Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar supertrees, pee-powered plasma and a bug-eyed mantis shrimp with a serious right hook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/solar-trees-pee-plasma-boxing-mantis-shrimp/

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

It's been a big week for energy-efficient breakthroughs in the scientific community. Scientists at MIT developed a new type of textured nano surface that could reduce the thickness of silicon used in solar panels by more than 90 percent, bringing down the cost of photovoltaic technology. Meanwhile, in the land down under, researchers at the Australian National University are working on a pee-powered plasma thruster that could make deep space missions more feasible. Also this week, a team of engineers from MIT developed a new glucose fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers the human body and could be used for brain implants.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar supertrees, pee-powered plasma and a bug-eyed mantis shrimp with a serious right hook

Inhabitat's Week ! in Green : solar supertrees, pee-powered plasma and a bug-eyed mantis shrimp with a serious right hook originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verzion intros FiOS Quantum, officially priced up to 300Mbps

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/verzion-intros-fios-quantum-officially-priced-up-to-300mbps/

What's faster than FiOS internet service? FiOS Quantum evidently, as Verizon's latest high-speed internet service gets an official name and pricing. Effectively doubling every tier -- except the entry-level 15/5 -- each can be acquired with or without a custom bundle, double or triple play, and range in price from $65 to $175 a month -- except the 300 down / 65 up which is only available by itself for $210 a month. Willing to commit for two years? Well, then you can save yourself a few extra bucks a month. Existing customers won't have to pay an upgrade fee to take advantage of the new speed, but their bill will probably go up about $10 to $15 a month -- depending on what other changes they might make to their bundle. The real question is can one even take advantage of these crazy speeds, but we for one would love to find out.

Continue reading Verzion intros FiOS Quantum, officially priced up to 300Mbps

Verzion intros FiOS Quantum, officially priced up to 300Mbps originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mozilla's 'Junior' iPad browser prototype keeps it simple

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/mozillas-junior-ipad-browser-prototype-keeps-it-simple/

Love your iPad, but hate Safari? Mozilla's Alex Limi can relate, it's "a pretty miserable experience," he says. So what's he doing about it? Building a replacement, of course. In a recent presentation showing the fruits of the Mozilla Product Design Strategy team's labors, Limi offered a glimpse at Junior, an iPad browser that hopes to redefine how we view the internet on tablets. The prototype browser eschews the traditional address bar / tab layout in favor of a minimalistic, full screen experience, flanked by only two obvious toggles -- a back button, and a plus symbol that opens a menu containing favorites, recent pages and a URL / search bar. Other common options such as reload, forward and print are hidden away, but accessible. The idea is a simple browsing experience that's more fun, engaging and ergonomic. "It's very simple," Limi summarizes, "it's a browser." He stresses that Junior is still just a prototype, albeit a compelling one. Interested? Check out Limi's full product design presentation at the source link below.

Mozilla's 'Junior' iPad browser prototype keeps it simple originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NNSA Sequoia supercomputer takes worlds fastest title, prevents nuclear testing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/nnsa-sequoia-supercomputer-takes-worlds-fastest-title/

Fujitsu's 10.51 petaflop K supercomputer is pretty fast, but does it pack enough computational oomph to stave off underground nuclear testing? Probably -- but the NNSA's new sixteen petaflop rig does it better. According to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, dubbed Sequoia, is now the fastest Supercomputer on the planet, clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops. "Sequoia will provide a more complete understanding of weapons performance, notably hydrodynamics and properties of materials at extreme pressure sand temperatures," says NNSA Director of Advanced Simulation and Computing Bob Meisner, explaining that supercomputer simulations will "support the effort to extend the life of aging weapons systems." Translation? Sequoia will help the NNSA keep the US' nuclear stockpile stable without resorting to nuclear testing; more computers, less explosions. We can't think of a better thing to do with 98,304 compute nodes, 1.6 million cores and 1.6 petabytes of memory spread across 96 racks -- can you? Check out the official press release after the break.

Continue reading NNSA Sequoia supercomputer takes worlds fastest title, prevents nuclear testing

NNSA Sequoia supercomputer takes worlds fastest title, prevents nuclear testing origi nally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's new CEO promises 'particular focus' on software, UI and design

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/samsungs-ceo-ui-design/

There's nothing worse than complacency in an incoming CEO, so it's fortunate that Kwon Oh-hyun is prepared to openly address weaknesses in his empire. He used his inaugural speech to declare that "a particular focus must be given to serving new customer experience and value by strengthening soft capabilities in software, user experience, design and solutions." Behind the corporate language, it sounds like he could be getting at the same issue we found with the Galaxy S III: Sammy is unrivalled when it comes to technology and specs, but its sense of aesthetic and UI arguably still needs some work. Equally, he could also be referring to an ongoing desire to expand the Bada mobile OS and the ChatON messaging service. The question now is how much of Samsung's river of cash he's planning to divert to his developers.

Samsung's new CEO promises 'particular focus' on software, UI and design originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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