BusinessWeek has the story of a new fabric being developed at Wake Forest’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, which promises to generate electricity from heat.  Dubbed Power Felt, this new fabric would make currently performance fabrics look downright pedestrian.  The idea is that you could wrap your cell phone with this fabric and recharge it from the more »

Nest Labs, a startup featuring a slew of ex-Apple designers, has been getting some great buzz on their new learning thermostat.  The Nest watches your comings and goings, adjusts for ambient temperature, and is fully controllable via the internet. Unfortunately it seems that, at least according to one company, the Nest is a little too more »

There are very few things I hate more than painting the house. I hate it so much that even non-theater rooms are painted in dark colors so they won’t show dirt, and I don’t have to do anything until it’s coming off the walls. What may give me a reason to repaint, however, is the more »

SCI-Arc and Caltech have designed the Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype (CHIP) Solar house in a successful bid to win the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathalon. Featuring 45 solar panels on the roof, the domicile can generate up to three times its energy requirements, enough power to charge two electric cars on top of keeping everything running. more »

Does your fridge text you to tell you the milk has gone bad? LG’s new refridgerator can. You can also monitor the washing machine on your stove, find out the oven is preheated on the dryer, and start the robot vacuum from the convenience of your smartphone. The LCD panel on your fridge can be more »

Panasonic has always had some of the best Blu-ray players on the market, and 2012 explodes with a lot of brand new options. Especially interesting to home theater fans is the support for FLAC audio, and the unheard-of bump to 192khz/32-bit audio processing. Also worthy of note are touchpad remotes, smartphone control apps, and 24 more »

  Onyx, normally a developer of large solar panel installations, has pulled the wraps off of its new 330-watt solar panels, which can either be installed on a home, or brought along for the ride. The 330 series are the first to feature a US standard power outlet right on the device, and the 330-2 more »

Fresh off revolutionizing TV, quantum dots are making a splash in solar panel news, too, promising to make ultra-efficiency possible by harvesting waste heat, applying a special anti-reflective coating, and even allowing a single electron to hit more than one receptor, essentially creating a pinball machine between the dots, resulting in an overall 114% quantum more »

Android owners itching for the functionality and flexibility of Control4 home automation can rest easy: Control4 MyHome is now available on the Android Market. MyHome allows users with a Control4 automation system to tinker with the lights, adjust the HVAC system, monitor energy, work the security system, stream music and movies — and all of more »

Many tech writers — myself included — have written about how the magical wonders and powerful power of automation can transform otherwise ignorant, soulless, and bent-on-destroying-the-planet homeowners into green, energy conserving, happy, cookie-making elves. We’ve waxed poetic about how every kWh saved somehow means another field of Fair Trade coffee beans magically springing up in more »