Philips light up Boni Tunnel in Mandaluyong with solar power

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Boni Tunnel LED Lighting

Manila Boni Tunnel with LED Lighting. Image: ©Philips

In Manila, Philippines the Boni Tunnel in Mandaluyong is now brighter and more energy efficient thanks to a new innovative solar powered LED lighting system from Philips. Not only is great for the environment, but the city government of Mandaluyong also expects to save up to P240,000, approximately $550,000, every year in electrical costs.

The lighting system is expexted to save up to 51% in electricity expenses every year, and consists of Philips tubular LED lighting systems that will be solar-powered by day, and powered by the power grid at night. The tunnel lighting system is connected via a grid-interactive photovoltaic system with solar panels placed on top of the tunnel. The solar panels are connected to power converters, and then hooked up to the Meralco power grid.

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SpaceX launch aborted just as engines started firing.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket being checked after launch abort.

The launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this morning was unfortunately aborted at 4:55am EDT, just a few seconds after it’s nine Merlin engines started up. The internal computers monitors the engines closely during launch, and it found a parameter that was out of bounds on one of the engines. This lead to an immediate cut off of all engines for safety reasons. With a narrow launch window of just one second, a new launch is preliminary set for Tuesday 22 May at 3:44am EDT (07:44am UTC), but this could be subject to change.

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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ready to launch tomorrow

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SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on it's way to the launch pad. Photo © SpaceX.

The first ever launch of a private vehicle heading for the International Space Station (ISS) is set to launch early morning of May 19. The launch has been pushed back several times, but after a successful launch rehearsal April 30 by the SpaceX launch team, the Falcon 9 rocket is finally ready for take off. The launch is planned for 4:55am EDT (08:55am UTC) and NASA will have live coverage of the event available via NASA TV. It will also be available via SpaceX Webcast.

The mission was originally intended to include only the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, and tests of the Dragon capsule in orbit. It now also include plans for the Dragon capsule to physically connect to the Space station and deliver supplies such as food, clothing and batteries as well. The journey will also give both SpaceX and NASA the chance to test out the capsule’s sensors and control systems as it approaches the International Space Station, collecting information that can be vital for future missions.

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Fujitsu develops improved High-Speed Thin Client technology

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Fujitsu High-Speed Thin Client Technology

Fujitsu High-Speed Thin Client Technology

Yesterday Fujitsu Laboratories Limited announced that it has developed new high-speed technology for thin clients that will improve responsiveness by as much as ten times. This development should lead to faster user operations, even in low-quality network environments, and when using a mobile connection.

Working in a cloud-based virtual desktop environment, system responsiveness has conventionally been poor. This is most evident when client terminals access the virtual desktop environment to use video or graphics-heavy applications. The current limitations can make it difficult to use these types of applications, and sometimes even out right impossible if the network infrastructure is not up to par. Using Fujitsu Laboratories new high-speed thin-client technology response times can be lowered by up to 90%. This makes it possible to develop new thin client applications, such as international video-based employee training, remote operation of internal applications that can be connected via tablets even using a mobile connection overseas.

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LG’s Quad Core Optimus 4X HD comes to Europe in June

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LG Optimus 4X HD

LG Optimus 4X HD (Image: © LG)

Back at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February, LG announced several new devices, among them was their first Quad Core Smartphone, the LG Optimus 4X HD. The device uses NVIDIA’s new 4-PLUS-1™ Quad-Core mobile processor. The 4-PLUS-1™ design has 4 cores dedicated to provide amazing performance, and then a fifth core designed to provide better power efficiency while the phone is in standby or doing more menial tasks.

LG has today revealed that the LG Optimus 4X HD will be available next month in key markets, starting in Western Europe. There are still no details on what countries in Europe that will be getting the device first, but since June is not far away, more details is sure to come as the summer month is closing in.

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Electronic touch pads on disposable paper coming soon

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Metallic paper touch pads

Metallic paper touch pad

Researchers in the US and France have developed a electronic touch pad that is based on metallised paper. This could lead to throwaway touch pads potentially incorporated into anything from food packaging to disposable or sterile medical devices.

The touch pads are made from paper coated in a layer of aluminium around 10nm thick. The paper is then overlaid with a thin film of transparent polymer. The paper the touch pads are based on is already produced commercially and is used for everything from labels on beer bottles to glossy book covers. It is therefore very inexpensive and cost only around $0.25/m2 to manufacture.

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HP will resume tablet manufacturing

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HP Windows 8 tablet

Potential HP TouchPad running Windows 8? (Image mock-up)

At the Global Influencer Summit 2012 this week, HP showed off several new HP Ultrabooks™, but chief executive Meg Whitman also reveled that the company will restart production of consumer tablets. Unlike the previous HP TouchPad running webOS, these new tablets will be using the upcoming Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft.

The tablet strategy was scrapped last year by the current CEO Leo Apotheker after disappointing sales figures, and at the same time Apotheker caused a stir when he decided to refocus HP on higher-margin businesses like cloud computing and software. It seemed that HP might leave the Personal Computer market all together. After just 11 months on the job, Hewlett-Packard’s board ousted CEO Leo Apotheker, replacing him with Meg Whitman, former CEO at eBay.

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LG Optimus L7 to arrive in stores this month

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LG Optimus L7

LG Optimus L7 - Image: ©lg.com

The new LG Optimus L7 will begin arriving in stores this week. Being part of LG’s L-Series lineup, it has a premium design and a large 4.3-inch display and comes with the latest Android version, Ice Cream Sandwich. The LG Optimus L7 has a slim and sleek body and a thickness of only 8.7mm. With it’s metallic-decorated edges, and seamless key arrangement the device gives an elegant look and feel.

The Optimus L7 features a 5 MP rear camera with an impressive and advanced, six-tenth of a second Autofocus feature, allowing users to capture precious scenes fast and more accurately. Following its release in Europe in early May, the LG Optimus L7 will roll out in Asia followed by other markets around the world soon after.

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NGK develop GaN Wafer for new Ultra High Brightness LED’s

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NGK's GaN wafer

LED element under light emitting test. Injection current: approx. 200mA, Center wavelength: 450nm (Image: © NGK Insulators, Ltd)

NGK Insulators, Ltd. has announced it has developed gallium nitride (GaN) wafers that can double the luminous efficiency of a LED light source compared to conventional materials.

With the assistance of a research institute outside the company, tests were performed to measure the luminous efficiency of an LED element using NGK’s new GaN wafer. With an injection current of 200mA, the GaN wafer during the tests showed an internal quantum efficiency of 90%. The GaN wafer achieved a luminous efficiency of 200lm/W, which is twice as efficient as those on the market today. This in affect means that with this new solution the power consumption can be reduced by up to 50%, while upholding the same brightness of a traditional LED.

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Researchers managed to observe Coherent quantum phase slip

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Energy band gap

Energy band gap obtained using energy spectroscopy. Existence of band gap establish that coherent tunneling has occurred. (© RIKEN)

Oleg Astafiev and his colleagues at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute (ASI) and NEC Smart Energy Research Laboratories have in a paper in Nature reported on the first direct observation of Coherent quantum phase slip, in a narrow superconducting wire of indium-oxide (InOx). Coherent quantum phase slip (CQPS), as this phenomenon is known, has long been limited to being just theoretical, an intriguing but until now unobserved parallel to the Josephson effect.

Unlike the Josephson effect were electric charges jump from one superconducting layer to another across an insulating layer, the behavior of the insulator and superconductor are reversed in this parallel theory. A magnetic flux, quanta jump from one insulator to another across a superconducting layer. Quantum tunneling of electrons in the Josephson junction is replaced in this parallel by the coherent “slip” of the phase, a quantum variable that, in superconducting circuits, plays a dual role to that of electric charge.

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