From Kenya, robust, mobile ‘brick’ provides internet access when the internet is down

Having successfully reached its Kickstarter funding target, BRCK will now keep Africans connected even when the power turns off and the internet drops out.

While slimline routers and ultra-thin batteries may be suitable for urban environments where mains electricity and wifi hotspots are in abundance, it’s not the same in rural Africa. We recently covered the rough-and-ready eChaja kit, providing solar-powered device charging for remote areas, and now the BRCK aims to keep Africans connected even when the power turns off and the internet drops out.

Created by Kenya-based nonprofit tech startup Ushahidi, the device is designed to be used in tough conditions and takes the form of a rugged metal brick. BRCK is essentially a modem that is able to connect up to 20 devices at a time and seamlessly switch between wifi, 3G, 4G and Ethernet connections automatically, depending on what signals are available. In moments of very low connectivity, BRCK uses the best available source to provide uninterrupted internet usage. Even if there’s a power blackout, the device comes with a battery that provides up to eight hours of use that is automatically activated when the AC is disconnected. BRCK also offers users an interface accessible from their devices, providing data about signal, usage and performance, as well as management of the network. The video below is taken from the project’s successful crowdfunding campaign:


BRCK reached its Kickstarter funding target this weekend and is now hoping to provide secure and failproof internet access to areas that are remote, have poor web infrastructures or suffer from extreme weather conditions that affect connectivity. However, the device may prove just as useful for city dwellers wanting a more reliable connection to the net – as Ushahidi’s motto attests: “If it works in Africa, it will work anywhere.” BRCK is still available to pre-order from USD 200 for the next week. Are there other ways to ensure that remote communities aren’t left behind when it comes to technology access?

Website: www.brck.com
Contact: info@brck.com
Spotted by: Murtaza Patel

Source : Springwise

Santé : les concurrents des pharmas mènent l'offensive sur smartphone

Interview de Vincent Mangematin, chercheur à Grenoble Ecole de Management

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En quoi des applications sur smartphone menacent-elles les big pharmas ?

Ces applications reflètent une profonde mutation du secteur santé et en sont un des leviers. Nous sortons d’une médecine fonctionnelle qui détecte des symptômes, prescrit des traitements et s’incarne dans l’autorité du médecin. Aujourd’hui, l’individu associe santé et bien-être. Il veut une approche globale et personnalisée, gère son capital santé, fait de la prévention (sport, diététique…), échange au sein de communautés et utilise de plus en plus ces applications sur smartphone.

De là à estimer que l’industrie du médicament est menacée…

Elle l’est, y compris pour des pathologies lourdes ! Très récemment, certains cantons suisses ont décidé de ne plus rembourser les médicaments anti-Alzheimer : ils préfèrent financer l’accompagnement des malades et leur qualité de vie.
Quant à la maternité, à la vie sexuelle, aux maux chroniques (stress, dos, sommeil…), aux régimes ou à la prise en charge des seniors, ce sont des sujets omniprésents sur internet et sur les smartphones ; on compare ce qui est dit avec l’avis du médecin et parfois, on se passe même de cet avis.

Qui a développé les 360 applications étudiées dans la thèse ?

En Chine, aux Etats-Unis et en France, nous avons identifié trois grandes catégories : des pure players qui vendent par exemple des régimes personnalisés, selon l’âge et la pathologie de l’utilisateur ; des communautés animées par des bénévoles et axées sur du fitness et diverses activités physiques ; des firmes comme Orange, SFR, General Electric, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, qui proposent de la télémédecine, du matériel paramédical, de l’accompagnement aux malades etc.
Certaines pharmas proposent du service autour de leurs produits, par exemple dans le domaine du diabète. Mais le médicament reste le socle de leur démarche.

Est-ce vraiment gênant ?

Oui, car elles sont à contre-courant. Le bien-être, l’approche globale du corps, la prévention, la médecine personnalisée, ce n’est pas le médicament : c’est l’approche qu’on trouve sur internet ou sur smartphone et que les mutuelles privées américaines, notamment, encouragent fortement. Elles n’ont pas trouvé mieux pour améliorer le rendement de leurs contrats.

Comment imaginez-vous le secteur santé mondial dans 5 ans ?

Les big pharmas resteront prépondérantes sur les blockbusters. Mais elles vont se retrouver cernées par ces nouveaux acteurs qui empruntent d’autres voies et d’autres outils, en particulier l’informatique connectée et la gestion des bigs datas : c’est la technologie la plus puissante pour faire du prédictif et de la médecine personnalisée. Or, elle est maîtrisée par IBM ou Google, pas par les pharmas.

La thèse a été réalisée par Yi Jiang, PhD student à Grenoble Ecole de Management

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Quelques exemples d'applications santé/bien-être NB : nous indiquons ici les références des sites qui présentent les services offerts par l'application smarphone

• Pure players : www.jemangemieux.com (régimes alimentaires adaptés à différentes pathologies)
• Web communautés autour de l'exercice physique : www.skitour.fr

Un lieu de travail "augmenté" optimise en temps réel les interactions entre employés

La “réalité sociale augmentée” postule qu’en collectant les données comportementales des employés, il est possible de modifier la configuration de l’espace de travail pour optimiser les relations entre employés. 

La configuration du lieu de travail est un élément déterminant non seulement de la productivité des salariés, mais également de leur propension à échanger. Ainsi, le co-working est une disposition qui est de plus en plus privilégiée, d’une part pour son aspect économique, mais surtout car elle dynamise l’échange et l’innovation. De fait, de plus en plus de nouvelles formes de partages de bureaux se développent. D’autre part, “les interactions sociales humaines sont rapidement en train de devenir de plus en plus mesurables à une échelle importante, grâce à des capteurs toujours en activité comme les téléphones mobiles”, souligne Ben Waber, co-fondateur et CEO de Sociometric Solutions. Sociometric Solutions fournit aux entreprises la possibilité de collecter des données comportementales des employés afin d’optimiser les interactions sociales entre employés. Ce nouveau domaine d’analyse intitulé “augmented social reality” permet d’utiliser les données récoltées sur les personnes pour améliorer leurs performances et leur comportement, même en temps réel.

Un lieu de travail qui "augmente" les interactions sociales
La “réalité sociale augmentée” est le fruit de nombreuses années de recherche. “Contrairement à la réalité augmentée, qui ajoute des couches d’information à une vidéo ou à votre champ de vision pour vous fournir plus d’informations, la réalité sociale augmentée désigne les systèmes qui changent en temps réel pour satisfaire des besoins d’un groupe” explique-t-il dans un article publié par la MIT Review. Ben Waber consacre sa première expérience à l’étude des box de travail en entreprises. Il crée des “box augmentés” dont les stores s’ouvrent et se ferment pour stimuler la communication entre certaines équipes, ingénieurs et designers par exemple. Bref, pour dynamiser les interactions sociales entre les employés, inutile d’organiser des réunions. A mesure que se développent des capteurs de plus en plus sophistiqués, les possibilités se démultiplient quant à l’étude des données comportementales sur les employés...  Le “prochain challenge”, selon Ben Waber, est “d’utiliser ces données afin d’influencer ou d’améliorer la façon dont les personnes travaillent entre elles”.

L'organisation de l'espace basées sur les données comportemantales
Sociometric Solutions, l’entreprise issue de ces recherches, fournit aux entreprises des badges équipés de capteurs qui permettent de mesurer les mouvements des employés, leur présence sur le lieu de travail, le ton de leur voix ou même à qui ils s’adressent. Par la suite, les données collectées sont utilisées afin de conseiller le management sur la façon dont l’organisation et la disposition de leurs bureaux peuvent être améliorée. Et la plupart du temps cela passe par un changement effectif de la disposition de l’environnement de travail. “Dans le futur”, annonce Ben Waber, “ces changements pourront être faits en temps réel.” Ce dernier prévoit même que les données comportementales pourront être utilisées afin de suggérer à tel ou tel employé d’interagir avec tel ou tel autre, un peu sur le même modèle des suggestions disponibles sur les réseaux sociaux.

Source: L'Atelier

Google Considering 'Wireless Balloons' to Deliver Internet to Countries

Google's news about its ambitious plans to build wireless networks in "emerging markets" like Africa and Asia isn't nearly as interesting as how the company might ultimately end up deploying Wi-Fi to these areas – not via conventional cable-stringing but, rather, by balloons.
While Google appears to be planning a fleet of CPUs and Android phones to connect its wireless networks together – over airwaves commonly used for television broadcasts, reports the Wall Street Journal – the company is also allegedly planning a few more esoteric methods for getting wireless access up and running in previously underserved areas.
Among these methods are satellite Internet and the aforementioned "balloons" plan, which would use "high-altitude platforms" to blast a wireless signal across an area spanning hundreds of square miles.
In other words, these aren't just conventional Wi-Fi routers strapped to weather balloons. They would also use frequencies different than those used for television broadcasts – an area that the company would need to get a governmental blessing from in order to fully deploy, given the regulations involved.

As for why Google is planning to invest such a great deal of hardware and engineering think into underdeveloped areas, the Wall Street Journal postulates that Google is simply interested in connecting more users into the Googlesphere of apps and devices. Doing so, in turn, helps add to Google's considerable success in Web advertising. With more than half the globe not even connected to the Web, even gaining a small sliver in this ignored population would give Google a healthy new base to draw from – a critical note, given that the company pulls most of its annual revenue from its advertising.

The move would also allow Google to get to this new population first before other carriers descend en masse. With numerous cable companies and wireless carriers in the U.S. and Europe crying foul that Google benefits from running "over the top" apps and services their networks with little benefit to the carriers themselves, Google's first-to-market wireless service in these underdeveloped areas would allow the company to get out ahead of its "competition" and circumvent their ability to prevent Google from effectively serving new audiences.

Google's ambitions are comparable to its launch of "Free Zone" in fall of 2012. This service allows users in the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa to use Google services and click through to search results without incurring any data charges on their phones. If users continue to surf the Web beyond the results of their searches, however, data costs apply.

Source: www.pcmag.com

La NASA soutient un projet d’imprimante 3D pour créer des Pizzas

L’Agence Spatiale américaine a donné une bourse de 125 000 dollars au chercheur Anjan Contractor afin qu’il développe un prototype d’imprimante 3D pour créer de la nourriture.

L’idée de la NASA est de pouvoir un jour nourrir ses astronautes qui sont dans l’espace pendant plusieurs semaines ou mois. Par exemple, aller sur Mars nécessitera près de 520 jours de voyage. Une belle pizza créée par une imprimante 3D permettrait aux voyageurs de l’Espace de profiter d’un plat comme sur leur bonne vieille Terre.

Tous les ingrédients de la Pizza seraient sous forme de poudre et pourraient se conserver près de 30 ans. Assez intéressant au cas où des hommes se retrouveraient coincés sur la planète rouge par exemple.

Le fonctionnement : l’imprimante débuterait par l’impression de la pâte. Puis une couche de tomate conservée sous forme de poudre viendrait se superposer en étant mélangée à de l’eau et de l’huile. Pour faire les ingrédients, on ajouterait une couche de protéines à base de lait, de plante ou d’animal.
Ici un exemple d’impression 3D de chocolat sur un biscuit, par A. Contractor :

Source : Vincent Abry

Des chercheurs développent une caméra de pointe sur le modèle des yeux d’insectes

Les chercheurs ont développé un prototype de caméra inspiré par les yeux d'insectes. Ces appareils offrent une vision bien plus claire que celle des yeux humains.

Aujourd'hui, les caméras vidéo sont équipées d'une seule lentille, sur le modèle de l'œil humain qui ne dispose que d'un seul tissu sensible à la lumière. Cependant, les arthropodes – animaux invertébrés à exosquelette – pourraient être la clé du développement de caméras plus sophistiquées. Les yeux composés d'insectes comme les abeilles ou les libellules leur offrent un champ de vision extrêmement large, une sensibilité élevée au mouvement et un sens aigu de la profondeur. Des chercheurs de l'université de l'Illinois, à  Urbana-Champaign, ont développé un prototype qui imite la structure des yeux de ces insectes.

Lentilles composées pour une vision aiguë
Les yeux des arthropodes sont composés de centaines d'organes photosensibles. La version artificielle des chercheurs est composée de 180 micro-lentilles, assemblées entre elles et posées sur une surface plane de photodétecteurs siliconés. La structure composée plate est ensuite gonflée dans une forme hémisphérique qui permet un champ de vision à 160°. Chaque lentille est pointée sur une direction différente, permettant ainsi un focus simultané sur différents objets, à différentes profondeurs de champ.

Des applications qui vont de la santé à l'aide aux victimes de catastrophes
Selon les propres déclarations des chercheurs, la version de ce de prototype correspond au « bas de gamme d'un œil d'insecte », comme les fourmis de feu ou les scolytes, dont la vue n'est pas très bonne, en fait. Mais l'équipe a l'intention de développer d'autres versions offrant une meilleure résolution pour atteindre le niveau de résolution des libellules, qui exige 20 000 micro-lentilles. Ces caméras pourraient avoir de nombreuses applications, et devraient s’avérer particulièrement utiles dans le secteur de la santé, pour des endoscopies, et dans les cas de catastrophes. Elles pourraient par exemple permettre de discerner des corps ensevelis sous un immeuble effondré.

Source : L'Atelier

Hug simulation jacket lets parents calm kids via mobile devices

The T.Jacket is a tablet or smartphone-controlled jacket that uses embedded air pockets to simulate hugs and calm children without human contact.

Toys designed specifically with autistic children in mind – such as the Auti – can help to make them feel more comfortable in their environment and improve their social behavior. With similar aims, the T.Jacket is a tablet-controlled jacket that uses embedded air pockets to simulate hugs and calm children without human contact.

The jacket is based on ‘deep pressure theory’, which suggests that pressure has a soothing effect on children with autism or attention deficit disorders who don’t process sensory information in the same way as those without the condition. Pockets of air are lined around the waist and shoulders of the jacket and – when instructed to do so via an app – inflate to produce the effect of a hug. For autistic children, the jacket provides the sensations involved with a hug without the potentially distressing human interaction. Parents or guardians can set the amount of pressure through the app and can also control multiple jackets with one device, for cases when they’re looking after more than one child. Sensors in the apparel also offer feedback on activity levels to help users determine when to best deploy a hug. The following video explains more about how the T.Jacket works:

 

Although initially developed with autistic children in mind, the T.Jacket may have a wider application for parents with jobs that require them to spend time away from home or education settings where teacher-child contact is increasingly disallowed for safety reasons. The jackets are available to pre-order for USD 399 and are currently compatible with the iPad, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy SIII and Samsung Note II. Are there other ways to reduce the pressure on parents – especially those caring for less able children – using new technology?

Website: www.mytjacket.com
Contact: www.mytjacket.com/contact-us
Spotted by: Lily Dixon

Source : Springwise

Scannable pyjamas contain bedtime stories

Smart PJ’s aim to make bedtime more engaging by enabling kids to scan its patterns to unlock new stories.

Most parents will know just how difficult it is to get their kids to bed at the right time, especially if work life means they don’t have much time to relax at home. While Japan has offered the Hug and Dream Minnie Mouse – a toy with a lulling mechanism that mimics slow breathing – our latest spotting is Smart PJ’s, pyjamas that make bedtime more engaging by enabling kids to scan the garment’s patterns to unlock new stories.

Developed by Idaho-based realtor Juan Murdoch, the all-in-one pyjamas are covered with unique dot patterns that act similarly to QR codes – when scanned using the tie-in app, one of 47 stories or lessons is brought up on the smartphone or tablet. While traditional storytelling has been a staple of children’s pre-bedtime ritual, many are now growing up with more attention-grabbing devices. By pairing new technology with bedtime clothes, Smart PJ’s makes preparing to sleep an engaging activity for today’s kids. Murdoch is a father of six and it’s easy to see how this kind of development can ease some pressure on parents, especially those with busy lives. Although the digital stories can be a joint reading venture for kids and parents, it is possible for children to entertain themselves with the Smart PJ’s, especially as the stories come with optional narration through the app. The video below offers a demonstration of the clothes:

 

 

Available for both boys and girls, Smart PJ’s retail for USD 25 each, while the app is free. How else can devices relieve the stress of parenting – without becoming an obstacle between important parent-child bonds?

Website: www.smartpjs.com
Spotted by: Murtaza Patel

Source : Springwise

Google Wallet makes payments possible through Gmail

Google is integrating Gmail with Google Wallet so that users can send payments as a mail attachment, even if the recipient doesn’t have a Gmail address.
To send money through Gmail, the user composing the email has to hover over the attachment paperclip, click the dollar sign ($) icon to attach money to the message, enter the amount, and send the mail, Travis Green, Google Wallet product manager, said in a blog post on Wednesday. The recipient will receive an email confirmation that the money was sent immediately after.
The service is free if the user’s bank account is linked to Google Wallet or a Google Wallet balance is used to make the payment. Payments can also be made with linked credit and debit cards for a flat fee of 2.9 percent per transaction, for a minimum of 30 cents.
Users will have to be signed in or get a Google Wallet account to send or receive money through Gmail. Although not required to have a Gmail address, the recipient will also be prompted to sign in or sign up for Google Wallet to accept the money. Sending money with Gmail and Google Wallet is only available in the U.S.
The Internet giant is rolling out the feature in the coming months in the country to users over 18 years.
Receiving money is always free regardless of the funding source the sender chooses, Google said. After the money is received, it can be deposited into a bank account or used anywhere Wallet is accepted.
Sending money through Gmail is currently only available on desktop. Another way to send money is by clicking a Send Money button in Google Wallet online at wallet.google.com on desktop or mobile, Google said.
Google has also launched its Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API to facilitate selling of physical goods and services on native Android apps with a two-click checkout option. The application programming interface is designed for merchants and developers who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers, Google said in a blog post.

Source : PCWorld.com

MorePhone : Le téléphone ne sonne plus, il se courbe !

Au lieu d’entendre leur smartphone sonner ou vibrer quand ils reçoivent un appel, les utilisateurs de ce système de l'Human Media Lab pourront le voir changer de forme.

Tandis que les constructeurs LG et Samsung se lancent dans la course de fabrication de smartphones à l’écran flexible, d'autres veulent faire du téléphone un objet mouvant dont chaque forme correspondrait à un usage. Il en est ainsi du MorePhone, un appareil mobile qui permet de modifier non seulement l’écran mais également la forme globale d’un téléphone mobile, et ce, dans le but d’avertir ses utilisateurs de manière visuelle et tactile qu'ils ont des notifications. Il s’appuie sur un affichage électrophorétique souple et sur des matériaux à mémoire de forme. Mis au point par les chercheurs de Human Media Lab au sein de la Queen’s Université, son prototype vient d’être dévoilé lors de la Conférence ACM SISGCH (Human Factors in Computing System) à Paris.

Ne plus passer à côté des notifications!

L'écran du dispositif, extra fin, est fabriqué par Plastic Logic, une société britannique et leader mondial dans le domaine électronique plastique. En dessous, un ensemble de particules en suspension prises en sandwich dans une superposition de films va entrer en mouvement sous l’influence d’un champ électrique. Chaque coin peut être paramétré pour indiquer une notification spécifique. A titre d’exemple, les utilisateurs peuvent faire bouger le coin en haut à droite pour un nouveau message, celui en bas pour un nouvel email, etc. Il permet également à un coin de se plier à plusieurs reprises pour signaler un évènement urgent. Ou tout simplement le téléphone peut se courber et reprendre sa forme normale pour signaler un appel.

Le design du futur téléphone mobile

Le futur du téléphone mobile est-il dans sa variation de formes? Oui, si on en croit l’analyse des chercheurs de l’Université de Bristol, qui avaient introduit le terme « résolution de forme ». En effet, les capacités d’un appareil mobile à changer de forme automatiquement seront intégrées à la prochaine génération d’appareils mobiles. Cela correspond également à l’analyse du directeur de Human Media Lab, Dr.Vertegaal. Selon lui, les téléphones mobiles du futur seront pliables et flexibles. « Le MorePhone est une autre étape dans l’interaction entre l’humain et l’appareil », précise-t-il. D’ici cinq et dix ans, cette technologie pourrait être largement adoptée par l’industrie des télécommunications.

Source : L'Atelier

Ingénieux : une Publicité visible seulement par les enfants

ANAR, une association espagnole qui vient en aide aux enfants et adolescents victimes de maltraitance, a mis en place un message publicitaire à deux visages. L’un est visible par les adultes (une tête d’enfant normal) et l’autre visible uniquement par des enfants de moins de 10 ans ou mesurant moins d’1m34 (on leur montre une photo sur laquelle on voit le visage d’un enfant battu).

Le message pour les adultes est le suivant : “Parfois, l’abus sur les enfants n’est vu que par l’enfant battu lui-même”.
Et celui pour les enfants : “Si quelqu’un te fait du mal, téléphone nous et on t’aidera”.
Une publicité de génie qui mériterait certainement un prix.




Source: Vincent Abry

Connected Kitchen Scale From Chef Sleeve Tracks Your Nutrition Bite-By-Bite

Chef Sleeve has been selling its iPad-protecting plastic sleeves since 2011 to keep kitchen gunk off the iPad you’re using while you cook. They also make a dishwasher-safe, non-porous chopping board with a built in iPad stand (below right), and a smaller stand in the same recycled paper composite finish. But Chef Sleeve’s grand plan is to create a range of connected devices for the kitchen that link up with an iPad app to let people track their nutrition in a highly granular, yet low hassle, way.

To that end it’s just kicked off a Kickstarter campaign for its next product: a smart Bluetooth scale, which it’s calling Smart Food Scales, that will enable people to weigh ingredients and snacks and then determine the exact amount of fat, salt, sugar, vitamins and so on in the ingredients they’re using in recipes or the snacks they’re eating at home.

“This is our first smart product. We now want to activate these pieces of hardware and take the iPad even further and enhance the experience in the kitchen,” says Chef Sleeve’s Michael Tankenoff. “The Bluetooth scale will sync up with our iOS app on iPad or iPhone. Say you’re weighing strawberries. We house the USDA database of food information, so you select strawberries. Not only will it tell you the weight, but it tells you all the nutritional information.

“For example, you’re preparing a salad — you put your bowl on the scale, add your lettuce, select lettuce, reset to zero, add your tomatoes, select tomatoes, reset to zero, keep going, build this recipe and when you’re done, now you know exactly the nutritional value of that salad that you have every day.”

As well as the health conscious and people watching their weight, Chef Sleeve envisages the scales being useful for individuals with conditions such as diabetes to help them track their sugar intake, or people with specific nutritional deficiencies who need to make sure they’re getting enough of certain vitamins in their diet.

The company is looking to raise $30,000 via its Kickstarter campaign, which runs until the end of the month. It’s showing the following prototype screenshots (below) of the planned iPad software. It also intends to open up its API at some point in the future, so that third-party developers can build apps for the smart scales — although it’s going to be careful about how it does this, as it wants to keep any other apps wholesome (scales can, after all, be used to weigh non-foodstuffs too).

After the scales, Chef Sleeve says it will look to launch other connected devices that tie back in to its iOS app to keep adding to a range of smart kitchen devices. A thermometer could be next, says CEO Santiago Merea. A chopping board with an integrated scale could also be on the cards “at some point” — but he says the company is being mindful about its mainstream consumer buyer. “We need to be careful about our demographic. We’re not going to throw rockets at them,” he told TechCrunch. “We want the design to be very homey, very crafty.”

If the uptake of the scales is strong, it could end up generating some fascinating data for Chef Sleeve — such as what, when and how people eat — which it said it will look to feed back into its product development.

“Our pledge is going to be to not store any personal information at all — because we don’t need to but we also don’t want the risk of being hacked,” said Merea. ”Food is personal… So we’re not storing any personal information but we don’t need to. With that data we can also even help our customers. It’s going to be really cool what we can do with this.”

Chef Sleeve already has stores interested in carrying the smart scales, according to Merea. It’s hoping to get into speciality kitchenware stores with the smart scales, a shift of its retail strategy which, to date, has been mostly focused on selling via Amazon (and its own website).

Source : Techcrunch, NATASHA LOMAS, Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

The Falling Cost Of Solar Energy Is Surprising Everyone

Everyone's talking about all the new oil and gas being produced thanks to new drilling methods.

But there's another narrative nipping at the shale boom's heels: solar energy.  And it's expanding just as fast.

It's just that the scale is not quite the same. But that's changing.

Citi has just named solar photovoltaics, which convert solar radiation into electric currents via semiconductors, to its list of 10 world-disrupting technologies.

In a note this week in advance of the disruption report, Citi's Jason Channell said that in many cases, renewables are already at cost parity with established forms of electricity sources. 

The biggest surprise in recent years has been the speed at which the price of solar panels has reduced, resulting in cost parity being achieved in certain areas much more quickly than was ever expected; the key point about the future is that these fast ‘learning rates’ are likely to continue, meaning that the technology just keeps getting cheaper.

Below is a chart showing where "socket" or grid parity has already been achieved. (Grid parity is when a source of power becomes cost competitive with other sources.) The lines represent the pattern of expanding solar power in a given year — so at peak solar exposure, parts of the southwest U.S. are now already capable of meeting their electricity needs via solar panels. 

Citi

He also adds this cool chart showing that the Age of Renewables has only just begun. 

Citi

Channell writes:

The rapidly expanding parity provides enormous scope for growth in the solar industry, driven by standalone economics as opposed to subsidies, which are becoming ever scarcer in an austerity-driven world.

As a previous Saudi oil minister once noted, “The stone age didn’t end for a lack of stones...”, and this substitutional process can be well demonstrated looking at the US energy mix over the longer term.

Gas isn't going away, but renewables are coming on strong.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-the-solar-age-is-dawning-2013-5#ixzz2SK0CfxNi

Source : businessinsider, Rob Wile , May 2, 2013, 11:03

Mayer boosts Yahoo parental leave, escalates baby-benefits arms race

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who clamped down on employees working from home, has made a peace offering of sorts to working parents: Female employees will get 16 weeks paid maternity leave when they give birth. New dads will get eight paid weeks.

Parents who adopt a child or have a child through surrogacy will each get eight weeks paid maternity leave.

This represents a doubling of maternity benefits at Yahoo and brings the Sunnyvale-based tech company's policy closer to those of its rivals at Google and Facebook. NBC Bay Area was first to report this news.

Google offers 18 to 22 weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave to parents who have a child through child birth. Google offers seven weeks paid leave to parents who adopt or have a child through surrogacy.

Google offers parents $500 in "baby bonding bucks" to spend on take-out food after a baby is born. Google offers what it calls "near-site" child care and backup child care for when regular child care falls through.

Facebook offers four months paid leave to both mothers and fathers. Facebook also offers its employees $4,000 in cash to spend on a new baby per family.

Facebook also gives employees $3,000 per year to defer some of the costs of daycare or a nanny, but Facebook doesn't have onsite childcare at its offices in Silicon Valley or Austin, Texas.

Marissa Mayer built a nursery next to her office for her own newborn son, born shortly after she joined the company last year.

Source :  bizjournals.com, Lindsay Riddell, May 1, 2013

China Is Investing $810M In Beidou, A Navigation System It Hopes Will Eventually Rival GPS

China is investing $810 million into the development of Beidou (BDS), the navigation satellite system that it is positioning as a rival to the U.S.-developed GPS.

According to China Daily, the money will be used to build an industrial park that will house 30 to 50 companies focused on developing an ecosystem for Beidou. Based in Tianjin, the industrial park is expected to welcome its first 20 companies in June.

The Chinese government not only wants Beidou to eventually dominate China’s $19.2 billion navigation service sector, but also sees it as a way to make China’s military less dependent on foreign technology. This would protect the country if the U.S. decided to deny it access to GPS and also potentially give it a strategic advantage. As DefensePolicy.Org writes, “Aside from the commercial applications of Beidou, the placement of an independent global navigation system would give China a considerable strategic military advantage in the event hostilities should break out in the Asia-Pacific Region. Most notably, such an advantage would be useful in countering foreign naval forces and with particularity those of the United States.”

Beidou can also offer China more quotidian advantages. For example, developers hope that the system will allow taxi drivers to quickly locate nearby passengers, which in turn would cut down on emissions and improve the capital’s air quality. Watches synced to Beidou navigational satellites can identify a user’s location within 10 meters and clock synchronization signals to within 50 nanoseconds.

In a March interview, the chief commander of China’s lunar exploration mission Chang’e-3, Ye Peijian, said that Beidou will achieve full-scale global coverage by around 2020 and will be able to provide highly accurate and reliable positioning and navigation with the aid of 35 satellites. China has so far launched 16 navigation satellites.

Beidou has been used by the Chinese government and military for transport, weather forecasts, fishing, forestry, telecommunications, hydrological monitoring and mapping since December (it originally launched on a trial basis back in 2003), but more than 95 percent of navigation terminals used in China still rely on GPS. According to industry statistics cited in China Daily, the total output of China’s navigation service sector in 2012 topped 120 billion yuan ($19.2 billion).

In addition to its navigation and timing functions, Beidou’s terminals will also be able to communicate with the ground station with short messages in Chinese characters. China’s government hopes that its language functionality will allow it to grab 70 to 80 percent of domestic market share away from GPS by 2020, and also allow Beidou to gain traction in other Sinophone countries.

Source : Techcrunch, Catherine Shu, May 2nd, 2013

Google, Nike, Jawbone and the fight to win wearable computing

Jawbone's Up wrist monitor

(Credit: Jawbone)

When wireless headset company Jawbone announced plans Tuesday to buy wearable sensor maker BodyMedia for what a source said was more than $100 million, it may well have marked a turning point for wearable computing.

The technology, which includes everything from Google Glass eyewear to heart-rate monitors to sensors that slip into running shoes, has come of age. It's moving past the niche gizmos that only appeal to geeks and gearheads.

As a real business materializes around the technology, a battle is brewing among companies that want to put themselves at the heart of it, and profit from its growth.

It's the age-old story of tech -- companies want to control the application standards on which developers build. In the 1990s, Microsoft won the platform war against IBM and became the powerhouse of the PC era. Google's Android mobile operating system is racing ahead of Apple's iOS in the platform battle for mobile dominance.

There's a reason winning the platform wars is so key. Developers have limited resources and often find themselves too stretched to create applications for more than one or two platforms. So often, they focus on the biggest. That, in turn, helps boost the platform, which then is in a stronger position to win over more developers. It becomes a virtuous cycle.

Wearable computing may never become the massive global business that PCs and mobile devices are now. But it's already caught the attention of Google, which is pushing its Google Glass. It's unclear what products might emerge using the technology. But Google's heft alone is enough to lure developers to its technology. And last month, giant Silicon Valley venture capital firms, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as Google's own Google Ventures, formed an investment syndicate to seed startups creating Google's Glass products.

A handful of other companies are staking their own claim as well to a wearable technology platforming, focusing on the health and fitness market that's become the biggest piece of the business.

"There is a little bit of a platform war going on," said Robin Thurston, chief executive and co-founder of MapMyFitness, a health and fitness service where athletes can log their runs and bike rides.

It's not a full-on combat just yet. MapMyFitness is developing its own platform to which some 400 devices connect, uploading various health and fitness data. But the company is also one of 10 app makers partnering with Jawbone on its Up platform, announced Tuesday, that also hopes to be attract developers.

Right now, much of the data collected from wrist monitors such as Jawbone's Up, as well as heart-rate monitors, sleep-pattern sensing devices, bicycling cyclometers and more exist in digital silos. It's not easy to look at the different collections of data at the same time to determine, for example, if a series of poor running performances might have been related to several nights of fitful sleep.

"At the end of the day, you want to see how one pattern links to another pattern," said Travis Bogard, Jawbone's vice president of product management and strategy.

Wearable tech gets in the game (pictures)

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That's the point of Jawbone's platform. The company also inked deals with MapMyFitness rival Runkeeper, and with Withings, which makes digital scales that send weight data wireless to PCs, among others.

"We wanted to create showcases to get developers interested," Bogard said.

And then there's Nike. The shoe and apparel giant has been pushing into consumer electronics since the 2006 introduction of its Nike+ technology, which began with a sensor that runners could slip into their shoes to track performance. It's Nike+ FuelBand, unveiled a little more than a year ago, competes with Up, monitoring the steps and calories burned by users.

Nike+ FuelBand

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

In December, the company made its own bid for developers, launching a program to offer money and mentoring to companies interested in creating health and fitness apps on top of Nike+. In March,the company awarded 10 startups $20,000 each to work from Portland, Ore., for three months to build those apps.

"We want to work with partners that have the same vision we have for health and fitness," said Nike spokesman Joseph Teegardin.

The platform battle is still young. And many of the companies vying for their spot in the center of the emerging market work with one another. But the competition suggests that wearable computing is moving from being merely a novelty, niche business.

"This is the beginning of an entirely new ecosystem of applications that will exist on top of your wearables," Jennifer Darmour, a user experience designer for the Seattle design firm Artefact and author of the Electricfoxy blog. "And that is a pretty solid indication that wearable tech is here to stay."

Source : http://news.cnet.com/, Jay Greene  May 2, 2013

Google reveals Shawnee, Kansas is in line to get its Fiber Internet service

Google on Thursday announced that Shawnee, Kansas will receive the company’s Fiber Internet service. Shawnee is located just south-west of Kansas City, meaning the technology will be easier to extend than previous Fiber city announcements, but Google currently claims it doesn’t have an estimate for when the service will be available.

The company says it has “a lot of planning and engineering work to do” before bringing Fiber to Shawnee. Nevertheless, Google insists the city deserves Fiber access as it expects that widespread connectivity will complement the “great work” the City is already doing:

We’ve also been impressed by Shawnee’s vision to keep their citizens informed and involved using the Internet. Recently, the Citymodernized their website, so that locals can easily access city info—from crime maps to fiscal reports to streamed audio of city council meetings.

Although Shawnee is a city in its own right, it also happens to be a suburb of Kansas City. In this regard, it is similar to Olathe, Kansas – which also approved to receive Google Fiber, back in March.

Earlier today, there was speculation that Shawnee was getting Google Fiber after city officials announced a special council meeting to consider an agreement regarding the service. Once they voted to bring it to the city, Google and the city announced the news together.

“The ultra-high speed Google fiber network will enhance the quality of life for people in Shawnee by providing faster access to essential digital resources,” Shawnee’s Mayor Jeff Meyers said in a statement. “This will grow and strengthen Shawnee’s competitive advantage in the years to come.”

Google first announced Fiber was coming to Kansas City in July 2012. The company was quiet regarding other locations for months, but as of late there have been a slew of announcements.

In April, Austin, Texas was named as the second city, quickly followed byProvo, Utah less than two weeks later.

Given the plans for Olathe and Shawnee, Internet citizens who live in cities near Austin and Provo should talk to their city officials. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Google is eager to expand Fiber, both to large US cities as well as smaller ones that are suburbs to existing Fiber cities.

Source : The Next Web, Emil Protalinski, 3/5/13

Apple Reveals New “All-Time Top Apps” Following Countdown To 50 Billion Downloads

Apple announced a countdown to 50 billion app downloads today, signaling that iOS downloads are north of 49 billion already.

“Apps have revolutionized the way we play video games, consume news, do business, educate, communicate, create art, and so much more,” Apple says.

And as Apple has done before for major app store download thresholds, it’s giving away a $10,000 App Store gift card to the lucky iOS user who downloads the 50 billionth app, plus a $500 gift card to the next 50 people to download an app.

Currently, the countdown is at 49,216,610,939, and increasing by about 1,000 every two seconds, so there’s perhaps two and a half days until the download counter crosses the 50 billion mark, assuming the rate stays the same.

In addition, Apple revealed the top 25 free and top 25 paid apps of all time. Facebook owns three of the top 16 free apps, and Google has four of the top 25. The original Angry Birds is the most downloaded paid app of all time, and an astounding three more editions of Angry Birds — Seasons, Space, and Star Wars — are in the top 18 downloaded apps of all time.

Top 25 Free Apps	Top 25 Paid Apps
Facebook Pandora Radio Instagram YouTube Skype Words with Friends Free The Weather Channel Twitter Temple Run Google Search Netflix Shazam Angry Birds Free Draw Something Free Flashlight Facebook Messenger Google Earth Fruit Ninja Free iHeartRadio Movies by Flixter Bump eBay Pac-Man Lite Groupon Google Maps	Angry Birds Fruit Ninja Doodle Jump Cut the Rope Angry Birds Seasons WhatsApp Messenger Camera+ Words with Friends Tiny Wings Angry Birds Space Pocket God Plants vs. Zombies The Game of Life Classic The Moron Test Where’s My Water Draw Something Monopoly Angry Birds Star Wars MotionX GPS Drive Skee-Ball Scrabble UNO Minecraft – Pocket Edition Color Splash The Sims 3

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/02/apple-announces-countdown-to-50-billion-apps-served-reveals-top-50-apps-of-all-time/#z5g4qzqHs0dOSjX8.99