The hot summer sun sparked blazing advances in solar energy this week as Inhabitat reported that a crop of incredible
solar-powered Supertrees sprouted at Singapore's Gardens by the Bay conservatory. We also saw designers float plans for a series of gorgeous
sun collecting water lily islands, and speaking of flowers, we learned that scientists are breeding cold-resistant
super bees that can withstand mites and disease. Scotland made waves as well when it unveiled the next-generation
Oyster 800 wave energy plant, and Japan's Prime Minister signaled a sea change as he called for a complete phase-out of nuclear power.
Several cities took steps away from car culture this week as a Spanish town offered residents
lifetime tram passes in exchange for their cars, and JetBlue launched a set of
dubious $4 flights to offset the closing of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles. We also took a look at the green technologies launched by NASA's soon to be extinct
space shuttle program and we saw the unveiling of the world's first
student-built hydrogen racecar.
In other news, we peered into the future of consumer tech as we counted down our six most desired green upgrades for the
Phone 5 and we saw Jawbone launch an
app-powered wristband that promotes healthy living. LED technology also lit up our lives as Philips rolled out a beautiful new breed of
luminous wallpaper and Chanel kicked of its latest fashion show with a line of
LED-studded shoes. Last but not least, we spotted a set of
magnetic building blocks that help Honduran families, and this week gadget expert and Engadget founder Peter Rojas closed our
Ask a Tech Geek column with a look at six great ways to
charge your gadgets with renewable energy. If you're thirsting for more, don't miss Peter's posts about
fine tuning your laptop to save energy,
vanquishing vampire energy drain, and
recycling your old cables and chargers!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar-powered Supertrees, hydrogen racecars and LED-studded shoes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dragon Go! for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) is a superb voice control app that lets you qucikly search for just about anything via voice. It’s a bit like Siri (which is also powered by Nuance) but it feels much faster and broader in its scope to me.
Just the listing of sources it will show you instant results from is impressive in its own right, and includes: Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, Yelp, CNN and other major news outlets, and more.
The range of things you can say to get back excellent, spot-on relevant results is hugely impressive as well. You can use it to search for apps, books, nearby businesses (with a single tap to call on the results list) events, maps and directions, movies, music, news, photos, restaurants, people on social networks, and more.
Results are extremely intelligent and tend to nearly always get it right in terms of focusing on the most relevant sources in the page it shows you – and you can always swipe across to others as well of course.
One of the best things about the app is that it is just spectacularly good at getting what you say exactly right. I’ve tested it out with background music playing right near me at a sort of medium level, and still had near perfect results, for searches like:
‘tennis in Austin’
Labrador rescue …
Adele live in Austin …
And many others.
It’s an app you will quickly want in your dock or on your first home screen.
The app does have some requirements, which are worth noting:
1. Dragon Go! requires network connectivity (WiFi or 3G/EDGE).
2. Dragon Go! requires iOS 4 or later.
3. Dragon Go! works on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and on third and fourth generation iPod Touch (external microphone required).
Here’s an App Store link for Dragon Go!.
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