Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.
While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”
Category: General Tech
Ubuntu Taking Aim at Windows
The notion of a strong Linux-based competitor to Windows and, to a lesser extent, Apple’s Mac OS X has been an enduring dream of advocates of open-source software. They champion the idea that software that can be freely altered by the masses can prove cheaper and better than proprietary code produced by stodgy corporations. Try as they might, however, Linux zealots have failed in their quest to make Linux mainstream on desktop and notebook computers. The often quirky software remains in the realm of geeks, not grandmothers.
Speaking of CES...
Apple is ditching MacWorld to instead exhibit at CES next year instead, according to one source.
No. No. No.
At Macworld, Apple was the big dog. At CES, they would have to compete with every other electronics company on the planet for press time. Not to mention the reasons Apple left Macworld - 1,000s of Apple Store visitors each week means far more customer exposure, January is a horrible time to release products, trade shows are expensive as hell - would also apply to CES. From now on, when an Apple executive takes a stage to show off something new, it will be at an Apple-crafted event, not a trade show. Not even the granddaddy of them all, CES.
Palm Unleashes Wireless Charging
The new P alm Touchstone Charging Dock:
Simply place your Palm Pre on the Palm Touchstone, and magnets quickly align your phone in the correct position for charging.
Sounds like something Apple would ship.
Pandora Turns 2.0
Pandora, (iTunes link) everyone’s favorite musical iPhone app hit 2.0 status this week.
Issues Upgrading to DRM-Free Music?
Apple is offering users an easy way to upgrade their music libraries to DRM-free tracks:
It’s also easy to upgrade your iTunes library to iTunes Plus. You don’t have to buy the song or album again. Just pay the 30¢ per song upgrade price. (Music video upgrades are 60¢ and entire albums can be upgraded for 30 percent of the album price.)
I upgraded my tracks tonight when I got home from work for a grand total of $26 (I previously tweeted I spent $12, but forgot to upgrade my other account until afterwards) with no issues. But some users are experiencing issues. Twitter user toddw sent me this:
More Mac mini Rumors
AppleInsider can also confirm that a similarly-timed makeover to the Mac mini will see the diminutive desktop adopt chipsets from NVIDIA’s MCP79 platform, as was previously implied by discoveries within the resource files a Mac OS X build train that shipped on the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
In addition to sporting both a Mini DisplayPort and a Mini DVI connector, it’s now also rumored that the new Mac mini will see the addition of a FireWire 800 port and a fifth USB port, with the legacy FireWire 400 port going away. The Mini DVI connector will allow the mini to continue to cater to users who already own a display, while the Mini DisplayPort will offer support for customers of Apple’s latest LED-backlit Cinema Display.
Mars Rovers Turn Five
CNN:
They had returned 250,000 images, covered more than 21 kilometers (13 miles), climbed a mountain, descended into craters, struggled with sand traps and ageing hardware and survived dust storms, NASA said.
“These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day,” said John Callas, Jet Propulsion Laboratory project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
“We realize that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead.”
Newtons May Keel Over in a Zune-like Fashion in 2010
The My Apple Newton blog:
The real-time clock that runs the Newton runs from 1993 through 2010. This is due to the fact that NewtonScript integers are 30 bits, and signed. 229 seconds after 1993 is 2010–the end of the Seconds world. The time system, however, is based on minutes from 1904. That won’t run out until 2920. Then we’ll really be screwed.
That means that the clock has a 17-year life. After that, the clock will have to be made to repeat some Seconds values.
iPhone 3G Gets Unlocked
Dev-Team:
- The unlock works exclusively with baseband 02.28.00. This baseband is provided by the latest firmware update (2.2) from Apple. - You’ll need to upgrade to this release using iTunes and then use QuickPwn to activate etc. There are plenty of tutorials about this on iclarified, bigboss, and other established tutorial sites. Because it works on 02.28.00, it is available to everyone on the planet. This means we don’t need to unnecessarily expose holes in earlier basebands, which is an important concern. - The application is a small daemon that is launched on boot. It injects the payload at boot and also whenever there is a baseband reset. You won’t notice anything about it other than that your third-party sim now works. It’s a small program and unobtrusive. There is no GUI (this is by design). - yellowsn0w is completely removable through Cydia, the command line, and iTunes.
Zunes Killing Themselves in New Year’s Eve Ritual
All over the world, the dozens of people who own 30GB Zunes are finding their beloved media players dead. And not just mostly dead. Really dead.
From what I can tell it looks like every Zune 30 on the planet has suddenly crashed. Is this a virus? A glitch? A time bomb? A disgruntled Microsoft employee? Planned obsolescence to make us buy a new one? Or just a terrorist plot to drive the free world crazy?
More on the Zune Apocalypse
With Zune users still banging their brown devices against the wall, Microsoft has yet to announce a fix. I am very curious to see how long it takes for a patch, but one thing is for sure: With a product family as berated and up-against-the-man as the Zune is, a sweeping failure of every single one (even of one model) of them is bad. Real bad.
As much drinking as the Zune PR team was already doing on a regular basis before today, you know they’re going to get hammered tonight.