Top Ten Android Launch Apps – “The first Android phone. the G1, goes on sale today at T-Mobile stores. And, although I have some issues with the software/hardware interface, those are more than overcome by all the great software on the phone. I’ve been testing out a phone for about a week, and I don’t think I’ve made more than five actual calls on the phone. For me, it’s all about the apps….”

UK Starts World’s Largest Algae Biofuel Initiative – “Great Britain hopes that algae-based biofuels can reduce automotive and aviation emissions by 2030, and cut overall emissions by 80% by 2050…”

Seagate’s 1.5TB Barracuda drive — quiet, sips power – ” Windows says that the 3.5-in. drive has 1.36TB of capacity, and Seagate says the random-read seek time is less than 8.5 milliseconds and random-write seek time is less than 10 milliseconds. Our battery of tests showed good performance despite the large capacity…”

Australia trials national net filters – “Is the Rudd government about to erect a Great Firewall of Australia – introducing a form of internet censorship that will infringe upon the freedom of computer users to browse the worldwide web? “

7 Ways to be a healthier programmer – “Developing software is an indoor job with no heavy lifting. How dangerous can it be? Actually, the long term dangers to your health are all too real…”

“World’s Toughest Phone” Battered Live Online For Your Enjoyment – “The folks at Sonim have done just about everything in their power to convince potential customers that their XP1 is the world’s toughest phone. That includes running over it with cars and dunking it in beer baths. Their latest stunt involves hitting in with a hammer 24/7 until it breaks—and you can watch the entire thing go down online. You can even send it text messages to test whether or not it is working…”

Top eight electric scooters – ” Now, the electric variants of those once quirky, funny looking scooters have become one of the most popular buys of 2008, providing a largely hassle-free and cheap form of urban or commuting transport for many looking to minimize their carbon footprint and gas costs…”

Facebook in a Crowd – “So I decided to have a Facebook party. I used Facebook to create an “event” and invite my digital chums. Some of them, of course, didn’t live in Toronto, but I figured, it’s summer and people travel. You never know who might be in town…”

Visualizing Uncle Sam’s Debt – “We could go on about the trillions of dollars in debt, but numbers that large can feel really abstract. So, let’s take the nation’s spending down to the household scale. The median household pulls in $50,233 per year, the federal government around $3 trillion. Some basic arithmetic will put them in scale…”

20 websites you never realised you needed – “The internet has changed the world, mostly through big sites like Google, Amazon, MySpace and Facebook. But other smaller sites can, if anything, be even more useful, if only you can find the right ones…”

China to invest $445bn in rail system – ” CHINA will invest nearly $A445 billion in its overburdened rail system as a stimulus measure aimed at blunting the impact of the global financial crisis. The investment is part of plans to extend the country’s railway network from the current roughly 125,502km to nearly 160,900km by 2010, Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post reported…”

New Diesel GenSet Locomotive Cuts CO2 Emissions by 50% – “Perhaps you’ve seen the ads on television or in print. Freight trains have increased their fuel efficiency by 80 percent over the past 25 years and today’s locomotives can move a ton of freight more than 400 miles on a single gallon of fuel. But one of the biggest culprits of air pollution and fuel inefficiency has traditionally been in the railyards themselves where trains are loaded and offloaded, and the “switcher” locomotives that move them are left idling for hours on end. Not only is the practice inefficient and dirty, it can also make for sticky relations with the neighbors; particulate matter emissions can be the precursor to serious respiratory ailments…”

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