Roundup: Stock market drops, Microsoft retreats, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Tech stocks lead market to new lows — The thing about a downturn is it can always get worse. The Dow and S&P both hit 11-year lows on Monday, with the tech-driven NASDAQ’s 3.7 percent decline outpacing 3.4 percent drops in the blue chip averages.
Microsoft retreats on severance repayment demands — The software giant had initially asked laid off workers to return money that was in excess of planned severance payments, but backed off… Continue Reading
PowerMeter: Proof positive Google wants to run your life
Joining Google’s Android, Calendar, Docs, Mail, Maps, Reader and a few dozen other products today is a new application, PowerMeter. It’s not launched yet, but when it is, it’ll help you keep track of your home power usage by tapping into information sent from your devices to your electrical meter, and from there on to the “smart grid”.
What Google is showing of PowerMeter looks a bit like a line graph, with the X-axis representing time… Continue Reading
Google gives $200,000 to plug-in hybrid car group
Google’s for-profit foundation Google.org has given a $200,000 grant to CalCars.org, a group that advocates the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric cars.
Plug-in hybrids are cars you can plug into an electricity outlet to recharge their batteries, and national automakers have been slow to develop them. PG&E and GM plan to enter the market over the next couple of years.
CalCars’ Felix Kramer (left) is the guy you’ll see driving a car around Palo Alto, Calif. that… Continue Reading