| Inhabitat's Week in Green: self-driving cars, solar parasols and the ultimate DIY Iron Man suit May 14th 2012, 01:47 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.  What seems more futuristic: flying cars or self-driving cars? They both sound a bit like science fiction, but they're both getting closer to becoming a reality. In the latest chapter of Google's efforts to develop a car that uses video cameras, radar sensors and lasers to navigate through traffic, the state of Nevada just granted Google the world's first license for a computer-controlled, driverless Toyota Prius. Meanwhile, this week we also checked in on the PAL-V (which stands for "Personal Air and Land Vehicle"), a two-seat hybrid car and gyroplane that runs on gas, biodiesel or bio-ethanol. In other transportation news, the Texas Central Railroad floated a plan to build a $10-billion bullet train that would run between Houston and Fort Worth, and Toyota officially unveiled its second-generation 2012 RAV4 EV, which features a Tesla powertrain. We also saw green technology cropping up in unexpected places this week, like the $1-billion ghost town that will be built on virgin desert land in Lea County, New Mexico to test emerging green technologies. Construction on the ghost town is set to begin in late June. Milwaukee native Bryan Cera invented Glove One, a 3D-printed glove that doubles as a cell phone. And in Tokyo, participants heaved 100,000 LED lights into the Sumida River as part of the 2012 Tokyo Hotaru Festival. Although it certainly looked cool, that's a lot of LED bulbs to literally dump in the river, and it raises some questions about e-waste. GE found a more practical use for LEDs, unveiling a new LED light bulb to replace the 100-watt incandescent. Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: self-driving cars, solar parasols and the ultimate DIY Iron Man suit Inhabitat's Week in Green: self-driving cars, solar parasols and the ultimate DIY Iron Man suit originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 21:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Refresh Roundup: week of May 7th, 2012 May 14th 2012, 00:34  Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of May 7th, 2012 Refresh Roundup: week of May 7th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 20:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | IRL: Verizon Jetpack MiFi 4620, iHome iC50 and Epson's EH-TW9000 3D projector May 13th 2012, 14:54 Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Just call this week's column the something borrowed edition. Rather than do a formal review -- the sort of cookie-cutter project that can be over and done with in a week, frankly -- we asked three staffers to not just test new products, but to live with them. For starters, our very own jet-setting Darren Murph used Verizon Wireless' new Jetpack MiFi 4620L to get work done on the go, while our new editor Jon Fingas traded in his Sony clock radio for an iHome dock that promised to play nice with his non-Apple device. Rounding things out, Sharif took a $4,000 3D projector for a weeks-long spin because, well, why not? Continue reading IRL: Verizon Jetpack MiFi 4620, iHome iC50 and Epson's EH-TW9000 3D projector IRL: Verizon Jetpack MiFi 4620, iHome iC50 and Epson's EH-TW9000 3D projector originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
