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Apple: don't worry about hot iPad reports, it's cool
All this talk about overheating iPads isn't getting Apple all that excited, apparently. The company issued a fairly noncommittal response on the matter, stating that in spite of the tablet's LTE support, fast processing, battery life and resolutionary display magic, it still "operate[s] well within [Apple's] thermal specifications." That said, if anyone happens to have concern with regards to an overheated lap, "they should contact AppleCare." There may be a chance, after all, that you've been holding it wrong.
Visualized: new iPad burns 10 degrees hotter than its predecessor
We wouldn't exactly be going out on a limb by suggesting that the new iPad is Apple's hottest tablet to date -- even before Tim Cook confirmed as much earlier today. But while Apple has plenty of reason to brag about the device's sales figures, it's slightly less motivated to be forthcoming about its tendencies to create more heat. 10 degrees more, in fact, according to infrared camera confirmation obtained by Tweakers.net. After five minutes of running GLBenchmark, the site used its infrared cam to confirm what many of you have already suggested: the new iPad runs a little hot. According to the site's measurements, Cupertino's flagship slab reached 33.6 degrees centigrade (92.5 Fahrenheit), compared to 28.3 centigrade (82.9 Fahrenheit) with the iPad 2. That's certainly not enough heat to cause a tablet to spontaneously combust, but if you happen to be one of those new iPad owners that noticed a difference, you can now rest assured that your internal thermometer hasn't missed a beat.
That's hot: Heat-based recording could boost magnetic drive speed, performance
Magnetic fields are pretty nifty for levitating stuff, carving sponge-like thingamajigs and, of course, data storage. But an international team led by the University of York in the UK has figured out a way to replace magnetic fields for the latter by using ultra-short heat pulses instead. Conventional thinking typically dictates that an external magnetic field is required to store data on a magnetic medium. By using heat, however, researchers were able to record terabytes of information per second in a way that is also more energy-efficient compared to current hard drive technology. As for the time it'll take for the tech to make it to market, well, we have a feeling it won't be as fast.
Device warns of catastrophic failure in lithium-ion batteries, robots celebrate
"Catastrophic lithium-ion battery failure" are five words Malfunctioning Eddie never wants to hear, and may not have to, thanks to a new sensor developed by the folks at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Despite the popularity of lithium-ion batteries in everything from consumer electronics to hybrid and electric vehicles, they have been associated with a phenomenon called "thermal runaway" -- known to cause overheating and potentially, fire. The newly developed device measures the electrical parameter of the cell, which is an indicator of whether the internal layer temperatures are getting too toasty. The best part? The warning comes before the heat can reach the surface and cause catastrophic failure, perhaps saving our electronics from a fate like the one in the video after the break.
Researchers build world's smallest steam engine that could
Wanna create your very own microscopic steam engine? Just take a colloid particle, put it in water, and add a laser. That's a CliffsNotes version of what a group of German researchers recently did to create the world's smallest steam engine. To pull it off, engineers from the University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems tweaked the traditional approach introduced by Robert Stirling nearly 200 years ago. In Stirling's model, gas within a cylindrical tube is alternately heated and cooled, allowing it to expand and push an attached piston. Professor Clemens Bechinger and his team, however, decided to downsize this system by replacing the piston with a laser beam, and the cylinder's working gas with a single colloid bead that floats in water and measures just three thousandths of a millimeter in size. The laser's optical field limits the bead's range of motion, which can be easily observed with a microscope, since the plastic particle is about 10,000 times larger than an atom. Because the beam varies in intensity, it effectively acts upon the particle in the same way that heat compresses and expands gas molecules in Stirling's model. The bead, in turn, does work on the optical field, with its effects balanced by an outside heat source. The system's architects admit that their engine tends to "sputter" at times, but insist that its mere development shows that "there are no thermodynamic obstacles" to production. Read more about the invention and its potential implications in the full press release, after the break.
iPhone 4 combusts on Australian flight, looks madder than a spurned Qantas employee
On an airline that's actually serving the great country of Australia these days, an iPhone 4 decided enough was enough. Shortly after Regional Express flight ZL319 landed in Sydney from Lismore, "a passenger's mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow." What happened next is a bit of an Aussie mystery, but it seems at some point that the glow was "extinguished successfully." No one onboard was harmed, and the handset in question has been handed over to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for "analysis." It suffered only mild reception issues prior to its final collapse, and if faced with a similar situation, Siri reportedly stated that it would consult a therapist before discharging hot fury. Update: Ross let us know that officials from the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau are investigating the incident.
Computer components may one day recycle their own wasted heat
Imagine a computer that isn't just designed to "deal" with the heat produced by its components, but one that actually uses that wasted energy to power some of its high-tech internals. That's the potential of a new discovery out of the Physical and Technical Institute (PTB) of Braunschweig, Germany. Researchers discovered what they're calling tunnel magneto thermoelectric voltage, essentially that by heating one side of a magnetic tunnel structure (the types of switches found in magnetic RAM and in the heads of hard drives) they can control the flow of electricity across its poles. The switches would still need to be triggered by matching the polarity on either side of the insulator and magnet sandwich, but heating one pole would create an electrical potential and would consume some of the energy that otherwise might get dispersed through a heatsink. We're still years away from seeing this technology in any functioning products and, honestly, we're not entirely sure we understand how exactly it would work, but it sounds like just the sort of potential-packing innovation that our (rather toasty) laps desperately need.
iPod fathers unveil their next project, the Nest Learning Thermostat (hands-on)
Over the summer, we got word that a couple of unnamed ex-Apple engineers were getting ready to unveil an unnamed product, under the guise of an unnamed startup. As it turns out, that startup was Nest Labs, and those Apple alums were none other than Tony Fadell, longtime SVP of Apple's iPod division, and lead engineer Matt Rogers. And yes, the product they had to share makes fine use of a click wheel. But if you thought they'd be cooking up a next-gen music player, you'd be wrong. Instead, the pair have been designing a thermostat, of all things, dubbed the Nest. In addition to being the most stylish model ever to grace a dining room wall, it promises the kind of intelligence we've come to expect in other household appliances -- just not thermostats, per se. It'll go on sale next month for $249 in places like Best Buy, but we managed to snag an early sneak peek. Find some photos below and when you're done, join us past the break where we'll explain how it works. %Gallery-137451% %Gallery-137452%
Will Intel's Core i7 Sandy Bridge E CPUs ship without fans or heatsinks?
Over the past few months, we've peeked Intel's roadmap more than once, but all told we've been treated to scant few details about its high-end desktop line, Sandy Bridge E (that's "E" for enthusiasts). Today, though, VR-Zone is reporting that the next generation of these CPUs will ship without fans or heatsinks -- a tacit acknowledgment, perhaps, that Intel's home-brewed cooling system will be inadequate in the eyes of hobbyists anyway. We reached out to Intel for comment, and while the company stayed mum on the topic of cooling, it did go out of its way to clarify another point the folks at VR-Zone made in their report. The outlet had said that the forthcoming 3820, 3930K and 3960X CPUs will be rated at 130 watts, but will consume closer to 180W and draw up to 23 amps from the 12V2 supply rail -- all without overclocking, mind you. An Intel rep writes: "TDP expectations for the 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 processor family for socket LGA-2011 are in line with previous generations of high end desktop products." In other words, built-in cooling system or no, the TDP should be in line with what we've seen from other Extreme-branded processors. As for the cooling, it's unclear when, exactly, we'll get the full spill -- the CPUs are rumored to launch before the end of the year, with the quad-core 3820 arriving after the six-core 3930K and 3960X.
Delkin's CF cards handle all weathers, so quit yo' jibber jabber
Delkin sneers at wimps who sit around all day debating whether it's worse to be too hot or too cold. Its new 32GB and 64GB rugged CompactFlash cards relish both extremes, with a claimed operating temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees Celsius. They achieve this by eschewing the cheaper multi-level cell design of namby-pamby mainstream cards in favor of single-level cells that last for up to two million cycles and max out at 105MB/s reads and 95MB/s writes. We wouldn't stick anything else in our SnoMote. Full details in the PR after the break.
NASA's new cooling pump doesn't need moving parts, set to chill out in space next month
It's pretty easy to cool down an overheating desktop computer with an extra fan, but what do you do if there's no air? That's the hurdle NASA's engineers are hoping to clear with a new prototype pump that the agency unveiled last week. The pinkie-sized instrument relies upon a technology known as electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-based thermal control, which uses electric fields to inject coolant through small vents on a thermal cold plate, before moving the extra heat to a radiator and spreading it far away from any temperature-sensitive areas. With no moving parts, the lightweight cooler uses only about half a watt of power and can be sized to work with small electric components or lab-on-a-chip devices. The challenge is to make sure that the pump can survive the vibrations of a rocket launch, though NASA will put it to the test during a rocket mission on June 9 and in 2013, when an EHD thermal cold plate will be placed on the International Space Station. Start your countdown clock and blast past the break for a full press release. [Thanks, Kevin]
Poker chip-sized device non-invasively measures brain temperature, intrigues Le Chiffre
Do you ever feel like Portal 2 is making your brain overheat? You should get that checked, and thanks to researchers in Norfolk, Virginia, there's an easier way to do so. The Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters has developed a device the diameter of a poker chip that sits atop a patient's head; by detecting the microwaves that all human tissues produce, it calculates brain temperature without the need for messy skull-popping. The waves pass through the bone to give doctors precise, up-to-the-minute results, which can help prevent brain damage due to overheating. One possible use for the technology is helping hypoxic (oxygen lacking) infants, who can be treated with cooling therapies. Of course, you can probably make do with that old home remedy: just put a bag of frozen carrots on your head next time GlaDOS has you stumped.
GE's new phase-change based thermal conductor could mean cooler laptops -- literally
It's no secret: if your laptop sits atop your lap for an extended period of time, you're going to get burned -- okay, so maybe not burned, but you're definitely going to feel the heat. Luckily GE has been working (under contract for DARPA) on a new phase-change based thermal conductor that promises to cool electronics twice as well as copper, at one-fourth the weight. The breakthrough means big things for those of us who'd like to make babies one day, but we doubt that's why DARPA's shelling out the big bucks -- the new material functions at 10 times normal gravity, making it a shoo-in for on-board computing systems in jetliners. Using "unique surface engineered coatings" that simultaneously attract and repel water, the new nanotechnology could mean not only lighter, cooler electronics, but also an increase in computing speeds. Goodbye scrotal hyperthermia, hello cool computing! Full PR after the break.
Intel Turbo Boost is MIA on new 13-inch MacBook Pro? (update: negatory)
If you were expecting your new 13-inch MacBook Pro's Core i7 CPU to Turbo Boost its way north of that default 2.7GHz clock speed, we might suggest discontinuing your anticipation. Two separate reviews of the laptop are reporting the curious case of its Core i7-2620M processor failing to automatically overclock itself the way it should. Intel's dual-core chip is capable of a maximum speed of 3.4GHz, but reviewers weren't able to get it any higher than its stock setting while testing Apple's latest 13-incher. High temperatures were identified (north of 90C / 194F) as the likely culprit, with Notebook Journal also finding its machine throttled down to 798MHz due to heat dissipation issues. PC Pro theorizes that Apple intentionally disabled the Turbo Boost functionality on this particular MBP model in order to preserve your lap and your pride from being scalded by melting components. That would make sense to us, and hey, it's still a fast machine, just not Turbo fast. [Thanks, Markus] Update: AnandTech's findings contradict the above, with Anand asserting that "there's absolutely no funny business going on here, the dual-core 2.7 is allowed to hit its maximum frequencies." Seems like we'll need to keep digging to get to the bottom of this one. Update 2: We've confirmed with Apple that there are no specific hardware or software limits to block the Turbo Boost function, however we've also discovered, through less direct sources, that the company is providing new low level software tools to diagnose cooling issues with the 2011 batch of laptops. Ergo, the speed limits that PC Pro and Notebook Journal encountered might have been caused by inadequate heat dissipation, which arguably is no less troubling than an Apple-mandated de-Turbo-fication.
Shocker! Laptops placed on laps will overheat you where you don't want to be overheated
Scrotal hyperthermia -- even its name sounds like a terrible, horrible thing. Yes, gadget enthusiasts, we're talking about the vastly underrated problem that is the overheating of a techie gentleman's reproductive parts. A study recently published in the Fertility and Sterility journal confirms what we've long known -- that heat escaping laptops sat on laps can and will raise the temperature in your external offspring storage units -- but adds a bit of handy additional info as well. Firstly, it turns out that keeping one's legs together to balance the laptop is mostly to blame, as it doesn't provide enough airflow to let heat escape, while lap pads have been found to be entirely ineffective in protecting testicles from rising in temperature. Another note of import is that the men in this study failed to notice when their scrotal thermometers rose above what's considered safe, so we'd just advise doing your mobile blogging Engadget style: from a bar, a coffee table, the trunk of a car, or even a humble desk.
Wasted heat from Metro stations to heat apartment building in Paris
Close to the Centre Georges Pompidou on the Rue Beauborg, Paris Habitats renovating a residential building in an environmentally friendly manner, and it's including some pretty out of the ordinary heating methods in it. The old building has a staircase which connects to the Metro station beneath it, thus making it cost effective to build the system, which will produce heat from the bodies of the people and trains moving below, and will be used in conjunction with a traditional heating system. It is thought that it will be able to cut carbon dioxide emissions by one third when the building is completed. The project is set to get underway next year.
Sanyo waist warmer does almost irreparable damage to Eneloop's good name
Oh Sanyo, you do like to flirt with our Crapgadget label, don't you? Having already given the world battery-powered neck and hand warmers it never asked for, Sanyo is today expanding the Eneloop warmer family with a slinky new waist furnace. Thin film heaters are embedded inside that dashing-looking velcro belt above and power is drawn from the Eneloop mobile booster on the side, perhaps the most useful thing about the entire setup. It'll share its juice with iPhones and portable media players, while recharging can be done via USB. Sadly, that aforementioned neck warmer is getting a new 2010 version thanks to excellent consumer interest over in the key target market of Japan, so it's looking like these body warmers are going to be with us for a while.
Samsung's figured out how to keep HDTVs running cooler
Now that practically every flat panel ships with an array of smart and app store friendly features included, keeping the processors doing all the heavy lifting cool is an issue. Enter Samsung's ultra Low Temperature Chip On Film (u-LTCOF) that spreads out the heat from the system-on-chip over a larger area and is designed specifically for its new 3DTVs using LCD/LED and plasma display technology. The tech goes back to '07, but Samsung plans to produce the new version around Q4 and replace the old metal film with "viscoelastic silicone" that should be about 20 percent more efficient. All in all that's great, and we're going to let it finish, but hopefully the company can also address that "Samsung whine" so many owners have complained about over the last few years.
Report: Core i7 MacBook Pros running hot
Tests performed by PC Authority found a Core i7 MacBook Pro to be running very hot, climbing to over 100 degrees Celsius. The magazine had a Core i7-620M based 17" MacBook Pro on their hands for testing. While putting it through their benchmark suite, they noticed that it scored lower in Photoshop tasks then expected. Suspicious that heat might be affecting their results, they propped the machine on its side and repeated the test. Performance improved. Having booted into Windows via Boot Camp, the group ran a Dwarf Fortress test that, according to PC Authority, got the temperature up to 84ºC. They said that the bottom casing was "almost too hot to touch." When running Cinebench 11.5, the temperature climbed to 90ºC and eventually broke 100 (101ºC specifically) during a second test of Cinebench 11.5 the following day. The magazine argues that a flaw in the machine's cooling design caused the problem. The Fujitsu LifeBook SH760, which uses the same CPU, reportedly gets no hotter than 81ºC during the Cinebench test. Note that the SH760 uses a copper heat sink that vents out of chassis, unlike the MacBook Pro. We've not done any testing of our own, nor have we heard of this issue before. I can tell you that my 2 GHz Intel Core Duo 15" MacBook Pro gets pretty hot during World of Warcraft marathons, but that was a known issue with that older machine. If you've got one of the 17" i7 MacBook Pros, share your anecdotal experience with heating issues below. [Via MacNN]
Core i7-equipped MacBook Pro CPU hits 100 degrees Celsius (updated)
Hydrocarbon fuel cell? 600 degrees Celsius. Large Hadron Collider? -271 degrees. Microwave drill? 2,000. Your run of the mill Core i7 MacBook Pro can't compete with these extreme temperatures, but that doesn't mean it can't get pretty darn warm under pressure. PC Authority recently put the latest edition of Apple's sleek silver classic through a series of torture tests, and found that running Cinebench could cause the CPU temperature to climb over 100 degrees Celsius. The metal shell proved ineffective at dissipating the heat as well as the similarly equipped Fujitsu Lifebook SH760, which finished the same test at 81 degrees, and actually required PC Authority to run the MacBook Pro on its side (see pic above) to complete certain tests. The site thinks that Apple's cooling solution may be inadequate for a Core i7, but these results could be a fluke -- in our experience with the machine, we actually noticed an improvement over the egg-cooking solutions of yesteryear. Update: We'd like to point out that the temperatures described were related to the CPU internally, and not the actual case of the laptop.
