titanium
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South Koreans make hydrogen solid for a brighter fuel cell future
While storing hydrogen as a solid by fusing it to titanium isn't an entirely new idea, a team of South Korean scientists look to be the first to find a reliable and efficient method of doing so. The solid-state storage of hydrogen has long been a goal of fuel cell systems, since it does away with those nasty explosive notions of storing hydrogen at a high pressure and low temperature. Apparently the new method being unveiled by the team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology not only manages to bind hydrogen with titanium into the form of a stable solid that has much less requirements for pressure or temperature regulation, but it takes "absolutely no energy input" to store as such, and "relatively small amounts of energy" to extract. The process still needs further testing, but hopes are high for this discovery to lead toward fuel cell vehicles that are a bit less of a bomb-on-wheels, and more efficient to obtain energy for -- which was the idea all along, right?
DirecTV Titanium: the ultimate couch potato package
So if you like watching TV -- and we mean really, really like watching TV -- then DirecTV has a new offer that will fill your set with more content in a week than you could hope to watch in a lifetime -- but it's just a little bit more expensive than the company's regular service packages. For an eye-popping $7,500-a-year (that's about $625/month, or at least six times what you're currently paying), the company is offering membership into the so-called DirecTV Titanium club, which basically gives the wealthy couch potato access to every single bit the satellite provider streams down from up above. That's right, instead of picking up a new KIA, you could be watching every DirecTV channel (including all of the HD stations), every broadcast sporting event, and every Pay-Per-View movie -- even all the dirty ones -- not to mention the fact that you get up to ten HD DVRs to situate around your mansion and 24/7 concierge service (that means they send someone to your house to operate the remote for you). While this package certainly isn't for everyone, if you're already getting all the DirecTV content anyway (read: you're a pirate using illegal access cards), soon you'll have a better way to do it (ETA: June 28th) that won't result in a hefty fine and an embarrassing summons showing up at your door.[Via HDBeat]
DirecTV Titanium: $7,500 per year/$625 a month
If you have money and want every channel, every movie, every pay-per-view event, every adult channel and every HDTV station, you might want to check out DirecTV Titanium. If you don't have the cash to drop down $7,500 a year, which works out to be $625 a month, you can still read on to see how the elite lives. DirecTV is launching their Titanium service that will give subscribers literally everything they they have to offer including 10 HD DVRs and a 24/7 concierge service. The service isn't currently available but if you fill out the form on the website, someone will contact you when it is.Anyone willing to drop that kind of cash for everything that is DirecTV? We are sure some of you are.[via Digg]
Audio-Technica's titanium earbuds
We thought crafting your devices from aircraft-grade titanium was, like, so 2001, but Audio-Technica went and proved us wrong with the release of their deep metallic toned titanium ATH-CM700Ti (left), and ATH-CM700, fashioned from aluminum in coppery brown or silver (right). We're not sure what kind of abuse you're putting your earbuds through that would require such exotic materials (and we might remind you to better mind the abuse you're subjecting your eardrums to on the daily), but if you're over Japan way they can be had for ¥17,325 and ¥12,600, respectively (about $155 and $113 US)
Lenovo's Z-series ThinkPads to get Core Duo options in the Z61t and Z61m
If you've been bugging your corporate IT department for a new laptop, try to hold off a few more days before making the final push, because Lenovo is set to upgrade its Z-series line of ThinkPad notebooks with dual-core processor options on Tuesday. Both the 14.1-inch Z60t and 15.4-inch Z60m will be bumped to the Z61t and Z61m, respectively, and offer three varieties of Core Duo procs (maxing out at the 2.0GHz T2500) or two flavors each of the Core Solo or Celeron M chips. All the other specs on both models seem to remain unchanged: you still get WXGA widescreen displays (at the minimum), integrated graphics (along with the option of upgrading to ATI Radeon cards in the m), 256MB of RAM to start, your choice of hard drive capacities and speeds, all three 802.11 standards, optional Bluetooth, and of course, the option of built-in EV-DO which have made the Z-series so popular. No word yet on exact pricing for these new models, but you can expect them to start around the same price points as the Z60 models did when they were first released.
