- Switched On: The Year of Reversal
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Back in 2005, Switched On dubbed its first full year of existence “The Year of the Switch” as IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo, Apple announced plans to leave the PowerPC platform for Macs and Microsoft moved to PowerPC processors for the XBox 360. But the dramatic reversals we saw in 2011 made even some of those decisions look tame by comparison.
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Switched On: The Year of Reversal originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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- Apple’s Newsstand application aiding digital magazine sales, says ‘I told you so’
There’s no doubt that the digital magazine’s road to success has been a bumpy one. The original — and still the main — idea was to push content creators and publishers forward in the paperless era, but there’s been many doubters and fallen soldiers in the process. While Apple hasn’t been the only outfit looking to bring the magazine to the small screen, the introduction of the Newsstand app in iOS 5 aimed to give digitized publications a place to shine on their own. According to AllThingsD, the shelf isn’t just a real estate hog on your springboard, it’s actually helping to boost sales; Popular Science alone has seen an uptick in subscriptions on the order of 11,000 since the app launched, and signs of slowdown are nowhere to be spotted. PopSci’s results may not be found in every publishing house, but it’s as solid a sign as any that the tactic may be working. Hit the source link for that whiz-bang chart action.Apple’s Newsstand application aiding digital magazine sales, says ‘I told you so’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
- Notre Dame heralds paint-on solar cells, wants to smear your home with its goop (video)
Leave it to the Fighting Irish to take a stab at solving the world’s energy woes. Notre Dame researchers have successfully developed solar cells that can be easily painted on to any conductive surface. Imagine, for a moment, applying this solution to your home rather than attaching solar panels to the roof. The paint mixture incorporates quantum dots of titanium dioxide, which is then coated with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide, and is then suspended in mixture of water and alcohol to create a spreadable compound that’s capable of generating electricity. While its efficiency isn’t currently much to crow home about — which hovers around one-percent — scientists are now actively pursuing ways to improve this aspect while making a more stable compound. Most importantly, the paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities, which suggests that even if efficiency remains in the doldrums, it may be a very worthwhile pursuit. Touchdown Jesus is already watching the video after the break.
Notre Dame heralds paint-on solar cells, wants to smear your home with its goop (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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