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Mayer Hawthorne – Maybe So, Maybe No from Stones Throw on Vimeo.

Alex and Koa Smith just had their best year ever — jet-setting from shore to shore

A retrospective look into their past year. We’re pretty jealous at the moment

If you thought you were seeing Toyota Priuses absolutely everywhere these days, you were right. The hybrid car has gone from a small, niche vehicle to global top-seller in just over a decade.

High demand in the U.S. and Japanese incentives for domestic vehicles were driving factors in the Prius hitting the third-best selling mark in the first quarter of this year, where Toyota sold 247,230 of the vehicles globally and 86,027 in the U.S. alone. The expansion of the Prius family to include four models of vehicles also drove up sales.

Number one Toyota Corolla, number two Ford Focus and the rest of the top five best-selling cars were all smaller, fuel-efficient sedans, which shows a global consensus that fuel efficiency is a necessary feature in a car.

The fact that the Prius has gone from an “alternative vehicle” in 2000 to a full-fledged mainstream car in 2012 means that same evolution is just as achievable for the all-electric models that have hit the market in the past couple of years, especially as charging infrastructure spreads across the country and around the world.

via Bloomberg

Your music is important to you, so why use the crappy earbuds that came with your device? Oh sure, they are great as a backup pair to have in a drawer or your gear bag (in case you forget your good ones), but let’s face it, basic earbuds don’t do anyone’s music justice.

Today’s deal gives you the chance to get a great pair of earbuds for only $37! The BodyGuardz Moxy earbuds look great, sound great, and have touches like woven cloth cords that don’t tangle. What are you waiting for?

Please note: product can ONLY be shipped to the CONTINENTAL United States.

The Magic Behind Your Earbuds:

Engineered for superior audio reproduction and tuned with extra bass, you’ll find yourself hearing chords and notes that you didn’t even know existed.

Moxy is loaded with upgrades, from a woven cloth cable braid, a smooth ballistic nylon hard case, to a full suite of silicone tips that provide a custom fit just right for your ears. Comfort, style, and superior sound – Moxy has it all!

On models that include an inline microphone, take phone calls with the click of a button and marvel at how the person on the line has no idea you’re speaking through a headphone. Talk in the car without holding the phone up to your ear, and when the call is over switch seamlessly back to your music without missing a beat!

What’s Included In The Box:

• Black with Turquoise Moxy earbuds
• Zippered hard case
• Clip
• Earjax sticker decals
• Multi-tip fit kit: S,M,L, standard tips / S,M,L, transparent tips / Med. three-tiered tips

Specifications:

• Speaker Type: High-Def mini speaker
• Speaker Diameter: 10mm
• Freq. Response: 20 Hz – 23kHz
• Power Handling: 3 mW
• Sensitivity: 105 dB 1mW
• Impedance: 16 ohm
• Cable Type: woven cloth braid (PVC)
• Plug Type: Aluminum, gold-plated

Today’s deal: Moxy earbuds by BodyGuardz.

Steve Jobs made his last appearance at D: All Things Digital in June of 2010.

During the last 8 or so years of his career at Apple, Steve Jobs gave his most famous interviews at the annual D: All Things Digital conference. Sitting opposite veteran journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Jobs was know for candidly answering questions and giving his honest opinion on hot topics.

Following the D10 interview with current Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday, AllThingsD has made its entire collection of Steve Jobs interviews available as a free download in the iTunes Store.

There’s lots of video of the late Steve Jobs, primarily from his famous introductions of Apple products over the years, and from his oft-quoted Stanford commencement address.

But by far the largest trove of video of the legendary innovator candidly answering unrehearsed questions and explaining his views on technology and business comes from his six lengthy appearances at our D: All Things Digital conference, from 2003 to 2010.

The podcast contains 6 videos, including Jobs’s appearances at D1, D2, D3, D5 and D8. A special video clip is devoted to the famous face-off between Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. There’s also a small package that contains articles on Jobs, including two from beloved tech pundit (and close friend of Jobs) Walt Mossberg.

The interviews Jobs gave at D conferences will forever remain defining moments that shaped the public’s perception of the Apple co-founder. Over the years Jobs shared his opinions on a broad range of topics, including his personal philosophies, Android, Microsoft, Apple culture, and more. You can download all of the interviews with Jobs from throughout the years in iTunes now.

Source: AllThingsD

Image: AP

This great app just got even better.

Fantastical is one of my favorite Mac apps. The handy calendar app sits in my menubar and manages my schedule like a personal secretary. The beauty of Fantastical is that, unlike iCal on the Mac, you can quickly add complex events to your calendar using natural, everyday language. “Lunch with John at 12 on Thursday” translates to an event titled “Lunch with John” that’s automatically scheduled for Thursday at noon.

Flexibits, maker of Fantastical, announced a nice update to the app today. Version 1.3 adds Reminders integration, allowing you to add and edit reminders on your Mac and have them synced via iCloud to your iOS devices.

“Our biggest feature request from our users was support for iCal and iOS reminders,” said Michael Simmons, Co-Founder of Flexibits. “With Fantastical 1.3, users can now enter events and reminders in natural language.”

Like adding events, reminders can be created using natural language. Fantastical will interpret date and time information as you enter the reminder in your Mac’s menubar. Reminders can be color coded, moved around, and checked off right in Fantastical. When using iCloud, each change will be instantly pushed to all of your other devices. To access your CalDAV accounts (Google Calendar, iCloud, etc.), you must be logged in with iCal before using Fantastical. Location-based reminders only work from an iOS device, so you can’t add those on the Mac.

Fantastical has full language support for English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The app costs $20 in the Mac App Store and today’s update is free for existing users.

Remember a few years back when all the cool kids in Europe bragged about how they were enjoying this really cool new music service called Spotify, and you couldn’t even try it because Spotify wasn’t available in the USA? It took forever for Spotify to launch their awesome product in the U.S. Rumors floated that the hangup was caused by legal issues with the licensing of the music, but in an interview today at AllThingsD’s D10 conference, Sean Parker claimed Apple was trying to keep the music service from launching Stateside.

“There was some indication that that might have been happening…You hear things, people send you emails. There was a sense in which Apple was threatened by what we were doing.”

Apple’s iTunes platform has dominated the music industry for the last several year, yet it lacks the streaming and social elements that make Spotify such a popular service. Noticing a possible competitor in the music space that could potentially take customers away from the iTunes/iPod ecosystem, Apple may have tried to pull strings to prevent Spotify from competiting with iTunes in the U.S. market.

Parker went on to say that, “[Music] is still such a small part of [Apple's] overall business, it wouldn’t be hugely significant to their bottom line. It’s certainly a much smaller industry than it was 12 years ago.” Even though Apple doesn’t make a large chunk of their overall revenue from iTunes, being one of the world’s largest music distributors is hugely beneficial to Apple’s ecosystem. iTunes’ media content gives Apple products a big edge over Samsung, Motorola, and HTC, so we wouldn’t be surprised if there were some truth to Parker’s claims.

Image: AllThingsD
Source: AllThingsD

Aaron Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning writer and producer.

Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was interviewed today by Walt Mossberg at the D10 conference in California. Sorkin has been hired by Sony to adapt Walter Isaacson’s official biography of Steve Jobs, and he has already tapped Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to help advise him during the production process.

Sorkin talked about writing his Jobs movie today onstage. He described his writing process and how he wants to approach the film. After affirming that the film is still in the earliest stages of production, Sorkin talked about how he wants the audience to relate to his script and the kind of actor he wants to play Jobs.

To Sorkin, writing a script is a “process of procrastination where you try to figure out what the movie is going to be about.” Echoing what he said earlier on the Jobs biopic, Sorkin remarked that “it’s very difficult to shake the cradle-to-grave structure of a biography.” Instead, Sorkin wants to “identify the point of friction that appeals to me and dramatize that.”

How long before Sorkin’s screenplay is ready for filming? “I’m at the earliest possible stage,” Sorkin said. “I’ll go through a long period that would not look to any causal observer like writing. It would look more like watching ESPN probably.” Sorkin was referring to the process of researching and gathering information on the late Apple co-founder.

“One of the hesitations I had in taking on the movie is that it was a little like writing about The Beatles,” said Sorkin. “There are so many people out there who know so much about him and who revere him. I just saw a minefield of disappointment.” Sorkin has hope, however. “Hopefully when I’m done with my research I’ll be in the same ballpark of knowledge about Steve Jobs.”

“Anytime you go to the movies and see ‘the following is a true story’, you should think of it as a painting, not a photography,” said Sorkin. The Social Network, an Oscar-winning film on Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg written by Sorkin, is the perfect example of what Sorkin refers to as “taking an authorial view” of history. It’s a dramatization, not play-by-play snapshots of history.

Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal and Sorkin onstage at D10.

When asked who would play Jobs in his movie with Sony, Sorkin said that the role had not yet been cast. “They [the actor] are going to have to talk fast,” Sorkin said, referring to the intense way of speaking Jobs used to communicate. The actor will also have to be very smart, according to Sorkin. “Actors can fake a lot of things, but intelligence is something you can’t fake.”

Ashton Kutcher, an actor known for his comedic roles in shows like That 70′s Show, is also starring in an indie Jobs biopic that will be out later this year, and Sorkin acknowledges the project by saying that Steve Jobs is a big enough persona for there to be “room for more than one movie.”

“Steve Jobs is an extremely complicated guy,” said Sorkin. “I know this for sure: I can’t judge the character.” Sorkin said that he has to “find the parts of him [Jobs] that are like me” to defend the character. ”With a character like Steve Jobs, you want to write the character as if they are making the case to God why they should be allowed into heaven.”

Source: AllThingsD

Shallu Sharma:

Booze and cruise don’t mix- a caution that is universal for alcohol consumers. Driving cars after alcohol consumption may be a hazardous combination but apparently we’ve stumbled upon an exception where boozing and driving are ay-okay! Don’t get your hopes too high though for the expression is more figurative than pragmatic. The consequence of boozing is not only stupor but also a lot of cans, colorful and attractive cans which are even more alluring when full. Nonetheless, empty cans have been given a second lease of exhibition here as they are deftly crafted into crackerjack looking vehicle models. So now you can display the “aggregation of good times” with pals and family in the shape of handcrafted vehicle models.

Beer can vehicle

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Jaspreet Kaur Walia:

The world is going electric when it comes to answering transportation needs. People are looking out for reliable forms of transportation that are efficient as well as practical. Keeping all this in mind, designer Mikael Shevelkin has come up with a lightweight two-wheel ride named Virgin Scooter designed especially for the Virgin Brand.

Virgin Scooter

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Civil engineers from MIT have completed a study in which they have determined that vehicle fuel consumption could be reduced by as much as 3 percent by having stiffer roads. Looking at the way forces interact between the tire and the road, the researchers conclude that, “This has the effect of making the tires on the vehicle drive continuously up a slight slope.”

Inefficiencies due to saggy roads are responsible for the use of an extra 273 million barrels of crude oil per year (costing $15.6 billion at today’s oil prices) and producing CO2 emissions of 46.5 million metric tons. In addition to the fuel savings, building better roads would reduce maintenance costs, providing long-term savings and improved national infrastructure.

“We’re wasting fuel unnecessarily because pavement design has been based solely on minimizing initial costs more than performance — how well the pavement holds up — when it should also take into account the environmental footprint of pavements based on variations in external conditions,” according to Mehdi Akbarian, one of the study’s authors.

With over 8.5 million lane miles making up the US roadway network, it would take a long time to revamp the entire system. But the results of the study could be applied to make improvements to the way roads are repaired and maintained, leading to a better road system over time.

Public Domain image by Shadowlink1014/Wikimedia

via: MIT News

Geoengineering is the term used to describe large-scale engineering projects meant to manipulate the planetary environment (usually in order to address climate change). Two items related to this topic are covered in this week’s SciShow.

The first story notes that scientists in Italy are preparing to examine the supervolcano in the Campi Flegrei Caldera (the area around Naples) by drilling down toward the magma underlying the region. The study seeks to better understand the movement of magma in this area. Sensors will be placed 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) below the surface to gather information. Plans for a deeper bore were cancelled after concerns about the possibility of triggering earthquakes or gas releases.

Also in the news is SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) an experimental method to deploy aerosols in the upper atmosphere (to potentially create a ‘global cooling effect’ to offset global warming). The British team planning this experiment had to put it on hold due to potential conflicts of interest over patents with some of the technology in the program.

More details about all of this can be found in this episode of SciShow on YouTube.

The ‘fuel’ used to generate power from the sun or the wind is, of course, emissions free. But we realize that it is necessary to look at more than just the fuel input in evaluating the total impacts of various technologies. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) goes beyond the operational comparison and also looks at the impacts of creating the equipment to harness those energies as well as the effects of decomissioning them at their end of life.

Research by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has looked at a wide range of studies carried out to asess the greenhouse gas effects related to different forms of energy. THe NREL meta-study sought to equalize and balance the different studies carried out by different researchers in such a fashion that they could be compared with each other.

The conclusions show that “greenhouse-gas emissions from wind power and solar photovoltaics are about 5% of those from coal and that nuclear energy emissions are on par with those from renewable energy.”

Renewables such as solar and wind produce far fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than coal, oil or natural gas while in operation. But the meta-analysis looked even deeper, at emissions estimates starting with the manufacture of solar panels, wind turbines, coal plants or natural-gas lines, all the way to the emissions estimates for decommissioning the sites.

While it may seem intuitively obvious, the ability to cross-compare between different studies has not been there previously, and this will allow for better comparison between different techologies, as well as giving a more even picture of the benefits of renewable energy.

via: NA Windpower

A significant regulatory hurdle has been cleared in the development of wind power along the eastern shore of the United States. The Department of the Interior announced a finding of no competitive interest for the proposed Mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy transmission line.

The Atlantic Wind Connection has been under development for a couple of years with companies including Google, investment firm Good Energies, Japanese company Marubeni, and Maryland transmission company Trans-Elect sharing the investment. It will provide an electrical grid backbone with the capacity to transmit 7,000 meagawatts of off-shore wind power to the grid.

The proposed project is a high-voltage, direct-current subsea transmission system that would collect power generated by wind turbine facilities off the Atlantic coasts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. The first such offshore infrastructure proposed in the United States, the system’s parallel, redundant circuits would total about 790 miles in length.

The Atlantic coast of the United States is a vast, as-yet untapped source of potential wind power. In addition to being resource-rich, it is also a heavily populated part of the country with a great deal of electrical demand, and wind farms along this part of the country can do a great deal of good. The next step for the project will be to evaluate potential environmental impacts.  Construction of the project is expected to take 10 years in total.

via: US Dept. of Interior

If you happen to own a LUMIX DMC-FX90, you might be interested to know Panasonic has dropped an app into both the Play and App Store to allow users to view and control certain aspects of their camera remotely. The LUMIX remote allows your Live View screen to be displayed on your smartphone. As long as you perform a firmware update to your FX90, the LUMIX remote app will provide you with:

• A remote view function that allows users to check the same image as that on the camera’s Live View screen
• A remote shutter function that allows users to set the zoom level and shoot a still picture
• A self shot mode function that is useful when shooting a self portrait

While not the most feature-rich app, it’s a nice camera companion to have for your FX90. Although it’s only available for the FX90 at this time, you can bet Panasonic will be updating other models to support the app.

Now head over to your respective app store and get ready to strike a pose.

App Store: LUMIX remote

Google Play Store: LUMIX remote

Source: Panasonic Via: The Verge