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The best Christmas lights
By Doug Mahoney This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer's guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. After spending over 60 hours researching Christmas lights, interviewing experts, and testing 20 strands of lights side by side, we've found that GE's Energy Smart Colorite LED Miniature Lights (available in multicolor strands of 50 bulbs or 100 bulbs and in warm white strands of 50 bulbs or 100 bulbs) are the best all-around indoor Christmas lights. This is the third year we've named these GE lights as our pick, and we can't find any lights that match their color quality and their ready availability at Home Depot.
GE made an oilfield drone that can sniff out gas leaks
At the opening of GE's new oil and gas R&D center in Oklahoma, the multi-business company has also presented its new methane-sniffing helicopter drone called "Raven." GE started working on the project last year, and it proved that the 20-pound machine can indeed do what it was created for during a test run in July: Raven successfully found gas leaking from a couple of oil wells in Arkansas. A lot of companies in other industries already use UAVs for inspections, including Con Edison and Airbus. GE created the Raven specifically to save oil and natural gas firms money and to help them assess all the data gathered from their facilities.
GE puts up $1.4 billion to acquire two 3D printing firms
GE has so far invested around $1.5 billion in 3D printing tech over the past six years, and its planned acquisition of Germany's SLM Solutions Group and Sweden's Arcam would only bolster its position in the business. At a combined cost of $1.4 billion, both companies offer an expansion of GE's additive manufacturing efforts, which is, as GE chairman Jeffrey R. Immelt explains, "part of GE's evolution into a digital industrial company."
ICYMI: Raining tiny satellites and the laundry-folding machine
Today on In Case You Missed It: A company called FoldiMate is selling a standalone machine to sit alongside a washing and dryer and fold about 20 garments at a time for $850. Cornell University engineers are sending tiny interstellar computers to the ISS this summer, there they will act as satellites and, eventually, collect information from our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri. We also round up the week in our TL; DR segment. If you grew up playing The Sims, this piece of news might interest you. We're also very interested in the Visa payment ring the Olympic athletes can wear in Rio. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
National Academy of Sciences finds GMOs to be 'safe'
The debate surrounding the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has been raging for years and continues to do so. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has finally weighed in on the matter and found GMOs to not just be generally safe, but good for both people and the environment. The academy has even gone so far as to set up a dedicated website where visitors can peruse the source data that the academy leveraged for its study.
One of Apple's earliest Siri engineers reportedly leaves for GE
Apple hasn't had a great time holding on to the original Siri team, and we don't just mean the founders -- there are precious few of those core members left. And today, we're learning that one of those last remaining pioneers may have walked out the door. The Information's sources claim that Darren Haas, a Siri co-founder and Apple's head of compute-focused cloud engineering, has left the company to join GE a few weeks after one of his fellow Siri alumni, Steve D'Aurora, reportedly did the same. The two are believed to be working on a similar cloud platform at their new employer.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Toyota's new Prius, and more!
Tesla is set to unveil its most affordable electric car ever next weekend, but Chevrolet stole a bit of its thunder by rolling out the first pre-production Bolt EV. Meanwhile, Toyota debuted the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid with a record-breaking 120 MPGe rating. Hybrid Air Vehicles launched the world's largest airship, which can fly for three weeks straight without a crew. And frequent fliers will be relieved to learn that Airbus has developed a new plane designed to eliminate jet lag.
GE wants to use CO2 pollution to make huge solar batteries
Two big problems have been vexing environmental scientists for decades: How to store solar energy for later use, and what to do with CO2 that's been captured and sequestered from coal plants? Scientists from General Electric (GE) could solve both those problems at once by using CO2 as a giant "battery" to hold excess energy. The idea is to use solar power from mirrors to heat salt with a concentrated mirror array like the one at the Ivanpah solar plant in California. Meanwhile, CO2 stored underground from, say, a coal plant is cooled to a solid dry ice state using excess grid power.
GE banks on LEDs, ditches compact fluorescent bulbs in the US
If you're the sort of person who gets worked up about what goes in your light fixtures, listen up. Starting today, GE is phasing out production of compact fluorescent light bulbs — yeah, those curly ones — in the US in favor of more efficient LED light bulbs. Don't expect those other bulbs to just disappear all at once, though. GE North American lighting GM Daraius Patell said the company plans to end production by the end of the year, but CFLs probably won't be downright scarce until the end of 2017.
Amazon Dash is ready to refill your printer or washing machine
Amazon has been hyping up devices with built-in Dash refill ordering, and the first wave of those devices is finally here. As of today, you can use the Dash Replenishment Service to top up the ink or toner on compatible Brother printers. If you're willing to wait until the end of January, the option will also be available for both a General Electric washing machine and a Gmate blood glucose monitor. Whichever device you get, the only real requirement is that you turn on the service -- Amazon will automatically order resupplies whenever your device is running low.
The After Math: With great power
Well, this week as been rather terrible. With all the death and mayhem both at home and abroad, it's enough to make anyone feel rather helpless. It's times like these that we have to force ourselves to remember there is still a great deal of good left in the world. From life-saving medical advancements and clean energy promises to superior image scanners and kick-assier video games, this week's selection shows that humanity isn't all bad (just mostly).
ICYMI: 7-D heart MRI, astronaut cups and tech tats
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: NASA just shipped the astronauts on the International Space Station a cup that will let them almost drink like earthlings. GE announced scanning tech that would reveal the intricacies of the heart far quicker than conventional MRIs. And temporary tats that can monitor health and beam the information right to a doctor are here, coming to sick little people or elderly folks someday. If you've ever been woken up a couple times a night in a hospital, so a nurse could loudly check your vitals, you know what a win these could be.
GE researchers invent a 7-dimensional heart scanner
While conventional MRI scans can produce highly detailed images of our internal organs, the process can take up to 45 minutes -- not the sort of delay you want when suffering from a heart attack. However, a new scanning technology from GE promises to cut that time by up to 30 minutes and deliver near-real time videos of the heart in unprecedented detail.
Oculus owners can explore a musician's mind with GE's 'Neuro VR'
When we first took a look at GE's Neuro VR project -- which sends you on a journey into a musician's mind -- it wasn't available to the public. Now, all Oculus owners can enjoy the experience that blends data visualization from a real MRI (of Ladytron musician Reuben Wu, who also wrote the music for the project) with immersive entertainment. Virtual reality is easy to pitch as a tool for nobel causes like education and rehabilitation, but it's also just pretty darn cool to experience -- and it's fusion projects like Neuro VR that will increase the format's broad appeal. If our early report whetted your appetite for the slick 90fps experience, you'll likely appreciate the video trailer too, which we've kindly snuck in for you below. Neuro VR is also available via Gear VR and MilkVR.
GE's robotic inspector dives in nuclear containment vessels
Normally when workers at the Edwin Irby Hatch Power Plant in Georgia want to inspect welds on the water-filled containment tank that houses the plant's nuclear fuel, they have stick pole-mounted inspection cameras in there while potentially exposing themselves to radiation. But now that the plant has acquired a swimming inspection-bot developed by GE and Hitachi, plant workers can check the vessel's integrity at any time while avoiding all that radiation.
GE's Neuro VR experience takes you inside a musician's brain
"Welcome to the complex universe inside Reuben's head." A mysterious voice boomed through the headphones. With an Oculus headset strapped on my face for GE's Neuro VR experience, I found myself moving through British musician Reuben Wu's mind. Bright pink globes and interlinked pipelines flashed before me. What was meant to be anatomical, felt more industrial. It was underwhelming. But soon, the globes made way for a dark abyss and I watched as the neurons inside his brain came to life. They gently sparked and burst into little bolts of neon lightning, replicating the magical, interconnected workings of the complex organ.
GE and NFL team up to fund research into concussion detection
General Electric and the National Football League have handed a firm $500,000 to continue research into a portable system that can detect traumatic brain injury. The league has been criticized for its cavalier attitude towards traumatic head injuries and it's thought that more than 25 percent of players will suffer brain problems. That's why BrainScope is working on Ahead 200, a smartphone-connected EEG that is hoped will instantly detect concussion in an athlete to ensure they get on the spot treatment. The company will use the cash to conduct further studies with high-school sports people to ensure that the technology's initial promise works in the field.
Ultrasound technology captures life-like heart images
Traditional ultrasound allows doctors to see patients' hearts, but those photos are nowhere as detailed as they would like. Now, GE Healthcare has developed advanced software called "cSound" for its new cardiovascular ultrasound machines that can render realistic 4D -- that's 3D plus time -- heart images. GE claims cSound is so powerful, it can crunch a full DVD's worth of data in just a second. If it comes across any data it can't process immediately, it stores that info and uses algorithms to analyze it to generate images as close to the real thing as possible. The software also has built-in color maps that assigns specific hues to different tissues.
BP's oil rigs just got their own Internet of Things
BP remains controversial to this day, but this isn't about oil spills or the company's questionable practices to cover them up. Nope, this is about BP and GE teaming up to connect the former's oil wells to the internet. The oil-and-gas giant has connected 650 of its wells to GE's Predix data gathering and analytics platform for the partnership's pilot project. See, each well has up to 30 sensors that measure its pressure and temperature, among other data. Now that the company is using GE's software, it can access those information in real time and even upload data to the Predix cloud for further analysis.
Engadget giveaway: win a smart home starter kit courtesy of Wink!
The changeover to smart homes seems inevitable, but you do have to make a reasonable investment in networked gear or you'll be stuck building a smart(ish) home one lonely, Bluetooth item at a time. This week, though, one lucky Engadget reader is going to get a boost into the future with a selection of Wink and other compatible smart home items. There's a Wink Relay so you don't always have to dig out your phone to control settings and a Wink Hub to unify the system -- compatible with WiFi, Z-wave, ZigBee and Bluetooth frequencies. That will cover the lamp dimmer, LED lightbulbs, connected lock and sensor pack in this prize bundle as well. If you get hooked, it's easy to expand your smart home's abilities by adding more items to the network as you go. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this IoT starter pack courtesy of Wink. Winner: congratulations to Luis B. of North Miami Beach, FL!
