Japanese electronics bigwigs team up for U.S. smart grid
A dozen well-known Japanese electronic companies — Toshiba and Hitachi prime among them — have announced that they are teaming up to build a working smart grid in the U.S. by 2010. Construction will begin as soon as October as part of a New Mexico pilot program of 1,000 households.
Spearheaded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan’s public research and development organization for environmental technologies, the smart grid initiative will be… Continue Reading
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
CES overview: trends for this year’s technology
I’ve talked about the regrettable 3-D TV trend at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in a separate post. But I spotted some other trends among the 2,700 exhibitors at the show as well.
Gesture control and multi-touch screens: Part and parcel of good industrial hardware design is a good user interface to go with it. Now, the mouse, keyboard, and remote control are about to give way to touch-based user interfaces or gesture… Continue Reading
CES: Does the future of TV lie in gesture-based control?
Gesture recognition is one of the most exciting new technologies at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week. A variety of companies — inspired by the Nintendo Wii’s gesture control and the iPhone’s multi-touch screen — developing new ways to interact with gadgets. Hand, arm or finger gestures — like waving your arms around in circles to make something happen on the screen — are being used in everything from phones to game consoles.
TV is… Continue Reading
Roundup: iPhone smartphone share continues climb, Digg is not for sale (right now) and more
Here’s the latest action:
The iPhone keeps smartphone sales afloat — “Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace, and let’s see…what’s the expression? Let’s see how the competition goes.” That was Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer in January 2007. The iPhone now accounts for 16.6 percent of the smartphone… Continue Reading
Get ready for wireless HD video…maybe
I complain quite often about needing too many set top boxes to make the ultimate living room entertainment center. Really though, it’s not the boxes themselves that drive me crazy as much as its their wires. While wireless power may still be a ways off, a step has been taken towards wireless connections with the television.
Sony, Samsung, Motorola, Sharp and Hitachi are joining together to work with an Israeli company, Amimon Ltd., to make a… Continue Reading
Roundup: Murdoch closer on WSJ, Scoop Bar, Wikia-Grub, Hitachi and more
Here’s the latest action:
Murdoch appears to have enough Bancroft family support for purchase –The jury is still officially out, but the NYT is saying it looks like Dow Jones and its jewel, the Wall Street Journal, will indeed to go to Murdoch’s News Corp.
Hakia’s Scoop Bar — Hakia, one of the new search engines trying to take on Google by using “semantic” technology, has released a so-called Scoop Bar, which takes you more directly to the text… Continue Reading