BP

The BP620 is LG's "flagship" Blu-ray player for 2012, but you couldn't tell by its $130 street price or ordinary feature set. It includes all the important features that manufacturers are charging for this year, such as 3D compatibility, built-in Wi-Fi, and a suite of streaming-media services.

The big catch, especially if you were familiar with LG's platform last year, is that Amazon Instant will not be included on 2012 players, which could be a deal breaker for cord cutters. However, LG continues to have one of the best-designed streaming-content portals, with a dead-simple user … Read more

One-time industry pioneer BP Solar has completely closed up shop.

After 40 years and multiple efforts to remain commercially viable, parent company BP has decided to exit the business entirely, according to spokesperson Robert Wine.

BP Solar had already closed manufacturing in the U.S., Spain, and Australia in an effort to lower costs. In July, it said it would only pursue only larger projects, rather than residential and commercial rooftop installations.

The rapid commoditization of lower-cost solar panels manufactured in Asia meant that BP Solar's products were no longer viable in Europe, Australia, and the U.S. where … Read more

Tesla Motors and Electric Power Research Institute join U.S. Department of Energy, automaker research teams and energy companies to accelerate the development of new energy-efficient technologies for cars and light trucks and the infrastructure needed to support them.

According to the DOE, the collaborative effort formerly known as FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, is now U.S. DRIVE--Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability. The goal is to beef up research and development of not only new vehicle technologies, but to also work on a broad range of energy infrastructure technologies.

"Government-industry partnerships like U.… Read more

Definitive Technology's BP-8060ST ($999 each) is a big, but not too big tower speaker. A little more than 44 inches tall and just slightly over 5 inches wide, it doesn't dominate a room, until you listen. The BP-8060ST's gravitas and poise, even when cranked up loud, are truly impressive.

The market trend to smaller and smaller speakers gets me down. Yes, little speakers can sound fine--as long as you don't compare them to something more substantial, like the BP-8060ST. If you've never heard what a big speaker can do, you'll never notice how little speakers miniaturize the scale of the music or home theater experience. Right, size still matters.

The BP-8060ST is a bipolar design, meaning it projects sound forward and off the wall behind the speaker. The rear midrange and tweeter's output is exactly the same timbre (tonal balance) as the front's dual 4.5-inch midrange/1-inch tweeter speaker array (check out the picture to get a better idea of what this looks like). The bipolar radiation pattern produces a bigger, more spacious sound field than a conventional front-firing speaker would.

The built-in 300-watt power amplifier drives a 10-inch subwoofer, and the woofer's bass output is augmented with a pair of 10-inch bass radiators. No wonder this svelte speaker sounds so well endowed.

So the BP-8060ST eliminates the need for a separate subwoofer, and the advantages of using two subwoofers in the room instead of just one go beyond more bass output: the two speakers' bass is more evenly distributed throughout the room than a single sub's would be. Of course, the blend between the BP-8060ST's sub and its midrange drivers are part of the design, but it's easy to tweak the bass balance to taste with the subwoofer volume control on the speaker's rear panel. … Read more

Given how many variables are involved, predicting the future of energy with accuracy is difficult. But BP's annual Energy Outlook, which came out today, is a closely watched indicator for the state of the energy industry.

The BP Energy Outlook 2030 (click for PDF) forecasts energy sources will diversify more in the future, with a bigger role for renewable, nuclear, and hydropower. Demand will continue to grow around the world, with developing countries consuming a larger share of energy.

Energy growth was mostly met with increased use of fossil fuels over the last 20 years. In the next 20 … Read more

Here's one for the dedicated iPhone user: a compact printer made specifically for Apple's smartphone. The Bolle BP-10 has a dock at the top for mounting your iPhone (3G, 3GS, or 4), and there's an app to let you select which photos you want to output. There are also options for tiling the same image on the photo paper to make smaller, multiple prints.

The BP-10 is a thermal transfer machine and churns out only 4x6-inch pictures. However, with iOS 4.2 now available, iPhone users can use AirPrint and send pictures to select printers to make photos. So, where does the Bolle stand? Well, less tech-savvy users will probably take to the ease of use of the BP-10, as demonstrated in the video below. … Read more

Humans may have naturally occurring nanotechnology to thank for partially cleaning up the oil spill from BP's Deepwater Horizon rig.

Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that previously undiscovered ocean floor microbes have literally risen to the occasion and begun degrading the giant underwater oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico.

While there was belief that some ocean microbes might aid in the degradation of the oil spill, the process has happened more aggressively than anyone predicted it would, according to a report from environmental biotechnologists at the Berkeley Lab.

One of the giant oil plumes that formed … Read more

Can you come up with the ideal solution for cleaning up the BP oil spill? If so, millions of dollars in prize money could be yours.

The X Prize Foundation on Tuesday said that its new Oil Cleanup X Challenge will dare people to devise the most innovative ways to clean up oil spills, dangling a prize purse of millions of dollars as an incentive. The challenge is designed to inspire entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists around the world to create quick, creative, and efficient ways of capturing crude oil from the surface of the ocean, according to the foundation.

Full … Read more

BP moved ships and workers back to a Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a storm diminished on Saturday, but work to permanently seal the blown-out well could be delayed at least a week.

Ships and rigs working to drill a relief well intended to halt the leak for good were expected back in place on Sunday, but reconnecting the piping to the well could delay the operation seven to nine days, officials said.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, head of the U.S. spill response, said the launch of a "static kill" operation to plug the … Read more