Solar powered flashlight illuminates the night in impoverished countries.

Most of you probably remember the one laptop per child program where for $400 you could give one to a developing country and get one for yourself? Well for a lot of us folks on a limited budget that was just too much money to help out as much as we would have liked having a new laptop to play with and one given away in our name. For a much more affordable way ($50) to help out those in developing countries, or even our own troops, SunNight Solar has come up with a buy one give one (BOGO) program to help provide a free source of light to impoverished people.

Many people in the developing world don’t have electricity to light their homes and have to spend a lot of their resources on lighting solutions such as kerosene lanterns, candles, and flashlights. SunNight Solar has come up with a flashlight / lantern that is powered by the sun and basically provides free light. Their goal is to give as many of these flashlights away to as many people in need as possible and they have given us an easy way to help them with their goal. For about $50 you can buy one for yourself and give one to an organization of your choice including troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their founder Mark Bent an ex-marine started SunNight after spending many years in Africa and seeing how providing a free lighting source would be helpful to so many people. Mark being a man of action decided to found SunNight to help address this important need.

Being a bit of a gadget geek I was happy to see a package at my door the other day with one of these solar powered flashlights in it and who doesn’t enjoy a new toy to play with? I had forgotten that a few months back I signed up to get one of these to test out. The flashlight itself is very light and easy to handle, and although it’s not that small it’s thin enough to easily fit in a pocket. Its six LEDs make for a nice spotlight and easily illuminates the path ahead of you. To conserve on battery power you can turn it down to lower levels of light which give plenty of light to get around in the dark. There is even a lantern mode where it gives off a broad amount of light instead of a focused spot like in the flashlight mode. In this mode it gives off plenty of light to illuminate a small room for many hours. I’ve had mine on for four hours now in the medium lantern setting and it is still going on strong. I have no doubt that it will easily go for the 5 hours that SunNight claims.

The great thing about these flashlights is that you don’t have to worry about buying batteries or remembering to charge them. You just store it in a well lit spot and you will always have a charged flashlight. This is a pretty good solution to give people some light to enable them to get around at night for free. For two years at least, after that they’ll need to replace the batteries.

If you are interested in getting yourself one of these flashlights and giving one away head over to SunNight’s BOGO site. The hardest part is deciding what group to give a free flashlight to.

Watch this news report about Mark Bent and SunNight Solar.

Watch this Video about how SunNight Solar’s flashlight works.

James Towner

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Liquid Lenses Promise Picture-Perfect Phone Cam Photos

By Larry Greenemeier

LIQUID LENS: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytech are developing a liquid lens that uses water, sound and surface tension to adjust the focus.

TROY, N.Y.—Despite their ubiquity, cell phones are not known for their ability to take picture-perfect photos. But budding "liquid lens" technology promises to change that by providing phone photogs with the autofocus capabilities lacking in today's cellular optics.

The latest advance in this area comes from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, here, where researchers have developed a liquid lens by placing a few drops of water into a cylindrical hole drilled in a Teflon surface and using a small speaker (that plays a high-frequency sound) to provide the resonance needed to move the water back and forth, changing the focus of the lens. Light passing through the droplets transforms them into a mini camera lens, which is capped on both sides with plastic or glass.

The experiment, led by Amir Hirsa, associate chief of graduate studies in the school's Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, used the liquid lens to capture 250 images per second. "The mass of the system is pushed back and forth as a result of surface tension," Hirsa says. "This adds variable focus capability to lenses that have never had it before." He and a team of researchers have been working on the project since 2004, thanks to a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The researchers describe their findings in the upcoming issue of the journal Nature Photonics.

Hirsa says the research could pave the way to a more sophisticated liquid lens that could be hooked up to a computer program that would only snap digital pictures of scenes or an object that is in focus (instead of taking a series of images in approximate focus from which a photographer can choose).

The lens is simpler than earlier liquid lens designs that use a combination of water (or some other fluid capable of conducting electricity) and oil as well as an electric charge. By using water, sound and surface tension to adjust the focus, Rensselaer researchers are hoping to develop more efficient and less expensive lenses than those made by Varioptic, S.A., in Lyon, France, although the company has a significant head start: It first demonstrated a lens in 2005 that sandwiches drops of water and oil between glass or plastic, according to PC Magazine.

Varioptic's design uses a small integrated circuit to deliver a low-voltage charge (measured in milliwatts, or thousandths of a watt) to the lens that causes the fluids to change shape. A higher current pulls the drop in on itself, creating a concave effect whereas a lower voltage makes it rounder. There are no moving parts, and the oil, which has to be of even density and temperature, helps keep the drop in shape and in place.

Varioptic earlier this year announced a partnership with Japan's Seiko Instruments USA, Inc., to begin mass producing liquid lenses by the end of 2008. In June Varioptic began working with China's Shenzhen Akkord Electronics Company, Ltd., to make the first 1.3- and 2.0-megapixel liquid lens variable-focus Web cameras. Philips Electronics in the Netherlands and the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore have also developed prototype liquid lenses.

Hirsa says his team will seek more NSF funding to study the dynamics of the liquid's movement and find a way to package the lens in devices such as cell phones or Webcams without breaking it or disturbing the droplets. "If you make the inside coated with something water-resistant," he says, "the droplets would simply re-form if they were disrupted."

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Cool Earth Solar Constructing First Solar “Balloon” Prototype Plant

Written by Ariel Schwartz

We’ve written about Livermore, CA-based startup Cool Earth Solar before. Now the company, which develops inflatable balloon-like solar concentrators, has announced that it is constructing a prototype plant in Livermore. Last week, I spoke to Cool Earth Solar CEO Rob Lamkin to get some more information on the upcoming project.

According to Lamkin, the prototype plant will be online in approximately two months. The company plans to test out different solar concentrator designs at the plant to prove out the technology. This winter, Cool Earth will launch its first commercial-grade power plant. The plant will be relatively small— only 1.4 MW— but Cool Earth plans on launching a full-size plant (10 to 30 MW) by next summer.

If the prototype plant is successful, Cool Earth wants to expand far beyond the Livermore area. “Initially, we’ll be be doing projects in California and the Southwest, but we do want to expand overseas,” Lamkin said. “To address the global energy problem, we’ve got to scale bigtime worldwide.”

Cool Earth Solar’s design is unique in the solar energy world. The company uses an inflatable plastic thin-film balloon (solar concentrator) that, upon inflation, focuses sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell held at its focal point. The design produces 400 times the electricity that a solar cell would create without the company’s concentrator.

Additionally, Cool Earth’s balloons are already price-competitive with natural gas-derived electricity. “Plastic thin film is abundant and cheap,” said Lamkin. “It only costs two dollars for the plastic material necessary for our solar concentrator.”

Keep watching Cool Earth Solar— I have a feeling that this company will become a household name in the near future.

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Network's iPhone App Turns Up Some User-Generated NSFW Pics to Mobile Site

By Michael Learmonth

Published: October 01, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Like a lot of news networks, CBS jumped on the citizen journalism bandwagon with a free iPhone app, Eyemobile for iPhone, to make it easy for users to upload news to its user-generated news site, CBSeyemobile.com.

Click to enlarge for a sort of NSFW version of a pic uploaded to CBSeyemobile.com.

Interesting, though, the citizens' definition of "news."

Karl Johnson, chief operating officer of BrandContent, a Boston-based agency, uploaded the app last night and saw a picture of a young woman bent over her kitchen stove, her skirt hiked up. Later he saw video of three women performing sexual acts on one another.

A visit to CBSeyemobile.com turns up a few photos that walk the line of not-safe-for-work, a jarring juxtaposition with CBS's storied news brand.

What's more, Google is advertising on the clips via AdMob.

"This seems to be a classic case of nobody paying attention to whether any of the materials are newsworthy or not," Mr. Johnson said. "Looks to me like Facebook run amok, but even Facebook has a moderator."

CBS does have a moderator, but it seems the system isn't working, or perhaps not as well as they would like. "We've been posting user-generated content since April, and this is the first known incident along these lines," a CBS spokesman said. "It was removed promptly and we will redouble our efforts in this regard."

Jason Spero, VP-Marketing, AdMob, in a statement said: "CBS notified AdMob of an inappropriate piece of content on this application and we worked with CBS to immediately remove all ads from this application until it is fixed. AdMob has a clear and consistent policy against running ads on mobile sites or applications with inappropriate content. CBS has clear guidelines around user generated content and immediately removed the content and banned the user that uploaded it from any future use of the application."

When asked whether any of his clients are comfortable advertising on this app at this point, Mr. Johnson said, "I think not. It doesn't seem consistent with CBS brand image by any stretch of the imagination."

Enabling users to easily upload video is a hot trend among the TV news networks. And several have jumped on the iPhone as a tool for citizen journalists. In addition to CBS, Fox News, CNN and The Associated Press all have iPhone apps that allow users to submit video of breaking news.

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Bargain Hunting: 5 free alternatives to paid iPhone Apps

Free. It's a four-letter word people love to hear, especially when it comes to purchasing Apps. If you are shelling out even a dollar for an App, you're guaranteed more bang for your buck, right? But it is not always necessary to fork over cash for a decent App, as free versions can provide almost an equal level of functionality and reliability. We have compiled a list of five superb paid Apps and their capable free counterparts.

Need to get things done?

Spend your money on...Todo ($9.99)

For those with jam-packed lives, Todo from Appigo is a lifesaver. An appealing yet simple GUI allows users to effectively organize tasks accordingly while keeping tabs of what's already been completed. Todo can sync with Remember the Milk and ToodleDo and integrate contacts from Address Book. Todo manages to cover all aspects, and then some. (See our review for this App here)

Save your money with...iProcrastinate

iProcrastinate from Craig Otis is a free task manager that is especially useful for students, but can also be used for organizing anything from shopping lists to household chores. Smartgroups and color coding are helpful organizational tools aiding in immediate access to tasks. Unlike Todo, it lacks Address Book integration, and while it can't sync right now, the next update (due out soon) will have syncing capabilities with the desktop version of iProcrastinate. Whether for a student, homemaker, or businessperson, iProcrastinate can prioritize in a snap. (See our review for this App here)

Need to know how much money to bring for your trip abroad?

Spend your money on...Currency Converter ($1.99)

iPhone-toting globetrotters will find much use for Paolo Grifantini's Currency Converter, which offers up-to-date information on over 200 currencies around the world (plus the Linden dollar from Second Life). With one-tap rate inversion, an intuitive GUI, and support in fourteen languages, Currency Converter can be the fiscal-minded traveler's best friend.

Save your money with...Currency

While it may not have as many currencies or as slick an interface as Currency Converter, Jeffrey Grossman's Currency App provides much of the same functionality as its paid counterpart. Currency offers the latest rates on over 90 currencies in 100 countries, as well as support in 16 languages. For those who mind their own personal economy as much as the world economy, they can't go wrong in downloading this free conversion/inversion App.

Need to find your way somewhere?

Spend your money on...GPS Kit ($9.99)

Whether on two feet or four wheels, GPS Kit from Garafa can pinpoint an iPhone user's location in real time. This tracking/navigation App offers detailed topographical maps, integration with Google Maps/Google Earth, a customizable dashboard, and view, save, and share waypoints. It is important to note that GPS Kit is only compatible with 3G iPhones...

Save your money with...GPS Tracker

...but for 1st Gen iPhone/iTouch owners (and 3G users who welcome a bargain), there is GPS Tracker from InstaMapper. Like GPS Kit, GPS Tracker also tracks locations in real time (with updates as often as every 5 seconds) and Google Maps integration. But this freebie can also record up to 100,000 locations and store and buffer up to 100 points of interest. Social networking integration allows users to post their current coordinates on personal blogs or Facebook pages, for optimum Net-stalking. (See our review for this App here)

Need to conceal private information?

Spend your money on...SplashID ($9.99)

SplashData calls its SpashID App a "safe on the iPhone," as it can store not only passwords, but other valuable information such as prescriptions and account numbers. SplashID also generates new passwords, measures password strength, and provides a 256-bit Blowfish encryption to ensure that all information is secure. Users can back up their data by syncing this App with the desktop version of SplashID for Mac or Windows (sold separately). With SpashID, all secrets are safe.

Save your money with...1Password

Like SpashID, 1Password from Agile Web Solutions provides protection for private and personal information. 1Password keeps data vacuum-sealed with a two-layer defense (unlock code and master password), AES encryption, and an auto-lock feature. Information can be backed up by syncing with the desktop version of 1Password (sold separately, and not available on Windows). Although this App is listed as being free for a limited time, 1Password has already been on the market, sans price, for close to two months. Take advantage of this freebie while you can. (See our review for this App here)

Need to access your desktop, away from your desktop?

Spend your money on...Jaadu VNC ($24.99)

Jugaari's Jaadu VNC enables the iPhone to access Mac or PC desktops from anywhere in the world. Not only can users control their desktop applications remotely, they can also visit Flash-supported sites on their iPhones and control their favorite media players. Jaadu VNC supports VPN encrypting, combination keystrokes (alt+ctrl+del), and other various VNC servers. There are no limits when it comes to remote PC or Mac desktop access with a Jaadu VNC-enabled iPhone.

Save your money with...Mocha VNC Lite

We are well aware that there is a full version of Mocha VNC ($5.99) but save a few features (including alt+ctrl+del functionality), Mocha VNC Lite is almost identical and just as reliable. Like Jaadu VNC, Mocha VNC Lite offers remote access to Mac or PC desktop applications and documents via iPhone. Mocha VNC Lite also features a landscape mode, an extensive help menu, and a simple-to-use interface. For a Lite App, Mocha VNC Lite works like a million bucks. (See our review for this App here)

Summary

As with all purchases, it's important to look for a good bargain. While the paid Apps we feature on this list are superb, their free alternatives can provide much of the same functionality and reliability you desire without having to part with a single penny.

If there is a bargain we forgot to list, sound off in the comments section.

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Analyst: Apple's Market Beatdown Has No Effect On Its Business

By Brian X. Chen

Of all the tech giants who took a beating in Monday's stock market meltdown, Apple suffered the worst, dropping 18 percent and wiping $18 billion off its market cap.

What does it mean for Apple? Absolutely nothing, explains Oppenheimer & Company analyst Yair Reiner.

"I respect someone coming to the conclusion that the economy is going to turn very sour and Apple may be among the chief casualties of that," said Reiner, in a phone interview. "But I think that's a really short-term call."

Reiner said Apple's stock crash isn't going to decrease production of iPhones, MacBooks, MacBook Pros or cancel the development of a hot new product.

The only way Apple's falling share price might have an impact is if the company needed the capital to expand or make dramatic changes, which would require raising money by offering more shares. And that isn’t likely, because Apple has upward of $20 billion in its balance sheet, and the company is still trading at 21 times its earnings for 2008, Reiner said.

Apple on Monday went from being a Wall Street favorite to hitting a new 52-week low, largely because two analysts -- RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky and Morgan Stanley's Kathryn Hubert -- downgraded their recommendations, citing slowing consumer demand for Apple products.

Abramsky backed his recommendation to downgrade from "sector perform" to "outperform" with a survey his firm conducted with ChangeWave, which runs a network of 15,000 businesses. The survey suggested that the percentage of technology consumers who plan to buy a Mac dropped from 34 percent in August to 29 percent in September.

However, downplaying Abramsky's recommendation, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said his firm estimates a 29-percent Mac growth this quarter. Munster added that the Street's margin pressure concerns are likely "overblown" and that margin guidance will likely be above or equal to Apple's 30-percent gross margin guidance.

Meanwhile, Huberty, who cited slowing global consumer demand to downgrade her recommendation on Apple from "overweight" to "equal-weight," has in the past underestimated Apple's iPhone sales. For quarter two of 2008, for example, Huberty estimated Apple would sell 1 million iPhones, when in reality the company sold 1.7 million, according to CNN Money's Philip Elmer DeWitt. For quarter two of 2008, for example, Huberty estimated Apple would sell 1 million iPhones, when in reality the company sold 1.7 million.

Reiner stressed, however, that the recommendations of analysts are often subjective estimates, and investors remain uncertain about how the market crash will affect consumption of Apple products. Reiner said he personally remains optimistic about the tech giant, particularly because of the way the company has integrated its products into people's lifestyles.

"The long-term thesis about Apple and the reason to want to own the stock is because of the fundamental change in the way that people use [Apple] computers or that people are looking for their computers to do. It has more to do with managing their lifestyles, using videos and music and other media, and I think Apple has put together hardware and software that's much more evolved than their competitors."

He added that Apple is more susceptible in the stock market than other tech corporations because of the excitement it incites.

"Apple is a stock that creates a lot of passion," Reiner said. "Just as people can get incredibly enthusiastic about what Apple does and how bright its future is, when enthusiasm wanes there's more chance of volatility."

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Google engineers add two projects to Google Mac Playground

By Chris Foresman

Top Draw example from Google

Those Googlers and their 20 percent time—always coming up with interesting software tidbits. The better ones for Mac users are posted to the Google Mac Playground, and there are two recent additions: Top Draw and Update Engine.

Top Draw is an algorithm-based drawing program; a sort of a turbo-charged, alcohol-fueled funny car version of Logo for the modern age. It uses simple scripts written in a JavaScript-based syntax and leverages CoreImage and Quartz rendering to make limitless images. "In addition to the drawing commands that are supported by the HTML canvas tag, there is support for particle systems, plasma clouds, random noise, multi-layer compositing and much more," writes Daniel Waylonis of the Google Mac Team. In addition to a viewer app, it includes a screensaver module so you can create your own mesmerizing screensaver. Though it is somewhat of a toy, it could be used to learn or buff up on programming skills, or generate some fantastic digital art.

Update Engine, on the other hand, is entirely different. It is designed as a framework for developers to add auto-updating features to their applications. Though Sparkle is already a popular framework for doing this in Cocoa-based apps, Greg Miller from the Update Engine Team notes that Update Engine was design for much more complex update tasks than Sparkle. Even Sparkle developer Andy Matuschak himself admitted, "From what I've seen, the Update Engine is way better engineered and is a lot more flexible [than Sparkle]," though both Miller and Matuschak feel that Sparkle is a good choice for more straightforward updating. And really, what developer would complain about having two well-made frameworks to choose from to add auto-update functionality?

Both Top Draw and Update Engine have source code as well as compiled binaries available from Google Code, so if you have a hankering for either, give them a download. As with all Google Playground software, they are absolutely free.

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Nokia, Apple iPhone to lock horns at last on Thursday

By Aidan Malley

After remaining near-silent as iPhone and other touchscreen cellphones took control of the high-end media phone business, Nokia on Thursday will try and reclaim what was once its own with its first touchscreen cellphone.

Given its first real preview in a Czech leak last week, Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic is believed by multiple sources to be scheduled for an October 2nd launch at a special Nokia press event that should also play host to fuller details of the cellphone maker's Comes With Music unlimited mobile music strategy.

The handset at first blush is cosmetically similar to iPhone but, in theory, should outclass the Apple-made communicator in several key respects: a 640x360 screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera and video capture on the 5800 will all outperform its rival while 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi put it on an equal footing in other areas. Apple's device is limited to a 480x320 display and a two-megapixel camera so far capable only of taking still photos.

And while the Nokia hardware will allegedly lack any significant built-in storage of its own -- instead opting for the usual microSD card slot of most phones -- the 5800 will be one of Nokia's few four-digit phones to sport a full smartphone platform. Where the company's other XpressMusic devices use the feature-limited Symbian Series 40, the new model is said to carry Series 60 and so would support the same class of third-party apps as those for the N95 and other Nokia challengers to iPhone, although many of these programs may need to be modified to support the touchscreen.

The Finland-based manufacturer is also counting on price as a selling point. In July, a company spokesperson insisted that the then-unnamed phone would be priced below its competitors, which in the iPhone's case would demand a sub-$200 price tag.

Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic. | Image credits: Mobil.cz.

A fall launch for the 5800 comes at a critical moment for Nokia, which has lately begun to feel the heat from iPhone 3G and other cellphones eating away at its core market. A statement released earlier in September by the cellular giant warned that it would bleed market share in the summer after "aggressive pricing" from competitors stole some of the company's thunder.

The company has declined to name those challengers but is generally thought to have pinned some of the blame on Apple, whose dramatic $200 price cut helped spur sales for customers that might have otherwise have bought one of Nokia's models.

At the time, the firm also mentioned delays in producing an important mid-range phone that some now believe is the 5800 XpressMusic.

Nokia has often positioned itself as aloof to Apple's presence in the cellphone industry, which so far doesn't include lower-cost devices and is outshadowed by Nokia's much wider lead of the total market. Even so, the company has been feeling pressure at the higher end of the phone spectrum, as Apple has already risen as high as third place among smartphone vendors after a year on store shelves.

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Facebook 2.0 comes to the iPhone

Facebook 2.0 on the iPhone

Zoom

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When Facebook forced its website re-design on to the public this month, there was an outcry that hasn't been seen since Opal Fruits turned to Starbursts, Marathon merged into Snickers, Hulk Hogan mutated into Hollywood Hogan.

Groups, including the hilariously spelled 'Facebook said if i get 5,000,000 people in this group they'de change it bak', cropped up, pleading for the social-networking giant to go back to the old design.

So, with some trepidation, Facebook has rolled out its new-look iPhone app and by all accounts the company seems to have gotten it spot-on.

Just like Facebook

Out are the cumbersome upload options; in are upload options in keeping with the website. Any photo you load in, you can caption, tag and tweak to your heart's content.

The news-feed is now the same as that of the website, so your prying eyes will be able to see everything your mates do, all from the comfort of your iPhone.

Another big tweak is the search options. Now you can look for someone by name, and have the option to ask them to be your friend. Simple but oh-so effective.

To get the Facebook application, it's available now for free from the iTunes App store.

By Marc Chacksfield

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