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Raving Rabbid scans and article
Some scans from what we're assuming is the latest issue of Nintendo Power have hit the net and there is a rather lengthy, screen-filled article centered around Rayman and these "raving rabbids" we keep hearing so much about. In the article, it's confirmed that the game plays more like a collection of minigames huddled around one central platforming theme, as opposed to a game that is nothing but platforming. Ancel feels that taking this approach allows him to maximize the different uses of the Wiimote. The article also begins to mention what we are assuming is some ability to share trial times and records online, but the page continuing that paragraph seems to be missing from the spread.[Via Go Nintendo]
Just add water: NTT DoCoMo to demo new fuel cell charger
Countrywide 3G coverage: check. Plethora of gorgeous 3G phones in all shapes, sizes, and platforms: check. 4G development well underway: check. Dismal standby times: check. With battery tech having largely stagnated over the last few years, Japan's NTT DoCoMo has turned their attention to powering all that buttery, broadband goodness via more creative means, showing their direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) recharger last year. The DMFC wasn't a bad first effort, but how about shrinking it by a factor of four, doubling the output, and swapping methanol for water? That's what they've managed to do through a partnership with Aquafairy Co., pumping out a prototype polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) that rocks 800mAh at 3.6V -- enough juice to recharge your average FOMA handset in the same time as a wall wart. The new unit gets shown off this week at Wireless Japan 2006 with production plans slated for next year; availability outside Japan is (as usual) an open question, but with battery life falling to under a day on some modern smartphones, we can only hope manufacturers' hands are going to be forced on this one.[Via The Raw Feed]
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TV standby buttons to be outlawed
The British government is fed up with standby mode; according to a recent energy review, devices left in standby account for 8% of their annual energy usage. In an attempt to curb waste, combat rising energy costs, and apparently annoy citizens, the government is set to outlaw switches that allow TVs, DVD players, and who knows what else to go on hiatus -- mandatory redesigns to remove sleep functions from numerous devices are supposedly on the docket. Whatever comes of this, keep a close eye on the next Windows Update: you might just reboot to find your precious "Stand By" option MIA.
E-rope: saving the planet one socket at a time
As we all know, the biggest problem with conventional power strips are the unconventional plugs with whom the ol' girl mates. These boys come in all sizes and shapes resulting in at least one or two unusable sockets due to overlap. Well no more dear reader, at least not if the 2006 IDEA award winning design concept from the kids over at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute is taken from art to part anytime soon. The E-rope, designed by Chul Min Kang and Sung Hun Lim, is a modular power strip which can be twisted about to better accommodate cable gore with large, bulky plugs. Worried about vampire devices quietly leaching power off the mains? No problem, just give the socket section a 90-degree twist to strangle-off the current. Of course, while you're down there you could just unplug the damn thing but that's just an inconvenient truth, eh?[Via inhabitat]
Use your Apple power adapter duck with other adapters
macosxhints brings us another juicy tid-bit of information, this time pertaining to a sneaky way to save space when packing all your electronics for a trip. When I travel for more than a few days, I pack 3 power-bricks that all use the same standard two pronged power interface that is so common with consumer electronics. Rogue Monk figured out that the Apple power duck (no, I'm not sure if thats the technical term, but it works for me), that little adapter head with the flip out metal tabs that you find on your iPod adapter, 'Book adapter, and Airport Express will fit in this standard plug. Now, I'm not sure what one does if they want to use more than one of the adapters they packed at a time, but it's a cool idea none-the-less.
Wii power supply revealed
It looks like Nintendo will be sticking with the power brick they provided with the GameCube, or something similarly sized. The grey color looks better than the black of the GameCube, I think, and regardless of it all, at least we need not worry that it will cause a hernia when trying to lift it. Thankfully, it looks like the cord is longer on the Wii's power supply, also.Honestly, I'm wondering why this didn't come up during E3. Also, why didn't I think of taking a picture of the Wii's power supply? With the recent Wiimote shots from the Spanish event and naughty peek under the flap, the Wii has been enjoying the attention of the paparazzi lately.
Black DS Lite's flesh compared to PSP, DS Phat
Spudstercool, the tipster that sent us shots of the black DS Lite yesterday, was busy last night taking a few more photos of his black DS Lite alongside his PSP and now discarded DS Phat. This thing is hawt. Some answers to questions in the earlier comments thread: The DS Phat goes for around £70 on eBay.co.uk although GAME stores will give you £40 towards a DS Lite if you give them your DS Phat. The North American release date for the black DS Lite is, as yet, unannounced. You can import a U.K. DS Lite to your country without worrying about region encoding for games, but you'll still need to figure out a way of converting the UK DS Lite's 3-pin 230V/50Hz power adapter to your local mains power.
InFlight USB Power Unit uses audio jack to give you juice
Unless you're one of the few, the proud who not only can manage to find a seat on an airplane with a power outlet, but can remember your adapter as well, you're probably like us and SOL when it comes to battery powered devices on long flights. That's why we're pretty stoked to see this InFlight USB Power Unit. The concept is pretty simple, but fairly ingenious. You just stick the mini jack of the Power Unit into your seat's headphone port and crank the volume. The device trickle charges for 3-5 minutes, and then can power a connected USB device for a minute, after which the cycle starts all over again. The $35 charger will work with small devices like an iPod, PDA or cellphone, and you can get the Power Gomadic TipExchange Bundle for $50, plus $5 for extra tips, to work with 700 different devices. We'd love to see if this thing can keep up with an iPod's rapid battery depletion, but you know the real reason we want this thing is to power our deco lights for a bit of home-away-from-home on those long flights.[Via DailyTech]
Energizer's Energi To Go charges gadgets with AAs
We'll sheepishly admit to being among the reported 20 percent of cellphone users whose phones conk out at least once a week (in fact, it just happened today), so you can bet we'll be first in line to pick up one of Energizer's new AA-based cellphone chargers when they hit stores on September 1st. Eschewing proper spelling for catchy branding, the Energi To Go line will come in numerous configurations to support a claimed 100 handsets covering most major manufacturers, with each package containing a special tip for individual models. Energizer promises that its e2 batteries will enable most dead phones to make a call in just 30 seconds (you can use regular alkalines, but of course Energizer recommends its own pricey products), with smartphones requiring several minutes to suck up enough juice for calling. Along with the $20 cellphone version, Energizer will also be releasing a $30, four-battery model to charge DAPs and portable gaming devices, with iGo-developed tips available for iPods, PSPs, Nintendo DSes, and other small gadgets you see mentioned with regularity on these pages.[Via Mobiledia, thanks Ryan]
Kutaragi hints at external power supply
Ken Kutaragi talked with a Japanese website recently about most of the things you've probably been wondering. He spoke about keeping costs down, heating issues, the Cell and even hinted at including an external power supply for the PlayStation 3.For starters, he said that reducing the size of the Cell in the future will allow for lower costs (as we've heard already). But he also said that power consumption will be key: "If we can't reduce [power consumption] we will never be able to make the PS3 cheap and small." Well then, for the love of all that's economical, please manage that consumption!When talking about heating more extensively, he said that "the power supply could almost be sold separately." So if they decide to go with that, expect a power brick, except of even bigger proportions than what you're used to (like the 360's). With a console the size of the PlayStation 3, it's going to need all the juice it can get.
APC's Mobile Power Pack delivers juice via USB
Add the Mobile Power Pack from APC to the growing list of accessories able to provide your portable gadgets with precious extra hours of runtime. Promising up to 55 more hours of juice for your iPod nano or eight to ten hours for your Treo, the MPP UPB10 sports a high-capacity, user-replaceable lithium polymer battery that can power and charge nearly any device with a USB or mini-USB jack. If you don't have the time/inclination to build your own solution, this may be seventy bucks well spent.
NVIDIA denies enthusiasts the Quad-SLI goodness
Techreport has posted a review of nVIDIA's latest dual-GPU graphics card, the GeForce 7950 GX2, which also happens to be capable ("capable" being the key word) of Quad-SLI. You won't be surprised to read that this card is fast when compared to its predecessors. It positively destroyed all the other single-GPU cards the Techreport guys tested it against; in Battlefield 2 the GX2 managed "twice the average frame rate of the GeForce 7900 GT." As you probably already know, this kind of performance doesn't come cheap. NVIDIA expects the 7950 GX2 to cost around $599 to $649, and that's before you check your power bill: in tests the card drew 133 Watts at idle and a whopping 237 Watts under load. In comparison to the card's main single-GPU rival, ATI's X1900, the 7950 featured similar levels of power consumption, size and heat output but performed significantly faster in all the benchmarks. The 7950's dual-GPU solution also surpasses the performance of traditional SLI configurations like dual 7900 GTs, with the added advantage of being compatible with any PCI-e motherboard chipset. Strangely, the biggest problem that the review found had nothing to do with the card itself. Although the 7950 GX2 is perfectly capable of being partnered up with another card to make a Quad-SLI system, nVIDIA refuses to support this type of configuration, citing the "complexity" involved. The only way you'll be able to get a Quad-SLI setup is by either hacking two cards together or by purchasing a (some say overpriced) system from Alienware, Falcon Northwest or Dell.The company went as far as refusing to supply the website with a second review card. As the reviewer points out "when explaining to your best customers why they can't purchase two of your $649 video cards for themselves without also buying a $5K PC built by someone else, it's probably not good idea to use a shaky excuse with an embedded insult."
Nintendo Power dishes out Phantom Hourglass info
Some new information on the upcoming stylus-drive Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has emerged via the latest issue of Nintendo Power. N-Sider has taken the time to condense the information for those lacking the fortitude to actually go out into the world and purchase the magazine, or even lack the strength to a wield a pen and fill out the requisite information to subscribe. Out of the repeated information, a few new items are able to be extracted.The game supposedly features one primary dungeon that Link will have to navigate, yet will become impassable to him at times, which will require him to venture into other minor dungeons to acquire an item of some sort that will allow him to progress. What's also interesting is that the dungeons will also be home to what are being dubbed "chasers." These enemies are invincible, mercilessly pursuing Link upon the mere sight of him.
Russian scientists create the stellar battery?
There aren't a lot of details on this one, but according to the AFP news agency, Russian scientists have developed a sort of super battery that can not only harness solar power, but star power as well. Yeah, you heard us. Valentin Samoilov of the Dubna Nuclear Institute is quoted as saying that they "have successfully created a new substance... thanks to which this battery can work on earth, independently of meteorological conditions, using solar and stellar energy." Samoilov also added that the new battery would be cheaper than a traditional solar panel, which kinda started to spike our fantastical-meters. Another report from ITAR-TASS describes this new substance as a "heteroelectric" but doesn't elaborate any further; we'll need a few more deets before we place our pre-pre-orders, but anything that supposes to save us both power and money by harnessing the power of distant stellar bodies has definitely got our immediate attention.[Via Futurismic]
Widget Watch: iStat pro and nano updated
Two of my favorite system monitor widgets have been updated: iStat pro 2.3 and iStat nano 1.5. The main new additions are drive filtering, as in: CDs, DVDs and .DMGs will no longer appear in the drive list, and support has been included for MacBook Pro batteries. Unfortunately, it looks like the temp and fan monitors don't support the MacBook Pros just yet.Both of these widgets are available from iSlayer.net, apparently for free, as I can't even find a donation link. Also: their download links do point to these new versions, so don't pay any attention to the versions listed on their site, as it seems they haven't updated it to reflect these new additions just yet.
Now microbes can create energy, too
We assume that, off in some lab, down in a petri dish, there's a serious grudge match going on. How else to explain the fact that, mere weeks after we first heard that scientists were training viruses to create electricity, there's an announcement that another lab-coated team is coaxing microbes to produce power as well? This time, the action is at Ghent University in Belgium, where researchers have found that certain microbes are able to break down organic matter in water and produce electricity in the process. One species in particular, Brevibacillus agri, turned out to be particularly adept at turning sludge into juice, and may someday form the basis of organic fuel cells. If the virii don't get there first, that is.
Nintendo Power: Downhill Jam confirmed
In the upcoming June issue of Nintendo Power Magazine, Nintendo Power Managing Editor Scott Pelland, in his preview titled We Love 8-bit, said "other June highlights include Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference, [and] the announcement that Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is coming to Revolution and initial details about the game,"In checking Nintendo Power's website, there's not much beyond the headline of "A Tony Hawk Revolution," the inclusion of a preview for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and in-depth coverage of New Super Mario Bros.[Via Revolution Report]
Scotland to get medieval on zombie gadgets
Remember that report in late 2004 that stated that as much as 10% of our energy draw could come from aggregate power use of devices in standby? Well, Scotland's mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore. ScottishPower, Scotland's biggest power company, is calling for standby-free devices -- you know, like back in the good old days when an off device meant the device was off. In fact, according ScottishPower, gadgets in standby cost Scottish consumers over £62 million (about $108.5 million US) and produce 360,000 tons of CO2 annually. Of course the influence on the global consumer electronics market ScottishPower wields is, um, less than knightly, but if more power companies and government energy conservation programs (like EnergyStar) in more countries get behind ScottishPower, we might just be able to slow down this global warming thing (a little) with some clear(er) conscience devices.
DIY Kyoto's Wattson
If you haven't been conserving energy like any good citizen of the world -- carpooling, turning lights off when you leave the room, keeping your defibrillator unplugged -- perhaps it's about time you took your energy output into your own hands. We've seen juice-monitoring solutions before, but the Wattson definitely takes the cake for style and simplicity, showing a running total of wattage output represented in a digital readout or ambient light -- it can also connect to your PC and record usage patterns. Unfortunately you're going to have to spend £350 ($600 US) to get one, and that's if you're lucky enough to snag one of the limited run of 250 they manufactured. Elementary, my dear... ahem.[Via Inhabitat]
Apple and Intel weren't kidding about "low power"
Tom Yager over at InfoWorld has performed some power tests on a 20" Dual Core iMac to discover that these machines in fact do not meet Apple's bold low-power specs - they surpass them. Apple lists the maximum power consumption of a 20" Dual Core iMac at 120 watts, while Tom's tests - even with both 2.0 GHz cores maxed at 100% CPU usage, 1 GB RAM, WiFi, BT, 128 MB graphics card and (oh yea) a 20" LCD - found the iMac drawing a steady 95 watts of power. Assuming that the typical LCD draws around 32 watts of power alone, that means the iMac - even at full throttle - is running as 63 watt personal computer. By comparison, Intel's old Pentium 4 architecture that still ships in many computers needs anywhere from 300-400 watt power supplies - and that's just for the computer itself, sans-display. I should know, I used to build them for a living.Ultimately, this should boil down to great news for the computing industry. Tom Yager's even so excited about the results that he's issued a friendly challenge to the PC market to find a machine that can claim the same stats. The one question that still bothers me about these new chips, however: why hasn't Apple placed at least an estimated battery life rating on the MacBook Pro?[via MacSlash]
