South Dakota

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released their third annual state energy efficiency scorecard yesterday and the most energy efficient state was, no surprise, California, while Wyoming was ranked dead last.

There is a lot of potential energy to be gathered from the high plains of the upper midwest United States. A look at the United States Department of Energy's 50-Meter Wind Resource Map shows much of the Dakotas and Nebraska to have desirable wind power resource potential.

AT&T Inc. said Friday it will buy the assets of Verizon Wireless in 79 mainly rural areas for $2.35 billion, a deal that will affect more than 1 million subscribers.

Verizon Wireless was forced to sell the service areas, which are spread over 18 states, to satisfy regulatory conditions of its purchase of Alltel Corp. The areas are mainly Alltel territories that overlap with Verizon's own coverage, but also some Verizon territories and areas covered by Rural Cellular, another carrier Verizon bought last year.

Canon USA has taken the wraps off its new entry-level digital SLR camera, which integrates a 15.1-megapixel image sensor with high-definition video recording.

The EOS Rebel T1i offers users two different ways to capture high-definition video with a 16:9 aspect ratio: At 30 frames per second for 720p video clips, or 20 fps when recording video at full resolution 1080p (1920x1080 pixels). Additionally, users can elect to shoot standard-definition video with a 4:3 aspect ratio at 30 fps.

The Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux are partnering with Boston energy organization Citizens Wind to develop a 120-MW wind farm on their land in South Dakota.

Trendy California isn't a trendsetter when it comes to relying on cell phones. And while the 1987 movie "Wall Street" helped introduce the then-brick-sized mobile phone to popular culture, New York and other Northeast states lag in dropping landlines. Surprisingly, Oklahoma and Utah lead in going wireless, according to federal estimates released Wednesday.

The Justice Department on Thursday effectively gave Verizon Wireless the go-ahead to buy Alltel Corp. in a $28 billion deal that would create the nation's largest wireless carrier.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain's Vodafone Group PLC, already has agreed to the government's condition that it sell assets in 22 states.

"We're pleased that the Department of Justice has granted approval," said Robin Nicol, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman. "It's another step in the right direction."

AT&T announced Tuesday the latest addition to its IP-based U-verse system, dubbed Total Home DVR. The DVR lets customers view recorded content on up to eight attached TVs simultaneously.

Eight Up-Manship

With all sorts of stories coming out about biggests and firsts, we at EcoGeek figure it’s about time to take the pulse of wind power generation and find out just where the industry stands on giant wind projects.

Canon is adding another model to its entry-level D-SLR series -- the EOS 1000D/Rebel XS, whose release has been rumored on various technology blogs.

The new camera, announced Monday, includes a few improvements over the EOS Rebel XT, which it replaces, such as a 2.5-inch CMOS LCD, an increase to 10.1 megapixels, and the Live View feature. Live View enables a user to shoot through the LCD screen rather than through an optical viewfinder.

Seven-Point Autofocus System