Cody Taylor

Charting the future of cell phone technology, Kyocera recently unveiled a kinetic energy-powered phone that is capable of folding up like a wallet. Designed by industrial designer Susan McKinney, the EOS phone consists of a soft, semi-rigid polymer skin surrounding a flexible low-energy OLED display.

Even before Ubuntu 9.04 arrives April 23, System76 has reason to celebrate. The PC maker — which specializes in Ubuntu systems — grew its first quarter 2009 revenue more than 60 percent compared to 1Q 2008.

Apple has been conducting ongoing research into how to further improve their mobile device interfaces as evidenced by a couple of patent applications published over the past couple of weeks. Two different patent applications reveal a couple of different approaches to movement-aware interfaces found on portable devices.

All of those junk e-mails that clutter up your inbox aren’t just a massive annoyance but a colossal waste of energy. According to a report released this week by computer security company McAfee, spammers last year generated a whopping 62 trillion junk e-mails.

“This is an important case to ensure that browsers can compete on the merits and that consumers have a true choice in the software they use to access the World-Wide Web,” stated ECIS spokesperson Thomas Vinje this morning

snydeq writes “Internal politics and poor leadership on sustainable IT strategies are among the top reasons preventing organizations from practicing proper PC power management — to the tune of .8 billion wasted per year powering unused PCs. According to a recent survey, 42 percent of IT shops do not manage PC energy consumption simply because no one in the organization has been made responsible for doing so — this despite greater awareness of IT power-saving myths, and PC power myths in particular. Worse, 22 percent of IT admins surveyed said that savings from PC power management ‘flow to another department’s budget.’ In other words, resources spent by IT vs. the permanent energy crisis appear to result in little payback for IT.”

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Mordok-DestroyerOfWo writes “If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over. A bill expected to be introduced in the US Congress as early as Monday would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a ‘loophole’ that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes.”

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Mike writes “Kyocera recently unveiled a kinetic energy-powered phone with a flexible OLED display that can be folded up like a wallet. Dubbed the EOS phone, the display unfolds to reveal a wide screen, and shape memory allows the phone’s keys to pop up when in use and blend in with the surface during downtime. Best of all, the phone’s soft, semi-rigid polymer skin is embedded with an array of tiny piezoelectric generators — the more you use the phone, the more it charges!” So far, it’s just a design idea — but a cool one.

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coondoggie writes “Getting spacecraft traveling at hypersonic speeds to slow down and land or achieve a particular orbit on a dime is no easy feat. But researchers are developing a tool that will let engineers model and ultimately build advanced flight control systems that meld balloon and parachute technologies known as a ballute (BALLoon-parachUTE). Basically a ballute is a large, inflatable device that takes advantage of atmospheric drag to decelerate and capture a spacecraft into orbit around a planet, according to NASA who is funding Global Aerospace to build such a tool.”

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