Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Say what you will about Renewable Energy Certificates, Green Tags, carbon offsets and the like, but Intel sure does own a lot of them. Intel just became the largest purchaser of Renewable Energy Certificates in the US, with a commitment to snapping up 1.3 billion kilowatt hours a year of the stuff. RECs act as a sort of green “currency,” allowing a company invest in renewable energy sources, instead of the pollution-ridden plant up the river fueled by the blood of innocents. Not a bad PR move, but the investment should make renewable energy sources more affordable down the line, so it’s hard to fault them there.

[Thanks, Issac]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Athough the market as a whole has taken a beating lately, the rollercoaster ride has been particularly harsh on Apple stockholders, who’ve seen their shares fall from a high of $202 earlier this year to just over $130 today. Of course, among the hardest hit was Steve himself, who has over 5M shares of the company — which is why he may have sent out an email today advising employees to “hang in there.” Calling the past week “a remarkable last few days,” Jobs pointed to Apple’s product pipeline, people, strategy and — perhaps most importantly — $18B of straight cash in the bank as reasons to have faith, and said that factors “larger than ourselves” were taking their toll on the stock price. That may be so, but it’s still pretty unlike Jobs to comment on things like this — we suppose taking a $377M hit on paper would probably cause us to say a few things as well.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’re not huge fans of overzealous security camera deployment, but if you’re going to spend taxpayer money deploying nannycams, at least make sure they’re capturing more than one frame every two seconds — the rate at which San Francisco’s $900,000 system is running. A study of the city’s 68 cameras found that the system has only led to one arrest in two and a half years of operation, and the main reason for the failure is uselessly slow video — which is grainy, to boot. Compare that to Chicago’s much-hated (but effective) system, which runs at 30fps, and it’s obvious why the president of San Francisco’s Police Commission said the city was “throwing money away.” There’s no word on how or when the issue might be resolved, but the city is due to review the system and issue a determination soon. Check the read link for a video of the system in (in)action.

[Thanks, Paul B.]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Regular graffiti not doing it for you? Looking for something a little more up-to-date than spraycans and brick walls? Perhaps you should direct your attention to the artist known as DAIM and his recent project creating real-time graffiti in 3D. By utilizing a multi-camera scheme, DAIM is able to smear virtual paint across an empty gallery space using special handheld markers which are tracked by proprietary (we assume) software, calling the project “Tagged in Motion.” A picture says a thousand words, and in this case, a video says about a million — so hit the clip after the break and see the work in action.

Update: The software in use is not proprietary, rather it’s the ARToolKit (or Augmented Reality Toolkit), which is an open source project. Thanks for the info Kenijo!

[Via Fresh Creation]

Continue reading Graffiti artist creates real-time, 3D paintings

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve already seen nanoparticles put to use to help diagnose cancer (in mice), and it now looks like researchers have found another, potentially bigger use for ‘em — namely, to blast those cancer cells away altogether. That’s apparently possible by mixing two so-called nanothermite composites that act as a fuel and an oxidizer, which in turn generate combustion waves that can hit velocities ranging from 1,500 to 2,300 meters per second (or somewhere in the neighborhood of Mach 3). Being on the nano-scale, however, the researchers say the explosives can be used safely within the human body and, indeed, they say they have 99% success rate in tests on animal tissue. If all goes as planned (a relatively big “if”), the researchers say the technology could be ready for use in two to five years.

[Via Futurismic]

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Filed under: iPod Family, Rumors, Security, iPhone

Last night, an anonymous tipster pointed us to this Austin Heap webpage that purportedly reveals the iPhone’s secret Application SDK key. Another tipster, also anonymous, then tipped me to iPhone “Elite” developer Zibri’s blog, that shows the same key. So what does this mean? Since all iPhone applications must be properly signed for iTunes to process them and for the iPhone to load them, this key suggests that hackers are closer to creating compliant IPA application bundles for home-brew iTunes distribution. With the proper key, developers can create and distribute applications that load through iTunes without Apple’s blessing.

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Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos, iPhone

I can’t tell you the number of readers who have written in asking for a stand-alone iPhone Contacts Application. It’s not something that I particularly was trying to solve for myself (I don’t mind tapping Phone then Contacts) but this morning, I stumbled on a simple way to accomplish this on your 1.1.3 iPhone.

This is, I’m afraid, right now a command-line only solution although it’s relatively easy to automate. Someone from modmyifone should be along any second to offer an Installer-based solution. Here are the steps:

Update: I’m hearing from readers that “Customize” an iPhone app has done this for previous iPhone releases. Hopefully they’ll have a 1.1.3 solution out soon. In the meantime, you can follow my steps by hand if you like. It’s not difficult.

Continue reading TUAW Responds: Adding a Stand-Alone Contacts Application to your iPhone

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Sure, we’ve got fairly sophisticated methods of curbing asthma attacks, but a new pocketable device could hold the key to unlocking more about the relationship between “asthma symptoms and the air a sufferer breathes.” Reportedly, this device could allow researchers to look back after an attack has occurred and see exactly what was happening environmentally beforehand. Gurus at the Georgia Tech Research Institute have already been able to help one individual out, as they discovered a “pollutant pathway” from the volunteer’s basement into the living room that was allowing vehicle exhaust and gasoline fumes to infiltrate the house. From here, the creators are hoping to downsize the device even further and make it more sensitive, but we’ve no idea if the current iteration will ever be used commercially.

[Via NewScientist]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Are you a CEO hoping to “step it up,” “knock it out of the park,” and generally “take it to the bridge” — old-school style — but you can’t seem to work the magic? Well, BusinessWeek has got just the thing for you: a ten-point plan on how to deliver a presentation like our main man, Steve Jobs. Breaking it down from “set a theme” all the way to “rehearse, rehearse, rehearse,” the cats at BW lay out everything you need to know to shatter sales records, hike your stock, and innovate the hell out of a keynote. Of course, they don’t advise you on choice of outfits (we suggest jeans, sneakers, and a turtleneck), products to launch (how does iPhone 2 sound to you?), or how to properly execute a “Boom!” (”Boom!”) — but we’re pretty sure you can suss those details out on your own. If you want the full breakdown of tips and tricks, including how to properly appear excited about your own products, hit the read link ASAP. To help you along, we’ve included a clip of Jobs doing his thing after the break. Boom!

Continue reading Deliver a keynote like Steve Jobs in ten simple steps

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Good news, everyone! According to reports, a US spy satellite which has lost power and propulsion is weeks or even months away from striking Earth. Officials say that the space junk — which can now no longer be controlled and could contain hazardous materials — is due to come smashing into some location on our planet’s surface, but they can’t really say where. “Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the Nation Security Council. Government agencies are still considering options such as shooting down the stray equipment, though they say they’d be just as happy to let the potentially radioactive / alien-filled hunk of metal crash into a small village in a developing country.

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