Devices Site

BMW is ready to claim that they are the first car manufacturer to offer fully, unrestricted, built-in access to the Internet. BMW is calling this new technology “ConnectedDrive”, which could connect you to the EDGE Internet. EDGE is used by many, and most notably Apple’s iphone. However, EDGE, as you may or may not know, is not necessarily the fastest means of accessing the Internet, as 3G would be a more appropriate way of connecting to the Internet.

The UI within the car is going to be called the iDrive controller. Since this Internet would be unrestricted, you would be able to fully access any websites, check e-mail, and even be able to complete online bank transactions. A cool safety feature that BMW installed is that this Internet can only work when the car is parked. Another cool thing is that if the car comes with back seat DVD screens, then they can use the Internet as well, even if the car is in motion.

Unfortunately, the BMW cars installed with this technology is only available in Europe at this time. No word on costs of these cars or when we can expect this to come to the States.

Via [Autoblog]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Abengoa Solar has signed a contract with Arizona Public Service Co. (APS), one of Arizona’s leading energy utilities, to build, own and operate what would be the largest solar power plant in the world if operating today.

The plant, scheduled to go into operation by 2011, is located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, Arizona. It will sell the electricity produced to APS over the next 30 years for a total revenue of around $4 billion, bringing over $1 billion in economic benefits to the state of Arizona.

The solar plant has been named Solana, meaning “a sunny place” in Spanish. The Solana Generating Station will have a total capacity of 280 megawatts, enough to power 70,000 homes while avoiding over 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases that would otherwise contribute to global warming and climate change. The plant will employ a proprietary Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) trough technology developed by Abengoa Solar, and will cover a surface of around 1,900 acres. The construction of the Solana Generating Station will create about 1,500 construction jobs and employ 85 skilled full-time workers once completed.

Abengoa Solar has a team of 40 people in the United States and Spain dedicated to researching, developing and improving solar technologies. In December 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Abengoa Solar for three research and developments projects to improve trough technology.

The construction of this solar plant and others under contract in the U.S. are subject to a long-term extension of the solar investment tax credit by the U.S. Congress.

Need some help rounding out your classic Nintendo collection?

Old NES somewhere in the basement… CHECK. Purchased every Classic Console game on the Nintendo Wii… CHECK. But do you have a cool universal TV remote that looks just like a NES controller? No? ThinkGeek.com does and it’s ready for immediate delivery via winged turtle shell.

This NES style remote controls most TVs allowing critical gaming functions like power on/off, changing the channel and even volume adjustment. Now you can amaze your friends by pretending to play classic NES games while watching old Thundercats re-runs.

These controllers are limited editions from Japan. Once they are gone, they are gone.

The Nintendo Controller Universal Remote works with the following brands of TVs:

• Sony
• Panasonic
• Sharp
• Sylvania
• Sanyo
• Aiwa
• Hitachi
• Philips
• NEC
• JVC
• Toshiba
• Mitsubishi
• Fujitsu

By the way, this remote does not control cable boxes, DVD players or anything else. Strictly TV sets. Also the Nintendo Controller Universal Remote may not work if your TV is super ancient.

You can pick up the Nintendo Controller Universal Remote for $12.99 from ThinkGeek.com.

methodshop

I don’t know of an 8-year-old who wouldn’t be embarrassed whipping this out in front of their ipod-toting friends, but apparently the Peadpod Toys SweetPea3 is a AA-powered 256MB mp3 player designed for children ages 0 to 8.

The violet and blue rubberized players support MP3 and WMA audio formats and are compatible with both Mac and Windows computers. If you can get over the $90 purchase price, the full specs of the safety-tested, lead-free product can be found at the Peapod Toys website.

Via CrunchGear.

Posted Feb 23rd 2008 1:38PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
If you’ll recall, Samsung announced plans last November to expand an 8G LCD plant sans Sony — now, Reuters is reporting that Sony is aiming to start procuring LCD TV panels from Sharp, possibly within the next business year. Apparently, the deal with Sharp would allow it to “secure enough panels to meet fast-growing LCD TV demand without heavy capital investments,” and considering that Sharp is already planning to construct the world’s largest LCD factory by 2010, we’d say this works out quite nicely for it, too. Needless to say, the global demand for all things LCD seems to be going nowhere but up, but here’s to hoping those prices continue to head in the opposite direction for the consumers’ sake.

Toshiba T400BL 4GB mp3 player

Hold out the palm of your hand and accept the freedom to experience your music, your photos, and your video everywhere you go. Toshibas T400 Gigabeat#174 portable media player delivers 4GB of storage space#32#151#32a 1,000 song or 4,000 photo capacity#32#151#32in a sophisticated brushed black metal alloy body. The 2.4 LCD screen gives you an ideal viewing area for both navegating your audio and video collection#32#151#32with the aid of the PlusPadtrade#32#151#32and viewing your favorite photos and video. Sixteen hours of audio and 5 hours of video playback battery life mean that your new T400 will keep up with your demand for the ultimate in audio and video experience.

Technorati Tags: Toshiba

Microsoft is planning to roll out Service Pack 1 for Vista, which has been a highly anticipated update that is expected to fix some speed and compatibility issues, but may also cause some additional trouble. Sadly it seems SP1 may be a problem for a good number of users as it is expected to either break, limit or disable some commonly used programs. Microsoft has released a list of affected programs that could fall into one of three categories.

1. Programs that will not run and are blocked from starting. Which will include Bitdefender AV, Internet Security v.10, Fujitsu Shock Sensor v 2.1.0.0. Jiangmin KV Antivirus v. 10 and 2008, Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 and Zone Alarm Security Suite 7.1.
2. Programs that will run, but will have limited functionality. Which will include The New York Times Reade, Rising Personal Firewall 2007 and Novell ZCM Agent 10.0.x.
3. Programs that will not run at all. Which will include Iron Speed Designer 5.0.1, Xheo Licensing 3.1 and Free Allegiance 2.1.

This program list was released by Microsoft, but does not include all programs that could experience trouble. It’s not hard to notice that a good amount of programs from the list deal with security and are either firewall or anti-virus programs, which for most people are the first items installed when using Windows.

Any Vista user who is looking to update with SP1 may want to double check the complete list and see if they are running any of the affected programs, and if so you may want to visit the programs website to see if they have any updates or fixes available.

Via [Switched] Via [Beta News]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

T-Mobile has wrapped up the acquisition of SunCom Wireless. A deal that was first announced back in September 2007 and received FCC approval on February 8th, it will allow 1.1 million customers from North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to consider T-Mobile as a provider. Additionally this puts T-Mobile in 98 of the top 100 national markets.

Read [T-Mobile]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Apple’s iphone SDK will be delayed for between one and three weeks, according to Business Week.

"Apple had no comment, and as yet there’s no word on any events related to an SDK release next week. However I’m also hearing that the situation is fluid, and a lot of last-minute decisions are close to being made about what precisely will or will not be disclosed next week, if anything. There are, apparently, a lot of moving parts to something this complex."

As delays go, it’s hardly Duke Nukem Forever.

The iPhone SDK Will Be Late [BW]

Posted Feb 23rd 2008 9:52AM by Joshua Topolsky
Tired of the air not doing enough for you? Well, a new project called Green Freedom — headed up by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory — seeks to improve air’s contribution to our planet. The new technology would provide a method of extracting CO2 from the air and then converting the gas into fuel for cars or airplanes — thus sucking out toxins from our atmosphere while creating a renewable energy source. The process uses a form of electrochemical separation to siphon juice out of the typically poisonous gas, yet has a low environmental impact with a small waste-stream output. The plan calls for the use of existing plants, which will stem the need to build new facilities, enabling the environmental footprint to remain relatively small. Clearly, it’s not being put into general practice yet, but it’s a hopeful taste of things to come.

[Via Inhabitat]