Archive » 2010 » April

Hulu Introduces $9.95 per Month Subscription: Hulu Plus

By Ryan Deal posted April 22, 2010, 4:49 pm | 0

Well, it’s here. The LA Times reports that Hulu will be making their subscription service a reality as early as May 24. Once the service is made available, you’ll still be able to get the five most recent episodes of some of your favorite shows, but access to older episodes and special features will run you $9.95 monthly.

The new service, Hulu Plus, comes as its owners (News Corp., NBC Universal, and Walt Disney Co.) pressure the 2-year old video site to bring in more revenue and lead consumers towards paying for online access to video content. But will it work? Well let’s just take a look at what people are saying:

Electronics:

Skinput Uses Arm As Input Device

By Conrad Myers posted April 22, 2010, 2:33 pm | 0

A student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, Chris Harrison has developed a new input “device” that uses a persons palm and forearm as the “keyboard”. The new technology is being called Skinput. Harrison explains:

“People don’t love the iPhone keyboard. They use them. But they don’t love them. If you could make the iPhone keyboard as big as an arm — that would be huge. You could pretty much do a lot of what you do on your iPhone, its [like having] your iPhone on your palm.”

The device has been in development for 8 months but is not quite ready for deployment. Working alongside a Mircrosoft researcher, Dan Morris, Harrison believes the product will be available to the public in 2-7 years. Although it is currently workable the accuracy is not on point enough for it to be viable.

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Design:

New $100 Bill Released Today by U.S. Treasury

By Ryan Deal posted April 21, 2010, 10:17 am | 23

The U.S. Treasury refreshes its currency every once in a while to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters, and this time they’re refreshing the new $100 bill. The new bill will contain a security feature called Motion, where each bill will contain up to 650,000 microlenses embedded in the printing which will allow for an underlying image to shift when the bill is moved. Yep, good old Benjamin Franklin is getting a facelift and here it is (we’ll add more pics as they become available):

Entertainment:

First President George Washington Owes $300k in Library Fines

By Ryan Deal posted April 20, 2010, 6:59 pm | 0

Here are some things you should know about George Washington, America’s first president. He didn’t live in the white house, he never told a lie*, he was the only president to be elected unanimously, and he still has overdue library books that carry a fine of $300,000 when adjusted for inflation.

According to CNN, on October 5, 1789 he checked out two books about international relations and parliamentary debates which were due back November 2, 1789 but were never returned. The fine at the time was two pence per day (it’s 15 cents now). At two pence per day, he’s racked up a fine of roughly $4,577 which adjusted for inflation equals about $300,000.

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Smart:

Texas Town Builds Largest Battery in the U.S.

By Ryan Deal posted April 20, 2010, 2:03 pm | 0

Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? Well, in keeping with their motto, one Texas town, has built the largest battery the United States has ever seen. Dubbed BOB (Big Old Battery), the NaS (sodium sulfer) battery, which is currently charging, can store up to four megawatts of power for eight hours. That’s roughly the energy needed to fully power 4,000 homes per megawatt-hour (MWh).

The town of Presidio in West Texas only has one link the the U.S. Power Grid and that transmission line is over 60 years old. That’s why they sunk $25 million into building this thing and promised another $44 million to build a second, 60-mile transmission line by 2012. BOB will be used as emergency backup for the numerous power outages in the area which are caused by the line going down quite frequently.

Design:

A Hoodie That Updates Your Facebook Wirelessly

By Conrad Myers posted April 20, 2010, 10:11 am | 0

Have you ever been in a situation where a computer or smartphone is just too far away but you wanted to keep your Facebook friends updated on your goings on? Well then the Ping Social Networking Garment is for you.

Smart:

Danish Hotel Pays Its Guests to Generate Electricity on Bikes

By Ryan Deal posted April 19, 2010, 3:19 pm | 0

Here comes one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time. The Crowne Plaza hotel in Copenhagen has rigged a couple bikes to a generator and they’re luring guests into generating electricity by giving away a $36 food voucher in exchange for a 15-minute stationary bike ride.

The hotel, which initiated the project to help reduce its carbon footprint has hooked up iPhones to the bicycles so that guests can see just how much energy they are generating during their session. Each 15-minute ride generates 10 watt-hours of electricity, not a bad start.