Recent Comments:
Lenovo X200 128GB SSD order option gone, offers 64GB SSD for free {Engadget}
Aug 6th 2008 2:59PM I wondered how many people actually ordered it during the screw up... and how much it is going to cost Lenovo... it will be interesting to see who and how many is going to get fired from this screw up...
Video: MIT develops solar storage "nirvana": energy crisis solved? {Engadget}
Aug 1st 2008 2:36PM Yes it will be (Jaimi, sorry that I have to prove you wrong)... In this system , the cost of the fuel cell will cost approximately 35 to 40% of the systems cost and it will make up about 80% of the maintenance cost. The reason the maintenance cost are so high is because the fuel cell membrane will need to be replace very frequently due to the high usage. These membrane are very expensive, take example, to replace a membrane for a fuel cell car, will cost around USD6000 to 8000 dollars, that's for a 480volt system. Now imagine for a house... That's why, if you can take away the fuel cell in the system, it will be a lot cheaper. Unfortunately though, the side effect of burning hydrogen is that the system is not 100% clean and it will produce a small amount of emissions. I guess this is the trade off if someone want to make this systems work.
Video: MIT develops solar storage "nirvana": energy crisis solved? {Engadget}
Aug 1st 2008 2:17PM I understand that the actually hydrogen extraction might be cheaper... but the fuel cell and solar panels are not... So with that in mind, one must not forget about the fact that you need need compare your cost with existing solutions... which include just buying electricity from the grid, or using natural gas to produce power... and after comparing those cost, you will find that using electricity from the grid is the cheapiest solutions if it is available... for remote communities that is not on the grid but have easy ground transportation, natural gas is the best solutions... unless the MIT prof can drastically reduce the price of fuel cell and solar panels, this system will not work. As as someone has pointed out, most solar panels for home used are energy negative, that means they don't produce enough energy for even one house... so never mind producing extra power to run this system. It just doesn't makes sense.
Video: MIT develops solar storage "nirvana": energy crisis solved? {Engadget}
Aug 1st 2008 3:18AM I forgot to mention, the main cost is actually the solar cells / wind turbine required to power the house during the day + make enough energy to produce hydrogen. The amount of cells required, based on a 15 year depreciations and maintanence, you might as well just use natural gas for most of your energy production in your house (if it is available in the area). It just doesn't work.
Video: MIT develops solar storage "nirvana": energy crisis solved? {Engadget}
Aug 1st 2008 3:11AM How on earth is this a new idea??? This has been proposed years ago... I even did a similar project during my university days, where we use both wind and solar power to produce hydrogen during the day and use the hydrogen at night with the fuel cell, plus the wind turbine to produce power. This is no big deal. The main problem with this is cost. From a cost benefit analysis that, this will not be feasible at communities where natural gas is available as we can not produce hydrogen cheaper than natural gas due to the cost of the system based on a 15 year depreciation. Now on the other hand, for remote communities like North Canada or at the middle of America, South America, this will be feasible as the cost of natural gas or petroleum transport will make this system feasible.
iPhone 3G: everything you ever wanted to know (but were afraid to ask) {Engadget}
Jun 13th 2008 6:01PM Just out of curiosity... if they are forcing people to sign a contract before they leave their store (I am assuming most country will be like this)... is there a point for Apple to lock the phone from other carrier? To be honest, if people are forced to sign a contract, the phone company will recovery their cost or there over the contract and apple will get their money as well... or else there will be penalty to the user... so I don't see the phone for them to lock it... Especially, I am from Hong Kong... and in HK signing contract for mobile phone is such a rare thing but some people still do that... but the big deal is when the phone is lock, no one will buy it... no phone are sold lock in HK as too many people work across the boarder in China and they have different sim card to save cost... so I guess if they force people to use roaming from one carrier, this will not be very popular, in HK and maybe other countries as well. So does anyone know, is there any possibility that iphone release outside of North America might be unlock for certain countries?
New images of Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 reveal minor updates, new color {Engadget Mobile}
Jun 4th 2008 8:07PM I am one of those gadget fanboy that I have been through the days with Palm OS... Windows CE, all generation of Windows Mobile and now the iPhone... I will have to say, those WM user who so strongly criticize iPhone user should really take a step back and have another look. Also the iPhone fanboy, should also chill as WM user do have their point as well.
I understand that WM is a pretty good OS in terms of supporting 3rd party apps and in terms of full feature functionality... but it has a few very very major flaw... it is ugly, and not very user friendly to the average user. I understand that HTC has put out their own 3D Flo custom interface... so SE will put out their panel interface later this year... but this is still not good enough in today standard. 3D flo is good but if you ever need to do any setting changes, you are now back into the good old WM world that most new user will never understand (of course, if you have been using it for awhile, you will know where everything is). Also the fact that WM is very laggy, I have try out my friend HTC Touch and Touch Dual... WM are so slow that I feels like I am holding a phone with a 24mhz processor... instead of something more powerful... a lot of time, this is not due to the spec but due to WM is horrible in memory control and also being a very slow and not very responsive OS in general. Even processing command from the touch screen are slower on WM. That's not to say WM is not any good... it got a lot of the functions that iphone lacks...
iPhone has its good and bad point as well... Just the fact that it offers awesome interface that is easy to use is enough for many average users. However it does has it limitations, especially to power users... iphone lack some flexibility and basic functionality. Apple is trying to add 3rd party software support in firmware 2.0... although if you have been using a jailbreak iphone, like me, you will have already been enjoying 3rd party apps already... as for basic functionality, iphone is still missing a lot of very basic functions... like bluetooh files and sync support... bluetooth stereo A2DP support... lacking a basic file system... lacking basic copy and paste functions... lacking handwriting reconiztion... however, iphone advantage is the fast and responsive UI and a lot of users will rather accept that and give up a few functions in return for a much more responsive and user friendly device...
so as for the future... in order for WM to survive, there's a fundamental need for either Microsoft to improve its interface or for MS to allow device manufacture to fully customize the interface (even more so than 3D flo and panels)... if MW don't aim for that... their market will slowly shrink as other device eats into their current dominance.
as for iphone... it really needs to match the basic functionality that is being offer by the other phone in order for it to fully capture the market... if not, iphone will never get the penetration to the mass market...
as for other competitor... we will just have to wait and see...
How would you change Apple's MacBook Air? {Engadget}
Feb 9th 2008 3:38PM To be honest... the MacBook Air is everything that I don't want it to be... what I want is a 13 inch MacBook Pro... why can' apple do that... I have been praying for a 13 inch MacBook Pro ever since they swtich to Intel Chips... why why why not!!! :O(
The MacBook Air {Engadget}
Jan 24th 2008 11:49AM To be honest... sometimes I am just sick and tired of Apple marketing tricks... yes... the MacBook Air is thiner than the Sony Vaio TZ... but these two machines are not really comparable... especailly when the Sony Vaio TZ got a internal optical drive which the MacBook Air lacks... this makes a huge difference in terms of thickness... To be honest, Sony is known for their miniturization of device... I am sure Sony can make a laptop just as thin as the MacBook Air if it skim on some of the most basic functions of a computer... but obviously, Sony knows that most real computer user will demand more than one USB port and an internal optical drive and a harddrive bigger than 80gb... and most importantly a removable batteries!
