Filed under: Transportation
Never heard of Fresno-Yosemite International? Thanks to this low-key airport now housing the largest solar installation of any airport in the entire United States, you have now. Arriving passengers will notice the panels a half-mile out, as they cover about seven football fields worth of land and will eventually result in taxpayer savings of $11 million. The 2-megawatt farm has been churning out clean energy for the past month, and electricity from the installation helps to run “everything from airport lighting to tower communications.” FYI’s aviation director even noted that it would “produce about 40% of its annual electrical requirement.” If you’re worried that other locales won’t follow suit, don’t be — a similar, albeit smaller system is already in the works at DEN.
[Via Gadling, thanks Trowa]
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Filed under: Gaming
It’s neck-and-neck but Nintendo looks to have just slipped past Microsoft in terms of total US sales for current generation game consoles. What’s more, it’s pulling away with a 3:1 sales lead for the month of June. NPD Group reports more than 666,000 Wii consoles were sold in June compared to 405,500 PlayStation 3s and 219,800 Xbox 360s. That makes for a total of 10.9 million Wiis sold in the US since it launched in November of 2006. Impressive. Even more so considering that Microsoft had a one year head-start to reach a second place position of about 10.4 million US console sales.
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Filed under: Cellphones
We know it’s been a whirlwind week of either: a) patiently sitting outside your local Apple store, b) losing touch with family, friends, and significant others while buried knee-deep in your new phone / firmware, or c) desperately trying to ignore the iPhone. But it’s time to come up for air and take stock. We’re all aware that things didn’t go quite as planned with Apple’s trifecta (iPhone 3G, firmware 2.0, MobileMe) launch last week, and we’re just starting to see the fallout from last Friday’s debacle.
The most prevalent complaint we’ve been hearing from users concerns ongoing issues with the phone’s new firmware, which has delivered on a lot of its promises, yet is also exhibiting frustrating bugs that make us think this one needed a little more time in the oven. In particular, we’ve experienced — and have been assailed with reports about — painful lag times when typing, as well as choppy, clunky behavior while scrolling through or searching contacts, calls which can’t be answered, and even outright crashes while receiving a call. Some owners have encountered repeated forced quits while trying to use the App Store, while a group of our editors vented about an SMS issue which not only grinds the phone’s performance to a halt, but makes the keyboard inaccessible altogether.
When you toss in problems other users are having with email, MobileMe syncing, and assorted minor kinks (trouble rotating Safari anyone?), it seems obvious that there’s cruft beneath this firmware creating hiccups in usability. Coupled with 3G reception concerns, the company’s continuing struggle to get MobileMe working as advertised, and rumors that 2.0.1 is already in the works, you get the impression that everyone is looking for a little relief here… Apple and its customers alike.
So, how’s your first week been?
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Last week, DISH Network announced plans to launch 17 national high definition (HD) channels on August 1st, surpassing its goal of reaching 100 national channels by the end of the year. In January, DISH Network announced plans to increase its national HD channel count to 100 in 2008. The new channels will further DISH Network’s [...]
Filed under: Laptops
Sony really likes the Xross Media Bar. So much, in fact, that the PS3-like interface has appeared in its Bravia LCD TVs for some time, and now it’s putting that same interface theme in its new Vaio FW laptops. The Vaio Media+ software uses the same left/right, up/down scrolling UI to help extend its “digital living room” all the way to your, um, lap. This all makes sense, and we welcome a consolidated UI theme, but this means, of course, that Sony is pretty much locked into this theme for some time, and we won’t be seeing any major interface changed to the PS3 like we have on the Xbox 360 Dash, for better or worse.
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Filed under: Ask Engadget, Displays
Tired of looking at that tired old CRT monitor? Anxious to get a screen with a bit more screen real estate? So is Paul — have a look:
“I was wondering if you all could help me out in deciding on a monitor. I’d like it to be at least 19-inches, bigger is better, but the main thing is to have a nice resolution. I currently have a 1,280 x 1,080 17-inch LCD monitor, and really like it, but would like to go past the 1,080 to possibly 1,200. Thing is I’d like to spend around $300, going up to maybe $400. What’s the best choice out in this price range?”
We’d wager Paul’s quandary is one shared by many, and if you just recently solved this yourself, be sure to toss in your recommendation below. Once you’ve completed said task, feel free to shoot us a question you’d like help with at ask at engadget dawt com.
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Man, the EU is really not too fond of Intel, is it? Adding to all the other antitrust charges filed against the chipmaker, the friendly grey suits at the European Commission have slapped on an additional three: paying a “leading European retailer” not stock AMD products, giving incentives to PC makers to switch to Intel chips, and paying an unspecified company to delay the launch of an AMD-based product. For its part, Intel is reacting like it always does when the Europeans get prickly: by steadfastly denying everything. Intel has eight weeks to file a formal response, but as with all of these cases, we wouldn’t expect a resolution any time soon.
[Thanks, Ricky]
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Well, no wonder Hector Ruiz quit as the CEO of AMD earlier today — the chipmaker just announced its second quarter results, and they’re not good. In addition to an overall $269M operating loss, the company is taking an $876M charge against the purchase of ATI so it can abandon the handheld graphics and digital TV markets. To be honest, we hadn’t been hearing much about ATI’s plans in those areas, so it’s probably for the best the company is focusing on getting Barcelona out the door after the launch of Puma — but we doubt much is going to happen with a power vacuum at the top and a bottom line that’s bleeding red.
[Via Crave]
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We’ll go ahead and squash your hopes before you waste time pulling out the plastic — this thing’s just a concept, at least for now. From what we can glean, the HEAT ME is a fantastic device just waiting to be snapped up by Brando (or similar) and turned into the next must-have USB-powered gizmo. Put simply, the metal ends of this here stick warm up when plugged into your USB port, thus giving you a toasty wand to keep your hot tea / coffee at the proper temperature even when colleagues pull you away momentarily. Really though, is there any doubt this won’t go commercial within the next six months?
[Via Coolest-Gadgets]
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Filed under: Handhelds
After seeing Android all lit up on Nokia’s N810 internet tablet, seeing this antiquate piece of software on there just seems… wrong. Still, we can’t deny that we’re a huge fan of the work, and to be frank, we’d highly recommend anyone with a fair amount of spare time give it a whirl just for nostalgia’s sake. Wait, is that a tear we see forming? You softy.
[Via PDAToday, thanks Bill]
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