(AP) WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Al Gore, a leading voice on climate change, urged lawmakers Friday to overcome partisan differences and pass legislation to curb greenhouse gases. Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work on global warming, called the climate issue the most important ever before Congress. A Democratic bill limiting carbon dioxide and other pollution linked […]

  ASU Develops World’s First Flexible Touchscreen Display by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center (FDC) recently unveiled the world’s first flexible touchscreen display. Developed in conjunction with E Ink Corporation and DuPont Teijin Films, the active matrix display is capable of real-time user input, and can send and receive information. The applications for such a […]

Energizer Stays One Step Ahead by Catering to Diminutive Device Trend by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor “Quad A” may soon become part of the common vernacular. Although the AAAA battery (or Quad A) has been commercially available since 1989, it’s mostly been a niche product, difficult to find on shelves. But with consumer electronics moving towards […]

There are many reasons technology companies are stepping up efforts to make their products more efficient and environmentally friendly. Those reasons range from actual concerns about the environment to saving money and presenting a positive company image. Whatever the reason this is a hot topic and our sister publication Wireless Week recently ran an article describing […]

OLED technology has been around for a while and appears to offer significant power efficiency gains in slimmer packages. At this point, cost and operational lifetime constraints have kept the technology from becoming a reasonable option for most consumer applications. However, GE Global Research announced the successful demonstration of “roll-to-roll” manufactured OLEDs. The company claims that this process is […]

Productive Product: The AP1533 from Diodes, Inc. is a 300 Hz, 1.8A Asynchronous PWM Buck Converter with soft-start function, low ripple noise output, low current consumption, high efficiency, and desirable transient characteristics. The buck converter has a wide input voltage range of 4V to 23V, an adjustable output voltage from 0.8V to 23V, and is […]

Energy News: Researchers found bacteria that can transform light into chemical energy — a method of photosynthesis still not completely understood by science, but which could become an energy windfall if it’s duplicatable by industry. The discovery happened at the famed Yellowstone National Park. The bacterium has “light-harvesting antennae known as chlorosomes, which contain about […]

Productive Product: Texas Instruments announced a line of floating point digital signal controllers. The TMS320F2833x devices provide 300 million FLOPS at 150 MHz at costs typically associated with fixed point processors, which means developers can accomplish more tasks using fewer chips, and thereby consume less energy. Software development is also simplified. Technology from solar power […]

Energy News: Explained at BurningMan.com: “This year our art theme will express the immanence of nature in our lives… The Burning Man will stand atop a structure that resembles green mountain peak. Nestled at its base, will be the Green Man Pavilion, 30,000 square feet of shaded exhibition space for the display of interactive artistic, scientific and […]

Energy News: New York City will require all new vehicles entering the taxi fleet after October 2008 to get at least 25 miles per gallon; to get 30 miles per gallon and be hybrid by 2009; and all taxis must be hybrids by 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today. Hybrids can get twice the fuel economy […]