Daily Dispatch: Airnergy converts Wi-Fi into electricity; Android on your microwave

Combing through hundreds of blog posts and news articles daily, Dirk Klingner, our technology-trend watcher, sifts through the noise to bring you the tech news most important to consumers. If you have a tip on a story you want to share, leave a comment below.

...This little box has, inside it, some kind of circuitry that harvests WiFi energy out of the air and converts it into electricity. This has been done before, but the Airnergy is able to harvest electricity with a high enough efficiency to make it practically useful: on the CES floor, they were able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% to full in about 90 minutes, using nothing but ambient WiFi signals as a power source.

Do You Really Need a Microwave or a Washer-Dryer Running Android? (Gizmodo)

...Made by Touch Revolution, the NIM1000 module will be demonstrated at CES in these appliances and gadgets, showing what features they can get. The washer dryer has slide touch-screen controls, stain guides, and a way to interpret the extraterrestrial symbols that come printed in clothe's labels.

Android photo backup app reveals burglars' identities, stupidity (Engadget)

...So, in the midst of testing out their ill-gotten loot, the criminals provided the phone's legitimate owner with enough visual clues for the police to swoop in and apprehend one of them.

Visual Timeline – The Most Iconic Electronic Gadgets of all Time (Digital Inspiration)

Here's a visual timeline of the 25 most successful gadgets and technologies in the consumer electronics space beginning with the Pong, the first commercially successful arcade video game, to the rumored Apple Tablet that is expected later this month.

Lighter side: Speed Painting Photo Realism (ChrisScalf)

...Freehand drawn in photoshop cs2 (from a reference photo off to the side) with a wacom tablet. time-lapsed... real time was about 3 and a half hours.