Ever wondered what might happen to old Chevy Volt batteries once most of their shelf life has been used up? Well let's pose another question… Do you ever get angry when the lights go out due to a power outage? How’s this for hittin' two birds with one stone – old Chevy Volt batteries can be used to power the lights in your house when there is a power outage!
Sounds pretty crazy - a battery powering the lights in an entire house!? But according to Chevrolet, who teamed up with Duke Energy, packaging five Volt lithium-ion batteries into a single unit could give approximately two hours of electricity to 3-5 average U.S. homes. The power from the unit outputs 25 kilowatt-hours of power and 50 kilowatt-hours of energy. "This is an industry first to be able to do secondary automotive batteries in a grid-based application," said Pablo Valencia, GM's senior manager of battery life-cycle management. "In many cases, when an EV battery has reached the end of its life in an automotive application, only 30 percent or less of its life has been used. This leaves a tremendous amount of life that can be applied to other applications like powering a structure before the battery is recycled."
There will be testing in a North Carolina neighborhood this coming year to see how the Volt batteries work as a back-up energy source in real world settings. Talk about effective recycling as a means of preserving resources!
The iPhone 5's new operating system (iOS 6) will be implementing a new "Maps" application which will rival the current gold standard in mobile navigation, Google Maps, which is offered on Android Devices. Before iOS 6, previous generations of iPhones that used iOS5 used a version of Google Maps that didn't support turn-by-turn navigation. To say the least, the Iphone 4/4's iOS5's navigation was underwhelming in the mobile navigation department when compared to the GPS-like functionality of the Droid's beautiful turn-by-turn navigation.
I've had a Droid for over 3 years now. While it's had it's ups and downs, the one thing that I've always loved is the navigation. Enough so that I refused (given several opportunities mind you) to "upgrade" to an iPhone. My loyalty is now being tested as Apple officially announced the iPhone 5 with the new iOS 6 platform. I'm sure many of you are like I was - thinking, "What is the difference between iPhone 5 and Droid navigation?" Here's what I found:
Droid:
Detailed maps with 3D buildings via Google Maps
GPS turn-by-turn navigation guided by voice.
Driving, public transit, biking, and walking directions.
Live traffic information to avoid accidents/build up.
Local search and business reviews Using Google Places/Reviews.
Google Maps Street View.
Indoor maps for some airports, hotels, retail stores, and more.
iPhone Maps offers:
Detailed maps via TomTom maps.
Interactive 3D views.
Flyover feature (interactive 3D views of select large cities).
Turn-by-Turn Spoken Directions.
Local search and business reviews using Yelp
Live traffic information to avoid accidents/build up.
Here's what's different:
iPhone does not offer the Public Transit, Biking or walking directions like the Droid does.
Droid uses Google Places/Reviews to display business and points of interest on the maps. iPhone uses Yelp. While debatable, most would probably argue that Google is a little more full fledged than Yelps experience in terms of quantity of reviews.
Droid does not have the Flyover feature that the iOS6 has. This is a pretty neat feature that shows a pretty impressive photo-realistic rendition of a city in full 3D.
Having owned a Droid for awhile I know the Google Maps function very well and it's spectacular. But it seems like the playing field has mostly been leveled off between the two rivals. iPhone users have gained one of the biggest tipping points for people to gravitate toward Droid. It really seems that both companies will offer a quality navigation experience.
One thing that should be noted is that the new iPhone uses a 9-pin connector called "Lightning" that will replace the old 30 pin connector used on virtually all other apple products. This means that any kind of connectors you are using in your car (or anywhere else) will need to be either replaced or you need to buy an adapter to connect the 30 pin connector into the new 9 pin slot. The new adapter cost $29.99... ouch.
Preorder your new Iphone 5 yet? No? Well you're too late, apparently, as the PreOrders from the apple store sold out within an hour of launch. I know, bummer. But if you call any of the local wireless providers(Verizon Wireless, Sprint, AT&T) that are going to be getting the iPhone 5, give them a call and they can probably get you one close to launch date.
Check out the following videos for the official iPhone 5 trailer and some examples of both iPhone and Droid Navigation.
ower outage? How’s this for hittin' two birds with one stone – old Chevy Volt batteries can be used to power the lights in your house when there is a power outage!
Sounds pretty crazy - a battery powering the lights in an entire house!? But according to Chevrolet, who teamed up with Duke Energy, packaging five Volt lithium-ion batteries into a single unit could give approximately two hours of electricity to 3-5 average U.S. homes. The power from the unit outputs 25 kilowatt-hours of power and 50 kilowatt-hours of energy. "This is an industry first to be able to do secondary automotive batteries in a grid-based application," said Pablo Valencia, GM's senior manager of battery life-cycle management. "In many cases, when an EV battery has reached the end of its life in an automotive application, only 30 percent or less of its life has been used. This leaves a tremendous amount of life that can be applied to other applications like powering a structure before the battery is recycled."
There will be testing in a North Carolina neighborhood this coming year to see how the Volt batteries work as a back-up energy source in real world settings. Talk about effective recycling as a means of preserving resources!
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