Solar Powered Battery Pack Recharger

Every little contribution to improve our environment is now a welcome one given the current state of the planet and the direction it is self-destructively heading towards. Batteries, although small as we all know, generate power and constantly replacing batteries, and throwing flat batteries away isn't a particularly useful way of conserving energy and limiting emissions.

Rechargeable batteries are a slightly better option. Although, this process still requires power from a main source to revitalize the current within the battery and bring them back from the dead. So, the next logical step - a way to maintain charge within a single battery for as long as possible - without the requirement of a mains power source to reincarnate the battery.

The solution comes from the sun, the largest energy source available to us. This battery pack can recharge batteries by drawing in the sun's rays and applying the energy as power. The pack also hosts a USB port which allows all other portable devices to play exclusively from the Solar power.

The one current snag is that only batteries provided by the company which have developed the charger will operate - as they warn any other batteries used could combust. The pack is available for around $54.

Revolving Doors Set to Generate Power!!!

In many buildings for companies and organizations, doors are being used almost constantly as people walk in and out of the premises. Nothing exciting in that admittedly, but say these doors were to be replaced by the new Revolution Door from Fluxxlab. The Revolution Door acts as a turbine which uses the kinetic energy of people to transfer into a more useful energy. The central core of the door is key to the way in which the door functions. It is within this core where the energy transfer takes place, which in theory could receive and create enough power to provide a free form of electricity to the remainder of the building or to small segments of the building. If you think of the vast quantity of buildings in existence, then it makes sense to conserve this free energy and to cut down on expenses for such a trivial concept. It really does open doors for organizations!

Wired wallpaper

Adding a wall light to your living room is a complex affair, since the wiring has to be embedded beneath the surface of the wall and the wall has to be plastered over and repapered or painted. Change your mind about where the light fixture should be and you have a messy and costly problem on your hands.

Now Philips wants to change all that ??? the company has designed wallpaper with conducting strips running through it. Philips says that appliances such as lights and displays endowed with the right kind of conducting pins could be powered by just sticking them into the wall so that the pins make contact with the conducting strips.

You could experiment an infinite variety of lighting arrangements in your sitting room, with no expensive remedial work needed. It's a different matter if you decide you don't like your wallpaper, though.

NVIDIA Introduces APX 2500: The Lowest Power, High-Definition Computer on a Chip —

NVIDIA Corporation introduced NVIDIA APX 2500, an applications processor that enables intuitive 3D user interfaces and engaging high-definition video on connected Windows Mobile phones. The APX 2500 applications processor delivers 10 hours of 720p HD playback--an industry first for video quality and power consumption on a mobile device, as well as stunning HD camcorder and ultra-high-resolution photo imaging capabilities.

Development platform

NVIDIA has worked closely with Microsoft on the development of APX 2500, marking a significant milestone in a long-term relationship that has seen the companies share a passion for making interaction with technology more visual and instinctive across multiple platforms. The combined engineering efforts of the two companies will ensure that next generation versions of the Windows Mobile operating system will harness the capabilities of the APX 2500 applications processor across challenging multimedia use cases.

Landscape interface layout

The NVIDIA APX 2500 applications processor delivers:

• The industry's first HD (720p) playback and capture capability for handheld devices.
• A new ultra-low-power (ULP) GeForce core that is fully OpenGL ES 2.0 and Microsoft Direct3D Mobile compliant and the lowest power 3D hardware solution available for acceleration of intuitive 3D user interfaces.
• NVIDIA nPower technology, enabling over 10 hours of high-definition video playback and up to 100 hours of audio—more than four times the audio playback of the latest touch-screen phones.
• The connectivity and media acceleration technologies required to enable the latest Web 2.0 applications, from effortless web browsing and social networking to GPS and mapping applications.

Specifications:

Processor and Memory Subsystem:

• ARM11 MPCore
• 16/32-bit LP-DDR
• NOR and NAND Flash support

HD AVP (High Definition Audio Video Processor)

• 720p H.264, MPEG-4, and VC-1/WMV9 Decode
• 720p H.264 and MPEG-4 Encode
• Supports multi-standard audio formats including AAC, AMR, WMA, and MP3
• JPEG encode and decode acceleration

ULP (Ultra Low Power) GeForce

• OpenGL ES 2.0
• D3D Mobile
• Programmable pixel shader
• Programmable vertex and lighting
• CSAA support
• Advanced 2D graphics

Imaging

• Up to 12Mpixel camera sensor support
• Integrated ISP
• Advanced imaging features

Display Subsystem

• True dual display support
• 720p (1280x720) HDMI 1.2 support
• SXGA (1280x1024) LCD and CRT support
• Composite and S-Video TV output

The NVIDIA APX 2500 applications processor is sampling today with key customers and will enter into full production by the end of Q2 2008.

For more information on the NVIDIA APX 2500 applications processor, please visit www.nvidia.com/apx2500.

Source: NVIDIA Corporation