Watch Bugs Unbelievably Charge a Smartphone [Video]

By Casey Chan Oct 16, 2011 5:00 PM 15,764 31

This ad by Qualcomm is more impressive and less gross than I thought it would be—it uses bugs on miniature circus equipment to charge an Android phone with a Snapdragon processor. I'm guessing it's an attempt to show off how low-powered the Snapdragon processor can be? Whatever, complex bugs are cool. [Bug Circus Generator via Laughing Squid]

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If You're European, Apple Now Lets You Charge Your iPhone via Micro USB [IPhone]

Now that the iPhone 4S has been shown off to borderline middling interest, Apple is quietly rolling out this little dongle that allows you to charge your phone via Micro USB. Too bad it's only in Europe (for now?).

The move follows the European Union's pushing the Micro-USB format to become a standard. Rather than redesign the iPhone, they just made a workaround. You'll likely have to pray you won't lose it, but it's something. It'll be available Oct. 14th for £8. [9to5 Mac]

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Intel Claims Next Chip Will Run Your Laptop For 24 Hours On One Battery Charge [PCs]

I can't wait for 2013. That's the year where Intel's Haswell architecture arrives, bringing three very important things. One, the ability to run your laptop for 24 hours on one charge. Heaven. Two, 10 days on "connected standby."

And three: This 22-nanometer 3D-transistor architecture consumes so little power—20 times less than their current gear—that it can run on a solar cell. That's exactly what they demonstrated at the Intel's Developer Forum today: a Haswell-based Windows computer running entirely off a solar cell that was being exposed to a light bulb. Imagine that. Basically, your computer would be able to run indefinitely without ever having to power off, even if you run out of battery power to run the machine's display. I'm impressed.

That's why you can also have ten days of connected standby with your computer connected to a wireless network. That means putting the display to sleep but have the machine continuously connected to the Internet for ten days, grabbing email, tweets, or synchronizing files down from the cloud. I don't know about you, but this low power peace of mind is one of the things that I like most about these new chips.

Before 2013's Haswell comes Ivy Bridge in 2012, which will also reduce power and support DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 3.2 directly on the chip, as well as 4K high definition video playback. [Anandtech, Marketwatch, Forbes, Ventura Beat, Cnet, Sweclockers]

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