power

It looks like the beginning of 2012 is going to be a piece of a cake for the Verizon Wireless PR team. Unless, you know, something crazy stupid happens.

Last month, RootMetrics dubbed Verizon the top carrier in matters of data coverage. Now today, international marketing research firm and perpetual award giver J.D. Power and Associates named Verizon as the best carrier for customer service.

If this doesn't sound so surprising, that's because Verizon already took home the same title back in July of last year, during the study's first round of surveys. The carrier also … Read more

I rarely get all that excited by the sound of iPod speakers, if only because you can so easily get better sound from a good set of desktop speakers. I've cited Audioengine's terrific little speakers many times in this blog, and I still love them, but there's a new speaker from Emotiva Pro, the airmotiv 4, and it's raised the sound quality benchmark for $399 per pair speakers.

Look at the pictures of the airmotiv 4 and you'll see it's missing something found on most speakers: a dome tweeter. In its place you'll … Read more

SOUTH BOSTON--From this grungy warehouse converted into a startup incubator, Sam White and Sorin Grama plot how to chill milk for poor Indian villagers.

The four-year journey of their startup, Promethean Power, has included several trips to India and dramatic engineering detours. Now finally, their rapid milk chillers, which feature a novel energy-storage technology, will be installed at three milk processing centers in India in the coming months.

The two company co-founders had originally intended to build a solar-powered milk chiller that would improve the lives of Indian farmers and advance renewable energy. But despite engineering some nifty power electronics, … Read more

Everything charges via USB nowadays: Kindles, iPods, Bluetooth headsets, smartphones...shall I go on?

In a perfect world, your home's AC outlets would have USB ports alongside their three-prong sockets. That way, you could dispense with all those bulky power plugs and just plug each device's USB cable right into the wall.

Until home builders get the memo, here's the next best thing: Lowe's has the RCA USB Wall Plate Charger for $14.99, plus sales tax where applicable. If you don't have a Lowe's store near you, you'll be on the hook … Read more

U.S. government-backed battery supplier Ener1 has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the third U.S.-backed energy company to file in as many months.

Ener1 posted a notice today stating that it "has reached agreement with its primary investors and lenders on a restructuring plan that will significantly reduce its debt." This action will pave the way for up to $81 million for recapitalization, the company said.

A "pre-packaged" Chapter 11 case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. Ener1 is planning to complete the restructuring process within … Read more

About a week ago I featured Kingsoft Office Suite Professional 2012 in a bonus deal. Since then I've been test-driving the software on an old laptop. And you know what? I like it!

I mention this because although the Kingsoft Professional giveaway is over, you can still get Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 for, well, free. Update: This program is for Windows.

Until last week, I'd never heard of Kingsoft or this product. I had, however, tried all the usual freebie Microsoft Office alternatives: OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Lotus Symphony, Google Docs, and so on.

They're all OK--good enough, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Texas Instruments is offering one of the most revealing demos of Windows 8 on ARM yet at CES.

That's not saying a lot, though, as demos of Microsoft's next operating system on ARM processors have been extremely restrictive, if nonexistent to date in public (Nvidia's untouchable, relatively static CES demo is behind closed glass). But TI pushed the boundaries a bit in a demo for CNET at CES.

The demo tapped TI's freshly minted OMAP4470 ARM processor, according to Bill Crean, an OMAP product marketing manager.

Needless to say, I was not permitted to take … Read more

LAS VEGAS--No matter how much you prepare for a trade show like CES, what you see on the floor never quite matches what news you get beforehand.

In the case of Samsung, we had a chance to look at the new Samsung Series 9 and Series 5 Ultra ultrabook, but were surprised by quite a few intriguing laptops at Samsung's booth, which we should expect to see later this year.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Inventor Brian Tedesco holds up a nest of hopelessly entangled cell phone chargers the showroom floor, giving it a shake for dramatic effect.

"This is from a week at the Plaza hotel," he says.

"And this...is the solution."

Tedesco points to his new gadget, called Perch. It's a small go-between your wall and your gadget's AC adapter that beeps when you unplug your device from its charging cord.

The nag, which is a series of beeps at different chords, won't stop until you take your charger out of the unit, or … Read more