< Rotartica, a Spanish company, is coming up with a new Solar powered air conditioning system by combining the existing technologies: they use evacuated tube thermal collectors with a water-heated absorption chiller, and package it in a relatively small sized box that produces a 4.5 kw cooling power. Dimensions and weight: 109 cm x 76 cm x 115 cm, 290 kg (43”x30”x45”, 640 lb). The existing solutions were either big units or did not use both technologies together. The way this unit works is simple: you put hot water and you get cold water out. If you are interested in knowing more, check out the article on TreeHugger or the manufacturer product page. (Read the full post about ‘Small-Scale Solar Powered Air Conditioning from Rotartica’…)

You’ll never have to "accidentally" drop your gross 2-year-old MP3 player again, thanks to a new gadget recycling/resale service where you decide up front how long it will be before you consider your new marvel an archaic embarrassment. TechForward works rather like the options market: You pay a small fee up front when you buy a new gadget. In return, you get the right to sell it back to them for a pre-determined price at a set time. With an 80GB iPod, for example, you pay $9 up front to be able to resell it for $50 in a year, $40 in two years and $20 in three years. They’re currently taking contracts on iPods, name-brand laptops and desktop PCs, GPS units, flat-screen TVs and more. (Read the full post about ‘Pre-Sell Your Gadget Before You Get Tired of It’…)

Cube World Series 2 (2 pack) If you’re experiencing problems with human friends, replace them with digital companions. Cube World cohorts are 100% interactive, have interesting personalities, get along with one another (sometimes!), and sit happily on your desk. They even let you shake, tilt, or turn them upside down when you feel the urge. See price Tags: ipod, plasma, gadgets, hdtv (Read the full post about ‘Cube World Series 2 (2 pack)’…)

Why do we have to envy European phones?  An Italian website exposed (and promptly removed all reference to) this i900 from Samsung.  Samsung probably concludeds a smoking fast, touchscreen phone with a real camera and access to the business community apps couldn’t do very well in the small US market.  Perhaps my bitterness is showing through? Looking to the be the next generation Prada/KG80 phone, if its rumored specs are to be paid any attention, this thing kicks: 7.2Mbps HSDPA a 5mp camera Windows 6.1 8GB memory Wishful thinking?  Heck yeah!  I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more info to bring you on this as it develops. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung readies a serious iPhone contender?’…)

Carl Zeiss introduced its Cinemizer video eyewear that simulates the equivalent of a 45″ TV at a distance of 78″, making this yet another offering in the growing (and should I say, bloated) eyewear market for the iPod. While the Carl Zeiss name is more famous for its range of optics in cameras, this maiden effort comes with a wired remote control that helps you command the basics of video playback, including play, stop and pause. The battery has already been integrated into the iPod dock, and you can use the Cinemizer with video sources other than the iPod. Each Cinemizer display features VGA resolution and can even be adjusted to fit folks who are already wearing glasses thanks to the adjustable dopter settings. (Read the full post about ‘Carl Zeiss Cinemizer at MacWorld’…)

Posted Jan 17th 2008 11:14AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Misc. Gadgets Wait up, hang on here — you’re telling us a personality profiling conducted on 7,500 people at Apple’s biggest tub-thumping event of the year, Macworld, yielded results that would suggest Apple users “are more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large.” And this so-called survey says Apple users have high indexes for “low modesty,” “high perfectionism,” and “high superiority”? Lies and half truths. We don’t know a single Apple user that fits anything remotely similar to that profile. (Read the full post about ‘Survey finds Apple users have sense of superiority — no wait, hear us out’…)

Apple boasts that the MacBook Air is the world’s thinnest notebook. The trouble with boasting is that people like to prove you wrong. We reported on the Mitsubishi Pedion, which, ten years ago, came in at 0.04 inches thinner than the Apple notebook. CNET has since dug up an even thinner machine, the Sharp Actius MM10, which is an unbelievable 0.54 inches thick, soundly beating the MacBook Air’s roly-poly 0.76 inches, and managing to squeeze in an ethernet port, a PCMCIA slot and two (2!) USB ports. Otherwise, though, it’s no match. The fugly black box, released in 2003, had a 10″ screen, a 15GB hard drive, a 1GHz Crusoe CPU and just 256MB RAM. It did share a few features with the Air, though. (Read the full post about ‘Sharp Actius MM10 Thinner Than MacBook Air’…)

Panasonic’s latest alkaline AA battery has made it into the Guinness World Records. The record it holds is for the longest lasting battery in its AA class and by some margin. It manages to outlast rival batteries from competitors including Duracell and Energizer by an incredible 20%. The reason for the longer lasting battery is more due to design than any new energy storage breakthroughs. Panasonic has re-designed the AA battery and has managed to free up more internal space for materials storage. The materials are also packed more densely, again increasing the storage potential. (Read the full post about ‘Panasonic Evolta AA battery enters record books’…)

Posted Jan 17th 2008 7:55AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video Quite frankly, it was hard to take Netflix’s sudden freeing of its Watch Instantly feature as anything but a response to Apple’s forthcoming iTunes movie rentals, but according to a piece at The New York Times, the two are actually aiming at different markets. After speaking with Netflix’s Reed Hastings, it was found that the vast majority of its streamable content was “older,” and considering that users of this service can never look forward to brand new releases being available, the cost (i.e. free to most mail-in subscribers) makes sense. (Read the full post about ‘Netflix Watch Instantly and iTunes movie rentals: aiming for two different markets’…)

If you have a preteen or have been around them, then there’s a good chance you might of heard of the song “Year 3000″ by the Jonas Brothers. It talks about what life might be like in the future. The year 3000 is kind of far off, so how about something a little closer like the year 2032.

PC Magazine is celebrating 25 years in business as a magazine. To put in perspective what has changed in the last 25 years, the magazine has an article about what it believes life might be like 25 years from now. Lance Ulanoff offers his perspective as he sets himself in the future and discusses his daily routine, which needless to say, differs quite a bit from the normal routine of today.

What do you think life will be like in 25 years?

(Read the full post about ‘What will life be like in 25 years?’…)