Photo by M. Janiki via Flickr Creative Commons Macy’s stores around the country are about to get a lighting makeover that will curb the company’s energy consumption by a huge amount. Retrofitting over 117,000 43-watt halogen-based bulbs used for accent lighting in 86 department stores with 17-watt LED bulbs from Philips — custom designed for the stores, of course — will help Macy’s trim their electricity use by a whopping 73%. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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When Marvell was still teasing its Armada processor company co-founder Sehat Sutardja said it would be showing up in ” a new gaming platform ” — but he kinda left us hanging after that. Four months later it’s looking like we might have found it. Reader David Fisher was kind enough to tear his OnLive Microconsole down to its requisite bits, spreading them upon his kitchen countertop and exposing the Marvell Armada lurking within. Other specs include 512MB of RAM, an unknown quantity of Samsung ROM, and networking chips also from Marvell. There you have it: another mystery of the world solved thanks to your friend the screwdriver. Gallery: OnLive MicroConsole teardown [Thanks, David ] OnLive MicroConsole torn down, Marvell Armada found lurking within originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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In Toronto , the new Mayor thinks roads belong to trucks and cars , and thinks bike lanes slow them down. He calls bike lanes and streetcars a “war on the car.” In fact, there is some evidence of exactly the opposite; in many cases, a person on a bike might otherwise be taking up road space in a car. In New York , the investment in bike lanes has resulted in a 13% increase in usage last year, and an 88% increase in the last three years. According to
Continue reading …Why Resilience Beats Sustainability – Rob Hopkins on Transition in the City (Video)
December 14, 2010 No Comment
Image credit: ResilientPLANET Yesterday I posted about the new film from the creators of the End of Suburbia . This time around, the focus is on cities—and how cities can adapt to future shocks from peak oil, climate change, food shortages and heaven knows what else might be thrown at us. No word yet on when the film itself will be released, but select material is beginning to appear on YouTube, including an interview with Rob Hopkins, creator of… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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We don’t have any hard details yet, but Computerworld reports that Nokia’s planning a busy 2011, with four to five updates to the Symbian UI on tap, as well as dual-core phones. The information comes courtesy of Nokia senior manager Gunther Kottzieper, who gave a presentation at the 2010 Internation Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing earlier today — a slide labeled “Nokia Symbian 2011 focus areas” indicated that a Q1 Symbian update will include over 50 features, including a more intuitive browser, while second- and third-quarter updates will add “a new look and feel for the user interface, a more flexible home screen, an updatable HTML5 browser and an easier software update experience.” A hardware-related slide tipped upcoming 1GHz phones with more graphics memory in the second or third quarter, as well as dual-core phones and something called a “true zoom camera” in late 2011 or early 2012. (We’re guessing that means an optical zoom, which would be just wild on a mobile phone.) Ignore this morning’s E7 delay and all of that sounds like evidence of renewed focus at Nokia under new management — and it also sounds like Nokia taking over Symbian development might have lit some serious fires. We’re dying to look at these slides ourselves — we’ll keep digging and let you know. Nokia to revamp Symbian UI, ship dual-core phones in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Image credit: Permaculture Media The BBC seems to have gotten on a permaculture kick lately. Not long ago the broadcaster aired a beautiful and big thinking documentary about peak oil, agriculture, and one farmers’ attempts to redesign her farm along permaculture principles . Now I’ve just come across a great video in which the BBC’s very own gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh explores a stunning forest garden created by two of the pioneers of permaculture in Britain. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image credit: Permaculture Media The BBC seems to have gotten on a permaculture kick lately. Not long ago the broadcaster aired a beautiful and big thinking documentary about peak oil, agriculture, and one farmers’ attempts to redesign her farm along permaculture principles . Now I’ve just come across a great video in which the BBC’s very own gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh explores a stunning forest garden created by two of the pioneers of permaculture in Britain. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The only limit to the applications Kinect can be put to is imagination. The more of it you have, the more things you can use the peerless Xbox 360 peripheral to achieve. To wit, some eager chaps have put together the Keyboard Anywhere hack, which employs a little Python and the libfreenect library to offer up a piano keyboard on any flat surface of almost any size. You can practice your Mozart concertos on a desk, or, as they so ably demonstrate, imagine yourself as a young Tom Hanks skipping along on the FAO Schwarz floor piano in the movie Big . It’s all up to you. Continue reading Kinect hack lets you reenact Big piano scene (video) Kinect hack lets you reenact Big piano scene (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Freebox v6 Revolution set-top box brings calling, TV and gaming together
December 14, 2010 No Comment
Pay-TV operators have been tossing out ” quadruple play ” bundles for the better part of three years now, but we dare say that none of ‘em have come close to nailing it like this. France’s own Free, a well-known ISP in the nation, has just introduced the Freebox v6 Revolution, a newfangled set-top box designed by Philippe Starck and engineered to handle just about all of your home entertainment needs. It’s stuffed with 250GB of hard drive space, an internal 802.11n WiFi module, Blu-ray drive, inbuilt web browser and Intel’s Atom CE4100 media processor. It also ships with a motion-sensing remote, and in short, it’s designed to provide live / streaming television options, internet (fiber or DSL is supported), gaming (via a streaming service similar to OnLive ) and at-home calling to boot. Free’s also planning to dabble in mobile telephony starting in 2012, hence the plans for a quadruple play offering in the not-too-distant future. We’re told that a joystick (presumably for getting your game on) is thrown in, as are a pair of powerline adapters in order to easily network it through your abode’s power network. The Revolution is up for pre-order now, and depending on how long you’ve had your current Free STB, it could cost as little as €59.99 or as much as €119.99. The “basic” Freebox service will run €29.99, and once Free goes mobile in 2012, you can add a mobile line for another €29.99. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Freebox v6 Revolution set-top box brings calling, TV and gaming together originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Image: Nike A couple of weeks ago Nike unveiled a for-general-consumption version of their Environmental Apparel Design Tool. It is a replica of the calculator they use in-house when putting together their Considered Design collection, and is said to leverage “Nike’s collected data from more than a decade of evaluation of materials, and the examination of waste footprints in hundreds of apparel products across all sport categories.” “This tool is about making it simple for designers to make the most sustainable choices right at the start of the product creation process.” said Hannah Jones, Vice President of Nike Sustainable Bu… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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