Category: Tech news

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it will award up to $122 million to create a Fuels form Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub led by the California Institute of Technology. The Hub’s goal is to develop ways to convert solar energy into chemical fuels and scale the technology for commercial use.

The project is in part inspired by the way plants produce energy, and will use artificial photosynthesis to turn sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into clean fuel. Researchers will be charged with finding ways to use technologies like light absorbers, catalysts, molecular linkers and separation membranes to transform sunlight into fuel, and the DOE aims to quickly turn the research into a viable product in the form of fuel that can go directly into cars without any additional processing.

Artificial photosynthesis is not a new technology, and researchers at MIT and the University of Rochester have been seeking solutions for some time. The DOE hopes the Hub will spark collaborations to make more progress in the field.

The Hub will have two locations: One on CalTech’s campus in Pasadena and one at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley. Several other California universities will participate as well, including UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and UC San Diego. Funding will be provided over five years, with $22 million awarded this year and up to $25 million per year thereafter.

Photo via Flickr by Jennifer Boyer

With their Chrome web browser, Google has always been obsessed with speed. And now they’re speeding up another aspect of it: how often stable builds are released. The goal now is to release a new stable version of the browser every six weeks — about twice as fast as they currently do, Google says. In other words, get ready for Chrome 6, 7, 8, and 9 coming soon.

So why is Google doing this? Because they’re creating new features so quickly and they want to make sure all users get them as fast as possible. These quick iterations also will allow Google to have more firmly set schedules for Chrome. And as a result, project managers will be able to set realistic goals for amount of work that can be done by a certain time.

But the most important thing that Google highlights may be the easing of pressure off of their engineering team. Under the old, longer release model, engineers would be pressured into trying to finish new features before a deadline or risk having them cut and not showing up for months. With the new release schedule, even if something isn’t ready to go in one release, it will only be six weeks until it makes the next one.

Google is also trying to downplay the rapid iteration of versions that will be coming:

Since we are going to continue to increment our major versions with every new release (i.e. 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0) those numbers will start to move a little faster than before. Please don’t read too much into the pace of version number changes – they just mean we are moving through release cycles and we are geared up to get fresher releases into your hands!

Google does not that this six week cycle is “running under ideal conditions,” so it’s possible it may slip from time to time. Still, it’s pretty exciting how fast they’ll be iterating now. And even if the version numbers don’t mean much, the other browsers are going to have to make sure their users know that, or it may look like Chrome is running laps around them.

The Antennagate press conference won’t soon be forgotten. Good or bad, it’s now part of Apple’s history and will probably be remembered as the time Steve Jobs side-stepped an issue and instead pointed the finger at everyone else. No matter. College Humor put together a short video of what they think the press conference would have been like if Steve Jobs would have spoken his mind instead of trying to spin the situation. The best line? Oh, they’re all good especially the one about Gizmodo. Click through for the slightly-NSFW two-minute video.

Microsoft has just reported its earnings for Q4 2010 (their fiscal calendar is a bit odd). Given Apple’s blockbuster quarter announced on Tuesday, there was a lot of talk that Apple would surpass Microsoft in revenue for the first time in recent history. That hasn’t happened. Instead, Microsoft had its best Q4 ever with $16.04 billion in revenue (Apple had $15.7 billion in revenue last quarter).

Microsoft easily beat Wall Street estimates that they would see about $15.3 billion in revenues. Microsoft largely credits strong sales within enterprise of Windows 7 and Office 2010. Net income was also strong at $4.52 billion. And earnings per share were at $0.51. Both of those beat Wall Street estimates as well.

Microsoft says it has sold over 175 million Windows 7 licenses to date so far. They also tout the fact that Bing has achieved its 13th straight month of market share gain.

Since this was Microsoft’s fiscal Q4, they reported revenue of $62.48 billion for the year — a 7 percent increase from the 2009 fiscal year. Operating income, net income, and earnings per share were all up significantly higher at 18 percent, 29 percent, and 30 percent, respectively. The 29 percent jump in net income (up to $18.76 billion) is particularly impressive.

Investors, meanwhile, are giving Microsoft’s earnings more of a “meh.” So far in after-hours trading, the stock is down two cents (.08 percent). During the day today, the stock rose almost 3 percent ahead of earnings.

While some were predicting Microsoft revenues to fall behind Apple’s (though, for the record, I wasn’t), there was never a question that Microsoft would retain a big lead in income. As they’re primarily a software and enterprise company, Microsoft’s margins remain massive. Their $4.52 billion in net income easily beat Apple’s $3.25 billion.

That being said, it seems quite likely that next quarter Apple will surpass Microsoft in revenue. Assuming that iPhone 4 sales are huge and that the iPad continues to grow, Apple’s momentum in revenue is simply too great for Microsoft to keep up with. Apple may or may not hit $20 billion in revenues next quarter (they’re projecting $18 billion, but they always low-ball that number so they can beat it).

This past May, much was made of Apple passing Microsoft in market cap for the first time — giving Apple the title of most valuable tech company. That distinction is more ceremonial than anything else, however. But when Apple passes Microsoft in revenue, that will be significant. As I said, it will be more difficult for Apple to catch Microsoft in income because of Microsoft’s software margins (whereas Apple primarily makes money on hardware, which offer smaller margins, even though Apple’s are the best in the business). But the gap is closing there as well.

Perhaps you recall back in June when Apple CEO Steve Jobs laid the smack down on mobile analytics firm Flurry. He noted they were “pissing us off” because they were collecting device data about Apple’s products. Specifically, Jobs obviously cared because it uncovered some as-yet-unannounced Apple products. A change Apple made to their developer agreements then made this illegal. And that’s where MixPanel saw an opening.

MixPanel has been a popular analytics company for about a year now. In fact, they recently announced they were tracking a billion actions a month across a wide variety of applications on the web. But that was only web applications (including Facebook apps), now they’re going mobile.

The company is launching an iPhone SDK library. By inserting just a few lines of code into their apps, customers will be able to get MixPanel data in realtime. And realtime is the key, while other analytics services say they have realtime data, MixPanel claims their’s is the fastest. “We’ve built better plumbing,” Founder Suhail Doshi says.

They also believe it’s the most comprehensive. While they aren’t tracking device data per Apple’s rules, they are offering “hardcore type analytics” that services have grown accustomed to on platforms like Facebook. For example, in an iPhone game, you could track which users choose which weapon when they play the game on a certain level. Or in an app like Yelp, you could tell which types of pages men keep coming back to.

Doshi compared the current crop of analytics services on the iPhone to Google Analytics — that is, more topical. He says MixPanel offers more “sophisticated tracking.”

The team has already been talking to a number of top app developers about using their service, which launches today. One of those is fellow Y Combinator company Posterous.

MixPanel plans to charge app developers based on the amount of data they’re collecting. This means that more popular apps will be charged more, as it should be. They’ll also offer badges that developers can put on their site to be able to use a certain amount of data for free, if they’re a startup.

Find out more in the video below.

Google Voice is great, especially if you’re on a mobile platform that offers a native Voice application (namely Android or BlackBerry). But if you’ve been using the service on a regular basis, you may have run into an odd issue: sometimes when you go to actually call someone there’s a lag, as if the phone isn’t altogether sure what it’s supposed to do when you tap on the ‘Call’ button next to a contact’s name. Today, Google is getting rid of that lag in its native applications.

As Google details in its blog post, that pause was due to Google Voice making a small data request to Google’s servers whenever you initiated a call, which would return the number the application was supposed to dial. That works well enough when you have a decent 3G or EDGE connection, but it can also lead to annoying timeouts and pauses when you don’t. The new version of the Voice applications fixes this by assigning a unique phone number to your contacts, bypassing the need to initiate a data connection. In other words, your outbound calls should be faster now.

Disclosure: The Google Voice team has ported my cell number over to the service, as they did with Michael’s number.

Qualcomm aren’t happy with their Mobile TV unit, FLO TV. The unit has cost them a whole heap of money to set up (in spectrum and hardware costs), and it’s proving difficult to build a brand and get the chipsets into devices. So, during their earnings call today, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said that they have begun discussions with other companies regarding “alternatives” for the business.

This likely means that they want to sell the unit off to a company that either a) thinks they can build the brand and get the service running on enough devices to turn a profit, or b) wants the spectrum that would come with the deal for other purposes.

If you have an iPhone 4, you’ve probably had this problem: you really want to use FaceTime, but there are simply not a lot of opportunities to use it. Sure, one problem is that both parties need an iPhone 4 currently. But perhaps even more annoying is that you have no way of knowing which of your friends with iPhone 4s are actually connected to WiFi so they can use FaceTime. That’s where a new app, FacePlant, comes in.

FacePlant is a third-party application that shows you which of your friends is available to have FaceTime calls with you. The app integrates with your contact list on your iPhone so you simply load it up and it will display which of your friends both have iPhone 4 and are connect to WiFi to make FaceTime calls. It’s an idea that’s so obvious that it’s hard to believe Apple didn’t think of this.

Obviously, there’s one big catch to this: both you and your friends have to have FacePlant installed and running. Luckily, FacePlant takes full advantage of iOS 4 to be able to run in the background. So you can open it and forget about it. If a friend wants to FaceTime with you, you’ll simply be pinged just as you normally would for a FaceTime call.

With the app you can also record and leave video messages for other FacePlant users (perfect if they’re not on WiFi, for example). Given that the team behind this app is also the team behind the short video messaging service, 12seconds, this functionality shouldn’t be too surprising.

And yes, there’s a privacy mode which you can enter if you don’t want to be bothered at certain times with FaceTime requests.

Again, this idea seems so obvious that it’s a little hard to fathom that Apple didn’t think of this. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they do eventually do some kind of status indicator along these lines. But for now, FacePlant is the way to go — assuming Apple approves it, of course.

Founder Sol Lipman says the app is currently in the review process, but doesn’t expect any issues to get in the way of its approval. If it does get approved, you can be sure Apple is going to want to promote this one to tout FaceTime even more than they already have.

The app will be a free download in the App Store. Lipman says the plan to make money will come farther down the road with some premium features that users will be able to purchase.

Below, watch a video I shot with Lipman talking about the app.

Earlier this month, investor Jeff Clavier told us on TechCrunch TV that he had just invested in a promising startup that was related to the geo-location space. Without giving us too many clues, he said it was not a primary check-in player like Foursquare, but a service that aggregates geo-location data from several sources and uses it for a very targeted, specific application. Well, we didn’t have to go very far to unveil the identity of Clavier’s mystery startup. Less than two weeks later, Geoff Lewis, the founder of Topguest knocked on our door.

New York based Topguest is a travel rewards service based on the geo-location game. The service helps you easily aggregate points for travel rewards programs, by synching up with many of the major check-in apps, including Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Google’s Latitude, Yelp and Twitter. Therefore, regardless of whether you check-in to a hotel partner on Gowalla or Foursquare for example, all the points are stored in one location.

The startup, which launched in June, plans to partner with several travel rewards programs, including hotels, airlines, car services and other businesses related to travel. On Thursday, Topguest unveiled its latest partnership with the InterContinental Priority Club. That’s a fairly large coup for the young startup, given InterContinental’s reach of 4,400 properties (the hotel group’s lineup includes the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo). Prior to the Intercontinental, the service had just two partners, the Standard and the Soho & Tribeca Grand hotels.

The points awarded per check-in and the awards available vary by program. However, a common transaction Lewis says is 50 points per check-in for a hotel activity (i.e. a stay, a spa treatment, a conference  or a drink at the restaurant), a free night’s stay could be awarded after accumulating 1700 points (or roughly 34 check-ins). Some programs also offer discounts, for example, at the Standard you can get 25% off your next stay after 10 check-ins at their hotel, bar or restaurant. For someone who travels a lot or lives in a major city, that’s a pretty compelling offer. Although their sample size is small, Lewis claims his service is driving significant check-ins at their partner locations.

“What we’re doing is accretive to the ecosystem, it’s driving more people to check-in and it’s creating a real incentive layer, a real value…for a mainstream user,” he says. “The number of check-ins happening at our partner properties is dramatically higher versus before Topguest existed, I think we’ve seen something like a 400% increase of geo-location check-ins at Standard Hotels since our program launched about four weeks ago versus the previous four weeks… Users are inviting like two friends on average to join Topguest, something like 70% of the people who visit the site join.”

While there does seem to be a tight correlation between a Topguest partnership and increased check-ins, the site will need to expand rapidly in the coming months in order to add significant value for their hotel partners. Currently, there are 10,000 members.

In addition, there is always the concern that a primary check-in service, like Foursquare, or another player like Facebook will try to enter their market and directly compete with Topguest for those lucrative travel rewards partnerships. While Lewis has not ruled out the possibility, he believes Topguest is more of an ally to check-in services because it encourages consumer usage. Topguest, he says, also has an advantage because it is a neutral party and can accept check-ins from so many different platforms.

That may sound like PR fluff but there’s some evidence that he’s not alone in his thinking. In June, they raised a seed round of $350,000 with Conway, Founders Fund, Keith Rabois, Jeff Clavier, Kal Vepuri and Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir. Thus, Topguest shares an investor with Foursquare, SV Angel’s Ron Conway, and an investor with Gowalla, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Topguest is not profitable yet, but it’s on the brink of raising another round. According to reports, Topguest is currently on track to raise over one million with their Series A round, which will reportedly include many of the same investors (and will close by the end of this summer).

Big news for AOL’s mobile strategy today. The company has launched a new smartphone-friendly mobile website, as well as two new Android apps today.

Specifically designed to be able to deliver content on iPhone and Android browsers, the new site delivers location-based content related to local weather, movie, traffic and other updates; and an application directory. The site specifically is optimized for phones that support HTML5.

In addition to the new smartphone optimized site, AOL has also released a new AOL app that allows access to content from AOL’s content sites, including PopEater, Engadget and FanHouse. Users can also access AOL’s other portals such as MapQuest and AOL Mail as well as hit the AOL app list to find links to all available AOL apps for Android.

And AOL has rolled out a DailyFinance mobile app for Android devices. The DailyFinance app allows users to receive real-time stock quotes and financial news and allows users to track up to 25 different portfolios.

Says David Temkin, the company’s new Vice President of Mobile, in a release:

“Android has emerged as a top-tier smartphone platform…So, while we’ll continue to focus on development for multiple mobile platforms…Today’s smartphones offer a completely different experience from the previous generation of WAP-based sites, and AOL will be taking full advantage of the possibilities these new devices can offer, both on the mobile Web and in apps.”

You know how every month you see stories like “Red Dead Redemption sells X copies, Super Mario Galaxy 2 sells Y copies,” etc? All of that data comes from the NPD Group, which tracks retail sales. What NPD never used to track was digital download sales—Steam and the like. That’s why’d you see doom-and-gloom stories like, “PC game sales fall 50 percent last month.” Yeah, because NPD was never keeping tabs on the digital sales! That’s like saying Apple is in trouble because nobody is buying iTunes music at Best Buy. Rubbish, exactly.

Product: View Finders

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

Forgot where you snapped that pic of a giant green French lady hoisting a torch? You need a GPS-enabled camera. We took the four newest models for a test drive.

1. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V

If not for the picture of a satellite on the side, you’d never guess this camera is location-aware — the GPS functions are buried that deep in the menus. But once we activated them, the 10.2-megapixel HX5V geotagged our sharp shots with sniperlike accuracy.

WIRED Sweep Panorama mode intelligently captures oversize subjects — you know, the Grand Canyon, LeBron James. Just press the shutter and sweep the camera across the vista. Records 1080p video with stereo sound. GPS automatically sets the clock. Digital compass.

TIRED GPS signal defeated by buildings and overhanging trees. Doesn’t display nearby place-names or points of interest during playback. Confusing menus.

$350, sony.com

2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7

The ZS7 not only embeds latitude and longitude data in your shots, it also displays city, state, and country — along with points of interest — right on the 3-inch LCD. Too bad it’s sometimes a step behind: When we were taking night shots of the East River in Queens, the ZS7 thought we were still in a Brooklyn park we had visited earlier. It had the best image quality of the batch, though, capturing crisp photos with bold, natural color.

WIRED Embeds location data in HD video, too. Fastest cam tested — blazing autofocus, no shutter lag. Landmark library spans 73 countries. 300-shot battery life.

TIRED Misidentified some points of interest. If you don’t reset the GPS, you get info from your last trip. Lots of menu-digging to activate GPS.

$399, panasonic.com

3. Leica V-Lux 20

The main difference between this camera and the Panasonic ZS7 is the price: That red dot on the handgrip commands a $300 premium. Otherwise, the specs are almost identical: 12.1-MP sensor, 12X optical zoom, even built-in GPS that sometimes gets confused. On a positive note, the V-Lux 20 matched the superior image quality of the ZS7; on a sour note, it was a second (or two) slower on the draw. But maybe your subjects will be so dazzled by the Leica logo that they’ll hold their poses indefinitely.

WIRED Ships with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Snazzy all-black design.

TIRED Took up to a minute to initially locate GPS signal. Records 720p HD video in Motion JPEG format, which produces larger file sizes. Slightly bigger body than the ZS7.

$699, leica.com

4. Samsung HZ35W

Is Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs in Kyrgyzstan? This 12-MP Samsung thought so, placing Coney Island’s culinary landmark in Central Asia. Luckily, iPhoto was able to decode the cam’s location-babble and tag the imported photos correctly. Even so, this chunky rig had the best GPS controls of the group, including a topside activation switch and a Map View mode to pinpoint your whereabouts on the 3-inch screen. Unfortunately our pictures suffered from oversaturated color and blurry edge detail.

WIRED 15X optical zoom pulls back as wide as 24 mm. Map View highlights nearby Starbucks cafès and BofA ATMs.

TIRED Map View maps must be downloaded from Samsung Web site and stored on the memory card. Slowest shooter in test.

$349, samsung.com

Product: H₂Open Fire!

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

The wimpy squirt guns of your youth have been overthrown by sting-your-face water cannons. You’re never too old for a soakfest, so choose your weapon.

1. Water Warriors Vanquisher

If you’re going into battle, this is the artillery you want to be packing. The Vanquisher holds 108 ounces of liquid and blasts streams up to 40 feet. Choose one of three shooting modes to conserve ammo, make a chilly statement, or all-out drench your opponents. Pressurized by a shotgun-style hand pump, the Vanquisher is as mean as it looks.

WIRED Comes with a shoulder strap for easy toting. Large-capacity tank minimizes trips to the hose for a refill.

TIRED When fully loaded, this baby weighs about as much as a real baby (8.75 pounds). Trigger is placed awkwardly at the top of the gun, so you kinda have to hold it like a purse.

$20, buzzbeetoys.com

2. Nerf Super Soaker Shot Blast

When most people think water guns, they think Super Soaker. But the cheery-colored models are ancient history. The new battalion of plastic liquidators look like they came straight outta Halo. And Master Chief would approve: The Shot Blast will launch bulleted streams about 25 feet, and its 38-ounce reservoir will last you to the end of most engagements. But beware the point-blank head shot: It stings.

WIRED Adjustable shoulder stock for optimal positioning. Powerful blasts will have your challengers running for dry land.

TIRED No trigger — you have to pump it every time you shoot, which is a lot of work for playtime. Don’t drink from the nozzle unless you want to lose your face.

$20, hasbro.com

3. OF2000 Water Sports Stream Machine

Those looking to truly douse their friends (or enemies) should get their hands on one of these. Sure, it’s an extremely simple design, but its ability to soak foes is incredible. To fill the gun, stick the nozzle in any pool of water and pull back on the handle. To fire, push the handle forward. Rocket science. The 36-inch-long barrel holds approximately 32 ounces, which is enough to cause almost anyone to raise the white flag.

WIRED Ridiculously light and easy to carry around. The thick stream is unrivaled.

TIRED Needs almost constant refilling. You have to either tote along a bucket of water or stage your battle on the beach.

$20, instantfun.ws

4. Saturator Electric Water Gun AK47

The most realistic-looking shooter of the bunch, the Saturator AK47 is also the noisiest. Its piston moving back and forth sounds like an automatic towel dispenser on the fritz. But that cacophony is the sound of violence: Powered by four AA batteries, the Saturator rattles off 240 bursts a minute. Each spritz is pretty light, but the rapid fire provides adequate soakage.

WIRED Just hold the trigger and the gun does all the work. Stream is tame enough to serve as an impromptu drinking fountain.

TIRED The clip holds only 10 ounces, and the tiny hole in its top makes for awkward refills. On second thought, it sounds like a dying cat.

$20, kapowwe.com

Product: Mobile ‘Phones

Manufacturer: Roundup:

Wired Rating: 0

Are your neighbors screaming at you to turn down Gladiator … again?! Plug into a pair of wireless home-theater headphones. They let you crank up the Roman blood sport without getting the thumbs-down from anybody.

1. Pioneer SE-DIR800C

These Pioneer ‘phones have Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround effects to make you think there are five speakers inside your head. Not as painful as you might imagine: It really does sound like there are five separate sound sources, and tripping out on that was enough to keep us engaged. These are better suited to movies than music, though: If you stray more than 26 feet from the transmitter — like if you dance into a different room — the normally sharp sound loses its edge.

WIRED Great sound reproduction is perfect for action flicks. Super-comfy headband.

TIRED NSFW (or anywhere but your house) — these giant cans look ridiculous. You have to remove the batteries and put them into the transmitter dock to recharge. Priciest of the bunch.

$399, pioneerelectronics.com

2. Sony MDR-DS3000

These sleek earmuffs are like a hug for your head — by far the most comfortable pair here. Alas, the DS3000s also have the worst range: Infrared signal requires line of sight and makes it only about 20 feet before degrading. The surround sound was good but no aural nirvana. The fit was so comfortable, though, we didn’t mind.

WIRED Headset recharges in its cradle. Did we mention how wearable these are? Even after a marathon session, we had zero fatigue or swamp-ear. Included optical audio cable enables the best possible sound.

TIRED Bulkiest base station in the test. Hissing during quiet scenes or when you amble too far from the base.

$230, sony.com

3. Acoustic Research AWD210

At 200 bucks retail, the AWD210s are a serious bargain (and we found ’em for just over $100 on Amazon). Sound quality is nothing to w00t about — great bass, but range is lacking. The leather-covered headband and supple ear pads are comfy, but they don’t sit on your head as naturally as the others, making them feel heavy after a while. The poor fit also let outside noise leak in.

WIRED Cheap! Volume and power controls on the left earpiece. Headphones charge with an AC adapter (no batteries required).

TIRED Plastic earphone casing feels flimsy. Some electronic interference; probably a good idea to keep your cell phone in a different room. Random dead zones when you move away from the transmitter.

$199, acoustic-research.com

4. TDK WR700

Road trip? Take the WR700s with you. Their compact size and the choice of 3.5- or 6.3-mm jacks means you can make any audio source wireless. Buy another pair, switch on Multi-User mode, and share sound with a friend. With Kleer transmission technology, they’ll beam CD-quality streams. But even with a lossless source, the sound was tinny. And because the ear pads are smallish, noise isolation was only so-so — you shouldn’t have to tell roommates to keep it down when you’re the one blasting a movie.

WIRED Mini and standard stereo jacks. Volume buttons on right earpiece. Best range in test.

TIRED Transmitter just a box with a plug — a few inches of cord would make it infinitely easier to hook up. BYO batteries — two AAAs for the headphones, two for the dongle.

$249, tdk.com

Product: Libretto W105

Manufacturer: Toshiba

Wired Rating: 0

Dedicating half your laptop to 80-odd keys is such a waste of space — at least, that’s the message we’re getting from the new Toshiba Libretto W105. With two 7-inch touchscreens, the 1.2-GHz machine does triple duty as a notebook computer, media player, and e-reader. Juggling serious work? The upper screen presents a typical Windows 7 OS while the lower pane hosts one of six keyboards. Catching up on Modern Family? Fill the top window with Hulu while you cruise Wikipedia for spoilers below. And if you’re feeling literary, turn the Libretto sideways and load up Toshiba’s ebook software. It shows one page on each side, just like the printed books Grandpappy used to read. For those not quite ready to surrender their physical keyboard, Toshiba will still sell plenty of models equipped with those clickety-clack contraptions. Perhaps you’d like one with a floppy disk drive and a 2,800-baud modem?