AFP – At one of Beijing’s many Internet cafes, near-silence reigns: headphones on, eyes glued to the screen, web users play games online en masse, helping to make China one of the industry’s top markets.
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Online gaming sweeps China
(AFP)
According to a little late night tweet from Palm — and the update screen on our device — the stacked new webOS 1.4 update is making its way out into the world for the company’s Verizon-flavored devices. That’s right, Plussers — video recording (and editing) is just a small download away. So why are you still reading this?
Palm webOS 1.4 update hits Verizon’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Solar cells are cute and all, but let’s be real — these things are far too inefficient for mainstream use. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are working hard to remedy that very issue, and they’ve recently concocted a “new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons.” The solution relies on arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded onto a polymer substrate, which uses just a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells. According to professor Harry Atwater, these cells have “surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials” for the first time, and we’re told that the arrays can convert between 90 and 100 percent of the photons they absorb into electrons, and yes, that does mean that they have a near-perfect internal quantum efficiency. Hit the source link for all the technobabble, and cross your fingers for this stuff to get the honored approval of the Governator.
Caltech gurus whip up highly efficient, low cost flexible solar cell originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple’s famous desire for total control over its operations seems to have extended to its manufacturing facilities as we’ve come across Cupertino’s Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report, which details audits the American company has done of its overseas suppliers and the failures identified therein. The findings are pretty damning on the whole, with more than half (54 percent) of all factories failing to meet Apple’s already inflated maximum 60-hour work week, 24 percent paying less than the minimum wage, 37 percent failing to respect anti-discrimination rules, and three facilities holding records of employing a total of eleven 15-year olds (who were over the legal age of 16 or had left by the time of the audit). Apple is, predictably, not jazzed about the situation, and has taken action through train-the-trainer schemes, threats of business termination with recidivist plants, and — most notably — the recovery of $2.2 million in recruitment fees that international contract workers should not have had to pay.
It should come as no shock to learn that cheaper overseas factories are cutting illegal corners, but it’s disappointing to hear Apple’s note that most of the 102 audited manufacturers said Cupertino was the only vendor to perform such rigorous compliance checks. Still, we’ll take what we can get and the very existence of this report — which can be savagely skewed to defame Apple’s efforts (as demonstrated expertly by The Daily Telegraph below) — is an encouraging sign that corporate responsibility is being taken seriously. We hope, wherever your geek loyalties and fervor may lie, that you’ll agree Apple’s leading in the right direction and that its competitors should at the very least have matching monitoring schemes. They may have to swallow some bad PR at first, but sweeping up the dirty details of where gadgets come from is juvenile and has no place in a civilized world. Hit the source link for the full report.
Apple supplier audit reveals sub-minimum wage pay and records of underage labor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PC World – After Chile’s massive earthquake and potential Pacific Rim tsunami damage, relief organizations, government agencies, corporations and throngs of people are on Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other services to seek and provide information and help.
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People, Groups Flock to the Web After Chile Earthquake
(PC World)