Sony Unveils Ultrasmall Hybrid Fuel Cell — Tech-On
Sony looks to put fuel cells in gadgets, following a prototype that Sharp demonstrated last week that uses methanol as a fuel.

Canon patents fuel cell-powered cameras — Crave — CNET Asia
Fuel cells are coming to consumer electronics, it seems. Quite a bit of activity on this front in the past week.

New World Record For Efficiency For Solar Cells — ScienceDaily
European researchers boost polysilicon solar cell efficiency from 21.9 to 23.2 percent by adding a layer of aluminum oxide. It’s a significant boost done with an inexpensive material, they say.
Chevy Volt: Traveling Public Roads and Hitting Its Mark — AutoObserver
Chevy Volt goes 40 miles on a battery in test drives in a mule chassis. The plug-in hybrid sports car is due out in 2010.

Administration allies strike against ethanol critics — MarketWatch
A "smear campaign" against ethanol? Secretary of the Agriculture Department says ethanol mandates are needed to diversify the U.S.’s fuel supply. Suspending mandates wouldn’t lower food prices all that much, he says.

Oil Left in the Ground — Technology Review
We have smart grids–why not have "smart oil fields?" Interest in existing oil fields, where as much as 75 percent of the total oil still remains, is growing for geopolitical and economic reasons.

Ecotricity CEO’s Electric Car Is "Not Another Tesla" — TreeHugger
A British wind mogul wants to build a "wind-powered sports
car." Two top requirements are that it’s not "crap" like today’s electric cars, has a range of 150 miles, and goes fast: "naught to 60 in 4 seconds." Here’s a short video clip:

Here’s a sampling of recent
green-tech news:

Reality Check: Consumers Unlikely to Pay Much More for Green — WSJ.com
Climate change will hit our pocket books in the form of higher utility rates. What to do? Efficiency is best option, but after that, opinions seem to split.

Oh, that sneaky Creative! Shipping newly colorful versions of the Zen to Walmart.com and other online retailers before even releasing a whisper of such events to media. No matter–I’m pleased as punch to see the Zen in colors other than black, even if those colors happen to be Pepto pink and race car red. Actually, the red model is kind of hot, but the two together are so Valentine’s Day…and it’s May. Personally, I’d like to see some metallic hues, even just plain ole silver. Or how about a nice, deep shiny purple? That’s a rarity. It’s unclear at the moment whether the new colors will be offered in the full range of capacities. The pink is currently available in 2GB ($69.98), while the red is offered in 4GB ($89.98). For full details, read our review of the Creative Zen.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

To learn more, read my complete take on the Alesis ProTrack over at CNET Reviews.

The Alesis ProTrack iPod recorder.

If you need an iPod-recording accessory with some serious muscle, the Alesis ProTrack ($399 retail, $199 street) is one of the better options available. It’s similar to the Belkin GoStudio we saw last year, and uses a similar configuration of XLR/instrument combo jacks and built-in stereo condenser mics. What the ProTrack has over the competition, though, is higher-quality internal microphones and the capability to work with mics that require phantom power.

The following product is available:

On Sale Now: $169.00 - $399.00
View the latest prices for Alesis ProTrack

Alesis ProTrack photos

Over the years, we’ve seen products like the MicroMemo succeed at turning the iPod into a handy tool for recording voice memos and interviews, but there haven’t been a whole lot of options for making high-quality stereo recordings. Mono mics just won’t cut it if you’re looking to record your kid’s piano recital, or capture the sounds of a Hawaiian vacation to play back during tax season.

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Shoeboxed)

The site launched in July of last year, and this morning it is unveiling two new useful features. The first is a new analytics engine that will break down your spending habits with svelte-looking charts and graphs. What makes this particularly useful is that it can track both your on and offline purchases, which is shown in one of the new graphs.

Mint.com, which also does this (sans the paper receipt scanning) can be incredibly useful in this regard, but it goes the extra mile by tapping in to your credit card and bank account information to itemize these purchases for you. Shoeboxed’s solution is slightly more low tech, with a special e-mail address you can CC to get your payment confirmation sent from online retailers. It will automatically figure in those payments and add them into your total spending.

Also new today is an envelope-tracking system that will keep a history of all your sent and received receipt envelopes alongside a live status indicator that gives you the heads-up on when a new envelope has been sent out. If you’re a user of Netflix or any other shipper of goods this tends to be more important, but in Shoeboxed’s case it’s a nice touch if you want to make sure someone didn’t steal the envelope full of financial goodness from your mailbox.

Shoeboxed has a free service where you plug in all the information. The plans that will scan your receipts and actually send them back start at $10 a month, all the way up to the $60 express plan, which guarantees same-day scanning and processing.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

It appears that the poor performance of the
PlayStation 3 may have claimed another victim among Sony’s top brass.

Sony announced early Monday that Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios–and therefore the head of the PlayStation group–would be stepping down February 29.

No specific reason was given for Harrison’s departure. Kazuo Hirai, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment International, plans to assume Harrison’s position.

One can assume that Harrison may well be the latest head to roll in the wake of the poor performance of the PlayStation 3–the next-generation video game console that launched with gigantic expectations but has wallowed in third place, trailing Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

The April departure of Ken Kutaragi, the so-called “father” of the PlayStation, was widely assumed to be a result of the PS3’s poor sales.

Via will provide the central processing unit and motherboard, plus the core logic (chipset) solution, while Nvidia will provide the graphics processing unit, said Drew Henry, general manager of Nvidia’s platform products division.

Nvidia will offer standalone “discrete” graphics for both notebook and desktop platforms using the Isaiah chip, Henry said.

“We are participating in the launch. We wish to work with them in demonstrating any number of different visual computing applications,” Henry added.

Isaiah is Via’s first high-performance x86 chip and is targeted at the mainstream PC market–another first for the Taipei-based chip supplier. Via processors have historically appeared in ultra-small mobile devices (such as the OQO), embedded computers, or thin-client computers.

“Their solution is better than (Intel’s) Atom solution because (Isaiah) is a newer technology,” Henry said.

One of the main differences between Isaiah and Atom is that Intel’s chip uses a more simple “in-order execution” design, compared with Isaiah’s Superscalar, out-of-order design.

Because of this more sophisticated design, Isaiah may deliver higher performance than Atom under certain processing loads. But Isaiah may also compete with Intel’s higher end Core 2 solo (single processor) and Celeron lines. In this case, it may not have a performance advantage.

A good way to dress one up, or turn those old pizza boxes into holiday gift baskets is to head over to iStockPack. It’s an Instructables-like community that’s filled with various projects to put together anything from a cigar box to a cardboard cookie jar using nothing more than materials you may have laying around the house.

Users can submit their own designs with instructions, which go into one of 19 categories. Each item tells you what materials you’ll need, and how difficult it is. Users can also chime in by reviewing each creation and adding their own tips.

The number of designs on the site right now is pretty light, but assuming more are added, budding entrepreneurs will soon have a place to find fast, simple packaging on the cheap.

[via Delicious]

Build anything with community designs that can be printed out and put together with household materials.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

“We had dreams that computers would improve education and improve communication and help us achieve a lot of tasks. A lot of us in our group understood it,” Woz told the crowd. “What we were doing was not (figuring out) how build a computer. It was how you get a computer that fits into the home. Price, looks–a lot of that stuff. It gave us more passion. We used the word ‘revolution’ all over the place.

“The rewards are in your head.”

As a person that loves technology and has dedicated his life to the covering, opining about, and using it, I hope Wozniak’s words inspire not just engineers, but companies that are looking to do special things. I hope that what Wozniak says so eloquently will resonate in the offices of Dell or the garages of companies we’ve never heard of before.

I hope that innovation, that simple premise that we see so little of today, will lead this industry forward and become the cornerstone of its development from now on.

When it comes time to evaluate major companies, only Apple and Nintendo seem to understand innovation. Both companies have strayed from the status quo and went their own way in hopes of doing something bigger and better. And both companies have succeeded.

But for most other companies in the tech industry, innovation is either too costly or too unknown for them to move off the beaten path. More often than not, these companies let competitors innovate and use that technology to either mimic or slightly improve that original product.

Set-top boxes are one of the worst culprits in the space. How many set-top boxes do we need before someone finally tells companies to stop? I understand streaming music and content throughout the home may be the future and people want to take content on their computer to their HDTVs, but can’t we see something a bit different? Can’t we see a company try to innovate off that idea and give us a product that deviates from the norm and doesn’t copy every other device in the space?

I realize that sometimes components govern the success of a product and that it’s not always easy to innovate. But I think we’ve moved beyond the realm of excuses and most companies are more than willing to justify the release of products through the “trends in the industry.”

What a joke. All that means is other products have been successful, so other companies think they can be too. Newsflash: that rarely happens.

The reality is this: the tech industry is dominated by companies that are willing to do something a bit more innovative and a bit more thoughtful of consumer desire. How many people are really buying that extra DVD player at Wal-Mart? How many people really want that run-of-the-mill home theater system or that ugly desktop that doesn’t break the mold in any way? The list goes on.

As someone who literally immerses himself in the world of technology each day, I have the opportunity to see and use products that companies are trying desperately to promote. And almost each day, I’m disappointed by what I see: the same basic premise for the given market with nary a consideration for what consumers are really looking for.

I understand business and I realize that companies have a vested interest in jumping in on the right markets and need to differentiate based on price or product. But I simply can’t understand why more won’t try to differentiate on product in a meaningful way.

Isn’t it ironic that when an innovative device is released like the Slingbox or a Harmony Universal Remote, the tech press and tech lovers themselves all swoon? Not at all. We swoon because we see something in those devices that don’t do what other products do. We swoon because we love this industry and we want to see it move forward and stop sitting in the mud hoping something will get it out. We swoon because those products are innovative and they do something most competitors don’t: they fail to toe the industry line and don’t put cash and revenue projections before risk and tangible reward.

So here’s my call to every tech company and tech lover who has had enough of derivative products and boring ideas: start making products that are both innovative and unique, useful and affordable. Start making products that appeal to our desire for something new. And for goodness sake, start making products that buck the current trend. Only then will companies see real rewards and only then will they be able to maintain the kind of position Apple and Nintendo currently do.

Check out Don’s Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.

Correction 7:45 a.m. PST: I got the sensor bar and the Wiimote’s duties mixed up. Names notwithstanding, the sensor bar has the infrared LEDs, and the Wiimote actually has the cameras that detect the signals.

I support the hardware-hacking philosophy on principle, but most of the movement’s labors have left me uninspired. That all changed when I started seeing the uses that Carnegie Mellon researcher Johnny Chung Lee has found for the
Nintendo Wii’s infrared remote control.

In a collection of videos, notable for their lucid explanations, the Ph.D. graduate student from CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute shows exactly how versatile the “Wiimote” system can be. Among the uses he convincingly demonstrates: a virtual-reality head tracker; a virtual whiteboard on a wall, tabletop, and laptop screen; and a Minority Report-style arm-waving and finger-pointing multitouch user interface.

The Nintendo game device includes a bar-shaped device, ordinarily placed atop a TV screen, with two LEDs, or light-emitting diodes. It emits infrared light that the Wiimote can detect within a 45-degree field of view. Lee uses a computer to process data from those components and dramatically expand their utility.

By attaching the sensor bar to his head and the Wiimote to a TV, he was able to construct a system that knows where his head is located. That information is then fed into an algorithm that changes the perspective of an image on a monitor. The result is a very convincing 3D feel that looks like it would be a great fit for video games.

The whiteboard application relies on use of a pen with an infrared LED in its tip. After a quick calibration–the subject of Lee’s thesis–a computer can track where Lee is “drawing” on a wall, tabletop, and laptop screen.

Perhaps the most mainstream potential comes with Lee’s Wiimote-based multitouch user interface.

Lee attaches small reflectors to his fingertips, which the sensor bar can track. The result is a user interface that can respond to gestures such as pinching and swiping. And by tracking four points, it enables the “multitouch” abilities that are all the rage with Apple’s iPhone and MacBook Air as well as the Microsoft Surface “Milan” project.

Lee’s open-source work has traveled beyond his own domain. Cynergy Labs’ Maestro project shows the Wiimote-based multitouch system in action. And his work has spawned a discussion site called Wiimote Project.

Lee also is notable for another practical design, a poor man’s steadycam.

]]> http://www.matsoccumbria.org/index.php/2010/08/21/engineer-unlocks-wiis-hidden-potential/feed/ http://www.matsoccumbria.org/index.php/2010/08/21/yahoo-earnings-live-blog/ http://www.matsoccumbria.org/index.php/2010/08/21/yahoo-earnings-live-blog/#comments Sat, 21 Aug 2010 08:36:01 +0000 admin http://www.matsoccumbria.org/?p=271 Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang

(Credit:
Dan Farber/CNET Networks)

The following is a record of a live report of Yahoo’s conference call with financial analysts discussing the company’s first-quarter results.

2:01 p.m. PDT: The call is getting started. For background, here’s a link to Yahoo’s financial results for the first quarter of 2008. To recap, Yahoo’s net income was essentially flat, excluding a gain from its stake in business-to-business site Alibaba, but revenue excluding commissions paid to partners rose 14 percent to $1.532 billion.

2:02 p.m.: It’s starting.

2:07 p.m.: Chief Executive Jerry Yang: “We are very proud of our first-quarter results…We are raising our cash flow guidance for the year.”

2:09 p.m.: Yang adds, Yahoo’s results “are all the more remarkable when you consider the environment and the uncertainty resulting from Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal.”

2:11 p.m.: Nothing much new on Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Yahoo: “The board’s decision to reject a proposal was based on our business and our plans,” Yang said. “Our board and management team continue to be open to any and all alternatives,” including a deal with Microsoft. The company is “exploring a number of strategic alternatives.”

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Yahoo)

2:15 p.m.: There are uncertainties from the overall economy, but like Eric Schmidt at Google, Yahoo was bullish: “We have a diverse advertiser base and expect ad budgets will continue to move online. Targeting continues to get more attractive during (economic) softness.

“We are rapidly building out and differentiating our advertising network,” Yang said. The company is adding to capabilities in video, mobile, search, and display ads.

Yahoo President Susan Decker

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Yahoo)

2:18 p.m.: President Sue Decker said search has improved, including relevance scores that show how well ads match what searchers are looking for. “We’ve come from behind and closed the relevancy gap,” she said. Citing various statistics, she added, “These are the most material gains in key numerical indicators…since five years ago.”

2:19 p.m.: Yahoo stock is down 19 cents to $28.35 in after-hours trading.

2:23 p.m.: Video is getting more important. The launch of Flickr video earlier this month already “quadrupled video uploads by users across the entire Yahoo network,” Decker said.

2:24 p.m.: Decker says Yahoo will be getting more personal: “Soon we’ll begin testing content optimization capabilities on the home page.”

2:30 p.m.: Lots of happy talk about display ads. Yang: “While we believe in search, our largest opportunity is in display. We have positioned ourselves to gain share in this huge opportunity.” Decker: Yahoo is “on the verge of fundamentally changing the game” in the display-ad business.

2:32 p.m.: Decker has sweeping words for the company’s position. “We are innovating more rapidly and effectively, delivering on our roadmap, expanding our partnerships, and receiving positive customer reviews.”

2:39 p.m.: CFO Blake Jorgensen says the overall ad market in the first quarter was strong among advertisers in the automotive and consumer packaged goods areas. But there was “some softening” in finance, travel, and retail. And of online advertising in general, he said: “Advertisers’ budgets may fall, but we believe the return on investment of online ads compared to other media may cushion the impact on our industry.”

Yahoo CFO Blake Jorgensen

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Yahoo)

2:42 p.m.: Jorgensen: Yahoo’s headcount dropped from 14,300 at the end of last year to 13,800. That includes 600 new hires, offset by the company’s layoff.

2:49 p.m: Traffic acquisition costs (TAC)–the commission rates Yahoo pays to partners that host Yahoo ads–are up 4 percent because the company has to compete, Jorgensen said. “There is still upward pressure on TAC rates and (what we) pay partners as the competitive dynamics get more difficult,” he said.

2:50 p.m.: Decker said things are doing well on user clicks on ads. “We’re very pleased where we stand on click yield,” which is ad coverage times click-through rate.

2:52 p.m.:
Variable minimum bids have launched with a limited number of search keywords in the U.S. “We’ll be rolling it out to larger markets outside the U.S. later this year and to emerging markets most likely next year,” Decker said.

2:59 p.m.: The advertising weakness among finance, travel, and retail advertisers has meant slower growth or “modest declines,” Decker said. The relative weakness hit both display and search ads. On the flip side, both types also stand to gain from online advantages, she said: “There are strong return-on-investment components that are very measurable in both search and display.” In other words, advertisers can measure bang for their buck.

3:02 p.m.: “We did see very strong growth in paid clicks in the U.S. vs. the market,” Decker said. Paid clicks are a very important measurement for search ads, both in terms of relevance and as a way to actually generate revenue.

3:04 p.m.: Asked if advertisers were spooked by the Microsoft offer, Yang said it was a relatively minor point. “We are watching the economy a lot more than the Microsoft uncertainty. It’s hard to say (there was) any impact.”

3:05 p.m.: Yang bids everybody adieu without any closing arguments or discussing the various elephants in the room–stay tuned for further thoughts on that point. So we’ll close by mixing two of his earlier metaphors: “Our results this quarter demonstrate we are on the right track. We are pursuing the right strategy and it’s beginning to bear fruit.”