Monday 28 March 2011

New Apple Peel Turns Latest iPod Touch Into Mobile Phone

Voice, EDGE, GPRS, but no 3G data.

Tata & MIT System To Use Sunlight To Split Water Into Hydrogen & Oxygen (video)

A criticism often leveled at solar energy is that it is not "base load".  i.e. because it only generates electricity in daylight, without storage, it's not available 24/7.  Storage is generally expensive &/or inefficient.  Numerous schemes have been suggested, but have never reached production apart from for small applications.  e.g. lead acid batteries for storage of solar for small communities.

In theory, solar electricity could be used to split water into hydrogen & oxygen.  At night, the hydrogen & oxygen could be used directly (e.g. for heating or cooking) or to generate electricity.

In the item below, the system being developed generates hydrogen & oxygen directly from water with greater efficiency than photo voltaic systems.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Offers Honeycomb & A Convertible Form Factor

Ovum: Android to dominate smartphone growth, Windows Phone will Beat BlackBerry

Apple iOS 4.3.1 Now Available For Download – But Not For CDMA

Shoot For The Stars To Power The Towers

Buildings with a high energy efficiency rating are attracting higher prices & rents:

Ocean Waves Are Getting Bigger

Earth Hour – Twitter Takes Earth Hour Viral

For better engine efficiency, a different kind of throttle

Limiting the amount of air is the only practical way to throttle an internal combustion engine (ICE).  Unfortunately, the throttle in an ICE has long been recognised as a source of ineffciency, due to pumping losses.  A more efficient, though expensive, alternative is to control air intake using the valves.  Efficiency gains are in the range of 10%.

 
/ valve FIAT MultiAir microprocessors pumping loss /

Egyptian Cobra Escapes Enclosure at Bronx Zoo

Social Media Sites Face Ethical Quandary Over Activists' Use

Privacy Blocker App Confuses Malicious Android Apps With Garbage Code

Senate Worked On Friday: Passed Key NBN Bills

Australia To Get Stick Figure Airport Body Scanners This Year

Australian Government Agencies Don’t Use Secure Passwords

Urban Coup

Not sure if this is "tech", but interesting, none the less: