A Harvard University physicist says a typical search on a desktop computer generates about 7 grams of carbon dioxide. Thus, performing two searches is comparable to bringing a kettle to boil, according to a report Sunday in The Times of London. While that may not sound like a lot, the report notes that Google handles about 200 million searches daily.

"Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power," Alex Wissner-Gross told the newspaper. "A Google search has a definite environmental impact."

The global IT industry generates about 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, or about as much greenhouse gas as the world's airlines, according to a recent Gartner study cited by the newspaper.

Google disputed that report late Sunday evening, saying in a blog that the "time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query." The blog also noted:

Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

The search giant has actively campaigned to reduce the amount of energy consumed by the IT industry.

Google is a board member of a new coalition called the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which aims to reduce computing power-consumption by half by 2010. It will do that largely by encouraging member companies like Google to turn off computers when they're not in use. The coalition says that reaching that goal would be the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road.

The search giant's Google.org philanthropy released numbers and policy recommendations in November regarding how the U.S. could wean itself from coal and oil for electricity generation and nearly halve its gasoline consumption by 2030.

Google first introduced its 2030 energy road map in the fall. And CEO Eric Schmidt, an adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, called on the federal government to show more leadership on climate change by fostering clean-technology businesses.

Schmidt told the Corporate EcoForum last year that the company's plan is to reduce global demand for oil and to help generate new white- and blue-collar jobs by investing in solar, wind, and geothermal energy projects.

But As per i think

Harvard has made a major miscalculation here. Harvard says it takes the energy of "bringing a kettle to boil" for 2 searches. This would be a minimum of 178 KJ of energy. (Asssume raising 500 cc of water from 15 degC to 100 degC = 85*500 cal = 42.5 kcal or 178 KJ or 0.05 KWH). Thus Harvard's estimate of energy is about 90 times greater than Google's. (Google says 2 KJ for 2 searches.) Using Harvard's estimate would mean that the electrical cost of 200 million searches would be about $500,000 per day or $182 million per year. (Assume $0.10/KWH, 200 million searches/day, 0.05 KWH/two searches). Using Google's estimate yields $5500/day in electrical usage. I think that Harvard has way over estimated Google's energy usage.

Now you can have more fun while doing some “businesses” in your toilet. What fun you can have? You can play Sudoku which is printed on the toilet paper.
I guess if you’re a Sudoku addict who can’t bare to be without your favorite brain game, then this will keep you occupied in even the most "trying" circumstances. Anti-Theft Car/Bike Stickers: “These rust and scratch stickers are designed to make your beautiful bike/car look rusted and scratched so that passing thieves assume it’s not worth stealing due to its apparent shabbyness.”
Chewbacca Plush Backpack: “Strap the Chewbacca Plush Backpack to your back and he’ll be carrying your books in style. His arms wrap around you to let you know he’s secure - even his legs will secure around your abdomen, for some extra cuddly fun. Who needs real friends when you have a Chewie on your back?”
Ergonomic Camera:Using a unique ergonomic cylindrical design, the "360 Camera" by Cedric Tay allows users to easily take panoramic images by just holding the device with one hand. Rounding out the specs on this camera is a built-in inclinometer and angle indicator.
restricted source:http://www.funniestgadgets.com/

Apple Inc. is apologizing for allowing a 99-cent iPhone game called "Baby Shaker" that let a player quiet a virtual crying infant by shaking the device.

Apple removed the program from the iPhone's App Store on Wednesday, but critics pressed for an apology Thursday.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Thursday that the game was "deeply offensive" and said it should not have been approved for sale.

"We sincerely apologize for this mistake," Kerris said in a statement.

Apple approves the programs that outside software developers make available in the store. "Baby Shaker" came from a company called Sikalosoft, which has not commented.

The game asked players to see how long they could endure a baby's cries and then shake the phone to stop the wailing.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd announced that over the past year it has succeeded in introducing more than a half dozen technological advancements that extend battery life in notebooks, MP3 players, digital cameras, video camcorders, multimedia phones and cellular handsets.

These design improvements are part of a concentrated effort by the company to move to more energy-efficient chip and display designs, utilizing nano-scale technology breakthroughs, new sensor technology and advanced manufacturing techniques.

'Great strides'
"Anticipating the increasing need for energy-conserving, power-efficient products, we have made great strides in getting laptops and mobile devices to run faster and longer by aggressively pursuing the development of more efficient chips," said Kevin Lee, VP, memory marketing Samsung Semiconductor Inc.

"We have challenged our R&D teams to develop new displays based on advanced technology that will not only produce better user experiences, but at the same time, improve the energy-efficiency of consumer electronics," added Scott Birnbaum, VP, Samsung LCD Business.

Over the past seven months, Samsung Semiconductor has made major energy-saving advancements in a wide range of components that together have a substantial effect on prolonging battery life. Among the products are solid state drives that consume a third of the laptop power (.5W) consumed by comparably sized HDDs (1.5W). Also, 2.1-inch LCD screens extend battery life in mobile phones by automatically adjusting the screen brightness to reduce the amount of backlighting when ambient lighting is already sufficient.

80% power savings
Samsung SoCs for hybrid hard drives reduce laptop power consumption up to 80 percent compared to conventional HDDs. Meanwhile, embedded DRAM features 40 percent power reduction in mobile devices when designed into SoCs, such as Samsung's DV-1 chip, for mobile devices including next-generation smart phones, portable music players and handheld PDAs.

CMOS image sensors for mobile phone cameras now use 1/10 the power of widely used CCD image sensors, reducing battery consumption and power charges while prolonging the usage span of CE devices such as mobile phone cameras and digital still cameras.

New Mobile DRAM chips (using 80nm production process) with temperature sensors reduce mobile phone power drain by more than 30 percent. In addition, DDR3 memory chips use only 1.5V of power and adopt improved circuit designs with a reduction in power consumption by more than 20 percent over DDR2.

Samsung also uses a new wafer-level-processed stacked packaging technique that reduces current leakage in multistack memory packages another 30 percent.

The company plans to deliver more power savings for laptops and mobile devices with new generations of "fusion memory" chips, such as the OneDRAM chip developed earlier this year.

Google latitude is fantastic application by Google . This applications is based on Google Maps for Mobile. This application helps its users track each other’s current location on the map no matter where you in the world.

The application is still in its infant stages where the application has not been put to innovative and out-of-the-box use. Nonetheless we are starting to see some very creative implementations of the application.

Google just announced Latitude app integration with its most popular social networking service, Orkut. Once installed on Orkut it tracks your existing friends on latitude and shows their current location within Orkut.