http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/electronics/ en-us Sun, 4 Jan 2009 21:11:24 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2158640/posts Reporting from Sacramento -- That 52-inch, flat-screen television on the family room wall may have a terrific picture, but there's a big drawback: It's an energy hog. State regulators are getting ready to curb the growing power gluttony of TV sets by drafting the nation's first rules requiring retailers to sell only the most energy-efficient models, starting in 2011. Los Angeles Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2158640/posts#comment Sun, 4 Jan 2009 21:11:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2154098/posts For years, Ausaf Umar Siddiqui lived big in Las Vegas, gambling and losing millions of dollars - including money the Internal Revenue Service now says was embezzled through a $65 million kickback scheme he engineered as a Fry's Electronics vice president. Should the casinos have suspected something was wrong prior to Siddiqui's arrest Friday? "At what point or under what circumstances should the casinos be held accountable?" posited William Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if Fry's lawyers are all over... San Fran Chronic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2154098/posts#comment Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:07:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148070/posts WOODBURN, Ore. (AP) - A bomb exploded inside a bank here late Friday afternoon after explosives experts arrived to check on a suspicious object and authorities said at least one person was killed by the blast. Oregon State Police said the explosion at the West Coast Bank caused "serious injuries" and that police officers were in the area when the device detonated. They did not say how many police officers were injured. A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told The Oregonian at least one bomb technician had been injured. Marion County deputy medical examiner Rodge... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148070/posts#comment Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:39:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2139425/posts Black Friday is widely known for low prices on everything from electronics to toys and kitchenware but if you ask the average consumer what they will be purchasing on this, the day of massive sales; they're likely to respond, "HDTV!" For low and mid-range HDTVs there's no time like Friday to buy and this year the prices are reaching record lows even without the help of rebates. In fact, USA Today took a look at HDTV sales this holiday season and found that most retailers will be selling them, "at near cost." on Black Friday. Additionally, due to an oversupply... Wallet Pop http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2139425/posts#comment Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:58:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2129345/posts NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Circuit City Stores Inc., the No. 2 electronics seller after Best Buy, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, thus becoming the latest retailer hurt by a worsening economic downturn. According to the company's Chapter 11 filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Richmond, Va., Circuit City (CC, Fortune 500), which currently has 566 operating stores in the United States, will continue to do business and pay its workers while it restructures debt and its business operations. Circuit City said it decided to file for bankruptcy at this time to ensure that it would have "adequate merchandise flow... CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2129345/posts#comment Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:13:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2123022/posts Circuit City plans to move ahead with closures of 155 stores, the Web site Consumerist.com reported Sunday, citing company sources. In addition, the troubled retail giant will withdraw from 12 U.S. markets. According to a letter obtained by the site, some employees have been told they will be let go Dec. 31. In addition, employees told the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper that the company would announce Monday which stores will close. The store closings plan, then in the planning stages, was first reported last month by the Wall Street Journal. Dealer Scope http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2123022/posts#comment Mon, 3 Nov 2008 01:46:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2059240/posts Attention will be riveted on the Olympic torch Friday during the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympiad, but in cyberspace, another torch relay is under way to promote visibility of a “sport” not yet ready for prime time in Beijing. It is the digital torch of the World Cyber Games, being passed from country to country, ultimately to land in Cologne, Germany, on Aug. 11. World Cyber Games? That’s right: pro video-game play. Before anyone snickers, remember that sports channel ESPN routinely showcases poker tournaments, which arguably involve even less athleticism than video-gaming. Indeed, competitive video-game leagues have contracts with... The Christian Science Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2059240/posts#comment Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:03:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2058972/posts AP story via Fox News. Link only Link Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2058972/posts#comment Sat, 9 Aug 2008 11:27:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016895/posts IBM researchers have achieved a breakthrough in photovoltaics technology that could significantly reduce the cost of harnessing the Sun's power for electricity. ------------------------------------------------------------------ IBM today announced a research breakthrough in photovoltaics technology that could significantly reduce the cost of harnessing the Sun's power for electricity. By mimicking the antics of a child using a magnifying glass to burn a leaf or a camper to start a fire, IBM scientists are using a large lens to concentrate the Sun’s power, capturing a record 230 watts onto a centimeter square solar cell, in a technology known as concentrator photovoltaics, or CPV.... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016895/posts#comment Fri, 16 May 2008 15:27:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010823/posts Memory plus resistor may add up to longer-lasting batteries and faster-booting computers After nearly 40 years, researchers have discovered a new type of building block for electronic circuits. And there's at least a chance it will spare you from recharging your phone every other day. Scientists at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., report in Nature that a new nanometer-scale electric switch "remembers" whether it is on or off after its power is turned off. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.)Researchers believe that the memristor, or memory resistor, might become a useful tool for constructing nonvolatile computer memory,... sciam.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010823/posts#comment Sat, 3 May 2008 21:41:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2009423/posts PORTLAND, Ore. — The long-sought after memristor--the "missing link" in electronic circuit theory--has been invented by Hewlett Packard Senior Fellow R. Stanley Williams at HP Labs (Palo Alto, Calif.) Memristors--the fourth passive component type after resistors, capacitors and inductors--were postulated in a seminal 1971 paper in the IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory by professor Leon Chua at the University of California (Berkeley), but their first realization was just announced today by HP. According to Williams and Chua, now virtually every electronics textbook will have to be revised to include the memristor and the new paradigm it represents for electronic... EE Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2009423/posts#comment Thu, 1 May 2008 00:01:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001193/posts Blockbuster Inc, the No. 1 U.S. movie rental chain, said on Monday it has offered to buy electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc in an all-cash offer in the range of $6 per share to $8 per share Blockbuster said it made the offer in a February 17 letter to Circuit City's Chief Executive Philip Schoonover on behalf of Blockbuster's board, but that Circuit City had so far failed to provide due diligence. Blockbuster said it was making its proposal public, "because it believes the shareholders of Circuit City should have the opportunity to participate in determining the destiny of... Reuters via Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001193/posts#comment Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:18:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999171/posts Walk into the Circuit City in my town, and you'll suddenly get a strange sensation. Look around...you're the only person there. Wait, someone must work here. Hello? Anyone? Then head over to Best Buy, which is packed with customers and ringing up sales. Top Stocks http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999171/posts#comment Wed, 9 Apr 2008 21:35:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997585/posts ARGONNE, Ill. (April 4, 2008) – Superinsulation may sound like a marketing gimmick for a drafty attic or winter coat. But it is actually a newly discovered fundamental state of matter created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with several European institutions. This discovery opens new directions of inquiry in condensed matter physics and breaks ground for a new generation of microelectronics. Led by Argonne senior scientist Valerii Vinokur and Russian scientist Tatyana Baturina, an international team of scientists from Argonne, Germany, Russia and Belgium fashioned a thin film of titanium nitride which... Argonne National Lab http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997585/posts#comment Sun, 6 Apr 2008 16:42:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990811/posts Graphene is a single planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. It can also be viewed as an atomic-scale chicken wire made of carbon atoms and their bonds. The carbon-carbon bond length in graphene is approximately 1.42 Å. From a physicist point of view, graphene is the basic structural element for all other graphitic materials including graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. For a chemist, graphene is an infinitely large aromatic molecule, an extension of a family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons called graphenes. University of Maryland physicists have shown that in... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990811/posts#comment Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:27:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1986125/posts UNDATED (AP) - It may not be organized sabotage, but many of the hottest electronic gadgets on the market are coming pre-loaded with viruses. Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy, and TomTom navigation gear. Some of the viruses steal passwords that can expose a computer to hackers and prompt them to spew spam. In most cases, the sources appear to be Chinese factories where many of the devices are being made. Security experts say the problem appears to be lax quality control. The malicious software is apparently... One News Now http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1986125/posts#comment Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:53:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1984437/posts The wheel-like assembly of 16 duroquinone molecules on the edges and 1 duroquinone molecule in the center can produce quotone-to-manyquot parallel communication. Credit: Bandyopadhyay and Acharya. The wheel-like assembly of 16 duroquinone molecules on the edges and 1 duroquinone molecule in the center can produce "one-to-many" parallel communication. Credit: Bandyopadhyay and Acharya. For years, researchers have been building tiny nanobots that could one day serve a variety of purposes. But, until now, nanobots couldn't work together. Recently, scientists Anirban Bandyopadhyay and Somobrata Acharya from the National Institute of Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have built the first ultra-tiny, ultra-powerful... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1984437/posts#comment Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:17:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980808/posts MERRIMACK, N.H., Feb 27, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Brookstone today announced that customers affected by the recent action to suspend acceptance of Sharper Image gift cards and gift certificates could exchange them at any Brookstone Store for an instant 25 percent savings off a Brookstone purchase. Brookstone, an innovative product developer and specialty retailer of gifts and lifestyle merchandise, said it made the decision after Sharper Image announced on its website it was suspending acceptance of Sharper Image gift cards, rewards cards, gift certificates and merchandising certificates related to Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceedings. Brookstone said it would exchange... Fox Business News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980808/posts#comment Wed, 5 Mar 2008 17:58:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974078/posts The tattoo display: "Waterproof and powered by pizza." Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art. At the recent Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin. The basis of the 2x4-inch "Digital Tattoo Interface" is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974078/posts#comment Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:32:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966638/posts Three years ago a team from Bell Labs took on a very daunting challenge – put an optical networking system on a commercially manufactured silicon chip, load it with a smorgasbord of sophisticated opto-electronic devices in a combination that’s never been done before, and make it easy to mass produce. The project is part of a U.S. DARPA-funded program (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) to develop technologies and design tools necessary to fabricate an application specific, electronic-photonic integrated circuit (EPIC). This program is led by BAE Systems in partnership with MIT, Applied Wave Research, and Bell Labs, through Alcatel-Lucent’s LGS... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966638/posts#comment Thu, 7 Feb 2008 20:48:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966542/posts Intel Corporation and STMicroelectronics reached a key industry milestone today as they began shipping prototype samples of a future product using a new, innovative memory technology called Phase Change Memory (PCM). The prototypes are the first functional silicon to be delivered to customers for evaluation, bringing the technology one step closer to adoption. The memory device, codenamed "Alverstone" uses PCM, a promising new memory technology providing very fast read and write speeds at lower power than conventional flash, and allows for bit alterability normally seen in RAM. PCM has long been a topic of discussion for research and development, and... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966542/posts#comment Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:22:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951656/posts The Consumer Electronics Show is more than a convention. It's an opportunity for companies to position themselves as leaders in their respective categories. And with the media -- and more than 140,000 attendees -- watching, there's a lot at stake. So, with today's close of this year's CES, here are my winners and losers of the 2008 CES in the category of High-Definition TV: Winner Comcast In a keynote speech on Tuesday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts outlined his company's plan for High-Definition over the next year. And it's a bold plan indeed. HD movie downloads in four minutes. More than... tvpredictions.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951656/posts#comment Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:03:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1949310/posts I am buying a very expensive though small piece of electronics (a HD camcorder that can fit in a purse or pocket). It's got a great price on Amazon, better than anywhere else. I was thinking that because it's so small and I have little kids, I might need some kind of extended warranty, which I usually never get nor need. Can I count on the manufacturer to provide good customer service for this product? Should I buy elsewhere in case something goes wrong or I get a lemon? Any suggestions from the techies? self http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1949310/posts#comment Sun, 6 Jan 2008 22:39:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1945227/posts Would you be surprised to learn that a certain Windows upgrade made the list? Behold the worst tech of the year, including a pair of $7,250 speaker cables, ad-riddled video downloads that expire after a week, a much-hyped TV set-top box that's dying on the vine, and more. So here we go...in alphabetical order: Apple TV: Apple's foray into the living room seemed like a no-brainer, and this HDMI-packing, Wi-Fi- and Ethernet-enabled set-top box looked like a sure-fire success. From the beginning, however, Apple TV was hamstrung by the meager movie selection (and now dwindling selection of TV shows) on... yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1945227/posts#comment Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:09:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944667/posts TOKYO - Sony is dropping its money-losing rear-projection TV business worldwide to focus on two flat panel technologies — liquid crystal display and organic light-emitting diode, the company said Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Sales of rear-projection TVs had been declining recently as LCD TVs gain in popularity and get bigger, Sony Corp. spokesman Shinji Obana said. In October, Sony lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs — which uses a projector to create images on large screens — to 400,000 from 700,000, which is down from 1.1 million the previous fiscal year. By contrast, Sony expects to sell 10 million LCD... AP via Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944667/posts#comment Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:43:00 GMT