awards

A group working to save land in Namibia, projects bringing power to Indian villages and building earthquake-resistant homes in Indonesia, the maker of a single-use syringe, and a group that uses technology in classrooms in India were the winners of the Tech Museum awards held Wednesday.

The Biomass Energy Project, Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia won the 2008 Intel Environment Award. The group converts invasive bush into clean fuel. It employs 15 people at a biomass processing plant that uses a high-pressure extrusion process to create an economically viable alternative to firewood, coal, and charcoal. The fund is working to … Read more

Living in San Francisco, we take technology for granted. We have YouTube and iPhones and online maps. We get annoyed when a Web page downloads too slow or our phone call drops.

Then there are the millions of people who don't live in developed countries, who go without the Web and even electricity and light for most if not all of their day. For them, things like Windows 7 and Facebook are irrelevant, but they still dominate the technology landscape.

There are some innovators designing technology for use by the rest of the world, companies and nonprofits that are … Read more

Popular Mechanics magazine will unveil on Wednesday its Breakthrough Awards, the publication's annual celebration of the brightest innovators and innovations.

This year's winners include tech that lets you read books on a thin, digital device, see all around your car as you park, and explore outer space through your imagination.

Logan Ward, a contributing editor at the magazine, said that he and a team of fellow researchers scour the country looking for 30 to 40 candidates that are then winnowed down to the eventual 10 winners. The magazine also identifies 10 individuals for special innovator, leadership, and future-looking … Read more

Sony Ericsson announced its third annual Content Awards on Thursday. Developers are invited to submit content and applications for use on Sony Ericsson devices. The company released a free SDK two weeks ago.

Sony Ericsson is asking developers to create content and applications that address three questions: How can mobile phones help us monitor our carbon footprint? How can the next generation of mobile phones make our lives less frantic? In what ways can we make our phones personal?

Entries will be judged on ease of use, entertainment factor, innovation, look and feel, and audio performance. The seven categories include … Read more

This is not your mom's dishware. It's not dainty, or pretty, or porcelain, or precious. When lifting one of these mugs to your lips, your pinky finger will not--I repeat, will not--be tempted to rise. No, these bowls, plates, and mugs are of the rougher variety. They are, after all, made of concrete.

What once was the humble material of sidewalks, or blocks a mobster might tie to a body to sink it to the depths of the ocean's floor, is now the inspiration for modern tableware. Want to infuse a little street into your dinner party? … Read more

What do a MacBook Air and a submersible rolling pin have in common--besides both being made on planet Earth? Both are winners in this year's International Design Excellence Awards. The competition, run by the Industrial Designers Society of America and sponsored by BusinessWeek magazine, invites businesses and students the world over to submit their best inventions or design concepts.

Out of 205 IDEA awards this year, some, like the iPhone, are no-brainers, while many conceptual designs do much to stretch the imagination. Though the list is brimming with interesting gadgets, a few caught our eye.

Samsung's Design Touch concept, which won a gold medal, … Read more

The Table Tennis Triples and Modular Table Tennis System (MTTS) was a finalist in the Australian Next Big Thing Awards.

I love how the invention's "unique benefits" are listed on the award site:

"- More people play on one table: social benefits, reduced waiting times

- Greater shot range, fairer 'Triples' scoring system

- Conventional tables can be reversibly 'Triples' retrofitted

- Numerous games/table shapes possible with the MTTS sectors"

(Hat tip to Jordan Kanarek from frog)

Ferrari may preen for the most attention, but Lamborghini is the auto house that gets the bragging rights for now. The Asus-Lamborghini ZX1 has won the prestigious iF Communication Design Award for "uncompromising quality in style and materials."

It's not the first co-branded Lamborghini phone--Nokia offers its own version--but the ZX1 will definitely turn heads for its original design. Beyond just slapping a logo on its cover, the 3.5G handset sports a "beehive textured air intake" pattern and a "chassis-inspired aerodynamic flow," according to Fareastgizmos. Inside is a 9-way navigational key … Read more

NEW YORK--The inaugural Internet Week New York was eight days of open bars and missed opportunities.

On the red carpet at the 12th Annual Webby Awards on Tuesday night, the final event of the week-long city-sanctioned festival, I called out to Internet Week executive director David-Michel Davies and asked him what he'd do next year to change it. "We'd like to do a better job with the schedule," he said to me after hesitating for a moment. He added a few more words about how a better calendar could help Internet Week-goers connect, before publicists snagged … Read more