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James Maher had the unfortunate luck of placing his bag and prized Fujifilm X100 in a "dry" container on a fishing trip that didn t keep its contents very dry. Maher survived his harrowing voyage on the SS Hit em Hard, but his camera did not. Thankfully, the photographer didn t let his shooter die in vain. He spent precious time dissecting it and disassembling it, piece by piece. Inside was a densely packed puzzle of 130 screws, 50 pieces of tape and over 152 individual parts. Best of all, Maher documented his adventure inside the X100 and posted it online for all of us to enjoy. It s not the first glimpse under the hood, but it s certainly the most thoroughly documented. So hit up the source link and take a peek at what the inside of a sophisticated digital camera looks like.

Water-damaged Fujifilm X100 torn apart for fun and education (but mostly fun) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It s been a battle of epic proportions over a microscopic piece of plastic, but the warring sides appear to be working together to find a compromise. We re referring to the fight between Apple and a coalition formed by RIM, Motorola and Nokia as each group attempts to make their own nano-SIM design the ETSI standard. Neither entity has seemed willing to extend an olive branch and come up with any compromise -- until recently. RIM and Motorola has updated their design proposal in an effort to reach middle ground with Cupertino, and it appears that they were more than accommodating in the chip s refreshed look (seen above).

So how different can two nano-SIM designs be? Worlds apart, it turns out. For instance, RIM and Motorola have insisted from the beginning that a notch is necessary to allow for "push-push" mechanisms (push to lock the chip in place, push to pop it back out again); Apple, on the other hand, has been entirely anti-notch -- not a surprise, given the fact that the company uses SIM trays on the iPhone, therefore making the concept of a notch completely irrelevant. In its redesign, however, RIM and Motorola took elements from both sides of the fight and combined them. The new look retains Apple s simple rectangular style, but still makes room for a low-key notch on one side. It s difficult to say whether this move will be enough to gain the affection of Tim Cook s company and sway the vote -- Apple is still hard at work modding its own design, after all -- but it s nice to see both factions playing nice with each other prior to the next ETSI meeting on May 31st. Head to the source to see the difference between the original designs and the latest version.

RIM and Motorola modify nano-SIM proposal, hope to meet Apple halfway originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 00:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There s a trend starting to emerge of judges wanting Apple to talk settlements with others rather than duke it out in the courtroom. Just two weeks after Apple and Samsung were steered towards talking about a potential deal, a Delaware court has ordered Apple and HTC to meet on August 28th in the hopes that they could shake hands and put an end to an increasingly hectic legal battle under the eyes of a mediating judge. Whether or not that happens is very much up in the air. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he s not a fan of lawsuits, but he hasn t showed indications that he would take legal action off the table just yet. Likewise, HTC is no doubt eager to eliminate phone shipping delays stemming from Apple s court wins, but the lack of immediate pressure and the hopes of winning countersuits might lead it to hold off. Still, if the court s ideal vision of the world comes to pass, you could see HTC s Cher Wang shopping in an Apple Store without staff giving her the evil eye.

[Image credit: mobile01]

Apple, HTC ordered by judge to sit down, try and make nice on August 28th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last February, Apple came clean about its efforts to clean up the environment, detailing intentions to make its Maiden, NC data facility a greener place. That site, already home to one solar farm, is now set to host a second 20 megawatt photovoltaic array spanning 100 acres, a one-two power punch that ll jointly generate 84 million kWh annually. Combined with the company s in-development biofuel cell plant, scheduled for opening later this year, that theoretic yield should hit the 124 million kWh mark -- an amount sufficient to power nearly 11,000 households -- providing 60 percent of the center s electric demands. Still, that s not enough to adequately keep operations afloat, so for that very necessary, leftover 40 percent, the house that Jobs built plans to purchase similar clean energy from outside local sources. When all is finally up and running smoothly, the southern facility will earn the distinction of "most environmentally sound data center ever built." Or, at least until another well-heeled competitor comes along to contest that title. Now that s a friendly competition we can get behind.

Apple breaks ground on second solar farm for North Carolina data center originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 17:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Intel had already promised that it would avoid using conflict minerals, and now it s giving itself a more concrete timetable for that to happen. It wants to have at least one processor that s proven completely conflict-free across four key minerals -- gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten -- by the end of 2013. Lest you think Intel s not taking swift enough action, it wants to reach the tantalum goal by the end of this year. The effort s part of a wider array of goals that should cut back on the energy use, power and water use by 2020. Sooner rather than later, though, you ll be buying a late-generation Haswell- or Broadwell-based PC knowing that the chip inside was made under nobler conditions.

Continue reading Intel wants to have conflict-free processors by the end of 2013

Intel wants to have conflict-free processors by the end of 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A perpetual weakness of MAVs (micro air vehicles) is their frequent need for hand-holding in anything other than a wide-open or very controlled space. If they re not using GPS or motion sensors to find their locations, they can t turn on a dime the way a human pilot would. Adam Bry, Abraham Bachrash and Nicholas Roy from MIT s CSAIL group haven t overcome every problem just yet, but they may have taken combat drones and other pilotless aircraft a big step forward by giving them the tools needed to fly quickly when positioning isn t an option. Uniting a laser rangefinder with an existing 3D map of the environment -- still cheating, but less dependent -- lets the prototype flyer find the distance to nearby obstacles and steer clear even at speeds that would scare any mere mortal MAV. Ideally, future designs that can create their own maps will be completely independent of humans, making us think that MIT s references to "aggressive" autonomous flight are really cues to start hiding under the bed.

Continue reading Laser-toting MAV can find its way in tight spaces, might eventually hunt you down (video)

Laser-toting MAV can find its way in tight spaces, might eventually hunt you down (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.