Wal-Mart (WMT) is either looking to make an impact on the environment or cut more expenses — probably both. The world’s largest retailer is now going to charge its customers in parts of California for shopping bags. No, not the thin plastic ones, but the reusable kind. The standard white plastic reusable bag is going [...]

Ever consider a professional-grade drawing tool on a mobile platform? Well now there’s an app for that thanks to Autodesk, which released a mobile version of its SketchBook Pro painting and drawing software for the Apple iPhone and iTouch devices.
The SketchBook Mobile App, available for $2.99 from the Apple App Store, uses the same drawing [...]

Bosch Rexroth demonstrated electromechanical cylinders and ball rails yesterday that could dramatically cut the energy consumption of motion control systems.
The new products, introduced at the Design & Manufacturing Midwest Show, are part of a company initiative targeting energy efficiency. They employ a combination of technologies – including sealing, reusable shopping bags, energy recovery and energy-on-demand [...]

Wireless, Web-based energy monitoring system sensors that are helping manufacturers cut energy costs are making their debut at engineering shows this year, most recently during this week’s Green Manufacturing Expo being held during Design & Manufacturing Midwest in Rosemont, IL.
Agentis Energy’s Acuity Solution monitors energy consumption by tracking kilowatt hours in real time and reporting [...]

Boston, MA — When Microchip started planning for the 2009 Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) held this week in Boston, it was delighted to find out that attendees could pre-register online for its in-booth educational sessions. Microchip’s game plan was to schedule 10 sessions in its booth, which is designed to accommodate a maximum of 20 [...]