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<title>Haaze.com / sanysan / All</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Tonight's super perigee moon a rare treat]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tonights-super-perigee-moon-a-rare-treat</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tonights-super-perigee-moon-a-rare-treat</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sanysan</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tonights-super-perigee-moon-a-rare-treat</guid>
<description><![CDATA[When the super perigee moon hits the sky, like a big pizza pie, that's amore.Check out the full moon this evening--it could be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual, according to NASA. The moon has an elliptical orbit around the Earth' when the moon seems smaller and more distant, it's on the farthest side (apogee) of its orbit, while the perigee side is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth.So what makes tonight special &quot;The full Moon of March 19th occurs less than one hour away from perigee--a near-perfect coincidence that happens only every 18 years or so,&quot; says Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.The best time to view the moon will be at about sunset. There's an illusion during a low-hanging moon that makes it seem larger when seen behind trees and buildings. Despite seeming so near, our closest neighbor in space will still be 221,000 miles away.Those of you familiar with the moon know it has a very distinct relationship with ocean tides. But despite talk of a link between supermoons and natural disasters, tonight's mega moon won't cause too much trouble, at least according to Dr. Tony Phillips, an editor for NASA's Science News Web site.&quot;In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual. Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 centimeters (6 inches)--not exactly a great flood.&quot;Sit back and enjoy tonight's moon, and please describe what you saw in the comments section! Click here to find out when our lunar friend rises in your area.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Key Japan-made iPad 2 parts in focus]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=key-japan-made-ipad-2-parts-in-focus</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=key-japan-made-ipad-2-parts-in-focus</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sanysan</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=key-japan-made-ipad-2-parts-in-focus</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Flash memory chips and batteries, major components in theiPad 2, appear to face different fates, owing to the location of the manufacturing facilities in different parts of Japan. iPad 2(Credit:Apple)Clarity is hard to come by in Japan, especially in the earthquake-stricken areas. But the impact of the continuing crisis on two major technologies used in Apple's latesttablet is pretty clear. While Toshiba's manufacturing production of flash memory continues to recover, lithium-ion battery production is not faring so well, as it was much closer to ground zero. Flash memory/Toshiba: The world's largest supplier of flash memory--and major Apple supplier--provided updates dated March 14 and 15 for its massive Yokkaichi factory, located about 500 miles south of the earthquake's epicenter. As of March 14, production had stopped partially, but had &quot;almost recovered.&quot; On March 15, the company issued another update, stating that the complex &quot;is now operating as usual.&quot; Compared to other component factories located in hard-hit Iwate and Miyagi prefectures that's a fairly upbeat report, but it still hints at prolonged downtime at some facilities since the earthquake struck on March 11. The biggest problem that Toshiba will face in Yokkaichi hinges on the supply chain. &quot;A mid-term impact on the overall supply chain, including material procurement, is anticipated, as are short-term problems with logistics,&quot; a report said on March 15. &quot;We continue to carry out a detailed investigation of the status of the plants and their recovery.&quot; Lithium-ion batteries: iSuppli analyst Wayne Lam believes that the battery cells in the iPad 2 may be made in Japan, though the outer battery pack is marked &quot;assembled in China.&quot; &quot;That's our understanding,&quot; Lam said in a phone interview. &quot;Based on 'Apple Japan' markings on the cell. We can probably call it a Japanese cell,&quot; he said. Japan is a prolific manufacturer of all kinds of batteries, particularly lithium ion. Sony, for example, has stated that operations have been affected at battery factories in Fukushima and that obtaining a stable power supply and raw materials are ongoing problems. If, in fact, battery cells are coming from earthquake-impacted areas in Japan, that could result in future disruption of supplies for products like the iPad 2. Updated at 11:25 a.m. PDT: adding comments from iSuppli's Wayne Lim about the iPad's batteries.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Inside Microsoft's science fair]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=inside-microsofts-science-fair</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=inside-microsofts-science-fair</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sanysan</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=inside-microsofts-science-fair</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The .NET Gadgeteer snaps a photo of Microsoft&amp;39's Channel 9 mascot.(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)REDMOND, WA.--It would seem to be just another day here on Microsoft's campus. In one building the next version of Windows is being built in secret, and in another the next version of Office. But this day is a little different from the rest. In a closed off auditorium, a gathering of Microsoft employees are showing off their latest science projects.Most may never see the light of day, but some could go onto to become real products, or at least features in products of the future. This is all a part of what Microsoft calls its &quot;science fair,&quot; a event that takes place every six months or so, and looks a lot like--well--a science fair. There are poster boards with glued on diagrams, candy to attract passers by, and a myriad computers running code cooked up during employee off-time. Microsoft's Research group holds a similar event on its main campus, and on its other campuses each year called TechFest, which CNET has visited in the past. The event itself is hosted and funded by &quot;The Garage,&quot; a group within Microsoft that acts as an incubator for technology implementations dreamed up by its employees. Anyone can come to The Garage with their idea in the hopes of getting others to collaborate on it with them, or get it realized with the group's resources, which include both engineering and technical know-how. The idea behind the fair is to get some of those ideas out there, as well as for groups to possibly come together and collaborate on projects of an even grander scale.During today's fair I get to see just three of 50 exhibits that make up the fair. The first is made by four employees and called &quot;Human Beatbox.&quot; It makes use of Microsoft's hit Kinect peripheral and its skeletal tracking and depth sensing prowess to turn your body into a giant input device that can punch or kick beats from a virtual set of drums, keyboards and cymbals. There's even a hip hop mode where your flailing arm can simulate a record scratch. The Human Beatbox project makes use of Kinect to let users hit virtual instruments with their hands and feet.(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)Alongside the play area, where co-creator George Perantatos (who also happens to be a senior program manager for Office Labs) is hitting the virtual instruments, is a secondary display showing users what the Kinect is seeing--complete with working skeleton tracking that people on the side can watch in real time. The second exhibit is one that's actually on its way to being a real consumer-facing service through Microsoft's Office Labs site. Called &quot;seamless desktop,&quot; this software tool lets you connect the mouse and keyboard together from multiple machines, and send that information in the cloud. The idea is nothing new per se, with consumer products like Synergy and MaxiVista that can do the same trick, but seamless desktop promises to scale beyond those products one day.Seamless Desktop lets users share a single mouse, keyboard, and clipboard with multiple machines (click to enlarge)(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)Known internally as &quot;magic mouse,&quot; seamless desktop is currently used by around 10,000 Microsoft employees. Besides sharing the mouse and the keyboard, it has a few other tricks up its sleeve, like bringing your clipboard across machines--that includes any images, which come along for the ride. It's also got a neat feature, that CNET was told will probably be cut from the final shipping tool, that can automatically grab the latest photo from Bing.com, and turn it into your desktop background. The third and final tool, called .NET Gadgeteer is one that fans of Bug Labs' Bug are likely to latch onto. The Gadgeteer is a small device with an ARM7 processor and a logic board full of ports that users can plug various devices into, in order to change the kinds of things it can do. The technology itself is a collaboration between Microsoft Research and .NET guru Colin Miller, and has been shown in public before in places like Maker Faire. Today the device is being hooked up with a small display in one of the plugs, with a camera module being plugged into the other. With that combination, you suddenly have a camera. With different accessories, you can turn that same board into a security camera, and a Wi-Fi controlled robot with wheels. The idea is to let developers, and enthusiasts alike ways to come up with their own add-ons, and find new creations that can take advantage of the platform's extensibility, while making use of Microsoft's own tools like Visual Studio.Like any science fair, there is a judging panel, which deems one of the displays a winner. Microsoft employees who attended the three hour open house were also able to put in their nominations for their favorite product. What does the winner ultimately get A sticker to put up on their office door or cubicle wall, as well as the chance to grab some time with someone in Microsoft's senior leadership to pitch their idea into the makings of a future product or service. During today's fair, both the Gadgeteer and Seamless Desktop pick up the honors, winning the coveted &quot;golden volcano&quot; award, which CNET was told is not actually a volcano or made out of gold.Microsoft's next big science fair, TechFest, happens in March, and will include demos from Microsoft's research teams around the world. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Making people happy about the smart grid: There&'s (probably) an app for that]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=making-people-happy-about-the-smart-grid-therersquos-probably-an-app-for-that</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=making-people-happy-about-the-smart-grid-therersquos-probably-an-app-for-that</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sanysan</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=making-people-happy-about-the-smart-grid-therersquos-probably-an-app-for-that</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Smart grid and smart meters are an inevitable part of America&amp;'s energy future, but at least when it comes to consumers, it has gotten off to a bumpy start.Consumers have sued PG&amp;amp'E and Oncor over smart meters that they felt overcharged them (both suits were found to be without merit). Consumers in Illinois have claimed smart meters cause headaches and impotency. Recently, protestersin California&amp;'s West Marin County tried to block smart meter installers in an incident that resulted in two arrests. While there are plenty of industry watchers and executives who will say media reports of these snafus have blown the issue out of proportion, the incidents show there&amp;'s sometimes tension between consumers and utilities when it comes to the smart grid.With all that in mind, it&amp;'s interesting to see that one pilot happening in the U.S. is coming at the game with a new approach: Focus on the making the consumer happy about the smart grid. In particular, it wants to demonstrate that the smart grid can improve the quality of consumers&amp;' lives, much in the same way apps add value to the lives of iPhone and smart phone users.Brewster McCracken, director of the Pecan Street Project in Austin, Tex., says its smart grid demonstration project is unlike any others in that is most concerned with the value to the customer, and not the utility. Part of the project&amp;'s goal will be to study how &amp;8212' and whether &amp;8212' the smart grid can provide value to the customer.a4AThe customer will have final say about whether the smart grid is a smart idea,a4 said McCracken in a recent statement. a4AThe truth is that we a4&quot; those working on and advocating for the smart grid a4&quot; need to learn a lot more from customers than they need to learn from us. Before anyone starts prescribing solutions, we must develop a much better understanding of what customers value and how theya4a4re using energy now.a4In smart grid rollouts so far, there&amp;'s &amp;''not much of case made for what the value to customers will be,&amp;'' McCracken told me when we met at the project&amp;'s offices in Austin recently. Of course, a smart grid-enabled home could save you money on your energy bill, but he doesn&amp;'t think there&amp;'s been enough of a value proposition made yet. A smart grid-enabled home isn&amp;'t as buzzy or hotly in demand as the latest iPad.So Pecan Street wants to focus on &amp;''the great applications that people want,&amp;'' McCracken said. What&amp;'s more, the applications aren&amp;'t likely to come from the utility, but third-party providers, he argues. (&amp;''Do you get your apps from Apple or Verizon&amp;'' he asks.) McCracken sees the energy industry as comparable to the telecom industry, noting that it has transformed from a highly regulated, conservative industry into a competitive market filled with innovative, cutting-edge approaches. And in the same way that cell phone service providers offer free or discounted phones for subscribers, McCracken thinks utilities could one day offer free or discounted smart grid devices to ratepayers.Point is, there is no killer application yet for the smart grid, a refrain I heard over and over again at the Smart Energy Summit in January in Austin. It&amp;'s true. There is no energy efficiency equivalent of Evernote or Instagram, Angry Birds or Twitter, though developers and entrepreneurs are trying to create them. And comparing the smart grid to the smartphone market makes sense for what smart grid hopefuls are trying to do.Control4, for example, last year offered a developer&amp;'s kit so that third parties could design Flash-based apps for its home energy display. Intel&amp;'s recently debuted home energy management dashboard (pictured, above) that is sleek and colorful, with iPad-like touchscreen traits. In addition to thermostat and energy efficiency offerings, the dashboard has non-energy applications like video memos, package tracking, home security, weather and traffic monitoring tracking packages, home security, and yellow page searches.Pecan Street&amp;'s first 100-home phase of the project went live last month, with an installed cost per home of $341. It&amp;'ll be interesting to see whether Pecan Street&amp;'s app-store approach yields creative apps for smart grid users.Theproject takes place in Austin&amp;'s Mueller community, is a recipient of the Department of Energy&amp;'s stimulus funding and has attracted partnerships and collaboration from local utility Austin Energy, GE Energy, Oracle, GridPoint, Cisco, Dell and IBM. It will eventually expand to include 1,000 homes.Smart grid investment will total $200 billion worldwide by 2015, according to a forecast by Pike Research. This represents billion-dollar opportunities for startups and major companies in everything from home energy management to building controls to lighting systems to demand response. Companies like Siemens, GE, Schneider Electric, LG and Intel are expanding their business to include offerings in home energy management and electric car charging. As the smart, tech-savvy home becomes an increasingly important part of energy and technology companies&amp;' products, Pecan Street is right on one thing: Getting homeowners to like the smart grid will be key.[Top image via Flickr/Kevin Saff]Next Story: iPad 2: Applea4a4s missed business opportunity Previous Story: Don&amp;'t expect a real Microsoft iPad competitor until late 2012PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: apps, energy, Smart Grid, utilitiesCompanies: Pecan Street ProjectPeople: Brewster McCracken          Tags: apps, energy, Smart Grid, utilitiesCompanies: Pecan Street ProjectPeople: Brewster McCrackenIris Kuo is the VentureBeat's lead GreenBeat writer. She has reported for The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, Houston Chronicle, the McClatchy Washington Bureau and Dallas public radio. Iris attended the University of Texas at Dallas and lives in Houston. Follow Iris on Twitter @thestatuskuo (and yes, that's how you  pronounce her last name). Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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