power

You're sweating in your bulky radiation suit, your dosimeter is freaking you out, and you're trying to close a valve that might just save a large portion of the population from some very nasty fallout.

Wouldn't it be nice to have some robotic help?

Japan's robot start-up Cyberdyne is modifying its Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) power suit for use by first responders in nuclear accidents.

The exoskeleton is being improved to help workers who have to wear heavy radiation protection clothing. Japan is still struggling with radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was severely damaged last year during one of the country's most powerful earthquakes. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- A device to call your mom when you crash your bike.

- Stop the madness: 3D-printed headphones?!

- A jacket that hugs you for getting "Likes" on Facebook.

- Target adds QR codes to hot holiday toys for secret shopping.

- Also, New York is about to have QR codes everywhere soon.

Bathroom break video: Salt Lake from Lance follows up… Read more

Timbuk2, maker of messenger bags, backpacks, Kindle Paperwhite dinner jackets, and laptops sleeves, now hopes to attract even more attention from the tech set with two new bags that can recharge your devices. And if you've ever wondered how the company's famous bags get made, we scored a tour of the San Francisco factory floor to show you how that gets done, too. … Read more

When you absolutely need to make sure your main squeeze -- your smartphone or tablet, that is -- can stay powered when away from a wall outlet, a seemingly never-ending number of external battery options exist.

Few of the chargers, however, look as sleek as the half-inch thick Sony CycleEnergy external battery announced today, featuring lithium ion flavors in either 3,500 or 7,000mAh capacities. The slim aluminum frame weighs up to 6.9 ounces and sports a design that probably makes it easy to bundle along with a phone. … Read more

You know the old saying: you can never be too rich or too thin, or have too much battery power for your Android phone.

If you're forever running low on juice, you've probably thought about packing along a spare battery -- but that's a hassle. Not only do you need a way to keep it charged, you also need a convenient place to stow it.… Read more

Judging by the number of e-mails I get on this subject, a lot of folks don't understand the difference between computer and hi-fi speakers. For example, how is an Audioengine A5+ ($399 a pair) functionally different from a PSB Alpha B1 speaker ($300 a pair)?… Read more

PowerPoint Viewer 2007 is free software you can use to view your presentations from Microsoft PowerPoint 97 and beyond without opening the program. It's a quick and convenient way to view PowerPoint files on your computer.

There isn't much to be said about the interface, since there is almost nothing there: as soon as you open the program, it opens a window to select the file you want to view. It's just like viewing a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint except you can't alter or edit anything. You can print the presentations, which is a bonus. PowerPoint … Read more

Apple ranked highest in J.D. Power and Associates' tablet satisfaction survey.

The survey, which J.D. Power plans to conduct yearly, relied on tablet users who had owned their devices for less than two years. The index was a composite of -- in descending order of importance -- a device's performance; ease of operation; styling and design; features; and price.

J.D. Power's survey points to a close battle between Apple and Amazon, which enjoyed a wide lead over the rest of the pack. The industry average was 832, according to the survey. Apple scored 848 of … Read more

System sleep in OS X systems is convenient to have for saving power without interrupting your workflow, especially for laptop systems. This is easy enough to set up in the OS X system preferences; however, there may be times when despite having sleep enabled you might have an important task running and wish to prevent the system from going to sleep.

In past versions of OS X, the system would not enter sleep if applications were running and writing files to disk or running lengthy computational tasks, but this has changed in the latest releases of OS X, where programs must invoke a power assertion … Read more