Technology posts

Remember when your parents always reminded you to turn off the lights when you were not using them? Seems logical enough, right? It helps the world and saves on the energy bill. But Ford must slept through that childhood, because the company has only recently become aware that they could save over a million dollars simply by shutting down their computers at night. Insane, right? Yes, our beloved American automaker is reporting that it plans to shut down or utilize power management functionality already built into computers and laptops to save the company an astounding $1.2 million per year. Could…

Greenpeace is calling out many of our favorite technology companies as polluters. Are they right? Companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others are relying heavily on dirty coal energy to power their data centers. Greenpeace believes that this is wrong, and the group is calling for these companies to utilize 100% renewable energy sources instead. Greenpeace feels strongly about this too: “The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power.” Many technology companies tout their efforts as green,…

We’ve all been stuck in a situation using our laptops in a Wi-Fi hotspot only to look at our battery life and see 5% left. In a panic, we quickly scan the area for an electrical outlet only to realize you are outdoors or forgot your plug at home. RCA has introduced this amazing technology that will power your portable device using USB. The only thing you need, is to be able to connect to Wi-Fi and it will turn that signal into power for your device. Imagine charging your laptop, cellphone or MP3 player on the go. Just leave a charged RCA AirPower in your pocket and never have to worry again. Pricing has yet to…

Doctors all over the world will soon be treating less wrist injuries. Samsung has released its ultra compact SMX-C20UN camcorder that features at 25-degree active angle lens. The idea behind this feature is to allow owners to have a more comfortable hand position while recording. This means that you will be able to hold your video camera longer on your family vacations, which also means longer boring videos to show at a family get together. For those of you who are clueless with computer video editing, the Samsung SMX-C20UN features a built in video editing device to get rid of all those times Mom…

With the trend quickly leaning towards a Hollywood in 3D, Apple has jumped on board with the technology and released its concept of the MacBook 3D. Equipped with Apples version of 3D glasses, you can now enjoy the “Avatar experience” from the comfort of your own computer desk. The majority of the features will remain the same but added are stereoscopic iSight cameras, a touch screen trackpad and a hingeless spine design. If it wasn’t already nerdy enough to open your MacBook inside of Starbucks and be glued to your laptop screen, we will now be able to view these same nerds (myself included) while…

Verizon and friends want to create their own application stores to compete with the likes of the Apple App Store and Google Apps Marketplace. That’s good, right? After all, isn’t competition a good thing? In most cases, that would be true, but when a competitor holds the keys to all the doors and all owns the roads that leads to those doors, it can be very bad news. Verizon has stated at CTIA Wireless 2010 that V Cast Apps — Verizon’s application store — will learn from Apple’s ways and give developers 70 percent of profits and keep 30 percent for themselves. But the company has also stated that…

Polaroid? They still exist? Everyone once and a while we rummage through our grandparents closet and stumble upon this old metal box that when the shutter is pressed, prints out a photo. We shake the photo, at rapid speeds hoping that it will dry quickly and we can look at the instant quality of a polaroid picture. Gone are those days and we now have digital cameras……. umm.. and then…. Impossible Project releases a new, polaroid camera with a new age design. Really? and its got a digital feature? The new Polaroid 600 One is designed by Paul Giambarba, who is also responsible for designing the…

Zinio, a company focused in digital publishing tech, has just released Zinio Reader 4, an Adobe AIR application that enables access to thousands of magazines — interactive magazines too, and National Geographic celebrates with a freebie. Zinio Reader 4 allows users to instantly access over 2,000 magazines by utilizing Adobe’s AIR framework. It is essentially a cloud-based digital library that will be synced to your devices. Users who install this application can pay once for a digital copy of a magazine, and it will instantly be available to the user for reading in its entirety on any platform…

As a photographer, I understand how difficult it is sometimes to make people not only smile, but have a naturally looking smile. Stefan Stubble and Adnreas Schmelas of the University of the Arts in Berlin, have came up with a camera that no matter what, will take your photo with an artificial smile. The camera uses an array of smiling photos that were taken before to basically replace photoshop and instantly give you that artificial but award winning smile. Not sure if I would actually pick up this product because as a photographer sometimes you want to convey emotion in your photo with somebody…

So I decide to cook something in my microwave that takes 4:52 to cook and look, Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday comes up on the screen. Life is good. The CastOver developed by researchers at Keio University in Japan features a 10.4 inch screen instead of a window on your microwave. It runs Adobe Air and will grab videos from your internet and with the built in intelligence, pulls videos close to or exactly the length of the time you put on the microwave. Slowly our kitchen appliances are turning into quite the smart technology. I can see the day where we put food in our microwave in the morning, and with our…