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BMW wants you to know when traffic lights change
Traffic lights are supposed to help keep driving orderly, but they often create more tension than they resolve. How do you know that the green light won't turn yellow before it's too late to slow down? BMW thinks it can help. It's the first automaker to offer in-car support for Connected Signals' EnLighten iOS app, which predicts when lights will change based on position and speed. All you need to do is keep an eye on your car's infotainment display -- it'll tell you whether or not you should hit the brakes. The software is useful even if you're stopped, as it'll use your turn signals to show when a necessary light will return to green. This is the definition of a luxury feature when you need a BMW with ConnectedDrive Services just to give it a shot, but it could be entirely worthwhile if it spares you from an accident or a ticket.
'Better Re' Kickstarter finds a use for old cellphone batteries
Better Re hasn't exactly smashed through the boundaries and who even knows if designer Enlighten is here to stay, but it did exceed its $50,000 Kickstarter goal for a project that's on the greener side of things. The idea is that the Better Re will repurpose the battery from your old smartphone (so long as it's of the removeable sort) into an external power source for your phone, tablet and from the looks of it, even your laptop. The pitch video claims that at the average rate we typically replace our smartphones -- every two years -- their batteries still are about 80 percent efficient. That's quite a bit of wasted and unharnessed power that could serve a purpose instead of us mining for more lithium as demand increases. So, for $39 you can tap into that energy and use it to get extra time out of your gadgets.
EnLighten tells you when your traffic light is going to change
EnLighten is a clever little app from Green Drive that helps you monitor traffic lights. The app senses when you stop and will calculate the amount of time you will be sitting at a red light. It's meant to help you relax while you wait and get alert when it is time to move. The app uses its own algorithm to calculate the time when a traffic light will change from red to green. A countdown timer ticks off the seconds, while a chime alerts you right before the light is about to change. It's a basic tool, but very effective at "waking you up" before you have to drive through an intersection. For the app to work properly, your city and its traffic light system has to be included in the app's database. As of right now, the company has nine towns and cities including Portland, Oregon; Eugene, Oregon; Pasadena, California; Arcadia, California; San Jose, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Provo, Utah; Garland, Texas and Las Vegas. Additional cities will be added throughout 2014. Even if you can't use the app because you don't live in one of pilot cities, it's worth knowing about the technology. I could easily see it or a similar app being embedded in an in-car navigation system in the future. You can download EnLighten for free from the iOS App Store. It works on the iPhone and requires iOS 6.1 or later.
LG Enlighten to achieve retail zen September 22nd on Verizon
There are a number of ways to achieve inner-peace, like years of meditation, for example -- or you could just pick up an $80 Android handset. LG finally made official the release of its Enlighten handset today. The Gingerbread phone features a 3.2-inch display, a QWERTY slide out keyboard, a 3.2 megapixel camera and an 800MHz processor. The largely unexceptional bit of hardware will be hitting Verizon's site on September 22nd, followed by a September 29th debut in Verizon retail stores. It'll run you $79.99 with a two-year contract after a $50 mail in rebate. Enlighten yourself with the press release after the break.
Verizon to rebrand the LG Gelato Q as the Enlighten? (Update: images and full specs)
What's in a name? If you ask any phone operator in the US, it's everything -- most carriers prefer to put their own unique spin on a handset to distinguish it from the rest of the crowd. It's reasonable, then, to expect Verizon to do that very same thing with its version of the LG Gelato Q, the forthcoming Android QWERTY slider that'll likely hit Big Red sometime this fall. PocketNow uncovered a wholesaler's product sheet that displayed cases for an "LG Enlighten VS700." We can't be certain as to its authenticity yet, but the model number's association with the device is plausible, as we've seen evidence of Sprint's variant using LS700 as its identification. After hearing this tidbit of information, there's one thing for sure: we don't feel any closer to true enlightenment than we did before. Update: Well, look at that -- just after posting, we discovered that we may be more "enlightened" than we'd expected. Droid-Life dug up some images and a full spec sheet (in More Coverage) as a one-up. The Enlighten will have: Android 2.3, an 800MHz CPU, a 3.2-inch HVGA display, a 3.2 megapixel shooter, 150MB of internal storage (with expandable memory using microSD), and a 1500mAh battery. So it appears that a much needed QWERTY slider will be added to Verizon's midrange Android lineup. Check after the break for a full image.
Enphase Enlighten system controls home heating, cooling, solar production in the same web app
Enphase Energy has some pretty interesting tech for you to consider if you're thinking about going the Larry Hagman-esque solar power route (as opposed to the Barbara Eden veil-and-pantaloons route). The Microinverter System, for instance, converts DC power to AC household current at the solar panel, instead of sending the power accumulated at all the panels to one central inverter. And the microinverters aren't merely, well, "inverting." Nope, they also send stats to a gateway that, working with the Environ Smart Thermostat, allows you to keep tabs on your heating and cooling system as well as track solar panel performance all in the same web app. Pretty sweet, right? Or did we lose you at "Barbara Eden"? Hit the source link for more info.
