On 12th May, Nepal was hit by yet another earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale. Before this, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck the country on April 25th, leaving more than 20,000 people dead, injured or missing.

During this phase of time, many technological powerhouses like Facebook, Google, and telephone subscribers pooled in resources for the people of Nepal. Google People Finder app helped a lot of people search for their friends and family while Facebook collected a grand sum of $10 million through its Donation Drive. Companies like Airtel, Vodafone, etc. lowered down their call rates for a few [...]

Everyday we come across concept cars which promise to change the future, but aren’t much more than a carbon fibre monocoque riding on magnesium rims. The “Pure Tension” Volvo V60 Pavilion however, is really something else.

Commissioned by Volvo Italy and the winner of the Pure Volvo Pavilion Design competition, the Pure Tension solar pavilion is an experimental creation, developed by Synthesis Design + Architecture, Buro Happold, and Fabric Images. The mysterious floating sculpture of sorts seen floating above the rendered Volvo V60 is a pavilion, like the ones erected for trade shows or outdoor events. The pavilion is a tensioned membrane structure [...]

In a very interesting development, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, have created an LCD screen which can charge its own batteries from any ambient light source such as the sun, an incandescent bulb and even its own backlight!

We took a look a little while ago at How Modern LCDs Work. As you might remember, each LCD has a polarizing sheet that controls the amount of light that passes through any given pixel. These polarizers are very inefficient, and waste most of the absorbed energy. With this new development however, the standard polarizers have been replaced by a [...]

Bharat Electronics Ltd has developed a tablet PC that would cost $70-75 (around Rs 3,000) apiece for the Ministry of Rural Development’s poverty survey. The company supply six lakh pieces this year,expected to be delivered by end-November.

Normally, BEL generates 80 per cent of its revenue from military supplies such as radars, detection and communication devices; its turnover for the year ended March 2011 was Rs 5,500 crore; the 2011-12 guidance is for Rs 6,200 crore.

The device will boast Android 2.2 Froyo, a Solar powered battery pack, and a plug in keyboard. The device also [...]

Solar panels have come a long way since the technology was first invented. But the major drawback of using photovoltaics on Earth is that it eventually gets dark. Researchers at MIT have developed a solution to this problem. They’ve come up with a photovoltaic cell which doesn’t need any sunlight and is built into a button sized generator that can run your smart-phone for a week.

In the image above, you have many of these generators that require a fuel, like butane, from which they generate heat. The material that the generators are made out of are pockmarked with billions of tiny (we’re taking [...]

Scientists at MIT have developed a new technique for creating solar cells. The process doesn’t require the high temperature and pressure treatment that regular cells require, bringing the cost down significantly. They have used a vapor deposition process which is similar to the process used to give the silver lining to the inside of a bag of potato chips, and were able to print an array of working photovoltaics to a sheet of untreated paper, plastic and even cloth.

This breakthrough technology cant be used to power too many things just yet as the cells work at only one percent efficiency. Despite this bottleneck, [...]

With a hardware prototype on display at Mobile World Congress 2011, phone manufacturing company Umeox has announced ‘Apollo’, the first solar-powered android smartphone. With few features but an expected price point below 100 USD, the phone is designed primarily for developing markets. the 3.2″ touch screen is backed with Android 2.3, and uses Dutch energy developer Intivation’s efficient sunboost technology for its solar panel.

One hour of full sunlight provides sixteen minutes of talk time, and the company estimates that approximately 2.5 hours of light exposure is sufficient for daily use. [...]

Bento is quite an exceptional and forward thinking concept by René Woo-Ram Lee. It’s quite a plausible scenario that most of us use/own a tablet, a PC, external hard drives and a smartphone. Now combine the power of these to have fully customizable Bento Laptop! The Box accommodates all the gear to work as one whole unit or individually; as you see fit.

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