Boston-Power signs up HP as first partner for next-gen batteries

It’s not exactly much of a surprise given that HP has already shown some considerable interest in the company, but Boston-Power has now finally officially announced that HP will be the first laptop manufacturer to offer its long-lasting (and less explosion-prone) Sonata batteries, which HP will sell under its new Enviro Series brand. According to Boston-Power, those batteries will be available as an optional upgrade in early 2009, and they’ll be compatible with the “majority” of HP’s consumer laptops. What’s more, HP will also be offering a three-year warranty with the batteries, which is apparently the longest one available from a laptop manufacturer and, just as notably, this also apparently marks the first time that a US battery company has sold batteries to one of the top laptop manufacturers. One detail that hasn’t been announced just yet, however, is the price, though we’re guessing that little detail should be making itself known before too long.

Filed under: Laptops

Boston-Power signs up HP as first partner for next-gen batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Office Depot to Close 112 Stores [Financiapocalypse]

Financiapocalypse has claimed yet another victim. This time it is Office Depot—and they are planning to close 112 stores, or 9% of their North American locations over the next three months.

A list of the store closings has not been made available, but the breakdown will look like this: “45 stores in the Central U.S., 40 in the Northeast and Canada, 19 in the West and eight in the South.” They are also shutting down six of their 33 distribution facilities and scaling back openings to 20 in 2009. [Yahoo Finance via TG Daily]

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Photos Show What 10 Megajoules Worth of Damage To the LHC Looks Like [Large Hadron Collider]

CERN’s photos of the LHC’s multi-million-dollar ouchies aren’t as dramatic as the Earth being swallowed by the Singularity, but they show the results of a single solder joint’s failure on the world’s most complex machine.

For someone who doesn’t know his quench detector from his quadropole Q24, it’s not easy to see what’s going on here. But it does look like something is amiss, that’s for sure. Aside from wrecking 53 of the Large Hadron’s magnets, the incident released six tons of helium into the atmosphere. There have been no reports of Geneva’s residents all talking like Chipmunks on that fateful day, however.

CERN also reiterated their hopes to get the Large Hadron Collider back to colliding by June of next year. Two of the 53 replacement magnets have already been installed. [CERN Press Release via Cosmic Variance]

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Microsoft gets official with Windows Azure cloud OS, platform

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Networking

Steve Ballmer himself first dropped word of this one earlier this month, but Microsoft has now finally gotten official about its new cloud computing operating system, and its name: Windows Azure. What’s more, the OS is apparently just one component of Microsoft’s larger Azure cloud computing platform, which will eventually be fully rolled out alongside Windows 7, and will encompass Microsoft’s existing Live services, SQL services, and .NET services, among other things. If that’s got you excited, you can find plenty more details at the link below, and even a few SDKs ready for downloading.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Microsoft gets official with Windows Azure cloud OS, platform originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Robots

Oh Rolly… we know you’re an overpriced, 2GB dancing robot with convoluted controls and questionable sound quality. But dammit, your impractical, big-corporate ways have gnawed a soft-spot deep into the noxious cesspool we call a heart. Now this: Rolly model SEP-50BT with Bluetooth control from your cellphone or laptop. Shipping in Japan on November 21st for an expected ¥40,000 or about $427. Sold. Watch it all unfold in the video after the break.

[Via Impress]

Continue reading Sony’s Rolly learns the Bluetooth trick

Sony’s Rolly learns the Bluetooth trick originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via [Engadget]

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DirecTV PC Tuner Officially Canceled [DirecTV]

DirecTV has officially canned their efforts to bring the HDPC-20 tuner to market. The device would have allowed subscribers to integrate their service with Windows Media Center.

A company spokesperson noted that the decision was made after “assessing the impact of missing the August 2008 release of Windows Media Center update and considering timing of the next release.” How disappointing. If it is any consolation, DirecTV knows that we want Windows integration and they have expressed a commitment to making it happen. Nah, that doesn’t make me feel better. [Gearlog]

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New Wii Disk Drives Render Modchips Useless [Nintendo]

In their latest attempt to block homebrew on the Wii, Nintendo has begun using a new revision of the Wii’s optical drive—one that prevents any existing mod chip from functioning.

While this may be just a standard hardware switch and not a concerted effort to block piracy, some keen-eyed modders quickly noticed the change—in the latest drive revision, found in an Australian model with the serial number LAH1098xxxxx, the drive controller chip necessary for previous mods had been completely replaced by a new one.

What they have done is combine the old D1A and drive controller chip in to one which is now called the GC2-D3, as you can see from the photo there is a big blank space on the PCB where the controller chip used to be.

So far there haven’t been any other reports of these Wiis showing up outside of Australia, so it may be a while before we see them widespread and by then, I’m guessing there will probably already be a workaround. Kiddies who just can’t wait to open up their new Wiis and solder up a mod chip on Christmas morning, though, should probably double check which drive they have first. [mywii.com.au via GoNintendo]

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DIY iPhone Retro Rotary Docking Station [DIY]

Interestingly enough, a retro rotary phone lends itself well to iPhone docking. Plus, building one yourself looks to be a fairly simple procedure (so long as you are willing to cannibalize a speaker dock).

According to the project page, a version with a microphone on the handset is also in the works along with a compatible iPhone app. That would make it possible to use it for actual phone calls—kind of like the commercial retro handsets that have become so ubiquitous these days. [fonejackerhacker via Boing Boing Gadgets via Hacked Gadgets]

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