The brains over at National Renewable Energy Lab have found a way to make those pretty thin-film cells 19.9% efficient. It isn’t quite the 42% other styles of solar cells can get, but considering these babies can be made on inkjet printers for next to nothing, it is a large step. It is great that a new world record for efficiency has been created, I just want them cheap and in a portable form (for geektastic camping).
For more info, click over to EcoGeek.
If you didn’t hear, Apple have done the memory upgrade on the Touch and iPhone, making the already delicious devices more so. Remembering that Creative and a slew of other portable audio manufactures had already released their 32GB players, it makes sense that prices drops are bound to happen. The first device to feel the heat of Apples upgrades is the highly regarded Creative Zen 32GB PMP. The original price was $US329, and has now dropped down to $US299. Do they accept checks?
For more info, click over to Crave.
I am a big fan of a car for $US2500, but is it all that efficient and cheap? I’m a car enthusiast but have never worked for a car manufacture, meaning I am not the foremost authority on this subject.
The Tata Nano will succeed in India. India has a population of a billion and only 7 of every 1000 people own a car. The Nano will fill that gap, and only because that is all it is, a car. No radio, no air conditioning, no passenger side mirror. No bells and whistles to be seen (at least until you upgrade to the higher priced models).
In the developed countries there is a big number who spend what they can afford. If they are high earners they go luxury, if they are low they go for budget. The Tata, if the price was to be kept in other countries, would be a whole new level, an almost disposable level.
In Australia, to get to work and back every week I spend around $AU80 on petrel. In a year I would spend around $AU4000 not including servicing and other small costs. If I was to buy a Tata every year, with its 5litres per 100km’s efficiency, it would cost me around $AU4000 including petrol. No servicing required, just throw it out when it stops working.
That is possible if the car was to cost the labelled $US2500 all over the world, but unfortunately this can’t be done without sacrificing a lot. Different countries have different weather and road conditions. Different countries have different safety, tax’s and emission laws. The price of the $US2500 could sky-rocket, If the price was to go north to much, considerations would have to come into account, such as the cost of adding the features you would use to the car, such as air-conditioning, and reliability over other car manufactures.
On top of that, the cost of distributing a vehicle such as this in countries outside of India is going to be higher. Too train and pay a mechanic in India may be cheap, but it isn’t cheap in Australia. How about further advancement? Will they have to reply on the profits from its other subsidiaries to push the Nano’s development?
On the efficiency part of the car it is truly incredible, but efficiency is only half the battle. Whether you car uses 5 litres every 100kms or 50 litres every 100kms, it is still better to use 0. If 8 people out of that 1000 was to be finally able to afford a car, that would put an extra million cars on the road.
The Nano will change the way car manufactures do business. Lets just hope that change is for the better.
Tata, and Indian outfit, has finally announced the final name for their extremely budget car, price at a minuscule $US2500. The name, which everyone has seen before, will be Nano. Unveiled at the 2008 Delhi Motor Show, the Nano showed featured a 33 horsepower 624cc two-cylinder gasoline engine (diesel option coming) and stepless CVT transmission or 5-speed manual transmission.
The car is super basic with no power steering and the instrument panel consisting of only a speedometer, a fuel gauge and an oil light. It doesn’t skimp on safety or the environment, being designed to pass all international side offset and side crash tests as well as Euro 4 emissions tests. Efficiency wise, it will be capable of getting 100kms off 5 litres, putting it next to current hybrid cars.
Tata expect to sell 500,000 of these guys, and at the price and for what it can do, it isn’t impossible. Expect to see them hitting shelves in the second half of 2008.
For more info, click over to PaulTan.org
Want a cheap video camera and brand name doesn’t matter? Why not try a Exemode DV580HD? This little guy supports 720P, which slides on down to its 32mb inbuilt or SDHC memory card slot (16 or 32 GB coming soon). It features an 8 megapixel CCD for taking shots but unfortunately doesn’t come with any optical zoom. Michael Bay won’t be using it to film Transformers 2, but for $US220 what do you expect?
For more info, click over to the Akihabara News Site.
Not everyone can afford iPods and ZEN’s. For those people who eat cat food just to survive and sleep in old newspapers, there is the Delstar DS2209. It doesn’t have an impressive name or a impressive design, but it does have the features and price to back it up.
It hits at $US30, which is ok, but then there are a few things you have to take into account. The first being the inbuilt 1GB of store, the second the SD expansion slot. On top of the ability to store a lot of music with a few SD cards, it also has a FM radio and voice recorder. One nice little feature a lot of players have removed, is the fold out USB adapter, making it a great thumb drive as well.
It isn’t going to dethrone any of the big players in the game of digital audio (and even more considering the introduction of playing video in pretty much every new player), but for 30 bucks you won’t mind so much when you stack and smash it into a million plastic pieces. To bad it is as ugly as sin!
For more info, click over to the Crave Blog.
Looking for a 24″ LCD but don’t want to spend too much, and wouldn’t mind a HDMI port? Seems Benq has got your back covered with their upcoming G2400W 24-inch WUXGA LCD. It does 250cd/m2, contrast ratio of 1000:1, DVI-D with HDCP and a single HDMI port. The best part of this product is the $EU360 (around $US515) price tag, which means it will come in a tad cheaper then your Dell screen.
For more info, click over to the Akihabara Website.