Recent Comments:
Clean Green Cars suggests partnership for a sensible Congestion Charge {Autoblog Green}
May 6th 2008 5:47PM Heh, nice typo. That still seems relevant.
"In this time of fux..."
Auto-brightness to be the first step in LCD TV green status {Engadget HD}
May 6th 2008 12:58PM Great idea, but I have yet to see any of these systems work right. My Mitsubishi rear projection CRT used a function called "IRIS" to do this. On paper it seemed great, but in reality you get a TV that is constantly jacking its own brightness up an down. I hope this is a lot better.
Xbox 360 HD DVD drives going for €9.99 in Ireland {Engadget}
May 6th 2008 12:43PM Hooray for DaveC being right! I see this get mixed up a lot, and I thought that the HD-DVD drive was the only way to upconvert as well for a while. However, there are a few things to know:
1. You need the VGA cable if you don't have HDMI support before the Xbox 360 will go beyond 480p. The cable can be expensive, but there are other vendors out there.
2. The image is crap, and tends to have a washed-out look and, at least in my case, a grid of sorts came across my screen. I guess it's OK on some TVs, but it wasn't on mine nor others I've read about.
3. The upscaler on your tv (I have a Samsung 4671) is probably much, much better than what the Xbox 360 will spit out to it. I returned the cable after a couple games and a few DVDs.
The Professor: GM's new old engine tech, moon mirrors, the dangers of space war debris {Engadget}
May 5th 2008 4:56PM Ugh. E85 (ethanol) is fine if used with greater compression. The reason why it's less efficient in typical gasoline engines is because those engines aren't really designed for that fuel (or rather, that octane level even if they can flow the stuff). If an engine were made smaller, and used higher compression then you could get back the fuel efficiency that's lost in the typical engine while still hitting the same HP/torque specs (and the engine will probably be lighter because of the smaller size, and stronger due to beefed-up internals). This is already being done by Saab to some extent, with one of their cars that will increase the boost when running E85 and deliver an increase of 40-50hp. However, if you create a motor specifically designed to run on E85 (like Saleen's S5S concept) then you will require that high octane and may not be able to run high octane gasoline in its place; or it will just be stupid expensive to.
Oh, and there's a set of buses made by Daimler that ticked over their 2 millionth kilometer:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/05/05/daimler-fuel-cell-buses-turn-over-2-millionth-kilometer/
So, hydrogen is obviously doable, just not cheap (yet).
HTC Touch Diamond shots and specs: this week's big announcement? {Engadget Mobile}
May 5th 2008 4:42PM Can the Nokia Prism say VGA?
German companies developing scented text messages {Engadget}
May 5th 2008 4:17PM I text in your general direction...
Sony creates micro-sized fuel cell system {Engadget}
May 5th 2008 4:12PM Nice, the Hinden-battery to be accompanied by the Hinden-charger.
"Soon to be exploding in Dell laptops at a conference near you!"
Still a great idea, I just want to see some better Hydrogen generating processes, especially considering the ones I've read about take a great deal of water, and that's not so great in desert regions. Maybe a mobile plant that can relocate to flooding regions? Nice.
HTC Touch Cruise becoming "Touch Find" for Movistar? {Engadget Mobile}
May 1st 2008 2:13PM I voted for "Touch/Grope" and "Touch/Fondle", but they didn't go for it.
Biomagic "pixie dust" regrows man's lopped-off finger {Engadget}
May 1st 2008 1:15PM I think it's time to make sweet, sweet man-love to a vacuum. That should bump you up the list.
10 of the worst scams, lies, and ripoffs surrounding HDTVs {Engadget HD}
Apr 28th 2008 5:51PM You know, I do agree with this on some things with my Samsung 4671. However, when watching something like "Cars" and episodes of "Law and Order," the effect is amazing and addictive. When gaming, the smoothness and flow become hypnotic.
I can see how many would be bothered by it (I have read of at least one person that returned his set because he didn't like the effect) but I really like it. In fact, that's what sold me on this model of TV; there was a looping HD demo, and it had an excerpt from the Blu-ray release of "Cars." The segment looked like it was filmed with an HD camera, rather than rendered. It also seems to extend the "3D" nature of CG material. Oh, and cartoons like Yin Yang Yo! look awesome in HD with the 120Hz engine on high. :-)
