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If you own one of Apple's MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air systems, you will have a power adapter that comes with the unit for charging it. Depending on your system, you may have a 60-watt adapter or an 85-watt adapter, which can be used to charge the system or run it directly from wall power; however, there are times when these adapters might not work properly.

Sometimes they get very hot when used, or sometimes they won't charge the system or show any activity at all.

While often the easiest solution for a faulty power adapter is … Read more

Zoom lenses sell cameras these days, so it's no surprise that manufacturers are doing everything they can to get longer lenses into increasingly smaller bodies.

A 3x or 5x zoom lens used to be the standard for ultracompact cameras -- those measuring 1 inch thick or slimmer -- but in 2012, you can easily find a skinny point-and-shoot with a 10x optical zoom.

The frontrunner here is the sub-$250 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150 thanks to its excellent features, fast autofocus, and the quality of its pictures and video (though its color accuracy could be better). Most of the category consists of sub-$200 cameras, though, so there are several options if you're just looking for a simple pocket camera with a long lens.… Read more

Solar Impulse, a Swiss sun-powered aircraft, on Friday finished the first leg of its attempt at an intercontinental flight without using a single drop of fuel.

The solar plane took off Thursday from Payerne, Switzerland, bound for Morocco. It landed safely Friday on a planned three-day technical stopover in Madrid, where it will get a new pilot.

If successful, the 1,550-mile journey will be the longest to date for the craft, which last year completed its first international flight from its home in Switzerland to Brussels.

Pilot Andre Borschberg handled the first leg of the trip for the Solar … Read more

No, it's not the first thing people gravitate toward when tearing open their brand-new iPhone or iPad. Heck, it's probably not even the second or third thing (the USB cable and the Apple sticker are more popular I'm sure).

But, hidden deep within that pretty box is a cube that makes the whole thing work. It's an AC wall-charging unit, and it's as technically impressive as any other component in that box.

Ken Shirriff, a technology buff and blogger, has a complete teardown of Apple's tiny technical wonder on his blog, detailing (exhaustively, I might add) why exactly Apple can charge $29 for it.… Read more

Everyone who uses Instagram, EyeEm, or other photo-sharing apps knows how easy it can be to add effects to photos and make them look even better than the original. But there's another group of apps at the iTunes App Store that add something more to your images, taking a mostly mundane photo and turning it into a work of art.

This week's collection of iOS apps turns your photos into hand-drawn works of art. The first offers one-of-a-kind effects to make your photos look like sketches. The second is an old favorite of mine for the incredibly realistic line drawings you can create. The third takes a different tack, turning your photos into super-realistic paintings in the style of some of the greatest painters ever.… Read more

An air-powered car may not be a pipe dream after all. Tata Motors announced last week that it is beginning phase two of development to bring this technology to market.

Lightweight cars powered only by air have made the rounds on the auto show circuit for the past two years. But since 2007, the Indian automotive manufacturer has been working with Motor Development International, which is pioneering this technology, to make this highly conceptual propulsion system a reality.

Tata has successfully demonstrated the compressed air engine concept in two of its vehicles, and will enter phase two of the partnership … Read more

Apple today said it plans to make its Maiden, N.C., data center run entirely off renewable energy by the end of the year.

The company said it's building two solar array installations in the area, which when combined will bring in 84 million kilowatt-hours of power annually. Apple is also at work on its bio-gas fuel cell installation, set to be completed later this year.

All told, Apple says it will produce 60 percent of the power it requires to run the data center on site, procuring the other 40 percent from "local and regional sources" … Read more

By driving electric cars, BMW ActiveE drivers have already kicked the gasoline habit. But now the auto manufacturer is giving them a little help in the effort to quit fossil fuels for good. BMW has partnered with Real Goods Solar to offer EV customers discounted residential solar panel systems so they can charge up using only the sun.

Real Goods Solar will install solar panels at homes of ActiveE drivers at a 35 percent discount. The Colorado-based company operates offices in California and Connecticut, and offers several purchase plans, including the typical upfront system purchase, a zero-down 20-year lease of … Read more

I've known about Adam Audio for a long time, but for one reason or another I never reviewed one of its speakers. Adam (Advanced Dynamic Audio Monitors) may have started as a pro sound company, but it now also makes audiophile speakers. To get a handle on their sound I started with Adam's least expensive model, the ARTist 3, a compact desktop monitor. The company was founded by physicist Klaus Heinz and electrical engineer Roland Stenz, in Berlin in 1999.

It was in the early 1980s when Heinz met Oskar Heil, a decade after the good doctor caused … Read more