power

Nuclear renaissance? More like nuclear standstill

Modern nuclear power designs are safer, but that isn't enough to rekindle the long-sought nuclear renaissance.

One year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, nuclear power is either slogging ahead or at the end of the road, depending on which country you live in. How nuclear grows in the years ahead largely depends on whether new designs can demonstrate better safety and, more importantly, compete on price.

Rather than freeze nuclear's progress, Fukushima simply made it harder to make the case for building new plants, experts say. Indeed, one of the primary barriers to a nuclear renaissance is cheap … Read more

Build your own Keynote speech

Keynote for iOS lets you create presentations using only a touch screen, your content, and a huge number of ways to present your ideas. Like the other iWork for iOS apps, Apple has made it easy to get started using Keynote with a Getting Started presentation that shows you how to use each of the program's features.

The touch-screen interface is very intuitive with slide navigation on the left side of the interface, and close-ups of the slides in your main working area. In the left navigation you can add, delete, duplicate, or reorder slides, all with only a … Read more

Fukushima, one year later: Safety fears and slow fixes

One year after the worst nuclear disaster in decades reinvigorated fears of nuclear energy in the United States, we're still waiting for the implementation of safety standards intended to address the problem.

In response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan one year ago, a task force created safety recommendations for existing plants to protect against natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, and extended loss of power. Final orders are expected soon, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said this week it doesn't expect to be able implement the … Read more

New iPad: Why quad-core graphics?

Apple has just elevated the graphics chip to superstar status. Why focus on the graphics?

Apple announced today at the iPad event in San Francisco that the new iPad has a quad-core graphics processing unit (GPU). (So much for the central processing unit, or CPU, which typically garners all of the attention.)

So far, chip review site Anandtech offers the best educated guess about the graphics engine. Anandtech cites graphics chip technology from Imagination (PowerVR SGX543MP4) and CPU tech from ARM (Cortex A9).

"Our guess? Dual-core Cortex A9 [CPU] plus a PowerVR SGX543MP4 [GPU], an upgrade over the 543MP2 … Read more

Japan 'astonishingly unprepared' for Fukushima disaster

A panel set up to review the events of last year's nuclear disaster in Japan has released a withering criticism of the country's nuclear industry and the government's response to the crisis.

The investigation details mistakes made in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami one year ago which killed tens of thousands of people in Japan and caused the worst nuclear accident in decades. It was prepared by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation (RJIF), a think tank created last year and funded by individuals and businesses.

The latest version of the report, published today on … Read more

The battle for online privacy

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Power Felt could one day run iPod from body heat

Materials scientists have spun together carbon nanotubes into a fabric that promises a versatile and inexpensive way to transform heat into usable electricity.

Researchers at Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials announced yesterday the creation of a thermoelectric device they say could open up new energy-harvesting applications.

The university is seeking to find investors to commercialize the technology, called Power Felt. If successfully developed further, it has the potential to use body heat from clothing to power an iPod or cell phone or power medical monitoring equipment from a wound wrap. Its makers also hope Power Felt … Read more

Implantable device propels itself through bloodstream

As implantable medical devices become smaller and less power hungry, they are taking on a variety of new roles. What began as largely stationary objects, such as pacemakers and cochlear implants, are becoming small enough to actually pass through our bodies (i.e. in the form of pills) to deliver drugs and perform diagnostics.

Now, a new class of medical devices is emerging that adds a twist to the traditional implant: the devices are so small that they can travel through our bloodstream, not to mention are powered wirelessly via electromagnetic radio waves, according to Stanford electrical engineer Ada Poon.

By moving through the bloodstream, these tiny implants will be able to perform minor surgeries such as removing blood clots, Poon told an audience at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week.… Read more

Android Atlas Weekly Ep. 86: Jelly beans, Android sunglasses, and another dang pen phone (Podcast)

Rumor Has It host Karyne Levy joins us as we discuss Androids Jelly Bean possibly launching in Q2, the pen-friendly LG Vu which will be on display at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, and a couple of crazy Android implementations including Google's HUD Glasses and an Android Toothbrush.

NEWS:

-Android 5.0 ‘Jelly Bean’ launching in Q2? Eh, maybe

-Android 5.0 Jelly Bean is Android@Home

-LG Optimus Vu is official: 5 inches, pen-friendly

-BlackBerry OS 2.0 arrives, supports Android apps, sort of… Read more

Microsoft Office for the iPad: To be or not to be

Is Microsoft cooking up a version of Office for the iPad? News site The Daily says yes, Microsoft doesn't exactly say no but claims that The Daily's story is inaccurate.

Yesterday, The Daily's Matt Hickey reported that he had seen a working prototype of Office on the iPad and that sources indicated the app would soon be sent to Apple for approval.

Microsoft quickly went into denial mode, saying The Daily's story was "based on inaccurate rumors and speculation" and that the photo displayed by The Daily is "not a real picture of … Read more