)

220 MPG Super Hybrid Sports Car

Over the years I've seen plenty of ultra cool rides that manage to combine green living with high performance by going electric. The problem is that America's love of the open road doesn't jibe well with the 200-250 mile range of most electric cars, so hybrids are a good way to stay green without putting you on the short leash.

This upcoming model from Hybrid Technologies is slated to be available within a couple of years with a choice of two different drivetrains. An all electric version with a 150-170 mile range, and a gasoline-electric hybrid that aims to capture the Automotive X Prize by managing at least 220 mpg.

This sounds really cool if they manage to pull it off.

Source
Popular Mechanics

Samsung F480 Touch Screen Phone Announced

Samsung F480 - Samsung has announced their latest touch screen mobile phone the F480. Samsung announced that it is HSDPA phone that comes with 5.0-megapixel camera with face detection technology and a image stabilizer and an intoxicating menu of widgets display functions such as the clock, radio player, music player and more than enough to tantalize the most hardcore gadget aficionado.

Some of the most enhanced personal elements include photos and birthday reminders. It also has a drag and drop feature that most should be accustomed to. You will have unhindered access to all your favorite applications with a touch. The Samsung F480 will be at retail locations in June.

Samsung Flash 256GB Solid State Drive

While we’re hot after this 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) by Samsung, the hotness factor of this drive is the blistering speed. This 4-inch-long drive zipping through read times of 200MB per second, thats a lot faster than most spinning drives. Samsung says this 2.5-inch drive will be in retail locations by the end of this year. No pricing has been released.

Device had a lot to say on this subject as quoted here. While SSDs have their profound advantages, that price problem puts a damper on our enthusiasm. To give you an idea of the out-of-reach cost of this upcoming drive, the first laptop packing an SSD drive with half that capacity, the 128GB Toshiba Dynabook SS RX1, costs $4000. By comparison, we saw a conventional 256GB portable drive at Best Buy yesterday for $89. So consider this Samsung SSD a peek into the future, when economies of scale might bring the price of these babies down to earth in a couple of years.