sustainability
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Adidas gets creative with shoes made from recycled ocean plastic
There's a strong momentum behind the Adidas brand right now. That's largely due to the increasing popularity of the company's running and lifestyle products, with Kanye West's Yeezy line being chief among them. Still, amid its flourishing business, Adidas is spending resources on experimental designs that probably won't have mass-market appeal. Case in point: the sneaker collaboration with Parley, which was done in honor of World Oceans Day last month.
Apple's 'Liam' robot takes apart your iPhone for recycling
Apple has come under fire for its use of conflict minerals in iPhones (so have many other device manufacturers, to be fair). Today at its "Loop You In" event, the company revealed how it aims to reduce its environmental impact. It comes by way of "Liam," a robot that disassembles old iPhones into their core components. The tungsten from the device's alert module will become a cutting tool, for example, while the silver contained therein is used for solar panels -- possibly including the ones powering the company's Thailand operations.
Trippy exhibit uses Kinect to send kids to the wilderness
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-351325{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-351325, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-351325{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-351325").style.display="none";}catch(e){}"Whoaaa," said a child as he walked through the doors around noon. His eyes widened and he picked up his pace at the sight of Connected Worlds, a series of stunning landscapes projected on giant walls at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. The light from the 3,000-square-foot installation illuminated his face in hues of green and blue. At the center of the room, surrounded by screens, a couple dozen kids ran from one magical habitat to another, chasing fantastical creatures and digital streams in the interactive space.
Apple's new environmental initiative focuses on China's forests
Apple's been vocal about trying to get its global operations running entirely on renewable energy, but the company is now looking to reduce its impact on paper, wood and similar fibers too. Outlining several environmental initiatives for China, the company announced a multi-year project with the World Wildlife Fund to increase responsibly managed forests. The program will cover up to 1 million acres of forest that provides materials for paper and wood products -- including Apple's own packaging materials. According to the press release, it wants to achieve a "net-zero impact on the world's supply of sustainable virgin fiber".
Milan building will pioneer smog-eating cement
When the Milan Expo opens next year, the centerpiece building will be a masterpiece of sustainable engineering. Designed around the idea of an urban forest, the new Palazzo Italia will generate its own electricity, and will be clad in materials specifically designed to clean the surrounding air. The designers, Nemesi & Partners, are using photocatalytic cement - basically, concrete that's been mixed with titanium oxide. When the building material comes into contact with ultraviolet light, the titanium oxide reacts with nitrogen dioxide in the air, converting the pollutant to a salt that can easily be washed away. The building will open in time for the Expo's launch next May, and we're already planning to book a trip over so that we can spend a day sniffing the air next to the building.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Anything except solo top in League of Legends
It's really no surprise that I'm not an amazing Summoner's Rift player. I feel like I perform decently as support, do fairly well as jungler and ADC, and play solo mid somewhat poorly. Aside from those roles, there's one I haven't talked about, and that's solo top. The solo top lane is the bruiser lane in League of Legends. It's most typical to see melee fighters and tanks there, and it tends to be a little more chaotic than the other lanes. I dislike playing solo top largely because it is the one lane where players are really encouraged to fight each other, and we all know that I prefer to farm peacefully and dislike being aggressive. However, for whatever reason, I have a lot of successes there. I'm nowhere near as good in top lane as in bottom lane (in either role), but it's a place I can go and not feel like dead weight.
IBM announces Smarter Energy Research Institute, aims to improve energy grids (video)
IBM is no stranger to energy concerns, and now its founded the Smarter Energy Research Institute in partnership with Canada's Hydro-Québec, the Netherlands' Alliander, and the US' DTE Energy to help build a better grid. The partnership will leverage Big Blue's computing and analytic oomph to help the utility companies predict and detect anomalies within infrastructure, identify areas of the grid that need to be developed, integrate new energy sources and increase efficiency among other improvements. What's this mean for you? For one, power outages should be less frequent and shorter lived when they do occur. Thanks to the distributed nature of the project, research will be spread throughout IBM's worldwide network of research labs. If you'd like to hear more details straight from the folks involved, hit the jump for a video and the full press release.
Researchers create super-efficient microbial fuel cell, dream of selling excess electricity
Recycling wastewater to generate energy has turned up noses before, but researchers at Oregon State University have developed a microbial fuel cell that can create 10 to 50, or even 100 times more electricity per volume than similar technologies. After refining the tech for several years using new materials, techniques and selecting better microbes, the team can now extract two kilowatts per cubic meter of refuse. As bacteria oxidizes organic matter, electrons -- rather than the hydrogen or methane that other methods rely upon -- are produced and run from an anode to a cathode within the device to create an electric current. Once implementation costs are cut down, the technology could power waste treatment plants and enable them to sell excess electricity. The contraption isn't just for processing what comes out of the porcelain throne -- it can also utilize materials ranging from grass straw to beer brewing byproducts. For now, however, the cell will tackle a pilot study before it inches closer to your local brewery or water treatment facility.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Balancing League of Legends' offense and defense items
Last week, we talked specifically about building League of Legends' attack damage champions and the multiplicative effects the various bonuses have on these heroes. Building attack items is fairly cut and dried. The good attack damage items (IE, BT, PD, LW) are common to most pure AD builds, and there's not a lot of reason to heavily deviate from building them. Defense is another story, however. In Dominion, defense is more heavily itemized than in Summoner's Rift simply because irregular engagements happen constantly. On Summoners' Rift, there is more structure to specific engagements, and a single champion getting spotted out of place either results in an epic bait or a brutal gank. In those situations, defense doesn't help much. However, it's important to itemize defense in any game mode, and in Dominion, it is outright critical. Building only damage items will cause your champion to get melted by enemy attacks very early on, while building defense allows you to play more aggressively and capitalize on damage opportunities with less risk. Building defense is also important for bruisers who must close the gap to melee range, which inevitably means taking more damage than normal. Want to know all about the best time to start building tank? Read on!
AT&T announces home automation platform, eco-ratings for consumer devices
Today, AT&T revealed that it's working on a new home monitoring and automation platform known as Digital Life. While it'll be marketed toward service providers, the IP-based system will allow business and residential users alike to remotely monitor cameras, lighting, thermostats, motion detectors, window and door sensors, along with a litany of other devices. It'll be demonstrated next week in Barcelona as part of the GSM Association's Connected Home experience. As you'd expect, we'll be there to bring you a peek of AT&T's handiwork.The company has also announced that, later this year, customers will find eco-rating labels on AT&T-branded mobile devices. With this initiative, shoppers may evaluate criteria such as a product's energy efficiency, the percentage of recycled materials used in manufacture, and the inclusion of metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury. These factors and more will be presented as a composite score that evaluates the sustainability attributes of each device -- think of it as an easy way to get your green in gear. You'll find the PR for both announcements after the break.
Gameforge laying off 100 employees, canceling at least two games
Another month, another round of MMORPG-related layoffs. This time the bad news comes courtesy of Gameforge, a German browser MMO maker responsible for Gates of Andaron as well as the upcoming Star Trek: Infinite Space and the European version of Wizard101. Gamasutra reports that Gameforge is realigning its studio to the tune of 100 layoffs and the cancellation of at least two games, with Hellbreed and Mythos on the chopping block and Star Trek: Infinite Space not far behind "if it cannot find a co-publisher." The company will do away with its web- and client-based games divisions and restructure itself around separate development and publishing arms. The news comes on the heels of layoff announcements by CCP, NCsoft, and GamersFirst last month.
Biodiesel can be harvested from leftover food, kids no longer have to clear their plates
The best dishes always contain 30 per cent fat minimum. This doesn't merely ensure a level of hearty satisfaction (Windows 7 Whopper anybody?), it also means the leftovers contain plenty of the greasy good stuff, which can be cleverly harvested and metamorphosed into biodiesel. The technology behind this process has been around for a while, but now British firm Greenergy claims it is ramping up commercial production. The firm's CEO reckons each of his new £50million ($80million) biodiesel plants will digest a sufficient volume of waste pies, fries and taramasalata to "fill out a cruise ship every year". Mmmm, pie.
Microsoft unites with former exec in building a 'smart city' in Portugal
If you want better cities, goes the theory herein, you'll have to start at their very foundations. Steve Lewis, ex-Microsoftie and current CEO of Living PlanIT, has a vision for how to make our cities smarter and more sustainable, and it starts literally at ground level, with the installation of smart sensors into buildings as they're being built. The appeal of his company's ideas has already attracted some tech luminaries as partners, Cisco being among them, and now Microsoft has also been signed up -- to provide the cloud framework required to keep all those sensors talking with its Azure platform. Paredes, a Portuguese municipality, will play host to one of the first such projects, eventually providing homes for nearly a quarter of a million people and costing a staggering €10 billion ($14.1b) to complete. To understand the synergistic benefits of having your life monitored by an omniscient Urban Operating System sentinel, skip past the break for a press release and explanatory video.
Range anxiety gets real: Nissan Leaf drivers run out of juice on the road
Fears of range anxiety have loomed over EVs since their inception, and those fears were validated courtesy of a couple unfortunate souls whose Nissan Leafs apparently died on them while driving. The drivers put their faith in the Leaf's remaining range calculation, and were sorely disappointed when the car's dash said they had enough juice to go 10+ miles, but the batteries had other ideas. Turns out, the Leaf needs some time to get to know you and your lead foot before it can accurately determine the bounds of its own range. Nissan sent engineers out to check the cars and found no technical faults -- but one driver reckons the cold sapped some of the batteries' power (a theory that Mini E drivers would disagree with) and the car's software didn't factor that in when making its range estimates. Who's to blame? We suspect that while there was some user error, Nissan should rework the Leaf's software to improve range calculation -- else we may be talking about the death of EVs instead of internal combustion.
BMW puts a range-extending ICE in its Megacity EV, provides tonic for your range anxiety
When we first left the safe confines of our parents' home, many of us experienced separation anxiety. As we grow older, we suffer from disconnection anxiety -- and no, iPhone owners, that doesn't refer to your fear of dropped calls. Now, BMW is combating our range anxiety, or fear of being stranded when your car's batteries run out of juice, by putting an internal combustion range extender in its Megacity EV. BMW is taking a page out of the Chevy Volt's playbook by placing a small ICE in its EV that doubles the range of the vehicle from 50 to 100 miles -- all in an effort to assuage the (irrational?) fears of its potential US customers. The gasoline generator will be an option for those who wish to venture beyond the city limits, so if you want to keep it totally green you can still do so. Our Bavarian friends won't be bringing the Megacity to market until 2013, so that should give you enough time to decide if you want to hasten the death of the ICE or prolong its life a bit longer.
World's first Nissan Leaf delivered -- it's black, like the future of gas-powered cars
Somebody at Nissan knows how to keep to a calendar, it seems, as the promised December US deliveries of the Leaf began over this weekend. A big deal was made out of the first one's arrival, a shiny black number purchased by Olivier Chalouhi from the San Francisco Bay Area, which will be accompanied by Leafs landing across the other launch markets of Arizona, Southern California, Oregon, Seattle, and Tennessee. A second batch of Nissan's all-electric hatchbacks is coming on December 20th, with the company promising a nationwide US launch for 2012. In the meantime, Hawaii and Texas will be the next locales to join the fun early in 2011 and reservations will be reopened soon thereafter. Sadly, some "additional markets" are expected to be pushed into the latter half of the year -- guess Nissan knows how to use a calendar to mark off its delays too.
Nissan New Mobility Concept EV seats two, looks to a more sustainable future (video)
Nissan's Leaf may be the company's one-size-fits-all EV play for the mainstream market, but the company is apparently not content with just the one horse in its electric stable. Unveiled today at its Yokohama HQ, the Nissan New Mobility Concept is a teeny tiny two-person transporter that aims to solve the problems of commuting in high-density urban and tourist environments. You'll notice there's only one seat in the image above and videos after the break, but we're still talking about a proposed design here rather than the finished article. Range is set at 100km (62 miles) and maximum speed is 75kph (47mph), both of which should betray the little doorless vehicle's humble ambitions. Skip past the break to see it gliding around soundlessly inside Nissan's vast halls.
BMW Megacity EV gets sketched out in more detail
Admit it, you've been desperately refreshing this page in the simple hope of learning more about BMW's first all-electric vehicle. Originally announced with nary a visual clue to its appearance, the Megacity has now been fleshed out in the above futuristic sketch, which gives us an inkling of the car's design direction. Don't expect it to have too much bearing on the final product, though -- we do anticipate the real deal to have, y'know, tyres. BMW is also putting together an all-new chassis specifically for this battery-powered city transporter, and has already begun crash-testing the carbon fiber-equipped shells. In spite of its compact dimensions, the Megacity is being described as a "premium sustainability" vehicle, meaning its 2013 launch will be relevant to a somewhat select group of people.
Mark Cuban foretells Netflix demise, sees a future filled with on-demand video
To call Mark Cuban eccentric would be akin to describing the ocean as wet, but what's not so often acknowledged about the Dallas Mavericks owner is the sharp mind and commercial nous that have gotten him to the position of hiring and firing millionaire ball players. One of Mark's recent blog posts, entitled "The future of TV ... is TV," got the attention of NewTeeVee, who sought to debunk his contention that VOD (video on demand) services from cable operators would become the primary means by which we consume digital media in the future. They cite the growing success story of Netflix's digital distribution model, as well as the 12 million hours of March Madness video consumed via CBS' web portal, in arguing that web streaming is indeed the great new hotness. Mark's response tackles Netflix head on, and points out that the company's rapid growth is about to start working against it, with movie studios and other content providers likely to jack up prices and demand further concessions from the streaming service as it turns into a real competitor to cable companies. According to him, Netflix is presently getting its content at prices that are unsustainable, and his prognostication is that content owners seeking bigger levies -- together with the expansion of VOD choice, which he sees as foolproof compared to the overwhelming complexity that web streaming entails -- will lead to Netflix passing costs on to the consumers and losing out to cable operators. Irrespective of whether you agree with him, the whole exchange is well worth a read. Use the links below to get filled in.
AT&T moves toward eco-friendly packaging, earns our approbation
Notice to all gadget makers and vendors: if you reduce your packaging and engage in environmentally conscious behavior, you'll get free press out of it and positive brand awareness to boot. Take for example AT&T's newly announced design specifications for its own-brand phone accessories and packaging requirements for cellphone makers. Both are geared toward minimizing the surplus of paper and plastic that tends to come with the purchase of your device, and both will require the use of recycled and recyclable materials. AT&T expects to save 200 tons of excess materials by the end of 2010, which is very encouraging, but also disturbing in that it lets us know we were wasting 200 tons each year that could, presumably, have been saved by some sager planning. Anyway, better late than never -- and guess what, it will probably end up costing the company less than those inane advert attacks on Verizon.
