Posts Tagged ‘GreenBeat’
Week in review: BlueGlass challenges Demand Media with new publishing tool
Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
— Online marketing company BlueGlass Interactive has released a content creation tool for publishers that it hopes will put it in direct competition with powerhouse content provider Demand Media — minus the negativity that Demand has attracted because of accusations that it runs “content mills.”
— Kik, a new chat application for smartphones that is quicker and more social than SMS, is showing impressive viral uptake. And its growth appears to be accelerating.
— The country has long been divided about whether violent video games should be formally regulated. Now the U.S. Supreme Court is planning to weigh in on the matter, and oral arguments were held last Tuesday.
— VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi praises Apple’s new laptop as sitting “right at this intersection of work and play.”
— Back in August, rumors of a PlayStation Phone leaked out. Now the Engadget tech blog has a photo of the device and some of its specifications.
And here are five more articles we think are important, thought-provoking, fun, or all of the above:
— Perhaps this week’s California elections should be a lesson for executives at big tech companies.
— After Facebook confirmed Wednesday that it’s launching a deal service that businesses can use to lure in customers, I spoke to the company’s executives about how the feature might pay off.
— There’s been a spate of bad news for cleantech investing lately. VentureBeat’s Iris Kuo discusses why.
— Mobile browser developer SkyFire has seemingly done the impossible by getting its Flash video-capable web browser approved for Apple’s App Store.
— Utility companies aren’t willing to innovate and develop smarter power grids because it simply isn’t cost-effective most of the time, a number of cleantech leaders said at our GreenBeat 2010 conference.
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Week in review: BlueGlass challenges Demand Media with new publishing tool
Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
— Online marketing company BlueGlass Interactive has released a content creation tool for publishers that it hopes will put it in direct competition with powerhouse content provider Demand Media — minus the negativity that Demand has attracted because of accusations that it runs “content mills.”
— Kik, a new chat application for smartphones that is quicker and more social than SMS, is showing impressive viral uptake. And its growth appears to be accelerating.
— The country has long been divided about whether violent video games should be formally regulated. Now the U.S. Supreme Court is planning to weigh in on the matter, and oral arguments were held last Tuesday.
— VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi praises Apple’s new laptop as sitting “right at this intersection of work and play.”
— Back in August, rumors of a PlayStation Phone leaked out. Now the Engadget tech blog has a photo of the device and some of its specifications.
And here are five more articles we think are important, thought-provoking, fun, or all of the above:
— Perhaps this week’s California elections should be a lesson for executives at big tech companies.
— After Facebook confirmed Wednesday that it’s launching a deal service that businesses can use to lure in customers, I spoke to the company’s executives about how the feature might pay off.
— There’s been a spate of bad news for cleantech investing lately. VentureBeat’s Iris Kuo discusses why.
— Mobile browser developer SkyFire has seemingly done the impossible by getting its Flash video-capable web browser approved for Apple’s App Store.
— Utility companies aren’t willing to innovate and develop smarter power grids because it simply isn’t cost-effective most of the time, a number of cleantech leaders said at our GreenBeat 2010 conference.
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On the GreenBeat: China beats U.S. in cleantech investment, BrightSource IPO projected within 3 years
Here’s a list of cleantech news we’re tracking today:
China has become the top country for cleantech investment, outstripping the U.S., . China’s renewable energy investment dollars outdoes the U.S. nearly two to one, Green Chip Stocks reports, and installed wind power capcity in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest in three years. Germany, India, the U.K., Portugal and Spain also topped the list. Read the full report .
Large-scale solar plant builder BrightSource could go public within three years, , citing a report from Next Up research. (The report isn’t available online.) The story notes that an IPO would still be a few years off, thanks to the reluctance of venture capitalists to invest in solar — one example being Solyndra’s axed public offering plans. But BrightSource seems to be headed in the IPO direction: it recently won a federal loan guarantee and .
, with GM reportedly proffering $3.2 million of that total. Sakti3 is working on a smaller, cheaper lithium-ion battery that could extend the range of electric vehicles currently on the market. A GM spokeswoman says it’s years away from commercialization, but the technology could eventually wind up in GM’s trucks and cars.
Come launch time in December, thanks to sweeter state rebate policies – states like California and Tennessee are giving Leaf buyers additional incentives, but shutting out the Volt. We’ve reported before that the from the state of California, which wouldn’t extend single drivers of the Volt access to the HOV lane (though that perk was granted to Prius owners), and also won’t give it the $5,000 rebate it’s giving the Nissan Leaf, since the Volt will have tailpipe emissions (the gas tank kicks in after the electric battery’s 40-mile range runs out), whereas the Leaf is all-electric.
Fire and ice: SunPower and Ice Energy will to build a pilot energy storage project, . The system will use SunPower’s rooftop solar panels to generate power. When the sun wanes, Ice Energy’s ice-based storage system will take over, using power stored from the day to cool the building and cutting peak-time energy costs.
Audi may have blundered in naming its electric cars e-Tron – the French word, étron, essentially means “dung,” . If that’s the case, then it’s even more unfortunate that e-Tron is slated to present at the Paris Motor Show next month.
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GM, Itochu charge up battery-maker Sakti3 with $4.2 million
GM Ventures, the venture-capital arm of General Motors, announced today it has teamed up with Itochu Technology Ventures to invest $4.2 million into Sakti3, a lithium-ion battery developer.
Sakti3, a spin-off from the University of Michigan, is working on battery cells that could be smaller, cheaper and more effective than what’s currently on the market – potentially resulting in batteries that could extend its range of electric cars. The company’s technology uses solids instead of the standard liquid electrolyte and electrodes.
“The technology will eventually make it into GM batteries/vehicles, but it’s years away from commercial applications,” said GM spokeswoman Allison Ackels. “When the technology becomes commercially viable, it could be in future GM cars and trucks.”
GM, which it set to release the Chevrolet Volt electric hybrid later this year, .
The reborn General Motors opened its venture-capital branch . With its backing and that of Japanese conglomerate Itochu (which recently invested in video platform and game startup ), Sakti3 should be able to speed the commercialization of its batteries.
This is the second announcement from GM Ventures, which said last month it would , which makes a hybrid van.
Range and the reliability of batteries are big question marks in the electric car market. While consumers have tax incentives to purchase an electric car – the Nissan , sedan and Volt all debut at the end of this year – questions remain about the range of these cars and the reliability of the batteries, which are expensive to replace. The Leaf, for example, goes about 100 miles on a single charge, but .
It’s also not clear how long the batteries last, though Nissan and Chevrolet both extended an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty to the Leaf and Volt, respectively.
Sakti3 is led by Ann Marie Sastry (pictured above, with a Volt), a University of Michigan professor in the New York Times. Sakti3’s investors include Khosla and Beringea.
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On the GreenBeat: Unilever invests in Solazyme, Frito-Lay
Unilever joined biofuel company Solazyme’s fourth round of financing as a strategic investor, Solazyme announced yesterday. The companies already share an R&D agreement: Solazyme’s oils are already used in Unilever’s Lux soap, with the plans to incorporate more renewable oils into its personal care products, such as . Solazyme , with Chevron Technology Ventures and agribusiness leader Bunge included among its backers. It also .
in New York City, made by Smith Electric Vehicles. The trucks have a range of up to 100 miles on a single charge, and the snack maker has committed to make its considerable fleet (the seventh largest in the nation) “what will ultimately be the largest fleet of commercial electric trucks in North America.” The company said it will , 21 of which will hit the roads across the U.S. by year-end. , which specializes in all-electric commercial cars, earlier this year.
Echelon – and has already bagged its first customer, Duke Energy, which for its ECN 7000 series of grid hardware . The company’s Echelon Control System platform focuses on , which is the process of developing controls and sensing throughout the grid. CNET explains the technology further . Also notable is that the platform is open – no licensing restrictions to prevent third-party developers to create applications for it. GigaOm observed that from industry heavyweights such as Siemens and Cisco, and startups like .
The Department of Energy awarded $58.5 million in renewable energy grants this week, with . Earlier this week, it , with $12 million going to biofuel development, and allocated , underscoring the in the push to switch the nation over to clean energy.
In other electric car news, Mitsuibishi is planning a revamp of the U.S. version of its Miev after a poor showing in the U.K., which included , particularly in cold weather. Nissan announced plans to . And . The Korean carmaker will put 30 of BlueOns with local government agencies for a pilot program starting in October, and said it will produce 2,500 cars for public purchase by 2012.
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Week in review: Hacker intercepts phone calls, Facebook buys 18 patents
Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories published in the last seven days:
— A security researcher showed in a live demo at the Defcon security conference how he can intercept cell phone calls with just about $1,500 worth of equipment.
— PlayOn, the service that allows you to view streaming media from the Web and PCs on a variety of devices, finally made it to the iPhone.
— The moment many intrepid iPhone 4 owners have been waiting for is here: The iPhone Dev Team has released a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 via their JailbreakMe 2.0 tool — and this time around, users can perform the hack right on their device.
— It wouldn’t be that hard for North Korea to build a cyber army to take on the U.S. in a war fought only in cyberspace. That’s the assessment by Charlie Miller, a veteran computer security tester whose accomplishments include hacking Apple’s operating system and the iPhone.
— Garry Pejski’s tale is a cautionary one for young hackers, and it offers a rare glimpse inside the shadowy world of spyware, a massive underground industry that dances on the edge of legality.
And here are five more articles we think are important, thought-provoking, or fun:
— Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is already the undisputed king of social networks, but now he has one more prize: 18 key patents related to social networks, quietly purchased this summer from the industry’s faded pioneer, Friendster.
— As predicted, Tesla Motors posted higher losses for the second quarter during its earnings announcement this week — its first as a public company.
6 — We knew that BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion was going to announce something big at its joint AT&T event Tuesday, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
— Google announced Friday that it has acquired Slide, the social application maker headed by PayPal cofounder Max Levchin, confirming reports from earlier this week.
— At the San Francisco Best Buy store, Shopkick founder and chief executive Cyriac Roeding unveiled the company’s free iPhone app that rewards users for visiting partner retailers.
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Vator Splash event on May 13 (VB discount included)
Vator.tv, a place where innovators and entrepreneurs can broadcast their news and showcase their businesses, is holding its second Vator Splash event this year.
The evening event takes place on May 13, 2010 at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco.
CEOs and/or founders of 10 companies, chosen by their peers and vetted by judges will have the opportunity to present onstage and give a three-minute pitch in front of some 400 business professionals, comprised of industry peers, VCs, and media. Want to present onstage? and join other onstage presenters, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, gWallet CEO Gurbaksh Chahal, Founders Fund VC Dave McClure, August Capital VC Howard Hartenbaum, Lightspeed VC Jeremy Liew, Mayfield VC Raj Kapoor, Robert Scoble, and others.
Buy your 25% discount ticket today using the code “VatorVentureBeat” .