ultraviolet

Barnes & Noble inks Nook licensing deal with HBO, NBC

Barnes & Noble today announced the launch of its Nook Video service in the U.K.

Nook Video is available to U.K. customers who own a Nook HD or Nook HD+. The offering features both films and television shows from a wide variety of providers, including BBC Worldwide, HBO, NBC Universal, and Sony Pictures. STARZ and Warner Bros. Entertainment have also inked deals with Barnes & Noble.

Upon booting up Nook Video, customers will find both new releases and older films and television shows. The videos are available for streaming or download. Nook Video is a partner of Ultraviolet, … Read more

Swedish town introduces light therapy to bus shelters

In Umea, Sweden, the forecast for Thursday is partly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of precipitation and a high of 25 degrees Fahrenheit. As I write this in dark and damp Portland, Ore., Umea doesn't sound so bad.

But the city, located some 400 miles north of the already northern Swedish capital Stockholm, is for most of the day this time of year cloaked in darkness, with the sun rising at almost 9 a.m. and setting just after 2 p.m.

So the local energy company Umea Energi has begun installing phototherapy lamps in 30 bus shelters … Read more

UV photography reveals our sun-damaged selves

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more

Facebook under fire (again) for all-male board

The campaign to get Facebook to appoint a female board member is ramping up. The FACE IT campaign launched earlier this week to draw attention to the fact that the social-networking site had no women on its board of directors and now other groups and individuals are signing on.

Joining the campaign today is the group Ultraviolet, which is a women's group co-founded by Nita Chaudhary who was most recently the outspoken campaign and organizing director for MoveOn.org Political Action. Although Ultraviolet is fairly new on the scene, it already boasts 300,000 members.

"The fact that … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1510: Google + is Bieber-free! (Podcast)

On today's show, we talk to Ken Parks, director of content at Spotify, who lays down the one rule of music licensing negotiations: you don't talk about music licensing negotiations! Plus, Amazon's tablet is incoming, 41 percent of Netflix users plan to take their ball and go home, and girl power at the Google science fair!

Facebook the movie theater

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Warner Bros. is renting out movies inside Facebook

The beta of Google Maps Navigation for Android helps you avoid traffic jams

YouTube acquires Next New Networks

HBO is said to be relaxing black-out agreements to advance UltraViolet cloud streaming

This year's Wimbledon finals will be broadcast in 3D

Owners of the original iPad 3G will be able to port their unlimited data plans over to the new iPad 2

Consumer Reports finds that 30 percent of teens are texting while driving

Fighting germs, Harry Potter-style

If you were excited about the previously-mentioned SteriPEN, if you're still avoiding tomatoes and hot peppers at the supermarket, or if you just have some money to spare, then chances are that the Nano-UV Wand is right up your alley.

Lately, it seems an activity as simple and natural as eating has become much more complicated. In the wake of the salmonella-inducing tomato (or jalapeno, or maybe serrano pepper) and E. coli spinach scares, consumers continue to be wary of food-borne illnesses, and are on the lookout for products that protect them from this nasty bacteria.

Healthy Connections, a … Read more

Debug your tap water

Unless you live next door to an icy mountain spring, chances are that you drink purified water. Whether it's from a filtered pitcher, a kitchen faucet tap fixture, a special screw top on your water bottle, iodine tablets, or the tried-and-true store-bought bottled water, the water we drink is, comparatively speaking, pretty darn pure. If you need a way to kill dangerous contaminants that's more portable, then maybe you should be checking out the SteriPEN.

Our countertop purifiers remove contaminants in a multitude of ways, including filtration, water softening, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, deionization, and powdered activated carbon treatment ( … Read more

Ultimate germaphobe gadget 2.0

Some months ago--on Jan. 1, as a matter of fact--we reported what we then thought was the "ultimate germaphobe gadget," perhaps our way of ushering in a bacteria-free 2007. Barely halfway through the year, however, that item appears to have already been eclipsed.

Not only does the "Wide Coverage Germ-Eliminating Wand" claim to eradicate "99 percent of bacteria, viruses, mold, and dust mites," but it can do so in broader areas with a 6-inch ultraviolet lightbulb. All the germaphobic head of the household needs to do is hold the wand 3 inches over a … Read more

The ultimate germaphobe gadget

'Tis the season to get sick, and Crave wants to do its part to help keep you healthy. We could list various types of bacteria-resistant and washable equipment on the market, but we've learned of another gadget that claims to detect and zap germs even before touching a piece of potentially infected hardware.

Hammacher Schlemmer says its "Handheld Germ-Eliminating Light" can "eliminate 99.99% of E-Coli, staphylococcus, salmonella, and germs that cause the flu and the common cold." The miracle gadget supposedly works with the same type of ultraviolet light and nanotechnology used to sterilize … Read more