Showing posts with label Latest Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latest Technology. Show all posts
›› Toyota, Yamaha unveil connected electric trike, e-bike
The Electric commuter EC-Miu concept designed by Toyota and Yamaha.
(Credit: Toyota)These electric velocipede concepts are wired to connect to smart grids, smartphones, home network systems, and sharing services.
With populations in urban centers expected to surge over the next few decades, auto manufacturers are looking beyond cars to find ways to mobilize the population without using more fossil fuels. Toyota teamed up with Yamaha to show off a couple of electric bicycle concepts at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. They're not the first companies to tackle e-bikes, but they could be the first companies to show how these non-traditional EVs can be connected to smart grids.
The three-wheeled EC-Miu and the electrically power-assisted Pas With bicycle are designed to work with the Toyota Smart Center, an advanced smart grid energy-management system designed for homes, businesses, and power companies, which means your e-bike will be another appliance you can manage online.
Commuters will be able to recharge these e-bikes using the same G-Station charging stations used by electric vehicles. Embedded Wi-Fi capability will give riders a way to use smartphone-based navigation and telematics services.
The electrically power assisted Pas With bicycle designed by Toyota and Yamaha.
(Credit: Toyota)The manufacturers went one step further and modeled how electric bicycles could be integrated in city-wide bike-sharing programs, creating a mashup of Daimler's electric Car2Go program in San Diego and Paris' Velib project. By giving commuters a way to get from A to B without breaking a sweat, these electric bike concepts could make it easier to opt for two or three wheels instead of four, which would help ease congestion on city streets. However, they'll still have the problem of creating helmet hair.
No information on range, speed, or charging times were given in the news statement, but for comparison, the Smart eBike has a range of about 62 miles and a top speed of about 15 mph.
›› Nokia exec: Windows 8 tablet due in June
Nokia will add a Windows 8 tablet to its product line in June 2012, a French newspaper reported in an interview with the head of Nokia in France.
"In June 2012, we will have a tablet running Windows 8," Paul Amsellem told Les Echos in a story published yesterday.
Such a move would make some sense. Androidand iOS span phones and tablets, but Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system doesn't. Ignoring the tablet market would shut Nokia out of a major growth industry, though, and Microsoft is the obvious partner--even if it means Nokia must wrestle with the complexities of having two major operating systems.
Reached for comment today, a Nokia representative wouldn't confirm or deny Amsellem's statement, but did say, "We have not announced any plans relating to tablets."
Last month, Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop wouldn't comment on Windows 8 tablet plans, but he left the door wide open when discussing earnings results with analysts.
"From an ecosystem perspective, there are benefits and synergies that exist between Windows and Windows Phone," Elop said. "We see that opportunity. We'll certainly consider those opportunities going forward."
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop speaking at Nokia World in London.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)In a later interview with the Financial Times, Elop pointed more specifically to the similarities in user interface between Nokia's newly launched Lumia line of Windows Phone products and the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.
Nokia has services it could bring to a Windows tablet, of course. But the synergies aren't always easy: Programs written for one operating system don't run on the other, so spanning the two devices means a lot of work for app developers.
Amsellem likened the new Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone to a BMW, saying that higher-end and lower-end models will arrive soon. Nokia already showed off the lower-end Lumia 710 and, at last month, said higher-end phones would arrive as well. But the company has not shared details so far.
›› Intel CEO: HP, Dell Ultrabooks coming in 2012
Hewlett-Packard and Dell will enter the Ultrabook market next year, Intel's CEO told Fox Business today. He also said he was "stunned" by former HP CEO Leo Apotheker's announcement that the company was thinking about spinning off its PC business.
Speaking to Liz Claman of Fox Business Network, Paul Otellini said that all major PC companies will eventually have Ultrabooks--the ultrathin Windows laptops that compete with Apple's MacBook Air.
"All the major brands. Going into next year, you'll see new designs come out from Dell and HP," he said. "And then when we introduce Ivy Bridge, our next processor, there's 60 more designs are coming out."
Then, when Windows 8 is released next year, hybrid Ultrabook designs will emerge, he said. "When Windows 8 comes out, you'll see hybrid models that integrate the functions of a notebook and a tablet into a single device," he said.
Asus UX21 Ultrabook. HP and Dell will enter the market next year, according to Intel CEO.
(Credit: Asus)Otellini also responded to a question about former HP CEO Leo Apotheker'sannouncement to possibly spin off its PC businessback in August. "I thought...What is he thinking? I hope that they decide to stay in the business," he said.
Otellini implied that HP may be shooting itself in the foot.
"Print and ink is such as an important part of HP. And over time, all of us are printing less stuff. More and more people are [using] digital images," he said. "So, to leave digital consumer electronics would, to me, be a very strange decision to make. When your whole business model is tied up in imaging."
And he'll have an opportunity to tell HP's new CEO Meg Whitman a lot more later this week. Otellini said added he will be meeting with Whitman on Friday.
›› Look out: Fossil fuels may be out-innovating green tech
Oil and gas companies aren't as slow-moving as you might think.
(Credit: Flickr user Richard Masoner)Scrappy green-tech start-ups aren't the only ones who make big bets on technology.
A spate of articles this week points to the fact that new technologies in the fossil fuel industry are making it harder for alternative clean energy technologies to get a larger foothold.
A New York Times article this week says new techniques allow drillers to tap oil and gas from a variety of "unconventional sources" that were once considered too difficult, a shift that changes the global picture on energy supply.
The most dramatic example in the U.S. is freeing natural gas from shale rock, largely in Pennsylvania and Texas, using a method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." In just a few short years, the supply of shale gas has slashed the costs of natural gas--and brought the ire of people concerned about the impact on water supply.
Related stories
• How to save green tech from crashing
• While Washington bickers, green tech goes local
• In green tech, a debate over singles versus home runs
In a column earlier this week, inventor and investor Nathan Myhrvold said the emergence of cheap natural from fracking has challenged the notion that fossil fuel prices will keep rising. The "miracle" of shale gas "has changed that calculus, much to the chagrin of Silicon Valley venture capitalists who caught the green-energy bug," he wrote.• How to save green tech from crashing
• While Washington bickers, green tech goes local
• In green tech, a debate over singles versus home runs
A Houston Chronicle columnist also argues that innovation in fossil fuels, particularly hydraulic fracturing, has done as much to harm the prospects of clean tech as the failure of solar company Solyndra and the subsequent political fall-out.
Without a doubt, low fossil fuel prices certainly aren't helping alternatives get off the ground. Cheaper power generation from natural gas means that solar and wind have had a harder time competing on price, a dynamic which reverberates through other areas such as energy efficiency. Tempered oil prices, meanwhile, make it harder to make an economic argument for buying plug-in electric vehicles or biofuels.
Fossil fuel technology doesn't stop at "fracking." Aided by powerful supercomputers, the oil and gas "majors" are able to find new deposits in more and more locations, notably offshore. Once considered uneconomic, the tar sands in Canada are now a major source of oil. Hydraulic fracturing can even be used to release oil from rock in some locations.
Adapting
The environmental cost of tapping unconventional fossil fuels can be significant. Many techniques, such as drawing oil from tar sands, produce far more carbon emissions than conventional drilling and damage to water supplies and local ecosystems. And as the Macondo deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico showed last year, oil drillers are pushing the limits of technology and taking on greater risks and they move into new terrain.
The environmental cost of tapping unconventional fossil fuels can be significant. Many techniques, such as drawing oil from tar sands, produce far more carbon emissions than conventional drilling and damage to water supplies and local ecosystems. And as the Macondo deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico showed last year, oil drillers are pushing the limits of technology and taking on greater risks and they move into new terrain.
But if measured only in dollars, fossil fuels still look cheaper than alternatives. Both solar and wind continue to come down in costs, but solar in particular needs to fall further in price before it can be a more meaningful portion of electricity generation, according to utility industry executives at the Solar Power International conference last week.
"At the end of the day it comes down to costs because of economic pressures. We have to make decisions in regards to allocation of capital," said Randy Mehrberg, president and chief operating officer of PSEG Energy Holdings, according to an article in EnergyBiz. "We just spent $1 billion on the back-end of our coal plants to make them some of the cleanest in the country, and we have to compete with those expenditures when we do solar."
Green-tech investors and entrepreneurs are adapting to a regime of low fossil fuel prices and the inability of Washington to pass major new energy or climate change laws, in what some people call green tech 2.0.
Solar and biofuels used to garner the bulk of venture capital money, but investors and entrepreneurs have shifted their focus to either less capital-intensive industries, such as efficient lighting, or toward creating products for the fossil-fuel business. Companies that once wanted to make biofuels have turned their attention, at least initially, to higher-margin chemicals.
There remain a few venture investor funds seeking out early-stage ideas for disruptive technologies in material science, such as better batteries or more efficient solar cells. But much of the venture capital crowd has chosen to focus on using mobile and software technology to improve efficiency and better use natural resources.
Many of these companies leverage social media to appeal to green-minded consumers and the innovations in IT. Peer-to-peer car-sharing site RelayRides, for example, was singled out in aNew York Times article this week as an example of a new breed of clean-tech companies better suited to Silicon Valley style entrepreneurship.
Newer green-tech companies are targeting more narrow niches than those founded last decade in order to survive through the downturn in private investment and eroding policy support in Washington.
But ultimately, concerns over how quickly the world is using fossil fuels or the effect they have on the environment and climate are not going away. It's slow moving compared to IT, but in energy there's yet another technology race--this one between the fossil fuel giants and entrepreneurs and consumers who want cool, greener products.
›› Vu1 enters $15 bulb in efficient-lighting race
The Vu1 flood light will be followed by a classic Edison-style bulb.
(Credit: Vu1)Vu1 said today the first in its line of efficient light bulbs will be available at retailer Lowes, pitting one more technology against the aging incandescent bulb.
The company's first product is an R30 bulb designed to replace a 65-watt incandescent flood light, which uses about 19.5 watts of power. Vu1 (pronounced "view one") plans to introduce a classic Edison A19 shape bulb as well in Europe and the U.S.
The R30 is less efficient than a comparable compact fluorescent bulb, which uses about 13 watts, but it does not have mercury and has full light instantly. Priced at $14.95, it's less expensive than comparable LEDs. Compared to halogens, Vu1 says its bulbs are more energy efficient and will last longer--about 11,000 hours.
Related stories
• Ikea to sell low-cost LED bulbs from Lemnis
• Vu1 readies efficient lightbulb Edison would love
• LEDs move in and mix up home lighting
• Ikea to sell low-cost LED bulbs from Lemnis
• Vu1 readies efficient lightbulb Edison would love
• LEDs move in and mix up home lighting
The color rendering index, which is a measure of light quality, is 85 CRI and the color temperature is warm at 2800 Kelvin.
The company calls the technology behind the bulb electronically stimulated luminescence (ESL), a technique that produces the same light quality as traditional incandescent lamps. Like a cathode ray tube, electrons are fired at glass coated with phosphors that are excited to give off light. The technology has been around for years but never fully pursued for lighting, according to the company.
The company has received UL certification for its A-type bulb and R-30 flood light bulb.
›› Welcome back: Rockstar announces GTA V
More than three years after the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, the creator of the franchise, Rockstar Games, has finally revealed that another entrant is on the way.Web users who head over to the Rockstar Games Web site today will not be able to access its pages. Instead, the site has been replaced with the Grand Theft Auto V logo, along with a promise to launch a game trailer on November 2. Other than that, Rockstar hasn't divulged any details on the game.
Rumors have been swirling for years that Rockstar would launch a new Grand Theft Auto game. However, the company has stopped short of announcing the title, deciding instead to focus its efforts on other popular games it has launched recently, like Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire.
But given the success of Grand Theft Auto IV, it seemed that it would only be a matter of time before its successor was announced.
Related stories:
• Grand Theft Auto IV makes a killing in first week
• Take-Two earnings soar on Grand Theft Auto sales
• Can any game break the GTA IV sales records?
• Grand Theft Auto IV makes a killing in first week
• Take-Two earnings soar on Grand Theft Auto sales
• Can any game break the GTA IV sales records?
After hitting store shelves in 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV became a mega-hit around the world, tallying first-week unit sales of 6 million copies and bringing in $500 million during that period. The game became the biggest launch in the industry's history, easily besting the previous record-holder, Halo 3.
More than a year later, however, Grand Theft Auto IV lost its crown to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Last year's release of Call of Duty: Black Ops then bested that title to become the bestselling game of all-time.
Rockstar did not immediately respond to request for information on the game. However, we should know much more next week after the trailer launches.
›› A Windows 8 smartphone could be coming next year
The XPPhone 2 is slated to run Windows 7 and 8.
(Credit: ITG)A Chinese company says it will bring the yet-to-be-released Windows 8 to the small screen.
In Technology Group has seemingly dedicated itself to merging the Windows PC experience with the smartphone--something the company has dubbed the "post-smartphone." They started with phones running Windows XP a few years ago, and by earlier this year, ITG's XPPhone was available with Windows 7. Now it says a far slimmer, lighter, and energy efficient XPPhone 2 that will run both Windows 7 and the PC version of Windows 8 (once it's released) is in the works.
Though it seems doubtful to me that many consumers will find a need for so much Windows in their pocket, ITG has made sure to pack the XPPhone 2 with the meaty hardware to pull it off. This beast will boast a 1.6GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. ITG's Web site also mentions the possibility of an insane 2GHz model. There's also plenty of storage space to house Microsoft's notoriously bulky OSes, with 112GB on board.
ITG sees the XPPhone 2 as a desktop replacement.
(Credit: ITG)The success of this kind of a device will likely depend on it being at least more usable than the English translation of its press release, which requires several aspirin to navigate, with sentences like: "The Editor considers that, presently it forms three camps of smart phone in the way of tripartite confrontation--The Apple, Google & Moto, and Intel & Microsoft & xpPhone, of which stands for three complete different technical orientations."
Let's hope they took the money they saved on their translator and put it into engineering.Engadget reports that we could see an XPPhone 2 release as soon as January.
›› Imagine! Nokia shows it still has a pulse
The very flexible Nokia kinetic device in action.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Nokia is showing signs of life, proving it can rush product to market, innovate and maybe even get something commercial out of its research and development.
It’s early, but there are signs of life here. Perhaps Nokia won’t be road kill for Android and Apple’s iOS.
Let’s connect a few positive data points for Nokia.
First, Nokia is showing off a flexible display and some R&D chops. CNET News’ Stephen Shankland highlighted a “kinetic device” that has a flexible display. Simply put, this flexible display can bend and bowing it inward or outward will zoom in and out of photos and make music selections. Shankland is skeptical about the prospects for this technology--and rightly so--but the big takeaway here is that Nokia is at least thinking of something new. Remember Nokia is the same company that had touch screen technology but determined no one wanted it. Oops.
Nokia can move quickly when it wants. The biggest takeaway from CEO Stephen Elop’s keynote on Wednesday is that the company can go from idea to product in less than a year. Now there are compromises for sure--Mary Jo Foley examines why there aren’t any front-facing cameras on the first Windows Phone. In short, Nokia didn’t have time. That criticism aside Nokia did move faster than it ever has.
Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal noted:
The Lumia 800 and 710 are set to ship in 4Q and rebuild visibility into Nokia's product engine. These devices are not overly differentiated, but then the development timeline never allowed that. We feel they are, however, well built (800 feels particularly high quality), fully featured, and competitively priced - below the iPhone 4S and on par with Android devices. We include a comparison to rival devices and service plans. We remain confident Nokia will retain traditional advantages in scale and distribution.
The Nokia Lumia 800.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)And finally, Nokia seems to know its strengths and has scale. You can knock the lack of a 2011 U.S. launch, but Nokia specifically picked its first markets based on its strength. Nokia has to defend its base countries and then move on from there. Analysts also noted that Nokia’s pricing for the Lumia is aggressive. Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Robison said in a research note:
The Lumia 800 is listed for €420. The Lumia 710 is somewhat less elegant but sports most of the capabilities of the 800 at €270. Management indicates that deals have been struck with initial carriers to ensure the Lumia 800 retails alongside Android devices at €10-20 below the iPhone. Lumia is targeted for subsidy to the €0-single digit level of the BlackBerry 9900 in the UK.
Meanwhile, Nokia’s new Asha phones—designed for emerging markets—undercut the BlackBerry on pricing.
The message is clear: Nokia will use its scale to defend its turf and cover the world with Windows Phone tiles.
And now for the caveats. The jury is still out on Nokia. The specs for the Lumia leave a lot to be desired. It’s unclear consumers even want Nokia Windows Phone devices. Nokia’s marketing could be a hit or mocked just as easily. And finally Elop is an unknown commodity. Who knows if Elop can really reinvent Nokia?
In the end, Nokia showed this week that it has a pulse and might just get off the mat and punch rivals in the mouth. At this juncture, Nokia is certainly worth keeping an eye on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
About Me
- Sidharth
- This is Sidharth, the proud admin of ILibrary. He is a student(+2) and aspires to be Popular..... He likes to Share his works and so here is the Platform Where he is going to share all his works.... Never miss out a post...... Follow us By email to keep yourself up to date !!!!