photo credit: Molycorp Mine Reopening

Colorado-based Molycorp says it’s reopening its Mountain Pass mine in California. Their aim is to product as much as 20,000 tons of rare earth elements (REEs). This would constitute about 20% of China’s output and help the US become less dependent on China for the REEs. While REEs are not truly rare, they are hard to extract. China pretty much has the monopoly on REEs, enjoying the fact that over 90 percent of rare earths are mined and processed there. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Rare Earth Elements

An integral part of that cell phone you can’t live without is neodymium. Neodymium is used in magnets for computers, audio speakers and of course cell phones. Another rare earth mineral, Holmium, has the greatest magnetic strength of any element and is used in medical and dental lasers. In addition, many technologies and US military weaponry rely on a group of these rare earth minerals. So what you may ask? The big deal is that we rely on China for most of these rare minerals. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Android SMS Bug

Are your SMS messages going to the right person? Have you been sending messages to one phone number, only to have it received by someone totally different? Apparently this has been an ongoing bug in the Android SMS App system for about 6 months. As of today Google still hasn’t fixed the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Cheap Indo-China Cell Phones

Ready for a new cell phone but don’t want to pay the high prices? Whatever you do, don’t get a cheap Smartphone from Indo-China. ‘Indo-China phones’ is a term for those inexpensive phones sold by Indian companies like Micromax, Lava, MVL, Videocon and Karbonn. According to an article by Rohan Naravane, TechTree, these cell phones did not even have an IMEI number, let alone proper warranty and service. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Verizon iPhone

Verizon is rumored to make the big iPhone announcement tomorrow. According to ZDNet and countless blogs, Verizon has scheduled an announcement tomorrow which includes Steve Jobs (Apple) as a speaker. The much anticipated Verizon iPhone is expected to be announced tomorrow, with availability as soon as the end of the month. This announcement is scheduled for 11:00 am EST on 1/11/11. Hmm… Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: iPad 2 Rumors

iPad 2 rumors are flooding the Internet. Every day you hear more rumors, everything from a new model, a new launch date or including a USB port. How do you sort out the truth from the fiction? Ben Parr, Mashable, attempted to discern the truth about the top 10 rumors. According to Ben Parr, some rumors he would bet money on, and others he predicts will only happen when pigs fly. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Technology 2000-2010

We are at the end of a significant decade for technology. Probably more than any previous decade, technology has shaped our society and culture. Wolfgang Gruener, Tomshardware.com, has listed what he thinks are the top 10 technologies that have most affected us since 2000. I am not sure I agree totally with his list, but here’s the list from Gruener. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Windows 7 Phone

Microsoft announced that despite a slow start, Windows 7 Phone sales have reached over 1.5 million in 6 weeks. It is important to note, however, that these figures reflect phones sold to retail outlets as well as consumers. There are no figures yet for phones sold and in the hands of consumers. According Bonnie Cha, CNET, Microsoft was a little soft on the details of the sales expectations. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: O’Car Stereo

O’Car is not a new Irish type of car. O’Car is a car stereo which uses the iPhone as its display and control panel. Why the Irish sounding name? The O’Car stereo really comes from Oxygen Audio. It has an iPhone swiveling dock so you can just drop your iPhone in there and use it for display and control. There is also an RDS radio tuner and a 4×55-watt amp, so you can still tune in to something when you forget your phone. (As if you would become detached from your precious iPhone….) The iPhone charges when it’s docked, and you can make and receive calls via the integrated Bluetooth hands-free kit. In addition, the O’Car will hold the phone vertically or horizontally, so you can use any app, turning this nifty stereo into a GPS navigator or Pandora Radio. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Group Texting - all for FREE

Last week Groupflier announced the release of its free group texting service. It allows any group, club or community of friends the ability to send one text message to one number and have it go to everyone in the group, absolutely free. Read the rest of this entry »