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Green is in at CES

LAS VEGAS--Lots of companies here are touting green design and environmental thinking, though in some cases it seemed more sloganeering than anything very deep. Here are just a few samples from the floor at the Consumer Electronics Show:

Among other things, Nokia was showing off their reduced packaging (50 percent smaller; most of their phones now shipping in it; have saved them $150 million to boot)

By comparison, Casio's touting of their packaging reduction was a bit tepid

HP had a large area of their booth dedicated to their environmental efforts, and like Nokia had several people on hand … Read more

Storing energy with flying metal objects

You can store energy in chemical batteries. Pentadyne Power stores it in moving objects.

The Chatsworth, Calif.-based company has created and sells uninterruptable power supply (UPS) for data centers and large power consumers that stores energy kinetically. A 25-pound mass spins in a vacuum chamber at a high speed. When a utility needs a jolt of electricity, kinetic power is converted to electrical power. When it's not needed, the mass just spins to conserve its energy.

The company uses a relatively small mass to avoid potential mishaps (imagine what would happen if a large mass came unstuck from … Read more

Marvell chip puts more power into your PC

Marvell has released chips for PC and notebook power bricks that can will substantially cut down the amount of electricity required to run these machines.

The chips, a type of power factor correction (PFC) controller based around a digital signal processor, effectively determine the amount of power an application will need and optimize accordingly. The chips also try to keep peak current at the lowest level.

The chips, which will be included in power supplies, are made to comply with new Energy Star requirements that require that 80 percent or more of the power pumped into PCs actually gets used … Read more

Hello Kitty takes to the water too

It was inevitable, really. We've seen aquariums of all kind on Crave, including one that can even be controlled via Wi-Fi. So of course we would eventually encounter one from Hello Kitty.

And just so we can always stay near, Tokyomango says the Sanrio empire has generously included a USB connection for this faux tank as well. It makes perfect sense, now that we think about it: first air, then land, now water. The invasion continues unabated.

CNET Live - Episode 24 - Show Notes

Had a great time co-hosting with Molly today, chatting with Matt Mullenweg from WordPress and taking your calls. Good stuff today!

Watch the show on CNET TV.

Things we Crave

Battle of the non-violent robots

Gold and diamond-plated MacBook

First Look

RIM BlackBerry 8820

Guest Matt Mullenweg from WordPress. Download of the Week

WordPress.

Insider Secrets

Upgrade a Sony PS3 hard drive.

Your calls

Alex Osborne's Linux on Palm LifeDrive project.

Transfer files to Motorola Razr V3c from MacBook by Bluetooth from About.com.

More steps for using the iPhone … Read more

Notebook shipments push PC market growth

Stronger-than-expected notebook shipments in the beginning of the year should push the overall growth of the PC market higher than previously anticipated, according to market research firm iSuppli.

The worldwide PC industry is expected to reach 264 million units in 2007, up 11.2 percent from 239 million units shipped last year, according to iSuppli. The previous estimate was 10.7 percent growth for the year.

The firm, which periodically issues forecasts for a variety of markets, said Monday that shipments of notebook PCs in the first quarter of 2007 were up 23 percent, 3 percent higher than previously anticipated. … Read more

Hungry li'l shredder wants to eat your yummy junk mail

This is one of the few gadgets that I think would actually be enhanced by the presence of a cute, anthropomorphic face. The MailMate shredder, as featured on Outblush, is hungry and will only be satisfied if you feed it lots of junk mail! Wouldn't it be satisfying to feed all those credit card offers, sweepstakes promotions, and what-have-you into the mouth of an adorable, anime-inspired monster? If Domo-kun could eat my junk mail, it'd make my day.

What makes the MailMate special is that it won't just chomp up paper. It also likes to snack on … Read more

Doodling, with a digital twist

We may be fully ensconced in the Digital Age, but when it comes to note-taking in meetings, nothing beats an old-fashioned pen and paper.

The good news is there are gadgets that take those doodles (er, copious notes) and capture them digitally for later editing on a PC. One such product is the DigiMemo A402, which looks and feels a lot like a standard clipboard, only with a distinctly early 21st century touch.

Using electromagnetic technology, the product, which came to our attention via Tech Digest, lets you place ordinary A4-size paper on the pad and use the digital inking … Read more

A lifeline for your dying battery

This will sound like a pretty good idea to anyone who has ever gone crazy digging around for an elusive A/C adapter while their battery life ticked away.

Antec, known for its PC cases and power supplies, showed off its recently introduced NP100 universal laptop power adapter at Digital Life. Compatible with most Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba laptops, the NP100 includes a series of interchangeable connectors and a switch to control output voltage for different laptop models.

Of course, it would be great if laptop manufacturers would agree to a standard power cable (like desktop PCs), but … Read more