October 12th, 2009
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Hewlett-Packard is launching a series of new products today, including some long-awaited touchscreen laptop computers.
The highlight of today’s 10 product introductions are laptops with multi-touch touchscreens that work with Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system.
“We introduced our first touch screens in 1983 and now we’re on our third generation of TouchSmart models,” said John Cook, (right) vice president of desktop marketing in HP’s Personal Systems Group. “Touch may very well be the best way to interact with a computer.”
That’s a bold statement, considering touchscreens are only beginning to make their way into laptops and desktops this year. But HP worked closely with Microsoft to integrate touch technology into Windows 7, the new operating system which launches on Oct. 22.
Consumers can use two fingers to navigate through touchscreen interfaces for the HP TouchSmart tx2 laptop (right), which starts at $799. The screen can rotate 180 degrees so you can use it as a tablet PC. You can write on the screen with an electronic pen or draw and erase. It has the same touch software as HP’s TouchSmart PC desktops; with the software, you can pinch, rotate, flip, press, or drag a finger across the screen to access info or activate programs.
You can use the laptop in PC, display, or tablet modes. The laptops come with touch-enabled games and Corel’s touch-painting program. The tx2 has a 12.1-inch diagonal screen and an Advanced Micro Devices dual-core Turion processor. The laptop weighs 4.65 pounds. It will be available on Oct. 22.
HP is also introducing its third generation of touch-enabled desktops. The all-in-one TouchSmart 300 and HP TouchSmart 600 desktops have wide screens for high-definition content. The 300 version (available Nov. 1) has a 20-inch diagonal screen and the 600 (available Oct. 22) has a 23-inch model. The 300 starts at $899 and the 600 starts at $1,049. The software comes with built-in touch apps such as Hulu Desktop, Netflix (pictured right), Pandora, Twitter, and the HP Music Store by Rhapsody. You can just touch the screen to pick and play movies, music, or send messages.
The good thing about these models is that HP is including more software that makes use of the touchscreens. You can use the webcam to snap your picture and then use the software to create a virtual character based on your image. You can then distort the image (pictured left) and have a ball. It’s the same kind of fun program that is built into Apple’s Photo Booth application.
There are other touch-enabled apps. The Recipe Box is a repository for your recipes, so you can use the vertically-standing TouchSmart in the kitchen. You use voice commands via a Bluetooth headset to operate the Recipe Box software if your hands are dirty from cooking. The Recipe Box software will read the instructions to you and the ingredients. HP is making the touchscreen interface available so software makers can customize their apps.
On the business side, HP is introducing the HP TouchSmart 9100 Business PC, a desktop computer designed for use in hotel, retail, healthcare and government applications. The all-in-one design can be used as a kiosk. It has a 23-inch screen with an adjustable stand. It comes pre-installed with Windows 7 and its pricing is to be determined. The PC can be used as a virtual concierge in a hotel, with touchscreen maps that make it easy to find places nearby.
There are a number of apps designed for the TouchSmart that fall in the category of “virtual assistants.” Digital Aisle makes Virtual Bartender software that helps people plan parties, look up recipes and get bartending tips. Businesses that buy the PC can go to nearby vendors and sell ads that will show up on the digital maps. The machine uses Nvidia GeForce 200 series integrated graphics. The 9100 ships in December for $1,299.
Along the same lines, HP is also adding a new entry in the 
digital signage display business. The company pulled out of the flat-panel TV business after a couple of years. But this business is a little more suited to the big services-oriented company. HP entered the market earlier this year with a 42-inch model, and it introduced a 47-inch model last month. The new HP LD42200tm 42-inch liquid crystal display has a touchscreen with a high contrast ratio and full 1920×1080 HD resolution. It can be mounted vertically or horizontally. HP is partnering with software vendor Uniguest, which outfits the displays with software that makes it easy to find locations in a hospital on a map. Companies can also use the touchscreens to visualize clothing sales (right). The displays will be available for $2,799 in December.
HP also has a bunch of other products. The HP Elite 7000 business desktop PC introduces a new business brand. It has a metal surface and high-gloss black finish with the latest high-performance Intel processors, the Core i7 and Core i5 series of processors. It has built-in security and starts at $789.
The HP ProBook 6545b Notebook PC and the 6445b Notebook PC are a couple of business laptops with magnesium alloy supports. These B series machines are follow-ups to the M series introduced a couple of weeks ago and the S series introduced in April. The B series can support DisplayPort, meaning they can be used to power more than one display at the same time. But one of the coolest things about them is that they have spill-resistant keyboards. The picture at right shows water being spilled into the center of the keyboard and the liquid draining out the bottom. There are channels underneath the keyboard that direct the water. Now that can of Coke isn’t so dangerous sitting next to your laptop.
They sport AMD processors and deliver 5 hours of battery life on a 6-cell battery and 8 hours of battery life on a 9-cell battery. They support new docking stations and have a Power Assistant that lets you conserve power, stretch battery run time, and accurately monitor your power usage. You can see exactly how many watts you save by operating in a low power mode, given HP’s own estimates of the cost per kilowatt hour of power. That means IT managers can monitor how much power a whole fleet of laptops is using and can set goals to reduce power usage over time. The laptops start at $799. For extra money, you can buy a new docking station (pictured) that comes with a key so that you can lock down the laptop and make it harder to steal.
HP is also introducing laptops, displays and desktops using the Compaq brand, which has appeal around the world as a “pragmatic” brand for first-time buyers, families with young kids, and small businesses. While the Compaq brand has billions of dollars in value, HP concluded it has been under-using it in the U.S.. Now it’s going to emphasize how the Compaq brand means you can get great value for your dollar with machines that are “just right” for what you need to do. If you’re buying a third computer in the house, HP hopes these Compaq models will make sense.
The Compaq Presario CQ61z notebook has a 15.6 inch-screen and yet it sells for the low price of $399 (after a $100 instant rebate). It has a choice of AMD processors and Nvidia GeForce discrete graphics chips. The Compaq 500B business desktop PC sells for just $359 and has an Intel or AMD processor, a 250-gigabyte hard disk, a gigabyte of main memory and Windows 7. The 505B sells for $409. Lastly, the Compaq Presario 4010f desktop has an AMD Sempron processor, integrated graphics from Nvidia, a 250-gigabyte hard drive. It sells for the astoundingly low price of $309.
The new displays range in size from 17-inch to 24-inch sizes and start at $190. All of these models suggest that HP understands that the recession is going to have an impact on buyers and that low prices are critical now.
Written by Dean Takahashi on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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Ooyala, a video startup founded by a group of former Googlers, has raised $10 million in a third round of venture funding.
The Mountain View, Calif., company sells its technology to companies that want to include video as part of their web content. For example, VentureBeat writer Dean Takahashi used Ooyala to publish the videos he recorded during the recent DEMO conference. The company also launched a livestreaming video service last week, making it more of a one-stop shop for all of your video needs.
Ooyala has now raised $20 million. The new round was led by Rembrandt Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Sierra Ventures. The news also comes shortly after Ooyala appointed a new chief executive, Jay Fulcher. (Co-founder and former CEO Bismarck Lappe remains involved as president of product strategy.)
Written by Anthony Ha on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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“If everybody is special, then one is.”
Such is the problem companies face when crowdsourced criticism tends to be — er — not so critical.
Yelp, a community recommendations site, is the first that comes to mind facing this problem. The average rating for its more than 7 million reviews is 3.8 stars (out of five). Co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman says that’s a little better than other user-generated sites like YouTube, whose users say its videos are worth an average 4.3 stars.
Still, it means that any user looking for a place to have dinner inevitably comes to a list of all four-star restaurants (like the one to the left). There are so many reviews that it’s virtually impossible to have a perfect record, yet people are reluctant to hand out one- or two-star ratings. And when you’re looking for a fast solution on where to eat, a list full of four-star restaurants makes for an overwhelming “paradox of choice” situation. (Ironically, the site feels less useful to me now than it did two years ago when there were enough reviews that I could discover great finds, but not be daunted by all the four-star choices.)
So how does Yelp deal with this? The company says it’s not straying from the five-star rating system anytime soon, not even for some sort of percentile system where you can see how restaurants compare to each other. Instead, the company says its ranking system already factors in the number of reviews, whether they come from experienced Yelpers or first-time reviewers, and whether those reviews were voted helpful.
Virtually identical ratings mean people have to dive into reviews to understand what’s different, said Vince Sollitto, who heads communications for the San Francisco-based company. (Yes, it takes more time, but I bet it’s better off for Yelp’s advertisers.) The company’s also pushing more social features, nudging users to find and follow like-minded reviewers. Rather than relying on a generic one- to five-star system, Yelp says connecting people with similar tastes may be the best way of discovering the next gem.
Written by Kim-Mai Cutler on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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Last year, there was a lot of coverage of Google striking a deal with satellite imagery company GeoEye to be able to use the high resolution images from its new GeoEye-1 satellite for their Google Earth and Maps products. The exclusive deal saw Google shift away from its partnership with rival DigitalGlobe, which provides many of Google’s rivals with imagery. Now, it looks like Google is back on board with a new DigitalGlobe satellite.
In a post today on its Lat Long Blog, Google reveals that DigitalGlobe has just launched their next-generation satellite dubbed WorldView-2 (no idea if this is to one-up GeoEye-1), and that the company will be getting new imagery from it. In the post, Google notes that it works “directly with several commercial satellite imaging providers.” Presumably, that means the deal with GeoEye is still in place, and now Google has found itself on yet another state-of-the-art satellite that peers down on all of us, gathering data.
Now, the government has regulations on just how closely Google and these companies can look (mostly because the government itself wants to be the only ones that can see really, really close up on us). But still, this is starting to get mildly creepy. I’d love to know how many satellites they are using up there to get their imagery.
It was recently revealed that Google was breaking away from TeleAtlas as the provider of its mapping data in the U.S. (though it is supposedly still using it for some other parts of the world). One reason they can do that is because they now have so much data from this satellite imagery (as well as their Street View imagery).
Is it tin hat time yet?
Watch the WorldView-2 launch below.
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Written by MG Siegler on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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If there’s been one shining star on social network applications platforms, it’s been casual gaming: Zynga is rumored to be making an absolute killing with their games, and Mochi Media’s unified Flash payment platform has shown some very impressive early results. Now hi5, one of the world’s most popular social networks, is looking to capitalize on the trend. On Wednesday, the social network will be launching a totally revamped site that places a much stronger emphasis on games and virtual currency, along with a new avatar system. The site won’t go live for everyone for a few days, but you can check it out now at http://new.hi5.com.
The new hi5 still retains many of the same key features you’ll find on any social network — your profile consists of a photo or avatar, you can browse through your friends, and so on. But there’s clearly a much bigger emphasis on the site’s games and virtual currency (called ‘Coins’) than there was in the past. In the old design, the Games link was buried in the header, which also included links to Photos, Messages, Applications, and more. Now Games and Coins are both featured just as prominently as the link to your Profile and Friends. If it isn’t the first thing people will click on, it’s probably the second.
Alongside the new emphasis on gaming, hi5 is launching an avatar system called hi5 Stars, which features Flash-based animated 3D avatars (no download required). You’ll be able to change the appearance and movements of these to fit your current status, which anyone will see when they visit you profile. There really isn’t much you can do with them at this point, but down the line hi5 will be using these as part of its social entertainment experience, in much the same way Nintendo has done with the Wii’s Mii system, we’re told. This means that you will likely be able to use your avatar in some games, which is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Hi5 is not especially popular in the United States compared to Facebook, but it’s quite popular abroad, with over 60 million monthly unique visitors (only 10% of which come from the US). This would normally pose a challenge to developers who would have to figure out how to engage in transactions with users around the world, but hi5 has that taken care of. The social network has set up 60 different payment systems for users worldwide, all of which convert to hi5 Coins. And aside from the benefits of making international payments relatively painless, virtual currencies tend to lead to more impulse buying (it’s much easier to toss away a few Coins than a few dollars). hi5 takes a 50/50 rev share of any money spent in a game.
Even before the redesign hi5 games section has been doing very well. It only launched in February and already accounts for around 1/3 of the site ’s traffic, and direct user payments through the game already account for 15% of hi5’s revenue. Expect to see that number jump substantially over the next few months.
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Written by Jason Kincaid on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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Google has announced that its online word processor Docs just got a little better for team collaboration, with a new feature that allows users to share entire folders.
This is a nice tweak — previously, you could invite users to collaborate with you on individual documents, but not on an entire group of documents in a folder. Google says this is the most-requested feature improvement in Docs.
For example, I do almost all of my VentureBeat-related writing in Docs, and it can be a pain to repeatedly invite the same team members to different documents, and it also creates lots of opportunities for “Oh wait, did I invite you to that doc?” forgetfulness. If I could, say, create a folder for stories that need editing, and another for team documents, then share those folders with the right people, it would make things a lot easier. I could imagine this being true more generally, say if you’ve got a set of documents related to a project that an entire team is working on.
Google is also easing the path to bringing documents in other formats into Docs, by adding an “upload” page where you can upload a bunch of documents at once. And as part of the new changes, the home page has been given a little redesign, so that folders show up more prominently, and there’s a big “upload” button above them.
Written by Anthony Ha on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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Earlier this year, we wrote about Dictionary.com’s nifty iPhone app. Since April, the app has seen 3 million downloads and is steadily growing in popularity. Today, Dictionary.com (which as part of the Ask.com network that also includes Thesaurus.com) is launching a similar application for BlackBerry smartphones, which has a few key differentiating factors from its sister iPhone app.
In addition to providing users with more than 500,000 words, definitions and synonyms, the app also features audio pronunciations, spelling suggestions, a “Word of the Day” for both English and Spanish and the ability to view a recently searched terms list. One of the features that is exclusively available on the Blackberry app is the ability to access a definition or synonym while reading or drafting an email. The app lets you highlight the word and you’ll be given an option to find a synonym or definition. The app also has a native feature that lets you email or SMS text any word and its definition to yourself or a contact.
Doug Leeds, president of Dictionary.com, says that the features included in the Dictionary.com app were designed to meet the specific professional needs of BlackBerry users. For example, definitions have been condensed to be more functional on a Blackberry screen. Leeds also tells us that they are releasing their API to partners to incorporate into various applications. While Dictionary.com is still finalizing partners, Leeds says that the API will be incorporated on e-books, letting users (but wouldn’t say which one).
While Dictionary.com’s BlackBerry app is free, the Oxford American Dictionary is $19.99 on Blackberry’s App world. Dictionary.com was bought by IAC-run Ask.com in July of 2008 when the conglomerate bought Lexico, the operator of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.
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Written by Leena Rao on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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Every so often I think to myself, “what ever happened to Evite?” Then I get an email invitation and realize that it’s still alive. While some of the early adopters and tech elitists may have switched to services like MyPunchbowl, Socializr, Pingg, Cocodot, and even MySpace and Facebook, Evite lives on in the minds of many of those outside of the tech sphere. And that’s why Someecards now wants to kill it with a new Invites section of their site.
Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh. “The thing is, there’s really nothing wrong with Evite. It’s just not fun, which is really our big point of differentiation. Our site will be fun. And if you’re planing a party, shouldn’t it start off from the point of sending out the invites being fun rather than lame?,” Someecards co-founder Duncan Mitchell explains.
We agree.
I, for one, am much more likely to show up at a BBQ if I get an invitation that reads, “I’d appreciate it if you could bring meat, beer, condiments, paper goods, and all the guests to a BBQ I’m throwing,” than if I get one that says something like, “BBQ Time!”
While Someecards has a bunch of cards pre-populated in the Invites section based on the type of party, you can actually make any card on the site into an invitation. Simply find a card you like and click on the Invite tab below it, then enter in the data such as the title of the party, the details, the time and date, and where it will be. Once it’s sent, invitees can comment on the “Party Wall” and attach other Someecards there to express what they are feeling about the event.
The plan is also to attach the invitation functionality to all user-generated cards within the next few weeks, we’re told. And eventually Someecards will add Facebook Connect to extend these invites to your Facebook account as well.
The monetization plan is the same with the rest of the service. Aside from ads on the site, certain Someecards are sponsored by brands.
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Written by MG Siegler on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company — one of the largest energy generators in the world — announced that it will be building a huge 100-megawatt biomass power plant in eastern Sacul, Tex. Construction is slated to begin this fall, with production going live in 2012. The plant’s output could be enough to power up to 80,000 homes.
The plant comes as part of Atlanta-based Southern’s acquisition of Nacogdoches Power from American Renewables, another holding company. Austin Energy has already signed a power purchasing agreement to deliver power generated by the biomass plant for the next two decades.
The plant itself, covering 165 acres, will derive fuel from forest residue, wood processing residues and municipal wood waste — about 1 million tons of it every year. This material will be burned and boiled to generate steam to turn turbines. When completed, the plant will be one of the biggest biomass generators in the U.S., expected to cost $300 million, but contribute $30 million back to the local economy each year and create 400 green collar jobs.
The deal between Southern Company and American Renewables is significant due to the former’s high profile in the industry. Southern Power alone owns and operates upwards of 7,500 megawatts-worth of energy plants across Alabama, Florida, George and North Carolina, with 820 megawatts more in development in North Carolina and Texas. The Southern Company, parent to several sizable subsidiaries, serves 42,000 megawatts to 4.4 million customers. As such, it’s likely its moves will be mimicked by other utilities across the country. With many of their sights fixed on solar and wind — Southern Company’s recent acquisition could mark a comeback for biomass.
Written by Camille Ricketts on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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It’s been a bittersweet week for the U.K. when it comes to climate change. A government committee called for the isle to change its approach to global warming if it plans to hit its ambitious emissions targets. And one of its regulators estimated that it will need to spend 200 billion pounds (a staggering $316 billion dollars) over the next decade in order to make the necessary cuts in greenhouse gases. At the same time, the government announced that it has contracted Accenture to help ease its rollout of Smart Grid technology, which should push it closer to its goals.
The U.K. has been taking a lot of heat lately for its truly antiquated and problem-plagued electrical grid, inherited from the 1960s. With the U.S. and other European countries (other than Italy, which is working with an even more archaic system) moving toward cleaner, more efficient grids that channel data along with power, the U.K. is naturally interested in doing the same. Yet many worry that the country doesn’t have the technical brainpower to achieve such a massive transportation. Nonetheless, it’s setting out to prove them wrong.
Accenture will be charged with advising utilities as well as the government how to best install advanced meters capable of beaming energy consumption data between energy generators and their customers. The ideal system would also signal to utilities when peak demand is reaching dangerous levels, and why disruptions like brownouts and blackouts occur so that they can be easily and immediately fixed, saving millions in maintenance costs. On top of that, it would integrate more seamlessly with renewable sources of energy to supply solar and wind power — including energy generated by consumers’ rooftop solar panels or hydrogen fuel cells that can be fed back into the grid.
In order to speed development of a Smart Grid in the U.K., Accenture will need to highlight the financial advantages of such a system. Just like in the U.S., utilities are large and slow-moving — disinclined to adopt new practices unless there are financial rewards, or at least revenue parity. The consultancy says it will be working with the state’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to come up with incentives for utilities that embrace the Smart Grid.
Accenture is no stranger to the Smart Grid. In the U.S., it is partnering with Colorado-based utility Xcel Energy to run a pilot program incorporating these technologies. It also offers its Intelligent City Network — a portal for Smart Grid best practices that utilities can consult as they deploy smart meters and communicate changes to their customers. Presumably, it will tweak this information for the U.K.
The deal between the country and Accenture couldn’t have come at a better time — with the U.K. taking two big hits in this area. The first, a critical statement from the Committee on Climate Change, basically singled the sovereign state out as an environmental slacker. The group’s annual report, presented to Parliament today, said the country will need to cut its carbon emissions by 50 percent before 2020 in order to achieve its goal of an 80 percent cut (from 1990 levels) by 2050. A 50 percent cut in one decade is almost unthinkable. For context, even the most stringent legislation being pitched in the U.S. (the Kerry-Boxer bill) only calls for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Even so, the report said an incremental decrease of 2 to 3 percent a year could be feasible if the government enforces renewable energy quotas and establishes a carbon tax (a very controversial recommendation). Beyond that, leadership should sprint to build three new nuclear plants by 2022, four clean coal plants by 2016, and 23-gigawatts worth of wind farms, the committee said. Right now, the U.K. has about 7 gigawatts of wind power in development. But it will need to reduce its emissions about six time as quickly as it is doing today.
The report didn’t delve too deeply into how much all of these changes will cost — but British regulator Ofgem did, pegging the price tag on hitting emissions targets at 200 billion pounds. This amount includes power plant construction, gas storage facilities, Smart Grid deployments and renewable energy development. This cost burden will undoubtedly hike energy prices for average consumers — by as much as 60 percent over the next 10 to 15 years, Ofgem said.
This potential has made emissions and climate change a hot button political issues — one ripe for campaign platforms. The Conservative party is gaining momentum now, claiming that it will quickly approve construction of 5 gigawatts-worth of clean coal plants as well as nuclear power stations. Falling behind in the polls, the once dominant Labor Party could be in real trouble if it can’t devise equally attractive proposals.
Written by Camille Ricketts on October 12th, 2009 with no comments.
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