Recently in Gadgets Category

Japanese toilet technology on the march.

Activated last June, the toilet is the only one of its kind in the United States. According to Bianics Toilet, developers of the technology, the biotoilets have been in use on Mt. Fuji for years and will soon be installed in the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia.

Bianics biotoilets use micro-organisms in cedar chips to break down toilet waste into water and carbon dioxide. "The water is then re-circulated into the toilet tank, and thus never leaves the system." said Bianics, who donated the Cougar Rock unit to the Park in cooperation with the international environmental group Groundwork Mishima.

And heated seats.

Eureka! I found the new Government Motors (GM) Sector Chief for Vehicular Environmental Efficiency and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards Compliance.

Hey, nobody said adhering to higher CAFE standards would be pretty.

Sun News:

SMART meters that tell you exactly how much power you are using will be installed in every home in Britain, ministers announced yesterday.

They will replace 48million gas and electricity meters in the next decade — meaning an end to estimated bills and visits by meter readers.

Power companies will be able to read meters remotely via the mobile phone network.

The cost of the plan, expected to be completed by 2020, will be £7billion — or up to £350 per home — with householders paying a third.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said they would cut carbon emissions and could save each householder up to £35 a year.

Smart meters — now being tried out in parts of London — can even tell how much power EACH appliance is using.

Networked meters for your house, networked gas management for your car. Seems like the only folks who like these gadgets are the ones that don't mind the government running the rest of our lives.

Add big brotherism to climate change religion as reasons environmentalism is getting, well, less popular. But we're beyond the point where submission to greeness is a popularity contest, aren't we.

Props to the lovely and charming Eco-Wife for the idea.

Do use the right bags, though.

A new study concludes:

But all the power wasted while computers are sitting idle overnight adds up, and one study has finally tried to measure it. The tally: An estimated $2.8 billion wasted on excess energy costs each year in the U.S. alone.

But big numbers like that become almost meaningless in an era of trillion-dollar bailouts, so to put the wasted energy in perspective, the study provides the data in terms you can better understand: If you run a company with 1,000 PCs left on overnight, you can save about $28,000 a year if they are turned off after hours. That's not chump change.

-D

I'm off to Norway next week for a NATO conference. Yeh, your tax dollars at work. :-)

Long flight. What to do for tunes? I've wanted an iPod-like creature for a long time but I'm a PC/Windows Media Player guy vice iMac/iTunes. Also wanted something small for the gym but plenty of storage to support my podcast habit.

And I don't have enough hair for an iPod Shuffle.

So I picked the Sanza up yesterday. Already very happy with it. A bit bigger than a Shuffle but the tradeoff is a compact but easily viewable screen that gives the option to play stuff randomly or to select it directly. It comes with a 6" long USB chord that provides power and a link to your PC, and a pair of earphones. The FM radio actually works, and so does the built-in microphone for recording your own wav files.

There's Rhapsody software enclosed but skip it. When you connect the Clip to a Windows machine it pops up like a drive and syncs right to WMP. Took less than 5 minutes from the time I opened the box to transfer all my files, with 6 gigs left over. Sweet! Should also function well as a flash drive for data files.

Wanted some noise reduction for the plane, so on the recommendation of a reviewer at Amazon I sprung for a pair of SkullCandy earbuds. He was right - cuts the background noise a lot (don't use these while driving) and I'm hearing things in the music I hadn't before. The packaged earphones are fine, but try these. You'll like 'em.

Price: Been watching Sanza Clip's storage capacity rise and prices fall for a while and now's a good time to buy. Got the 8gb Clip at Wally World on sale for $44 and the SkullCandy buds at F.Y.E. on sale for $14.95. Amazon has good deals too, but I saved shipping.

Bottom line: A huge bang for your buck.

Pros: Seemlessly links to PC/WMP. Cheap - half the cost of an iPod. Terrific sound, especially with upgraded earbuds. Eco-friendly - built-in battery recharges off USB chord or any mini-USB cell phone plug charger. Tiny size. Quality feel.

Cons: No micro SD slot. Not sure how it works with iTunes, since I don't use this. Permanently-installed clip may bother some.