north carolina

Lenovo: Making it in the U.S.A. (Q&A)

China's premier PC company, Lenovo, is moving some of its desktop, laptop, and tablet production to the U.S. I asked the company -- which Gartner says is now the largest PC maker on the planet -- to explain what making a product in the U.S. means exactly.

I spoke with Mark Stanton, director of global supply chain communications at Lenovo, about the company's plan to to make computing devices in North Carolina, including its ThinkPad Tablet 2 and ThinkPad laptops.

Q: What does "made in the U.S." mean in this case? Stanton: The … Read more

In role reversal, Chinese PC firm to manufacture in U.S.

China's largest PC maker, Lenovo, made a stunning announcement this week when it said it will make laptops, tablets, and desktops in the U.S.

So, why in the world would China's largest PC maker decide to manufacture devices here when America's two premier digital gadget suppliers, Apple and Hewlett-Packard, make virtually nothing in the U.S. and almost everything in China and/or Asia?

Needless to say, the answer is more complicated than "growth opportunities" in the U.S. -- as Yuanqing Yang, CEO of Lenovo, said in a statement.

And the move comes … Read more

Eek! Remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches are real

If Borg ships have vermin on them, they look exactly like a project researchers at North Carolina State University are working on.

These intrepid scientists have taken a lightweight chip with a wireless receiver and transmitter and attached it to a cockroach like a little backpack. For the record, large Madagascar hissing cockroaches are the roach of choice. … Read more

Pixel art as 'resolutionary' as iPad -- in own, low-def way

The latest iPad and its "resolutionary" display have made ever-smaller pixels all the rage, but here's a sculpture that boldly and beautifully goes in the opposite direction.

"Patterned by Nature" (see video below) is made up of 3,600 tiles of LCD glass -- each roughly the size of a laptop screen -- and is 90 feet long and 10 feet wide. The giant sculpture hangs in the several-story atrium of the just-opened Nature Research Center in North Carolina, a new wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Each LCD can display various levels of blue-gray transparency, from clear all the way to opaque. And the matrix as a whole is used as a giant screen of sorts to show 20 different animations of different natural phenomena -- a flock of geese swooping through the atrium, say, or the pattern of rain splashing into a pond.… Read more

Facebook opens North Carolina data center, touts efficiency

Facebook has completed its second data center, a facility in North Carolina the company says is one of the most energy-efficient centers housing data in the world.

The Forest City center will have a projected power usage effectiveness (PuE) measurement of 1.06 to 1.08, Facebook said in a post on its Web site. Research from The Uptime Institute shows that the typical data center has an average PuE of 1.8, which means that for every 1.8 watts in at the utility meter, only one watt is delivered out. The company's first data center, in Prineville, … Read more

Apple confirms plans to build data center in Oregon

A 160-acre parcel of land has been signed over to Apple and will be used to build a data center, an Oregon TV station reported today, confirming a long-standing rumor.

The piece of land in Prineville cost the company $5.6 million and the deal, formerly known as "Project Maverick," has been quietly in the works for months, according to a KTVZ.com report. An Apple representative confirmed to the station that the company purchased the land for a data center but declined to comment further.

Before the deed was signed over last week, no one was allowed … Read more

Apple planning solar farm near data center, report says

Apple plans to build a solar farm next to its massive data center in Maiden, N.C., according to a Charlotte Observer report.

The company has won approval to reshape the slope of 171 acres of vacant land it owns adjacent to the data center in preparation, according to permits issued in Catawba County. However, the permit offered no details about the solar farm project itself--dubbed Project Dolphin Solar Farm-- including its size, the newspaper noted.

Apple has spent reportedly $1 billion to build a 500,000-square-foot behemoth of a data center in Maiden, N.C., which had the code … Read more

ZipcarU shares rides with even more college and university students

When you think of environmentally friendly transportation on college and university campuses, you usually think of bicycles. But in cold winter weather, or when going off campus for errands or hauling more than the average backpack around, a Zipcar fits the bill.

For $8 per hour or $66 per day, and an annual fee, 1.7 million students, faculty, and staff have 24-hour access to Zipcars. The company now has ride-share programs on more than 225 campuses.

"We know that college students quickly embrace the concept of car sharing. This is the same generation that buys music by the … Read more

HTC opening R&D office to focus on wireless tech

HTC is looking to expand its R&D efforts on wireless research through a new office opening in North Carolina next year.

The smartphone maker said today it plans to lease a new R&D office in Durham, N.C., during the first quarter of 2011.

The site will kick off with a staff of around 45 people who'll conduct research into multiple areas of wireless technology, according to HTC, which plans to expand the facility further during the new year and beyond.

The Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina is known for its Research Triangle Park, home … Read more