The Best USB battery pack for travel

If you’re looking for a high-capacity USB battery pack that’ll charge your USB-powered gadgets while travelling, I’d recommend the Satechi Portable Energy Station 10000 for $60.

Watch the Sikorsky X2 Breaking the World's Helicopter Speed Record

Sikorsky video of the Sep. 15, 2010 test flight during which its X2 Technology coaxial-rotor helicopter demonstrator achieved its 250kt speed goal. Conventional helicopters cruise at around 150kt. The X2 reached 260kt in a shallow dive as is expected to exceed 250kt in level flight once a sail fairing is fitted between the upper and lower rotors to reduce drag further.

X2 uses a single T800 engine to power both the rotors and the tail-mounted variable-pitch propeller, which provides forward thrust to enable the high speed. Other technologies include fly-by-wire flight controls and active vibration control. As the video opens you see a full-scale mockup of Sikorsky's proposed X2 Light Tactical Helicopter in the hangar.

Translation: 299.2mph vs the 172mph of conventional helicopters.

About Time!

A different kind of company name

Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

Google Beer “Gigabit IPA” Debuts in Portland, Oregon

What happens when you combine a passionate Portland, Oregon technology community, Google and Hopworks?  You get Gigabit IPA.  Described by Hopwork’s Brewer Ben Love, “this fresh & edgy IPA honors Portland’s new gigabit network project pioneering a connected future with Google fiber-to-home.  Embrace the bandwidth with a massive NW hop aroma, with rich citrus and pine accents aggressively balanced with clear malt caramel flavor, and a deep, clean, satisfying finish. From Hopworks, the world’s first carbon-neutral artisnal brewery.”

What Do YOU Think Of The Bloombox?

Detailing Netflix's Streaming Costs: Average Movie Costs Five Cents To Deliver

While Netflix is not yet giving out a lot of details on their costs associated with their streaming video service, they have given out enough data for us to have a pretty good idea of their costs when it comes to their streaming delivery costs for the XBOX 360 and other devices. Here's what we do and don't know and how it all breaks down.

Digital TV transition delay bill fails to pass in House

In an absolutely shocking move, the United States House of Representatives has failed to pass the digital TV transition delay bill that was all but certain to fly through just days ago. The bill needed two-thirds of the votes of the House under "special rules adopted for the vote," and reportedly, the vote was just 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date. As it stands, an estimated 6.5 million Americans are not yet prepared for the switch -- which is now back on track for February 17th -- and the money well for government-issued vouchers has ran dry. Honestly, we're elated to hear the news. The February date has been blasted from the rooftops for years now, and changing it this late in the game would wreak all kinds of havoc in the industry, not to mention instill even more confusion. Soon-to-be-vacated airwaves, we're ready for you.

This News Brought To You By Engadget

Google Offers 'Mail Goggles' for Drunk E-Mailers

Here's the scenario: It's Friday night, and what began as an innocent happy-hour margarita morphed into a few pitchers. After all, those tacos were salty.

Bidding friends adieu, you jump in a cab, head home and decide a quick e-mail check is in order. And there it is: a message from your ex. Or your boss. Or that friend you're secretly mad at.

If you're the kind of person who types tipsy and regrets it in the morning, Google's "Mail Goggles," a new test-phase feature in the free Gmail service, might save you some angst.

What Is A Kindle?

Still Haven't Joined Netflix?

Most of us still watch movies the old fashioned way: on DVD. Okay, maybe watching movies on DVD isn't that old, but for every $10 U.S. consumers spend on movie and TV entertainment, $8 of it goes to purchasing or renting DVDs... Which certainly makes us wish we bought Netflix stock when it first starting trading publicly in 2002. But DVDs won't remain the number one movie and TV source forever. And no, Blu-ray is unlikely to be DVD's ultimate successor either. The future--and it's not a very distant future--of movie and TV consumption is via online streaming.

Gmail Gets 13 Experimental New Features

Starting at 6PM Pacific Time tonight, Google will start rolling out Gmail Labs, an experimental area of new Gmail features that will be familiar and very welcome to users of the Better Gmail Firefox extension. Once your Gmail account is Labs-enabled, you'll get a Labs tab in the Settings area of your account where you can enable 13 new experimental Gmail features, including signature tweaks, mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and even a game. After the jump, get an exclusive sneak preview at the new Gmail Labs experimental features, with screenshots.

Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel

Drivers have long known that slowing down on the highway means getting more miles to the gallon. Now airlines are trying it, too - adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.

Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.

On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis earlier this week alone, flying slower saved 162 gallons of fuel, saving the airline $535. It added eight minutes to the flight, extending it to eight hours, 58 minutes.

The Next Giant Leap For Mankind

NASA is serious, very serious, about launching the most difficult mission ever attempted by the human race - putting an astronaut on Mars. The voyage will cover hundreds of millions of miles and take two-and-a-half years round trip. It sounds like science fiction.

If You Still Have Cable...

It's Time To Switch!

Tangled Awesomeness

"Really Bad Wiring - Part One"
"Really Bad Wiring - Part Two"
"Really Bad Wiring - Part Three"
"Really Bad Wiring - Part Four"

LED Breakthrough... 2X More Efficient than ANYTHING

LEDs are fantastic. But for a long time, they've been fantastic more because of what we think they can do than what they actually do. We've been pretty sure that LEDs can produce warm, white light at efficiencies far beyond even the much-touted compact fluorescent bulbs. But we've yet to actually see that.

Net Neutrality - WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

HD DVD deathwatch

HD DVD fans, we hate to do this to you, but it's time we called it. HD DVD is now officially on Engadget deathwatch. We haven't put anything important on deathwatch since TiVo in 2005 (which, as you may recall, still stands); but just as then, we have to step back from our personal preferences and investments in media and gear, ignore the rumors and hearsay, and take a close look at where things stand. We don't need Michael Bay to tell us the writing's on the wall.

TV-B-Gone Prank Carries Stiff Penalty!