liquid

Ocean-faring robots set sail on Guinness record attempt

SAN FRANCISCO--Four robots left the Golden Gate today on an across the globe mission to set a world distance record and demonstrate new data-gathering tools that could help save the planet.

The robots, known as Wave Gliders, were built by a Silicon Valley startup known as Liquid Robotics. And starting today, the four autonomous sea-faring craft are heading out on journeys to Australia and Japan with the intention of setting the Guinness World Record for the longest distance traveled on the surface of the Earth by a robot.

The four Wave Gliders are thought to be capable of traveling across … Read more

Gates-backed Liquid Metal Battery hires CEO

Liquid Metal Battery, a company formed to make cheap storage for wind and solar power, has hired its first CEO.

Phil Giudice, who was the third employee of demand-response company EnerNoc and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner until earlier the year, announced his "new gig" on Twitter. One of his tasks as CEO is to raise more money to build up the company, he told The Boston Globe.

Liquid Metal Battery was spun out of the lab of Donald Sadoway, a professor of materials chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Funding for the company has … Read more

HP TouchPad best seller at Best Buy, Amazon

Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad tablet has become an instant hit at Best Buy and Amazon despite being discontinued in the wake of HP's shuttering of its WebOS device business. And HP is responding by shipping more from its warehouses.

It's all about price. On Friday, the company slashed the price to $100 from $399 for the 16GB model and to $150 from $499 for the 32GB version. This ignited a buying frenzy and the tablet subsequently flew off the shelves and out of the warehouses, selling out at many locations over the weekend.

Select Best Buy stores added fuel … Read more

The 404 887: Where we're bleeding $99 HP TouchPads (podcast)

Guess who got a TouchPad for $99 this weekend? Everyone. If you weren't lucky enough to snag one early Saturday morning, don't lose hope yet--we expect some online distributors to continue dropping prices for existing stock, not to mention the white 64GB model that just dropped last Friday.

We got plenty of voicemails and video messages from listeners standing in line for the TouchPad, so tune in to hear a couple horror stories from the trenches.

We're also encouraging all 404 listeners to shoot us an e-mail at the404(at)cnet(dot)com with your suggestions, criticisms, and ideas for growing the show. We've always valued our listener input about where you think we should improve, so let us know and we'll try to make it happen.

The 404 Digest for Episode 887

HP's TouchPad fire sale: The fallout. Wilson's Best Buy investigation shows dismal turnout for competing tablets. Arturo gets a touchpad for $99.

Episode 887 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

HP's TouchPad fire sale: The fallout

HP's TouchPad liquidation sale this weekend was telling on multiple fronts as techies drooled over a good deal, servers blew up and the tablet market pricing structure was upended. However, the fallout may go well beyond those areas.

It's a bit stunning how a liquidation sale--16GB TouchPad for $99 and 32GB for $149--can be so revealing.

Here are the main elements of fallout:

HP's TouchPad liquidation fiasco hurts its reputation with consumers and businesses. HP's Web site couldn't handle the load as the masses tried to land a TouchPad for $99. On Saturday, HP had … Read more

U.S. Best Buy to sell $100 HP TouchPad Sunday

Select Best Buy stores will sell the HP TouchPad tablet for $99.99 on Sunday.

A store manager in suburban Los Angeles said the TouchPad will go on sale when Best Buy opens its doors Sunday at 10 a.m. The sale applies to all Best Buy stores that have stock, but not all stores do, he said.

Stores typically have stock in the tens of units, not hundreds, according to the store manager. "If people start lining up, the stock will go fast," he said.

Both models will be sold: the 16GB and 32GB, for $100 and $150, respectively, he said.

This comes in the wake of fire sales by Hewlett-Packard on its TouchPad site and at Best Buy in Canada, among other U.S. resellers.

HP announced Thursday that it is shuttering the WebOS device business. … Read more

HP TouchPad tablet liquidation begins

The $99 tablet has arrived. Hewlett-Packard TouchPads are being liquidated--at least at some Canadian retailers, in the wake of HP's announcement yesterday that it is shuttering the WebOS device business.

Prices have dropped off a cliff to $99.99 for the 16GB model and $149.99 for the 32GB version, according to a post at PreCentral.net.

A quick check at Best Buy in Canada shows TouchPads at these prices.

The same can't be said for stateside Best Buy, however. As of today, Best Buy in the U.S. was showing standard pricing. And anecdotal reports in the U.S. seem to bear this out.

Of course, consumers may pause even at these prices: You're buying into a defunct HP hardware platform. That said, there was a very limited production run of the TouchPad and it may have value as a novelty item, right next to an IBM PCjr.

Update, August 20, 9 a.m. PDT: HP's U.S. site is now showing the TouchPad for $99 and $149, though it appears to be out of stock as of Saturday. Other retailers such as Target are also showing it out of stock. … Read more

Borders fades out, Web site on block

The last traces of the Borders book chain, after months of liquidating assets, are slowly disappearing.

The coffee is gone. So are the leather chairs. At the Time Warner Center in New York, books on aviary and furniture repair lay askew on half-empty shelves. In February, Borders announced it was filing for bankruptcy protection. The merchant simply couldn't find a place for itself in the era of digital books and e-readers.

One of the last chores before turning off the lights will be to sell off the company's intellectual property, which includes the Borders.com Web site, a block of IPV4 addresses, as well the contractual agreements it had with Kobo, the maker of the electronic reader by the same name.

Borders owned a minority stake in Kobo, the company that powered Borders' e-book store. Contrary to what some believed, Kobo was unaffected by Borders' financial woes and continues to operate as an independent company.

To sell its intellectual property, Borders has hired Streambank, a firm that has become one of the favorites for selling off intellectual property from distressed companies. Streambank is also handling the liquidation of Circuit City, another once-dominant national retailer that has closed its doors.

David Peress, one of Streambank's three principles, says that Circuit City's Web site has generated a lot of interest and that went dark long ago. In Borders' case, the Web site continues to operate, which should help boost the value, according to Peress. … Read more

Circuit City, a Web-video pioneer?

Circuit City's bones aren't picked clean yet.

The failed electronics-chain store closed its doors and began liquidating assets two years ago, and still there is some intellectual property left to sell.

Turns out that in the decade before getting demolished by Best Buy, the 2008 financial meltdown, and its own hapless management, Circuit City had sought to boost pioneer digital-video distribution. The company pumped a boatload of money into developing technology that it hoped would help it cash in when the market finally emerged

Some of Circuit City's patents, including those from the company's ill-fated start-up, … Read more