jackyjohnjy: 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

Sunday Night Time-Lapse: Helvetia's Dream (Little green footballs)

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon hands-on

Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon handson

So far we've had the opportunity to review the global edition of the Samsung Galaxy Note II -- as well as get our hands on three of the five variants known to be making their way to the US -- but tonight we got our first official look at Verizon's particular flavor. Not that it's much different than the rest of the crowd: it's loaded with the same specs we've seen on the N7000 model (5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display at 1,280 x 720, 3,100mAh battery and a quad-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz), with the exception of Verizon-specific LTE bands, and have the same button layout that we've come to expect. Of course, there's that hideous Verizon logo on the main button, but that's the only visual difference we could spot.

Software-wise, Verizon's version of the Note II contains the built-in apps we've gotten accustomed to with its Android phones: VZ Navigator, My Verizon Mobile, and Mobile Hotspot. The device we picked up was running Jelly Bean, like its counterparts from other carriers. Sadly, no pricing or availability is yet available for the Note II on Verizon, with reps at the Samsung event we're at saying that it's up to Verizon to loose that news.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon hands-on

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon

Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FWblnoIs_6o/

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Sprint introduces new 4G LTE tablet data plans starting November 11

Sprint

Although Sprint is still lagging behind when it comes to LTE coverage compared to Verizon and AT&T, that doesn't mean they're not looking to add more customers by offering aggressively competitive data plans as their coverage increases. As of November 11th, Sprint will be offering a whole new set of 4G LTE rate plans for tablets and here's what they look like:

300MB for $14.99
3GB for $34.99
6GB for $49.99
12GB for $79.99

Looking at the plans, you'll likely notice they're not any cheaper than the competition but they do offer more data allowance. 20 percent more in fact, according to Sprint who also notes their is no contract requirements for these plans.

In addition to the stand alone offerings, Sprint smartphone customers can add a tablet to their account and get a discounted plan that includes 1GB of data for only $15 per month or 100MB of data that will only cost $10.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Qy3edMv-o1Y/story01.htm

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Chip Makes Twisted Light for Communications - IEEE Spectrum

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Video: Xinlun Cai/Jainwei Wang/Mark G. Thompson/Siuyan Yu

With a Twist: Data channels in optical fibers could be encoded using light with orbital angular momentum. A rotating spiral interference pattern is created by disturbing the phase of a reference laser beam relative to that of a beam with a specific orbital angular momentum.

24 October 2012?Researchers in the United Kingdom and China have made a microchip capable of emitting laser beams with a peculiar property known as orbital angular momentum (OAM).

Today?s optical-fiber communication systems use different wavelengths of laser light to squeeze multiple channels of data through the same ?light pipe? simultaneously, offering much speedier data transfer rates. But taking advantage of photons with orbital?sometimes called ?twisted? or ?corkscrew??angular momentum is a less-studied way to encode data channels in light. Each wavelength, for example, could carry different values of orbital angular momentum. ?It?s another dimension,? says Siyuan Yu, a researcher at the University of Bristol, in England, who notes that twisted light has an infinite number of states. ?OAM appears to be the last parameter of light that we haven?t explored so much,? observes Yu, who is part of the team that created the orbital angular momentum beam emitter.

While researchers have been aware of OAM as a physical property of photons for quite some time, it was only in the 1990s that they figured out the first ways of manipulating it. Even then OAM use was confined to physics experiments. But by the mid-2000s, the wider scientific community started to think about twisted light for communications.

The importance of the advance?reported last week in Science by Yu and collaborators at the University of Glasgow, Fudan University, and Sun Yat-sen University?becomes clear when it is compared with separate research reported earlier this year. A device for multiplexing and demultiplexing twisted light beams was reported in a paper presented in March at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition,?in Los Angeles. And in June, a team of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) reported in Nature Photonics that they had used OAM to transfer data at 2.5 terabits per second over a distance of a about a meter. ?

Making twisted light requires shifting a laser?s phase in a particular way, says Yu. The multiplexer described at the March conference accomplished this with multiple waveguides carved onto a chip; the new device created by Yu?s group requires only one waveguide. This improvement allowed the researchers to shrink the emitter, which is made from CMOS-compatible silicon photonic integrated circuits, by several orders of magnitude.

Yu and company also created integrated arrays that can emit multiple optical vortices. According to Alan Willner, a member of the USC team, creating a hundred beams using the kind of devices from his group?s terabit demonstration would call for ?a large number of expensive, discrete spatial light modulators.?

The improvements reported in the Science paper this week should be welcome news to companies such as Intel and Luxtera, which have been racing to find ways to replace the expensive exotic semiconductors and separate components in most optical communications systems with cheap integrated chips made of silicon.

According to Yu, twisted light arrays could someday allow communication channels between chips in a computer. Another potential application the University of Bristol researcher foresees is an imaging tool that makes it possible to ?shine a light? to see the difference in chirality?left- or right-handedness?in molecules.

For the moment, emission efficiency, the optical power coming out of a waveguide compared with that going in, ranges between 3 and 13 percent. But Yu thinks it can be pushed well past 50 percent. USC?s Willner concurs, saying that the British and Asian researchers could greatly improve the twisted beam emitter with some clever engineering. Key to that will be improving the design of the coupling between the waveguide and another component, something Yu and company are confident they can accomplish.

Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/optoelectronics/chip-makes-twisted-light-for-communications

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Boy Toy Review: Air Storm Crossbow By Zing Toys (VIDEO) | Lady ...

Boy Toy Review: Air Storm Crossbow By Zing Toys (VIDEO) | Lady and the Blog

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In For Kids, Product Reviews, video / By Vera / 24 October 2012 / 0 comments

My son is LOVING the Air Storm Crossbow By Zing Toys. This toy is FOR REAL. It really has some throw to it. He?s been walking around like a warrior every since we opened the box.

Here?s the toy review for you to check out:

A few quick tips about the Air Storm Crossbow:

Travels ups to 45? to your target and sticks
Comes with a target ? so you can practice your aim
Includes 3 suction cup arrows

The??Air Storm Crossbow By Zing Toys retails online for 9.99.

Tags: Air Storm Crossbow, Air Storm Crossbow review, crossbow toy, zing toys review

About the author: Vera

Vera Sweeney is a mother, wife, and blogger from New York that has become a lifestyle and parenting brand with an extended, multi-platform reach and influence. She is a well-established expert in the worlds of social media and consumer brand promotion. -- Read more here.

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Precisely targeted electrical brain stimulation alters perception of faces, study finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) ? In a painless clinical procedure performed on a patient with electrodes temporarily implanted in his brain, Stanford University doctors pinpointed two nerve clusters that are critical for face perception. The findings could have practical value in treating people with prosopagnosia -- the inability to distinguish one face from another -- as well in gaining an understanding of why some of us are so much better than others at recognizing and remembering faces.

In a study published Oct. 24 in the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists showed that mild electrical stimulation of two nerve clusters spaced a half-inch apart in a brain structure called the fusiform gyrus caused the subject's perception of faces to instantly become distorted while leaving his perception of other body parts and inanimate objects unchanged.

The surprised reaction of the subject, Ron Blackwell of Santa Clara, Calif., is captured in a video made during the procedure. "You just turned into somebody else. Your face metamorphosed," he tells the researcher in the video.

The video is publicly available and can be accessed at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ertqru7vminq9el/6kWSKn3X5o#f:Video-LowRes.m4v.

Blackwell, who is now 47, was undergoing medical treatment under the direction of Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at the School of Medicine, whose lab collaborates with that of Kalanit Grill-Spector, PhD, associate professor of psychology at the School of Humanities and Sciences.

The face Blackwell was looking at was Parvizi's. "Ron didn't see my face vaporize or go blank. Instead, it just seemed to warp before his eyes," Parvizi said.

In 2010, Grill-Spector and then-graduate student Kevin Weiner (now a postdoctoral researcher in Grill-Spector's lab and a co-author of the new study) discovered that the fusiform gyrus contains two nerve clusters (designated as pFus and mFus) that respond more strongly to faces than to hands, legs, cars, guitars, flowers or buildings.

Grill-Spector's lab has been studying the fusiform gyrus' role in face recognition as well as in prosopagnosia or "face blindness," a condition made famous by neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, MD, who himself suffers from it. People with prosopagnosia simply cannot distinguish one face from another, although all other aspects of their vision and visual-information processing are normal. Some people, like Sacks, are born with the condition while others acquire it as a result of an injury to the fusiform gyrus, Grill-Spector said.

"We can learn a lot about the function of different brain regions by studying these disorders and relating them to the anatomical sites where brain damage has occurred," she said. "But the injuries vary a great deal from one affected person to the next, and they are typically not confined to the fusiform gyrus. This limits our ability to localize a particular deficit to a particular brain site."

Blackwell's arrival at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, along with a generous slice of serendipity, allowed the Stanford doctors to conduct the first-ever study of the fusiform gyrus combining two imaging techniques (fMRI and electrocorticography, or intracranial recording) and electrical brain stimulation. The result was the first-ever proof that appropriate activity in the two nerve clusters, pFus and mFus, was critical to face recognition.

Blackwell had time on his hands. He was spending a week in a bed at Stanford Hospital with a packet of electrodes snugly abutting a part of his brain that doctors believed might be the initiating site, or focus, of his epileptic seizures. These seizures, which he'd been experiencing since age 11, had been well-controlled by drugs. But by late 2010, his medication was failing.

Blackwell was married and the father of two young girls. "It wasn't just me anymore. I didn't want to be vulnerable to disorienting episodes that could occur at any time of the day or night," he said. Referred by his primary physician to Parvizi, he learned of a medical procedure that might provide relief.

Epileptic seizures are, at root, electrical storms triggered when a short circuit at one small spot within the brain, called the focus, causes waves of electrical activity to spread throughout the organ. (The exact location varies from patient to patient.) Most of the time seizures can be controlled with medication. When they can't, one proven treatment involves a surgical procedure in which a portion of the patient's skull is temporarily removed, allowing access to the surface of the brain near the spot thought to be responsible for initiating the seizures. A packet containing numerous electrode leads is placed near the brain's surface, with each electrode acting like a separate stethoscope monitoring the collective electrical activity of perhaps a half-million nerve cells. (That's a drop in the bucket, considering that a healthy human brain contains 200 billion of them.) The patient remains off medication for several days, eventually culminating in the onset of seizure activity and allowing the neurological team to identify the focus. Surgeons may then be able to excise just enough brain tissue to halt the cycle of self-propagating electrical activity -- in effect, pulling out a fuse in order to break the short circuit -- without affecting any important brain functions.

In September 2011, Blackwell was set to undergo the weeklong monitoring procedure. Based on a thorough neurological workup, electrodes were placed on the surface of a brain region that included the fusiform gyrus, a structure roughly the shape of a hand-rolled cigarette, on the underside of the temporal lobe.

Electrical brain stimulation requires the flow of electricity from one electrode across a small patch of brain tissue to another electrode spaced 1 cm away. It so happens that pFus and mFus, which account for perhaps one-quarter of the fusiform gyrus' bulk, are also 1 cm apart. By fate, two of the inserted electrodes had been positioned almost precisely above the anatomical centers of pFus and mFus in Blackwell's fusiform gyrus, forming a pair that enabled Parvizi to apply the stimulation directly to the two sites simultaneously at the touch of a button.

Doing so instantly altered Blackwell's perception of Parvizi's face. "You almost look like somebody I've seen before, but somebody different," he reported. ." .. You were someone else. Your whole face just sort of metamorphosed ... it's almost like the shape of your facial features drooped."

When the stimulation was halted, the distorted image of Parvizi's face immediately reverted to the normal one, Blackwell reported. Neither sham stimulation, in which a button was pushed but no actual electrical impulse was delivered to pFus and mFus, nor stimulation of nearby sites via other electrode pairs had any effect on Blackwell's face perception. Stimulating pFus and mFus caused no distortion of other objects in the room, he reported.

Throughout this procedure's duration, Parvizi didn't know what to expect. "I was as surprised as the patient was when he suddenly saw my features seem to melt," Parvizi said.

In a follow-on imaging study of Blackwell's brain using a high-resolution fMRI technique that could discriminate among locations as little as 1.8 mm apart, Grill-Spector and her students confirmed Parvizi's findings. Blackwell's pFus and mFus clusters responded with heightened activity to images of faces, but not to those of hands, feet, flowers, cars, guitars, cars or houses.

The Stanford team of neurologists succeeded in locating the focus of Blackwell's seizures, but decided that removing it would be risky because it was too close to other key parts of the brain. But oddly, since the removal of the electrodes, his medication seems to be working again and his seizures have inexplicably abated to a significant extent, for which he thanks God, he said in a recent interview.

The study was funded by the Stanford's Bio-X Neuroventures Program and the National Institutes of Health. Additional co-authors were postdoctoral researchers Corentin Jacques, PhD, Brett Foster, PhD, and Nathan Withoft, PhD; and research assistant Vinitha Rangarajan.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Bruce Goldman.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Vbz7-bthHHY/121023172113.htm

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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Efficient Services By Web Development Ireland Companies

Miscellaneous Written by Anonymous ??Tuesday, 23 October 2012 06:33 The websites offer as a means for the online audience to interact with the companies. Hence, the web development is given importance as a functional website plays a central role in the growth and success of the online business. The expertise of the web development Ireland is popular among online buinesses worldwide. Ireland is home to several web development companies who have the proficiency to create reliable and impressive business websites. The companies in Ireland are very result-oriented and make sure that the web related solutions they provide are suitable for the clients??? business requirements.

Ireland offers world-class educational systems and many colleges offer dedicated courses in the field of computers. The web development companies employ qualified engineers, software developers, and system architects who are familiar with the current web standards and the technological updates. This enables them to develop websites that offer a wide range of functionalities and features. Such websites are also easily accessible and reliable, and so help the companies achieve their business goals and targets. The companies also focus on different aspects of the web development process such as client side and server side scripting, coding, and security configurations.

The companies in Ireland also provide their expert services in the field of web designing as well. The web design Ireland companies make use of the latest design software and editor tools to plan and design innovative appearances for the websites. The visually stunning websites can draw the attention of the online audience. Such websites stand out from the competition in terms of presentation and visual aspects. These web designing companies focus on the various visual elements of the website and make sure that the look and feel of the website is relevant to the nature of business of the company.

The web designers Ireland are very professional and take great efforts to complete the projects within the stipulated time. The designers ensure that the web pages load properly, so that the online users do not face any issue when accessing the web application. They organize the web pages in the logical order, which adds to the overall quality of the website. This helps the audience in viewing and navigating through the website easily. The web designing and development firms also offer their dedicated solutions in the field of SEO aspects of the website. They plan and organize various SEO strategies that can help the websites support the search engine crawlers efficiently. This can help in enhancing the popularity of the business website.

The author is an experienced Content writer and publisher for Business Development. Visit at http://www.themarketingpod.ie/ to know more about Web Design Ireland, Web Designers Ireland and Web Development Ireland.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 06:33

Source: http://www.workoninternet.com/business/reviews/miscellaneous/219460-article.html

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7 Winter Home Improvement Tips to Save You Money and Energy In ...

This year?s record breaking summer high temperatures and general worrisome warming trend, don?t necessarily mean that the coming winter will be a walk in the park. Before the cold weather strikes, get your home buttoned up and ready for it with our expert hands-on game plan, which?will not only make your home more comfortable and energy efficient, but save you some?money?while you?re at it. From big changes that will knock hundreds of dollars off your energy bill to smaller ones that need just?a bit of elbow grease and a few materials from your local hardware store, we?ll show you what you need to get the job done! So no matter if you rent or own your house, check out these 7 handy tips that we promise will make a real difference in keeping you warm and your energy bill manageable this winter.

TIP 1: Get an Energy Audit

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, we should mention that the best way to get your home operating at its maximum efficiency is to hire a professional?BPI certified?energy rater to evaluate your spaces. This person will conduct what?s called an ?energy audit? and he or she will test your home for energy losses and safety issues, and generate a detailed report highlighting what your home?s issues are. With a report in hand you can easily?target and prioritize exactly what you need to do, and what you can afford to do.

If you can?t afford an energy audit, you can start to identify and remedy some problem areas on your own with the help of an infrared?thermometer, like the?Ryobi Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer. This handy gun allows you to safely measure surface temperatures and pinpoint spots where your home is experiencing air leaks or missing insulation. As energy efficiency expert David Johnson says, ?Air leaks account for 25-30% of an average?energy?bill, and this is one of the most profound steps that you can make for the betterment of your home?s comfort and reducing the amount of your monthly bill.?

Our tips ahead will address common problem areas seen in all types of homes, and they will offer solutions to problems that can be?easily?fixed, often without calling on help from a professional.

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TIP 2: Seal Your Walls

The mantra in green construction is: ?seal it tight, ventilate right?. The sealing part is about getting a handle on all the places where air penetrates?through?the wall and causes drafts and fluctuations to the temperature inside your home. A simple tube of high quality caulk and a plan to tackle all those problem areas can go a long way if you know where to look (hint: grab your infrared thermometer).

What keeps the outside air out of your home is typically the interior walls (or drywall), but you?ll find many holes that have been cut out of these walls to install your plugs and switches. If you have ever removed the face-plates of ?these plugs and switches during cold weather, you?ll have probably noticed some cold air pouring out. Reduce this leakage by using caulk to seal around the the area where the electric box meets the drywall.?If you?re comfortable working around electricity, head to the breaker, turn it off, then test the outlets to make sure they are really off. Once off, you can then pull them out of the box and begin to seal up all the little holes in the back of the box, including where the wires come through.

Energy Audit, Energy star, How to weatherize, air sealing, winterize your home, products to save energy,

TIP 3: Seal Your Home?s Can Lights

Other?notorious?culprits that contribute to air leaks are recessed lights found in the ceiling.?Many old can lights are actually vented on purpose to keep from being overheated by the lightbulb (they are called non-IC or non-insulation contact rated cans).?Because warm air rises, an unsealed can light below a roof is a big problem.?It?s a good idea is to remove the existing ring of this can and seal the can?s perimeter with caulk. The inside of the can should be sealed with either caulk or aluminum tape to keep your home?s warm air from escaping into the attic.

It?s very important that you not?put an incandescent bulb in the can. Instead, opt for something like a Cree LED recessed light?? this light is?dimmable, super-efficient and does not build up heat. Moreover, if you have a non-IC rated can, it?s a really good idea to put a note inside to not use incandescent lights in the future. An overheated fixture has the potential to cause serious problems. If you can?t give up your?incandescent, another approach is to go into the attic, install and seal a box made from drywall around the light, and then insulate from above. This has the added?benefit?of improving you r-value,?or insulating effectiveness.

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TIP 4: Look For Insulation Gaps

Anywhere you have something that penetrates the wall, there is bound to be an air leak. Check out the outside faucets, air vents and plumbing for large gaps where air can escape. Seal the penetrations with expanding foam so that every nook and cranny?is filled. Be careful to never seal next to a gas flue or you will have a fire hazard on your hands.

Once that is done, if you are ready to get dirty, check out where the foundation meets the house and crawlspace and fill those little forgotten cracks ? note areas where you see even the slightest bit of daylight passing through. There is even an expanding foam for the big holes?and a fire block version for holes between floors or for sealing electrical boxes. We also?recommend?practicing on a?scrap surface to see how the foam works. Remember to wear gloves when using the foam ? this stuff is really sticky before it sets!

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While expanding foam is ideal when dealing with air leaks, spray-and-go won?t always work with those extra big gaps. In spots that need an extra bit of air-stopping artillery, we recommend rolling out some insulation. But before grab for that pink stuff on the shelf ? a.k.a. fiberglass insulation ? we recommend that you consider using?Ultratouch denim insulation?instead. Unlike its counterpart, Ultratouch?is made from high-quality natural fibers (80% of which are post-consumer recycled)?that provide for extremely effective sound absorption and good thermal performance. You also won?t have to worry about getting the ?fiberglass itch??with the denim insulation; it is easy to handle and work with ? but we still?recommend?using a mask.?The perforated batts make off-size cavity installation easy. Simply measure, tear, carefully fit and cover with an air tight?barrier?and you are good to go.

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TIP 5: Check and Tune-up Your Heating System

Before the start of the cold season, it?s not a bad idea to tune up your furnace. 30% of an average?home?s energy costs?are?related to heating, and this number can spike further if you have inefficiencies with your furnace or boiler system. The first place to start is by replacing the filter at the beginning of the season and every couple of months while you run the furnace.?When purchasing a new filter, note that the cheap ones are made just to protect the furnace fan motor, so make sure to get a more?efficient and healthy pleated filter?for improved air quality.

A tune-up is a good way to cut down on energy, prevent carbon monoxide leaks, and keep the air inside your home safe and healthy for you and your family.?A tune-up should be a top priority, especially given that your furnace or boiler system will be running at full blast for months to come ? you don?t want it to give out right when you need it the most!?While the cost of a tune-up may at first glance seem like an unnecessary expenditure, keep in mind that small problems can easily turn into much larger, expensive replacements down the road. A?new furnace is a substantial financial investment ? regular maintenance postpones its replacement.

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Image:?Early morning frosty winter view through a window via Shutterstock

TIP 6: Check Your Windows

Windows that are unsuited for a home?s local climate can be a big contributor to inefficiency. If you live in an area that gets especially cold in the winter, investing in windows with insulated glass that?s double-paned or even triple-paned has the potential to transform the comfort of your home and your energy bill.

There are three main types of windows that are available on the market today and they include single-pane, double-pane, and super-triple-pane windows. Single- and double- pane windows are common in older houses, but windows in newer homes are commonly treated with?Low-emittance (low-E) coatings (this can include both super windows and double pane windows). Low-E?coatings?are microscopically thin, virtually invisible, metal or metallic oxide layers deposited on a window to suppress radiative heat flow. The coating keeps?radiant heat on the same side of the glass from which it originated, all while letting visible light pass ? which means in the winter heat is reflected in, and in the summer heat is reflected out.?Different types of Low-E?coatings have been designed to allow for high solar gain, moderate solar gain, or low solar gain, and their application will depend on what region your home is located.

Super windows are a more recent development that feature a third pane of treated glass, and in some cases?boast a krypton/argon/air gas mix?in between the panes. When it comes to thermal?performance, these windows are second to none and they can reduce your energy bill by?hundreds of dollars. The choices can be daunting when selecting new windows and payback long, so make sure to do?diligent?research?and ?tune? your windows to take advantage of solar heat.

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While?new windows?would be great for everyone, we understand that they are a hefty investment that require a lot of?technical?analysis from a skilled professional. Moreover,?new windows can often be just marginally more efficient than old ones (compared to your wall?s r-value for instance).?Energy?efficiency?is about looking at the home as a system, and this is a long-term investment you shouldn?t be hasty or thrifty about. Get an?energy audit?before?you make the plunge into making any window replacement.

With that said, there are many improvements that you can make to what you already have. They require just a little effort, but can pay out big in cash savings and improved comfort.?More simple remedies can easily be found on the shelves of your local hardware store. Purchase some caulk and cellular shades (insulating blinds) to really increase efficiency. Use caulk?to seal the window frame, and then setup your cellular shades. These shades are easy to install and work by creating pockets of air to insulate windows from the cold. A?good set of shades?can double or triple a window?s performance making these a no?brainier?for winter comfort and energy savings.

TIP 7: Install a Smart Thermostat

Ok, so you got through the grunt work, now its time to put in some sexy technology to really save some energy. Programmable thermostats (or t-stats) have gotten a bad rap for being difficult to use, and the EPA has yanked their Energy Star designation as a result. However, there are new, much more intuitive?designs?out there, like the?Wi-Fi enabled Honeywell t-stat. Honeywell?s model?not only lets you control the device from your iPhone or computer, but it tells you when there are significant temperature swings coming and even when the filter needs to be changed.

Programmable thermostats?come in many varieties and price ranges, and getting one can save the average household about $180?a year if it?s used right. The idea is simple: these smart devices allow you to?optimize your home?s energy-efficiency by setting pre-programmed temperatures for different situations, seasons and times.?For example, you probably don?t want to be paying for heat during the day when you?re not even there, right? You can set your?programmable thermostat?to automatically turn down the heat during those hours and turn it up when you and your family come home to save money and energy.

For even more energy-saving products, visit Home Depot?s?EcoOptions website.

+ EcoOptions

At?The Home Depot, we pride ourselves on being?sustainability minded. To make saving energy and money even easier, we?ve launched our?EcoOptions?website dedicated to?green products?such as WaterSense? and ENERGY STAR? labeled products and wood harvested from sustainable forests.?EcoOptions?also offers helpful tips for homeowners trying to?go green?to help you every step of the way. Whatever your home improvement project, we?ve got the?organic solutions?that can help make your?home healthier?and air cleaner; and products that can help you conserve water, be more?energy efficient?and save money.

Source: http://inhabitat.com/7-winter-home-improvement-tips-to-save-you-money-and-energy-in-the-cold-season/

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