Search Results for: led

Solar Cells Printed on Paper

Solar panels can be great in that they can provide power anywhere there is light from the sun. Right now though the panels are quite expensive to produce and require a bit of equipment to store energy captured for use at a later date.

A company are now looking at printing solar cells on to paper. By using carbon-based dyes the cells are created with an efficiency of about 1.5 to 2 percent…

The materials MIT researchers used are carbon-based dyes and the cells are about 1.5 percent to 2 percent efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. But any material could be used if it can be deposited at room temperature, Bulovic said. ‘Absolutely, the trick was coming up with ways to use paper, he said.

[Read more…]

Google Chrome Speed Test – Browser battles a Potato

Google [GOOG] tend to be quite creative when it comes to launching new versions of products or even new products. Rather than using the traditional javascript speed tests and other various methods that we normally see to measure the speed of a browser, Google went ahead and set up a number of tests that put up a potato vs Chrome to see which of the two was the quickest.

The hardware used for the test included a MacBook Pro with Windows installed, a 24 inch ASUS monitor, a 15 MBps internet connection and a Phantom v640 high speed camera that can capture up to 2700 frames per second at a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

“Why does allrecipes.com in the potato gun sequence appear at once, and not the text first and images second? And why does it appear to render from bottom of the screen to the top?”

Chrome sends the rendered page to the video card buffer all at once, which is why allrecipes.com appears at once, and not with the text first and images second. Chrome actually paints the page from top to bottom, but to eliminate a shadow from the driver board, we had to flip the monitor upside down and set the system preferences in Windows to rotate everything 180 degrees, resulting in the page appearing to render from bottom to top.

[Read more…]

Apple iPhone 4G to get HD Video Recording

With the launch of the latest iPhone OS 4.0 SDK Beta 3 a few days ago, a few more details of the new Apple [AAPL] device that could be called the iPhone 4G or iPhone HD are emerging. From what we are hearing now, it seems that the next-gen iPhone is set to get a 720p HD video recording option.

The information comes from some preset values found within the SDK which read as follows…

AVCaptureSessionPreset640x480
AVCaptureSessionPreset1280x720

The second option there is clearly HD. With the iPhone 4G believed to be having a rear facing 5 megapixel camera, it certainly isn’t out of the question that it could handle HD recording. [Read more…]

MSI CX705MX 17.3 Inch Laptop Announced

MSI has added a new notebook computer to their classic series. This model is the MSI CX705MX that comes with a 17.3 inch screen that is powered by ATi Radeon HD 545V graphics. The screen is backlit by LED and has an aspect ratio of 16:9.

The notebook weighs less than 3Kg which isn’t the lightest notebook around, but for a device with a 17.3 inch screen it isn’t bad at all.

The laptop has a cross hatch design with a colour film print coating to protect it from scratches and general wear and tear. The keyboard on the CX705MX is a Chiclet style. [Read more…]

HTC DROID Incredible Teardown by TechRestore

TechRestore are getting a good name in the world of teardowns due to their different approach at presenting the details.

Rather than taking pictures along the way and posting each picture, TechRestore create short stop-motion animations around 3 minutes in length showing a device being taken apart and being quickly put back together. Previous gadgets towndown this way include the Apple iPad and PSP Go.

This time, TechRestore have taken apart a HTC DROID Incredible that launched just a few days ago. There isn’t really anything special to be found inside other than the usual camera, chips, CPU’s and a screen, but for some reason watching it in stop-motion makes it a little more entertaining. [Read more…]

iPhone SDK 4.0 Beta 3 Ready for Download

Apple [AAPL] has released the latest beta SDK today. The latest is now iPhone SDK 4 beta 3 that is ready for developers to download on the Apple site.

We haven’t taken a look yet as to what is included, but do recommend that if you plan on testing that you be prepared for the worst and anything you get will be better. What we have heard is that the camera now works on the iPhone with this beta installed, and it runs more stable than previous versions.

We do not know the official iPhone OS 4.0 release date just yet although some rumours are pointing to early June where it is also expected that the Apple iPhone 4G will be launched. [Read more…]

ASUS Eee 1005PR Arriving Soon

ASUS announced that the ASUS Eee PC 1005PR netbook is now available to buy from authorised resellers.

The ASUS 1005PR is a 10.1 inch netbook that has a battery life of 11 hours. It runs an Intel Atom N450 processor running at 1.66GHz. The 10.1 inch screen has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and is backlit by LED. Intel UMA graphics along with a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator provide the power to run the graphics.

Memory wise it comes standard with 1GB of DDR2 memory and that can be increased to 2GB if required. For storage it has a 250GB hard drive that spins at 5400RPM and ASUS also provide up to 500GB of online storage for you to use if needed. [Read more…]

New version of webOS Coming May/June

Developers have been notified by Palm that a new webOS update is scheduled for launch either late may or early June. The message comes to remind developers that they need to test their apps on the new version and make any adjustments to make them compatible.

To do this, Palm are releasing a new SDK release candidate that will give developers some time to make applications compatible.

Updates in the new webOS show that PDK apps will be available in the new release. However, the update is not a major release, so not too much else will change other than a few tweaks and bug fixes here and there. [Read more…]

Apple iPad 3G Sold out in 49 of 50 Stores

On Friday the Apple iPad 3G went on sale in the US. With in the three day launch weekend it appears that most of the stock has been sold out.

This information comes from Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, a company that analyse Apple [AAPL] and give estimates on sales. The 49 out of 50 stores out of stock came from a selection of stores that were called with 49 of them saying they were out of stock by Sunday afternoon.

Estimations show that over 300,000 iPad 3G models were sold this weekend which includes pre-ordered units and those that sold in store. [Read more…]

YouTube Video Player Updated

Over the past couple of weeks, Google [GOOG] has slowly rolled out a new video player on YouTube. The new video player has a different look and also brings a few handy features to give more in depth analysis of the video being watched.

The layout is different in that the red progress bar is now slightly transparent and runs just under the video. Below that is a section where the play button, volume control and other buttons can be found.

New features also include the ability to right click on the video which pops up a menu where you can select various options such as a broadband speed test, video details, debug information and more. [Read more…]

Apple iPad 3G Jailbreak

After being launched just a few hours, the Apple iPad 3G has been jailbroke. The iPad 3G jailbreak comes from MuscleNerd of the iPhone Dev Team who managed to use spirit that jailbroke the iPad WiFi almost a month ago.

The image above shows the iPad 3G with the Cydia app which indicates the jailbreak was successful. Unfortunately the spirit jailbreak is not ready, but we expect that it isn’t to far away from being launched, so get preparing now.

One thing that is recommended is grabbing the SHSH Blobs for which ever device you have so that you have a backup of the signature just in case you need to restore the firmware. [Read more…]

Cyanogen brings Android 2.1 to T-Mobile G1 and others

An early build of Android 2.1 has now been made available for the T-Mobile G1, aka HTC Dream and also the HTC Magic. The build isn’t final, but most of the features are functioning on these devices.

You are now able to download the ROM to install on your phone, but Cyanogen does recommend caution as DangerSPL is required on the G1/Dream or you wont be able to install the new ROM. For those with the HTC Magic, the process does not require the DangerSPL to be installed.

A few things to note for those wanting to install DangerSPL is that you need to follow instructions precisely just so you don’t end up turning your phone in to a brick. [Read more…]