DIY Turbines Power a Family of 4…..

Although most of us agree that relying (at least partially) on alternative fuel is good for the planet, most of us are still confused about how to go about implementing alternative power sources in our own homes. The Wind Cube concept from designers Liao-Hsun Chen and Wen-Chih Chang would make it easy to convert homes to wind power with little more than a screwdriver.

The little fans attach to the outside of a house with three screws and activate with a power cord and a switch. Just like large wind turbines, they generate power when they turn, then feed it into the house’s power supply.

 

An array of fifteen of these little fans can provide enough power for the home of a family of four: about 324 KW each month. The array is connected in a honeycomb kind of configuration that makes the entire structure stronger. If ultra-strong winds threaten to rip the turbines right off of the wall, the blades can be pushed in to be nearly flush with the wall, protecting them until calmer weather.

There is no information yet on just how affordable these energy-generating fans would be, but they would definitely provide a significant savings in utility costs. And it has to be said that these futuristic-looking fans would make just about any home exterior look way cool.

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Revolutionary Salt Water Battery Powers Robust E-Car

Whether or not you've jumped on the electric cars bandwagon already, the chances are that we will all have to switch to non-fossil fuel cars in the future. Unless they’re being charged with solar power, electric cars are still consuming fossil fuels from the grid, anyway. An entirely new way of thinking about fuel inspired a company called Nanoflowcell to develop a car powered by what appears to be a salt water-powered fuel cell.

2 salt water fueled vehicle

3 salt water fueled electric car

The Quant e-Sport limousine is being touted as the world’s first salt water powered car. The technology is surprisingly simple: two liquids are combined, with metallic salts acting as electrolytes. This creates an electrochemical reaction. The solution is pumped through two separate cells to induce “cold burning,” a process that produces electrical power. The setup is known as a flow cell battery.

4 salt water powered electric car

5 quart e-sport limousine salt water powered electric car

Although their feasibility has been questioned by some, flow cell batteries are far superior to the lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries currently used in electric vehicles. They can take a vehicle 20 times farther than a lead-acid battery or five times farther than a lithium ion battery. Unlike conventional batteries which require a long time to recharge, all that is needed to recharge flow cell batteries is an exchange of the spent electrolyte-rich fluid for new, charged fluid.

6 flow cell battery powered car

7 interior salt water powered vehicle

The e-Sport limousine is still under development, but it recently got approval for road testing in Germany. It has been in development for 14 years and, besides its impressive technology, is just plain handsome with its gull wing doors and modern streamlined interior. Its makers claim that it can travel up to 600 kilometers (about 373 miles) on a single tank of salty fuel and can reach speeds of over 200 MPH. With the first prototype having been declared safe to roam the German roads, the race is now on for the company to produce and test more prototypes while refining their technology.

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Good News for Wheelchair Users: Motorized Conversion Device

For wheelchair users, having a functional and easy-to-use chair is a must. But the best chairs are often far beyond the financial capabilities of most families, leaving many users with labor-intensive non-motorized wheelchairs. Designer Ju Hyun Lee proposes a simple alternative to pricey electric wheelchairs: an add-on device that gives power to conventional wheelchairs.

The NEWS (New Electric Wheelchairs) device fits over the wheels of a non-motorized wheelchair, with a control bar that sits above the user’s lap. It provides power to the chair, making it easier for the user to get around without help and without the tiring repetitive motions of propelling the wheelchair with muscle power.

The brilliant design would be less expensive than buying a new motorized wheelchair, but would provide just as much power to get the user to where they need to go. Once attached to the chair’s wheels, the NEWS can be pushed down to the floor to allow the user to exit the chair easily. Simple joystick controls make it easy to get around. Though still a concept, this revolutionary idea could one day provide increased mobility in nursing homes, hospitals, and private homes without the exorbitant cost of motorized wheelchairs.

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First Consumer-Available Jetpack Ready In 2015

When New Zealand’s Martin Aircraft Company announced plans for a “practical jetpack,” this oxymoron of a device no doubt raised a few eyebrows. Originally slated for a mid-2014 commercial release, it’s been retooled and the company hopes it will be available for consumers by 2015. If the above picture is any indication, cult leaders will find it perfect for an escape hover just above the heads of their demystified followers.

Jetpack 2

For ideal performance and safety, Martin suggests the jetpack be piloted above 500 feet, mainly to give its rocket-deployed ballistic parachute time to open. It will also require the user to wear a helmet, neck restraint, boots, a fireproof suit and hearing protection. By the time it reaches the US market, it is expected to carry a relatively-modest $100,000 price tag.

Jetpack 3

The Martin Jetpack’s initial applications will be in first responder-type scenarios like fire and rescue. On a full tank, the gasoline-powered beast can remain in the air for around 30 minutes and travel about 20 miles at up to 46 MPH. The company most recently improved the handling on its P12 prototype by re-positioning the craft’s ducts.

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Review: Micromax pushes

Verdict

The Micromax Canvas Nitro is the best Smartphone in the 15K segment after the Xiaomi Mi3. Micromax has gone all out and put together an octa core phone for the price of a quad-core one. The phone manages to create a lot of friction against the much loved Motorola Moto G and with the Asus Zenfone 5 and ZTE V5 running a step behind in terms of performance

The phone brings a clean understated design back to the market, and only comes in white and Blue backs with faux leather at the back. We had our doubts about the performance and the battery which were cleared when we tested the device.

Display & Design

If you've ever felt that the majority of phones are just variations of each other, the Micromax Canvas Nitro won't really change that impression. At first glance the Nitro looks like just another Micromax device with an distinctive glass front with three captive buttons at the bottom of the screen. The story changes when you come to the back of the device as Micromax has used a faux leather back with fake stitching instead of the matte or smooth plastic back it generally uses on its phones.

As usual, the earpiece is placed on the top of the display and is flanked by the front facing camera on its right. The power and volume rocker are situated at the right and left of the device respectively. As for the speaker, it is at the back gets muffled when you place the phone on its back.

The Micromax Canvas Nitro comes with a 5 inch screen with 720p HD resolution. Micromax boasts that the the screen is oleo-phobic and anti-finger print but in my tests I found these claims to be false. The screen looks beautiful indoors but dull when you see it outside in direct sunlight even though it's not totally illegible. The screen looks bright and crisp while playing games or handling day to day to work.

Software & UI

Micromax has kept the software very basic in terms of the Android operating system. The Nitro is running an almost stock version of Android Kitkat 4.4.2 and I don’t have any complaints with the UI. Micromax has made its UI a bit more minimalist and that has added to the good experience. The interface looks snappy while opening apps or multitasking and left a very satisfactory impression on me.

The only issue which I have with the Micromax Canvas Nitro is the included bloatware which is quite annoying. Most of the added bloatware are just web links to websites and don’t serve any purpose. On the home screen if you swipe left you will see Micromax has tried to copy HTC blink feed but I think this is an unnecessary addition to the UI. The silver lining in this is that Micromax has been generous enough to add Swiftkey keyboard as standard.

Hardware & Performance

Micromax has skipped the quad-core and the hexa-core which is an understood norm in this price category and gone straight for the 1.66GHz octa-core processor from Media Tek. With 2 gigs of RAM onboard, everything seems to fly by until you play graphics intensive games or try to play a 1080p movie which will certainly heat up your device. The heating issue still persists in Media Tek powered SoCs and in turn will affect the performance of the device.

I tried games like Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt 8: Airborne which ran smoothly with a slight frame drop issues. Compared to this, the quad-core powered Motorola Moto G (2nd Gen) performed a bit better in the gaming department. If you are like me and have your media on your phone rather than the cloud, the 8GB internal space in the Micromax canvas Nitro is up-gradable via a micro SD card.

The day to day performance on the Nitro is without any major hiccups and I couldn't find any faults beside the occasional frame drop while playing a high res 1080p video.

Camera & Battery

The Micromax Canvas Nitro offers a 13MP primary camera which is marginally better than the ZTE V5 my colleague Prasid tested a few days earlier. Micromax has used a Sony CMOS sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and added a blue glass filter over it by Scott, that's supposed to make it more sensitive to color. However, we found that this makes the pictures shot by the Smartphone take a cool bluish tint.

The front camera is a 5MP BSI fixed focus camera with a wide angle lens and quite acceptable for taking selfish and video calls. As for the video quality I was not convinced as the video captured came shaky and a bit low on sound.

Battery is the playing field which Micromax Canvas Nitro has mastered. In our battery test when we played a 1080p video on a loop for an hour, we recorded a battery drop of just five percent. Even when I played Asphalt 8 Airborne for more than two hours I recorded a mild drop in battery. It took me almost 14 hours to drain its battery under heavy usage. I may add the battery life of the Canvas Nitro is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S.

Price Rs.12, 990/-

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Review: BMW's X3 facelift

This may be the face lifted X3 but in India it’s playing a larger role as the launch vehicle for BMW’s latest 2-litre diesel engine. The new engine is of particular importance because it will also replace the base diesel engines in the 3- and 5-series over the coming year. Identical 1995cc displacement and basic layout apart (four-cylinders, common-rail, turbocharger), the company says there’s little else common between old and new engines.

The new engine is a wee bit more powerful than the one it replaces - it produces 187bhp at 4000rpm (3bhp up on the old engine) and 40.7kgm between 1750-2500rpm (up 2kgm). The benefit of the added power is a claimed 0-100kph time of 8.1 seconds that is 0.4 seconds faster than that of the earlier car.

While that may be an almost imperceptible gain in performance, what is very evident is that the new engine is a whole lot quieter than the one it replaces. Idle is all but free from the coarse clatter of the old motor and even on the move; the engine is significantly less noisy. It’s still not the most refined of engines around but in average driving, the eight-speed gearbox does well to keep revs under 2000rpm where the engine functions at its quietest (and most efficient) best. As for the gearbox, it responds quickly to most throttle inputs but in full-auto mode there’s an occasional lag to downshift when you want a sudden burst of power. Manual control on the gear lever (there are no paddle shifters) does make it possible to work around this issue, though.

Performance, on the whole, is impressive. There’s strong punch right from the word go and with manual mode engaged, the engine also revs to a solid 4800rpm before the electronics automatically upshift. The driving modes further help tailor the engine and gearbox’s characteristics to your driving style. That, coupled with the top-spec X3 line’s dynamic damper control let you truly exploit this SUVs inherent sportiness. Turn-in is sharp, the steering feels nicely weighted and the advantages of that 50:50 weight distribution can be felt at just about every corner. It is a genuinely fun SUV to drive. It’s also one that’s quite adept at dealing with the rough stuff on Indian roads. Ride quality is on the firmer side but the fact is you hear the bumps more than you feel them.

Just wish they had also reworked the rear seats with this update. The seat base is a tad low and the resulting knees-up seating position compromises thigh support. But, as before, the front seats remain hard to fault for comfort or support.

Changes to the interior are limited to a tidied up centre console, more glossy black plastics, and more metal highlights. There’s also a larger 16.5cm screen for the iDrive system. Small as these changes are, they help uplift the ambience inside an already well-finished cabin. As for the exteriors, there are few visual cues to tell you this is the new-for-2014 X3. The most prominent change is in the attractive new headlights that are larger than before and now fuse with the kidney grille, ala the 3-series and new X5. Look closely and you’ll notice both bumpers have been restyled too.

It has been launched in two variants. The Expedition variant that costs Rs. 44.9 lakh (ex-showroom, India) gets a fair amount of kit including driving modes, bi-xenon headlamps, powered front seats, parking sensors, the carmaker’s iDrive system and Bluetooth connectivity. However, if you can, we’d recommend you go for the xLine variant we’ve featured here. It does cost a fair bit more at Rs. 49.9 lakh but does get you features such as a panoramic sunroof, dynamic damper control, leather upholstery and larger 18-inch wheels.

But, irrespective of which version you go for, your money will buy you an X3 that’s marginally better to look at, slightly nicer on the inside and significantly quieter than before. Performance from the new 2-litre engine is also always more than satisfactory. But if you want even more power, perhaps you should wait for one with a 3-litre straight six diesel that’s on its way. That would be quite the package.

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Review: Mahindra To Showcase MGP30 Racer At Expo

Mahindra To Showcase MGP30 Racer At Expo

Mahindra 2 Wheelers has disclosed its plans for the upcoming Auto Expo. The company will showcase the MGP30 motorcycle, which will be seen for the first time in India. The MGP30 motorcycle is Mahindra Racing’s Moto3 challenger. Mahindra is the first and only Indian company to enter MotoGP racing championships. Although the company has performed about average, MotoGP has given the Indian automaker huge exposure in global markets. The performance of the team is set to improve in 2012 with improvements to the racing bike.

Mahindra To Showcase MGP30 Racer At Expo

Mahindra 2 Wheelers will also showcase the Rodeo and Duro at the Expo. The company might even showcase the upgraded Stallio and the Mojo could find a small corner at the Mahindra stall too. Mahindra will launch the Duro DZ scooter as well. The Duro DZ is an updated version of the Duro scooter which was recently launched in the South. At the Expo, the company will launch it in the national capital. The Duro DZ is priced at Rs. 44,640/- (ex-showroom, Andhra Pradesh), with prices being introductory at the moment.

Mahindra To Showcase MGP30 Racer At Expo

Mahindra To Showcase MGP30 Racer At Expo

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