11 Oct 09 Commercial Fuel From Algae Still Years Away

chrnb sends along this quote from a report at Reuters: "Filling your vehicle's tank with fuel made from algae is still as much as a decade away, as the emerging industry faces a series of hurdles to find an economical way to make the biofuel commercially. Estimates on a timeline for a commercial product, and profits, vary from two to 10 years or more. Executives and industry players who gathered at the Algae Biomass Summit this week in San Diego said they need to push for breakthroughs along the entire chain — from identifying the best organisms to developing efficient harvesting methods. ... So far on the list: finding the right strain of algae among thousands of species that will produce high yields; designing systems where the desired algae can multiply and other species don't invade and disrupt the process; and extracting its oils without degrading other parts of the algae that can be made into side products and sold as well."

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17 Oct 09 New Super Mario Bros. Wii Attempts To Bridge Casual/Hardcore Divide

When Nintendo returns to its roots next month by releasing a new, 2-D, side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii, it's trying to do more than simply hop on the retro bandwagon many publishers have ridden in recent months. Speaking at a roundtable discussion in New York this week, Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto talked about how they're trying to satisfy fans of the series who want challenging gameplay in addition to attracting new or casual players just looking for an entertaining platformer. Quoting: "... you can play the story mode single-player all the way through from beginning to end, and at any point along the way, you can add players from the world map and have up to four players cooperate to complete the levels. And beyond that, there are two dedicated multiplayer modes, one of which is free-for-all, which lets you select the stages from story mode ... so you can easily find the stage you like. And then there’s also a coin battle mode which is a competitive multiplayer mode, in which you’re actually competing for points and you’re getting ranked based on how many points you’ve collected. The free-for-all mode has kind of a similar feel to something like Mario Kart where you just happen to have four people over and you want to sit down and play a quick match in your favorite level."

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18 Nov 09 AMIMON's WHDI wireless HD modules coming to netbooks and laptops

For as long as we can remember, AMIMON's WHDI technology has been reserved for use in high-end AV components -- HDTVs, Blu-ray players, set-top-boxes, etc. Today, the outfit has finally figured out a way to break free from its current box and get all up in the grille of the mainstream market. As of now, WHDI modules are being made available for netbook and laptop manufacturers, enabling portable PCs to send or receive high-def signals from other WHDI-enabled devices sans cabling. The outfit expects lappies with their tech built-in to ship sometime in 2010, and when we prodded for more information on who exactly would be taking 'em up on their offer, the company stated that specific partners wouldn't be announced for a few more months. Still, built-in support for beaming 1080p content from a laptop to an HD panel without a single cord? Major score.

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Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

AMIMON's WHDI wireless HD modules coming to netbooks and laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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19 Dec 09 Gift guide: A few tips for rocking out on the go

Portable media players are almost essential for any music, video or photo fan — which could be just about anyone on your holiday gift list.
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03 Jan 10 Court affirms iPod is safe

A federal appellate court ruled that U.S. technology giant Apple's diminutive music maker the iPod was not "unsafe or defective."



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