You know what you’ll be doing in 2011? Everything that you’ve ever wanted, that’s what, ’cause the world as we know will unquestionably end in 2012. Amazingly enough, one of those bucket list items that you’ll be able to achieve is to change the channel on your tele without ever slipping a battery into your remote. A prototype clicker was recently shown over in Japan utilizing technologies from NEC and Soundpower; essentially, the remote turns the small vibrations from button presses into power, which it then uses to beam out signals to the nearby set. If all goes well, the two hope to have battery-less remotes shipping with televisions in just two years — a proposition that surely exasperate the likes of Duracell and Energizer (and enraptures us to no end).
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals
Battery-less remote gets power from button presses, aims for production in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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November 18 2009 by
BBC News | Technology | UK Edition in
Contributors |
Energy-hungry television sets will soon be banned across California, in a landmark move by state legislators to reduce energy consumption.
digg_url =’http://digg.com/tech_news/AT_T_loses_first_round_of_Map_For_That_lawsuit’; Looks like AT&T’s not getting its holiday wish after all — a federal judge just ruled against Ma Bell’s request to have Verizon’s Map For That ads pulled off the air. That doesn’t mean that this whole thing is over, though: the judge called the ads “sneaky” and said that it was possible people might misunderstand them because “most people who are watching TV are semi-catatonic.” Whether or not that’s enough to support a legal conclusion that the ads are misleading is a fight for another day — specifically December 16th, when AT&T will have a second chance to argue its case. Still, this is a big win for Verizon — everyone ready to be inundated with these ads for the next month?
Filed under: Cellphones
AT&T loses request for injunction against Verizon’s Map for That ads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We don’t have details on exactly what has changed yet, but that minor Android 1.5-based update Sprint had announced it’d be pushing out to the Hero has now launched. The best-case scenario would have the SMS issue — which causes the phone to stay awake when it shouldn’t — get resolved, but until Sprint hands out a proper changelog, it’ll be a matter of testing and guessing. Just a thought: if they’ve managed to squeeze a proximity sensor into the update, that brings ‘em up to the speed with the Droid Eris. Hey, it could happen.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sprint pulls piping hot Hero update out of the oven originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Remember the
Land Warrior program, which only took 15 years and half a billion dollars outfit our troops with high-tech battlefield uniforms? With DisOPS (“distributed operations”)
Lockheed Martin is taking a different tack. Deployed to Special Forces in Afghanistan, the system is comprised of the Connect software which runs on ruggedized laptop computers, allowing squad leaders to plan missions on a map, and View PDAs that receive info over tactical radio, cellphone, or even WiFi networks. The PDAs provide “friendly force tracking of other team and squad leaders, land navigation tools, photo capture and transmission, and the ability to annotate and share maps in real time with other leaders.” In addition to all that, the handhelds include a sniper detection system for locating the origin of enemy fire and distributing it to other units in the area. Reportedly the system is working quite well — which means that, barring any further obstacles, DisOPS might see widespread use before 2030.
Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops
Army, Lockheed Martin team up for DisOPS ‘battlefield PDAs’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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