Elsewhere in Turkey, the government has been giving away coal, school textbooks and, as the elections draw near, even fridges and washing-machines to the poor.
Graffiti-splashed Liebigstrasse 14 had ten flats, artists' studios, two washing-machines and 25 tenants who found room in Berlin for a way of life centred on sharing rather than striving.
The company identified 17 products that met its standard of providing "significant and measurable environmental performance advantages, " including a Lexan film that replaces conventional paint, Harmony water-conserving washing machines, the new fuel-efficient GEnx jet engine and GE's Evolution locomotive, a 208-ton, 4, 400hp workhorse that burns 3% less fuel and puts out 40% less pollution than its immediate predecessor.
It is thanks to companies like these that Italy still exports more food-processing machines, washing machines, fridges, shoes and shoe-making machines, ski boots, ceramic tiles, jewels, woollen and silk clothes, radiators and boilers, optical frames and neck-ties than any other country in the world.
Of course, while handset sound design is the team's most famous effort, it's also tasked with producing the audible signals from everything from Microwaves to Washing Machines -- so perhaps your next load of clean laundry will be heralded with a three-minute guitar solo.
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More consumers are also using high-efficiency washing machines, which clean with relatively little detergent.
The company showed off internet-enabled washing machines, refrigerators and ovens at CES. Some of the products will be out on the market later this year, but they will feature only limited versions of consumer-alert systems, said Steinkuhl, LG's product insight manager.
While some Engadget editors struggled to see even half the appeal of those WiFi-connected washing machines at CES 2012, Motorola's Connected Home gateway showed a realistic vision of how a wireless home should work, with its gateway router tying your Android devices to your thermostat, security system and lighting.
Large retailers that have cut their in-store credit costs for items such as fridges and washing machines are reporting a pick-up in sales.
His hand-held vacuums are outfitted with blazing-fast digital motors, his washing machines (no longer in production) with Formula One race-car bearings.
When Whirlpool set up factories to make refrigerators, air-conditioners, washing machines and microwave ovens in China in 1994, it assumed that it was racing against other foreigners.
They also account for 92% and 70% of the benefits of new energy-efficiency standards for washing machines and refrigerators respectively.
Dishwashers, microwaves, non-iron shirts, washing machines, reliable cars, all these things have reduced household production hours by more than the increase in market working hours.
The same will be true for appliances, which he pegs at 10% to 15% dollar growth based on demand for more fashionable and technology-driven refrigerators and washing machines.
In white goods, Merloni (now Indesit), which was set up 30 years ago, has become Europe's third-biggest supplier of fridges, cookers and washing machines.
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Elmarc uses cheap chips from U.S.-based chipmaker Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ) in the components to give washing machines brains.
So far, Nord Stream engineers say the majority of objects that they have found were boulders, ship-wrecks and even a few shopping trolleys and washing machines.
"smart" -- gadgets promoted at this massive technology trade show includes washing machines that send text messages and communicate with smartphones, refrigerators that play music from the internet, and kitchen ovens that download recipes and can essentially teach you to cook.
Whereas Microsoft regularly discontinues support for its out-dated Windows versions, some durable goods like a washing machines may last maybe twenty years beyond the point where the manufacturer is still in business or any cloud services they had will still be running, he said.
Haier is perhaps best known for the story of how, in the mid-1990s, they unexpectedly recognized the use of their washing machines by peasants in Sichuan province to make their fruits and vegetables more attractive for the newly emerging free markets, and then developed softer agitators to deliver on that need.
One executive of a large household-appliance manufacturer in the Midwest told me that customers like his washing machines and dryers.
Closely held Ruba Group of Pakistan and Haier Group, its Chinese joint-venture partner in the plant, have made air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators there for seven years.
While LG was discussing washing machines and other smart appliances, we couldn't take our eyes off the 55-inch OLED display sitting on the side of the stage.
Haier keeps producing new ideas such as fridges with locks on them (to keep dormitory mates from snaffling your tofu), compact washing machines (for clothes for pampered Japanese pets) and freezers with compartments that keep ice-cream soft (for impatient gluttons).
From its base in Qingdao, white-goods manufacturer Haier has become a hugely successful Chinese multinational, hawking fridges, microwaves and washing machines from Auckland to Accra.
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