Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 22nd Jul 2009 18:20 UTC, submitted by tupp
It seems Apple is on a roller coaster ride this week, going from bad news to good news, back to bad news again. A local television station from Seattle, US, forced the Consumer Product Safety Commission via the Freedom Of Information Act to hand over an 800-page report about fire hazards posed by Apple's iPod music players. Experts on consumer safety agree that it's time Apple makes public statements about the fire hazards posed by iPods.
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Member since:2005-07-06
About a year ago, I purchased an electric scooter powered with really fancy Li-ion "nano-phosphate" LiFePo4 type:"rediculous" batteries.
LiFe cells can't explode like the old ones (the Fe is some kind of inhibitor for explosive reactions)
but as good as all modern cells have modified chemicals to reduce the risk of an explosion
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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Member since:
2006-03-17
About a year ago, I purchased an electric scooter powered with really fancy Li-ion "nano-phosphate" LiFePo4 type:"rediculous" batteries. These are cells from A123 Systems, and they're scarry powerful (each is 3.3V @ 2300 mAH with 70A continuous drain or 120A in 10sec pulses). Now, I've been riding the scooter for a while - and these cells have really taken a beating in their lives. But I have yet to find any article about these types of cells exploding (probably helps that their laser-welded). They're also designed for industrial apps and hybrid vehicles, so I'm sure the chemistry had to be made a bit safer.
I recently bought 20 of the same '26650A' LiFePo4 from an eBay'er in China, so I'll be able to replace the existing unit with fresh cells. It also turned out to be 5 more cells than the original contains, so I'll be able to add about 25% more charge to my scooter.
But these cells are honestly terrifying - not that I've blown anything up yet, but 70 amps of continuous current per cell (5 cells series x 4 stacks in parallel)... mmmmm.. that about 280 amps @ 18VDC of kill your darn self if you're not careful. You can buy the cells from a 'developers kit' dealer that sells A123 cells with handy tabs, but they're really expensive. My cost for 20 was 80$ + 40$ s/h, waaaay cheaper than the 6 for $120 brand new. The ebay seller said they came from DeWalt 36V battery packs, and they do seem to be very fresh (good V, killer A) and essentially unused.
Needless to say, I will be soldering them with a full array of rubber protective gear.