Its Electronica

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 6:31PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Solar’s had a pretty rough time breaking the ~40% efficiency level over the years, but Idaho National Laboratory researchers have apparently developed a nano-antenna array capable of collecting power not from photonic energy as is done today, but from infrared energy that could be harvested in any weather (or even at night). The cell production process is even supposed to be ridiculously cheap compared to making standard silicon photovoltaic cells, but, as always, there’s a rub. The grid collects its oscillating IR energy at ten thousand billion times per second, which is proving to be a challenge to the nerds behind the tech, who are working on a way to convert that to the 50-60Hz power that the world uses. So yeah, it might be a few more years before this one pans out (if it does pan out).

[Via EcoGeek]

Perfect Bodies Duvet

You can have this for ?32.95

With the AppleTV “take 2” still not available, Vudu seems to be willing to put up a strong fight to remain in the market. It was just last week that Vudu lowered their price by 25% and have now added more HD content.

A new update, that will bring the software to version 1.2 will add about 80 more movies and also adds an on-screen broadband instant-HD indicator. The movies are priced starting at $4 each, which is comparable to the AppleTV pricing. The indicator will help the instant start movies by giving users an alert as to whether or not their current broadband speed will be able to handle the movie without any delays in watching. It also has a recommendation option that will help you choose the best movies based on your broadband speed. Like other competing services, the eventual winner will come down to who has the better user experience and more available content.

Read [Wired]

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Posted Feb 2nd 2008 1:14PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Home Entertainment

Remember that Skype plugin being written to run natively on the Apple TV? It’s out today, and get it while the gettin’s good because we aren’t expecting any of these hacks to continue working after the take 2 update gets pushed out in the near future. Let us know how it is, would you?