The 5-kilowatt device involves a fuel cell system that can generate electricity using a range of liquid fuels, such as natural gas or ethanol. Installed at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga in 2006, one of the earliest Bloom box units (running on natural gas) was reported in the New York Times last year to deliver enough power at twice the efficiency of a standard gas-burning boiler system, with 60 percent fewer emissions, for a 5,000-square-foot home (about twice the size of an average single-family home in the U.S.). Bloom marketing and product management chief Stu Aaron confirms those results in this latest report.

Really competing with conventional energy sources in the residential market, however, will depend on much more than efficiency and energy savings. Several variables will factor into the success of these devices as they become available — reportedly within the next year or two. Key issues could include the upfront cost of the devices, reliability and the relative ease of the process for installing them (largely in rural areas of the developing world currently lacking a grid connection, but also for use in conjunction with other power supplies in the developed world).

Initially, Bloom plans to target businesses, “that want to explore whether they can get reliable green energy at the same price or less than they now pay the electric company,” writes BusinessWeek, noting rumors that tech companies including eBay and Google have already started testing the system.

At least one thing is certain: Bloom’s investors have a lot riding on the startup’s ability to parlay a promising technology into a profitable business. According to recent comments from Kleiner Perkins leader John Doerr, Bloom now has “substantial revenues and orders,” but they haven’t come cheap. Doerr said 8-year-old Bloom, with its $250 million in financing, has “required ten times as much capital,” compared to other venture companies (Google took only $25 million to get to an IPO), and he predicted the company remains at least a year away from an initial public offering.

The Bolt browser has been updated to version 1.6, bringing faster page rendering. The new version also adds a password manager. Bolt can now be set as the default browser for the BlackBerry for users who wish to do so.

Foursquare for the BlackBerry will be entering into beta soon. The social network based on locations is growing in popularity, and BlackBerry owners will soon be able to join in the fun.

Online music video destination site Vevo launched tonight with an introduction by Bono, who forecast that the new site would strike a new paradigm in the music industry. “Friends, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a great old cash cow that was the music business,” Bono said. “But friends, we’re also here to celebrate new shoots, new life, and the birth of a new model for our industry.”

Taking a page out of Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s playbook, Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff told the crowd at the company’s launch event in Manhattan that the new site would be all about the user experience. “If we focus on the fan, if we focus on the experience, the rest will fall in line,” Caraeff said. But then taking a page out the music industry’s playbook, he welcomed Mariah Carey, Adam Lambert and Lady Gaga to the stage. Let’s just say record labels don’t do humble very well.

Vevo will have a huge amount of video content at launch, as its owners control more than 80 percent of all music videos created. YouTube provides backend management for the videos and will also drive viewers to the new destination site.

The site will get rid of duplicate and low-quality uploads that currently plague YouTube, redirecting to the official highest-quality recording studio version on Vevo. High-definition videos are coming early next year, and synchronized lyrics are posted for as many videos as possible. Vevo videos are embeddable, though there doesn’t seem to be anyway for users to participate or mash them up beyond leaving a comment.

The company has future plans to make its videos available not just online, but on mobile and connected devices. “It’s not about building a destination site, it’s about building an experience,” Caraeff said. “It’s about putting out the best experience wherever people are.”

Universal Music CEO Doug Morris, who had the vision for the site and brought the team together, said that Vevo would be a boon for music lovers, artists, brands, and recording companies alike. And it marks a dramatic change in industry cooperation. “Major record companies are actually working together, and controlling their own destiny,” Morris said.

Vevo has seen a fair amount of interest from other content providers in the days leading up to tonight’s event. Yesterday, the company struck a licensing deal with EMI. And last week, the company announced a deal with CBS Interactive to bring content from Last.fm and more than 90 CBS radio stations to the site. In addition to the new content partners, Vevo has signed up a couple of big distribution partners. Both AOL and CBS were named as part of the “Vevo Music Network,” which will have embedded videos from the site.

Perhaps more importantly, Vevo has the support of advertisers and brands. The Universal Music Group-Sony Music joint venture is being referred to as the “Hulu of music videos,”and like Hulu, the site aims to better monetize video by giving it a clean, well-lit place. By moving their music videos off YouTube and onto the new site, the associated partners hope to create more value for advertisers that might be scared off by user-generated content.

Morris said brands are committing millions of dollars to Vevo before it has even launched. Key brand launch partners include AT&T, Colgate, Infiniti, McDonalds, Nikon, Sony, and Stoli, among others.

If successful, the companies involved in Vevo might be able to build a nice business from the ad-supported site, adding a much-needed additional revenue stream for a music industry that has been decimated by a drastic decline in sales of physical CDs that has not been matched by a rise in digital music sales.

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Curious what your future phone will look like? OK, so this isn’t some sleek device that interacts with a chip wired into your ear canal, but rather your phone two or three years into the future, which is slightly less visionary, but still pretty cool. I chose the features for this phone based on what I know chipmakers are doing and betting on, but if any of you have a different vision, feel free to lay it out. This is a plausible gadget, but certainly not the only phone.

I also talked to Jeff Brown, a principal analyst at Portelligent, to get a sense of how feasible some of this stuff is, as well as with my colleague Kevin over at jkOnTheRun, who offered up some good ideas around intelligent radio management software and an integrated port for docking the phone. Brown acted as my naysayer when it came to a feature’s drain on the battery. Since folks don’t want to carry a device much larger than an iPhone, battery life is the biggest limitation for most of these features. But if wireless power gets beyond the changing pad stage, all bets are off.

Video: The future phone is going to require multiple ways of moving all the video we want to put on the device, onto a bigger display. For that reason, I think future phones will have an HDMI port and could use future iterations of Bluetooth for video transfer. Brown said that pico projectors that display the handset’s screen onto a wall (which I had hoped to see on future phones) will have to reduce their drain on the battery if they want to make it as a standard feature. I’d also like a second camera in addition to the 8-12-megapixel camera (with digital zoom!) on the back. The secondary camera, which is common in Europe and Japan, would be on the front of the phone and used for video calls.

UI: Capacitive touchscreens like the iPhone offers will rule on the high end, although feature phones will have resistive as well. I think the stand-alone QWERTY keyboard on most smartphones will be gone (and I love my QWERTY) to be replaced with software-based touch keyboards that use haptics to offer a tactile sense of having a keyboard.

Radios: Standard 3G and 4G radios will be on the phone (and they’ll have multiple antennas, too), but all phones will have GPS radios for location and the aforementioned Bluetooth. Wi-Fi will be a common element, and thanks to upcoming chips like Atheros’ tiny, new 802.11n Wi-Fi chip, the Wi-Fi will be fast without taking up valuable space and using up so much power.

Ports: MicroUSB for charging as well as an HDMI port and a headphone jack will all be standard. I like Kevin’s idea of an integrated docking port as my phone gets powerful enough to be the “brains” of a computer system that’s popped onto various keyboard, screen and mouse setups. This allows someone to carry all of her data on the phone and not have to sync it to a companion computer at home or work.

I left off keyboards, near-field communication chips, mobile television and widespread built-in memory capacity that exceeds 32GB simply because I don’t believe future phones will have them, but now I’m eager to hear what you guys think.

Don’t you love this time of the year? It’s a time when we go out of our way to help others. Tap our feet to joyous music. Guzzle peppermint-, gingerbread- or eggnog-flavored drinks. Then there are the smart businesses that add client appreciation to their holiday checklist.

Surveys from various industries repeatedly show that it’s cheaper to retain clients than to find new ones. One way to keep them is to let them know how much you value them. Since the beginning of my business, I do little things for my clients to show I think of them and appreciate them. You can do this without spending a lot, and some suggestions only cost a little bit of your time.

If you’re tired of pulling your hair out for ideas, here are some to inspire you:

Non-gift Ideas

• Share a relevant article. When I come across an article or comic that’s related to my clients’ business, I share it with them. This shows that I’m thinking of them and that Icare about their business.
• Forward publicity opportunities. If you’re a member of Help a Reporter Out (HARO) or know reporters in need of an expert, forward them to your clients when you find a match.
• Make referrals. Hear someone asking, “Hey, do you know anyone who can do such ‘n such?” Refer the person to your client or give your client a heads up.
• Promote your clients. I watch my clients’ tweets, Facebook updates, newsletters, whathaveyou. If they make an announcement, win an award or make news, I’ll mention them on my blog or Twitter stream.
• Donate in your client’s name. If you already donate to nonprofit organizations, why not make it in honor of your client? Even better, keep track of your clients’ favorite causes and donate to those causes in their name.
• Write a note. This means writing, not typing. Handwritten notes are rare these days, so it’s a pleasant surprise whenever someone receives one. Every year, I send a handwritten note to all of my clients and others I wish to thank.
• Send a greeting card. Don’t stop with winter holiday cards. Consider birthdays, national holidays or a get well card. Add a handwritten note in the card for a personal touch. Although e-cards can work, receiving a card in the mail can have a bigger impact.
• Provide a testimonial. While it’s typical for clients to do the testimonial writing, you can do it for your clients, too. For example, I wrote one for a client who is an author and speaker since I had read his book and seen him in action.
• Review the client’s product or service. You and I are customers, too. I’ve written book reviews of clients’ books. But how do I avoid sounding like I’m kissing up to the client? I let the review speak for itself, knowing that a fake-sounding review does no good for the author, reader and me.
• Refer to print articles. Was your client mentioned in a print publication? Did an author you know have a book mentioned in the newspaper? Or you found an article or comic that you want to share. You could cut them and mail them, or scan them and email them. Some print articles are available online, so you can forward them or link to them.
• Touch base with your client. A phone call, an email or some other touchpoint is a great way to check in with your client and just ask how they’re doing — with no selling, and no business talk from your end.

Gift Ideas

We’ve presented suggestions for web worker stocking stuffers, but not all clients are web workers. Plus web workers may need to consider the cost of shipping gifts. You may need to find different gifts for your international clients due to customs and higher shipping costs.

• Gift cards. Not everyone likes coffee. Not everyone has X store. Before buying gift cards, consider client likes, dislikes and locations. Another possibility is a gift card from an online store with a wide selection. Keep in mind that there may be shipping costs.
• Books. The hardest thing about giving books is finding one you can buy in bulk at a discount that will please everyone. I’ve previously sent books about success and business inspiration. If you have the time and resources, you could select a different book for each client.
• Food. The first year I gave gifts to clients, I sent pecan pralines. Being from Texas, I wanted to send something that represented Texas. I did wonder about nut allergies, and sure enough, one client had an allergy, but she reported her kids loved the treat. The next year, I sent candy and popcorn without nuts. Coffee and tea are often winners, too.
• Useful giveaways. This year, I not only sent a little book to clients, but also a notepad made out of recycled material with my company logo on it. I use a few things that have a company logo on them because they’re useful. So in thinking about a customized giveaway item, I considered price and usefulness. Shirts are also great, but then you have to deal with the size dilemma. Even if you order them big, the client might feel insulted not realizing you were covering everyone with one size.
• Personalized gifts. Unlike giveaways that mention your company’s name, you can personalize a gift by inscribing it with the client’s name.
• Free product or service. Create a free product or service coupon based on your business offerings, or just wrap them up. If you’re an author, send a signed copy of your book.

How do you thank your clients?

Photo credit: abcdz2000

A couple of weeks ago, Sheffield, UK-based Iceotope showed off a liquid-cooled server system at the Supercomputing 2009 show. Iceotope says its technology can cut data center cooling costs by a whopping 93 percent by dropping servers into an electronics-friendly liquid. And, as it turns out, it’s not the only liquid cooling startup in town.

National Science Foundation grant recipient Green Revolution Cooling (PDF) also submerges servers in an inert liquid (mineral oil), albeit in a different manner. Instead of Iceotope’s server blade-inspired setup, Green Revolution Cooling’s servers slide vertically into the company’s enclosure. Their approaches differ, but both companies promise huge energy savings — so large, in fact, that transitioning to their systems can cut energy costs for some data center operators by six figures.

It’s a compelling prospect, but the two companies have the tough job of changing the mindsets of CIOs and IT managers. One aspect of both systems that is sure to give IT planners pause is the added customization required to prepare servers for liquid submersion. As Christiaan Best, the co-president of Green Revolution Cooling, describes in this YouTube video, fans and optical drives are removed and hard drives must be sealed. The gear also needs specialized heatsinks, pumps and new maintenance procedures. That means that the wet architecture diverges wildly from the “rack ‘em and stack ‘em” approach which has kept IT managers gainfully employed all these years.

Resistance to change isn’t the only impediment to success. Iceotope and Green Revolution Cooling are bucking a hardware ecosystem governed by air-cooled product design principals. And, like I mentioned in this article at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), it’s an ecosystem that can pose serious challenges for startups aiming for a slice of data center-sized budgets.

Image courtesy of clayirving’s Flickr feed Creative Commons.

Cisco's Unified Computing System

Cisco has scored its first major customer for its unified computing system in Savvis, a hosting provider that’s building out a computing cloud for enterprise users. Savvis, which has been releasing details over the last few months on its Symphony computing cloud, is creating an infrastructure-as-a-service offering that will have three different service tiers, from a basic level to one that provides a virtual private network that can guarantee privacy of data as it moves between servers inside the Symphony cloud.

The Symphony cloud is still in beta and is slated to be generally available by the spring of next year. Savvis’ purchase of UCS gear makes sense given that its cloud relies on Cisco switches as well as VMware for its hypervisor and some management capabilities. Still, it’s a vote of confidence in Cisco’s hardware and the first non-Cisco shop to get behind the UCS servers in a big way. CSC has said it’s looking at Cisco gear to underlie its cloud computing offerings, but hasn’t formally announced anything yet.

Savvis is not, however, buying the gear through the new services division created in November to sell the combined Cisco, EMC and VMware building blocks for enterprise clouds. A Cisco spokesman said that the EMC gear did not fall within the parameters of the Savvis cloud, which may come as a relief for the server vendors that Cisco is displacing, as they still get to sell a storage box. For more on the Cisco triple threat check out our column on the topic at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

FLO-TV Personal Television Device

ABC and Disney are making their video available through Qualcomm’s FLO TV mobile video service, in a deal that will add popular shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Lost to the service. In addition, FLO TV will add select content from ABC Family, SOAPnet, and short-form content from ABC Entertainment and ABC News, as well as a live simulcast of the Disney Channel.

This isn’t the Walt Disney Co.’s first foray onto FLO TV; the company also makes its ESPN Mobile TV available through the service. That partnership was extended to include even more live event coverage, with previously unavailable games from ESPN being made available on the ABC Mobile Channel.

With the latest deal, FLO TV now has mobile video from 17 different content providers, including all four major broadcast networks. The full channel lineup also includes NBC Mobile, NFL Network, A&E Mobile, Discovery Mobile, and Fox Business, among others.

Consumers can subscribe to watch mobile video on FLO TV through a number of ways, including its personal television device, on AT&T’s Mobile TV or Verizon’s V CAST, or through its in-car Auto Entertainment system.

Roku HD-XR

With the proliferation of new broadband-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players ready to take the world by storm, the demand for standalone Internet set-top boxes will be limited. That’s one takeaway from new research released today by The Diffusion Group, which estimates that Internet set-top boxes like the Roku Player, the upcoming Boxee Box, and the Popcorn Hour devices will account for just a fraction of all broadband-connected consumer electronics sold.

That’s not to say that the market will be nonexistent. By 2014, there will be about 30 million standalone Internet set-top boxes sold worldwide, said TDG senior partner Colin Dixon. But that 30 million represents just 3 percent of all broadband-enabled consumer electronics devices that consumers will buy in the next five years.

So where’s the growth in connected devices going to come from? Over the next five years, Dixon believes, Blu-ray players and gaming consoles will be big sellers. “Blu-ray will probably outsell Internet set-top boxes by about 10-1,” Dixon said in an interview with NewTeeVee. “I don’t see Hollywood moving away from packaged media anytime soon.”

Perhaps more importantly, Dixon said Blu-ray players are moving away from being just a device for viewing optical media, and becoming broadband media devices themselves, with consumer electronics companies such as LG, Samsung, and Sony adding services like Netflix and Amazon.com’s video-on-demand service to their Blu-ray players. Over the next few years, the addition of broadband video services to Blu-ray players, coupled with lower prices, should make the devices a good value for consumers, compared with broadband-enabled TVs, which are still relatively big-ticket items.

While Internet set-tops will have limited growth over the next five years, they’re not the only standalone devices that will be eclipsed by consumer electronics that have multiple capabilities. Due to the existence of new standards like UPnP and DLNA that exist in multiple consumer electronics devices, TDG estimates that digital media adaptors, which sought to bring content stored on user PCs and other devices to their TVs, will become virtually nonexistent by 2014.

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Blockbuster and Netflix Win a Patent Suit; a judge found that the DVD-by-mail services do not infringe on a patent owned by Oklahoma-based Media Queue. (Video Business)

Next New Networks’ Bobby Miller Headed to Sundance; the Indy Mogul host’s short film TUB was accepted to the film festival. (Next New Networks blog)

Kyte Forms Strategic Partnership with LEVEL Studios; the digital agency will use Kyte’s online, social and mobile video management tools for its clients. (Kyte blog)

Married on MySpace Moves to SiTV; Endemol USA will spin off the Web series as a reality show that will air on the Latino broadcaster beginning in March. (Variety) See our previous coverage of the Web series here.

Immersive Media Powers 360-Degree Interactive Video; CBC/Radio Canada and MTV Networks take advantage of technology that enables viewer-controlled, 360-degree, live, full-motion, interactive video experiences. (InteractiveTV Today)

Pozzitive Launches a Facebook Page; the production company behind shows like Harry Enfield and Chums and Little Britain will host exclusive images, video and brand new material from top comedians on the social network. (emailed release)

Apple, with the introduction of the iPhone, upended the world of user experience with the device’s multitouch technologies. To be sure, Apple’s iPhone wasn’t the first to use touch technologies, but it put them to such good use that it’s since become de riguer to use touch in cellphones and other connected devices.

I’ve been fascinated by the touch revolution and have often wondered who will win from this big shift. The answer came to me this morning via Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Northeast Securities. In a research note, titled Cypress Semiconductor in Pole Position for the Next-Generation Touchscreens, Kumar writes:

Our checks indicate that Cypress has captured bulk of the new design wins for multi touch capacitive smart phones. The differentiating attributes include higher level of functionality, attractive cost, lower power consumption and a tightly integrated software stack. Based on current design activity, we expect Cypress to displace Synaptics and become the dominant supplier of touch screen chip solutions in 2010.

I was especially intrigued because Cypress is among the chip companies I’ve barely thought about since I stopped actively covering the space some seven years ago. So before heading out to Le Web here in Paris, I called Kumar to learn more.

He explained to me that Cypress had just introduced a new class of chips called Trutouch, which are going to help accelerate the shift from the module-based design approach to touchscreens made popular by Synaptics to a more chip-centric design approach. What differentiates Cypress is the software, which has allowed the company to sign up pretty much all the major cell phone makers as potential customers. The software inside Cypress’ chips makes the touchscreens more sensitive and provides more tactile feedback, and would turn most phones into good touch devices with higher functionality. For instance, Samsung is going to use these chips in its Omnia line-up of phones, while LG is looking to incorporate them in its Arena and Chocolate phones. Nokia is another likely customer, perhaps by the summer of 2010. Even Palm and RIM are using Cypress’s products. As Kumar’s wrote in his note:

Samsung and LG are expected to shift their high end smart phone touch screen chip designs to Cypress based solutions. We also expect Cypress to increase its footprint at Nokia and Motorola at the expense of Synaptics and Atmel respectively.

That would leave Apple as a holdout. But since Apple uses Broadcom chips that run its own proprietary software (which remains unmatched), Cypress doesn’t have much of a chance with the Counts of Cupertino. Bottom line: Touch might revive Cypress’ fortunes, but in the end the big winners are going to be consumers, who will get phones with higher touch capabilities. Of course, I’m already wondering what Apple will do next in order to stay miles ahead of its competitors and further the touch paradigm.

Image of LG Chocolate courtesy of Verizon

Exxon on Efficiency Trends: Oil giant ExxonMobil issued its annual long-term world energy outlook today, forecasting that efficiency gains will accelerate between 2005 and 2030 compared to historial trends, with energy-per-GDP falling at an average global rate of 1.5 per cent a year. — FT Energy Source

Divisive Draft Text Leaked at COP15: A draft text proposed by the Danish host government of the UN climate talks and leaked to the UK Guardian “sees everything coming under a single new deal, whereas an alternative text from developing countries wants an extension to the Kyoto Protocol.” Campaigners say the draft would disadvantage poorer nations. — BBC News

Trony Solar Sets Share Price for IPO This Week: Chinese amorphous silicon solar panel maker Trony Solar is expected to go public on the New York Stock Exchange this week, marking the second solar IPO in over a year. Trony has priced its shares at between $9 and $11. — Greentech Media

Paper Battery Put to the Test: “Ordinary office paper coated with an inky layer of carbon nanotubes or nanowires can make a lightweight, flexible and highly conductive battery or superconductor,” according to new research out of Stanford University. — Greenwire via NYT

Although I haven’t touched a Motorola Droid yet, I’ve read several accounts where the battery cover simply falls off. I don’t know if this is some type of manufacturing issue on certain production runs or not, but I’m betting it’s annoying if it happens to you. The Gadgeteer found this little do-it-yourself fix on video and it certainly looks simple enough for any Droid owner to try.

Basically, you’re just bending one bit ever so slightly to help the battery latch catch and stay put. It looks and sounds simple and has to be better than my proposed solution, which is duct tape. It might be worth a try, but of course you want to be cautious and careful. It would be a shame to break off the metal clip — it’s not a self-healing Droid, after all!

Client questionnaires should be easy. You can send your questions over via email, your client hits the “Reply” button and answers away.

But, for some reason, it’s not always that straightforward. Some clients might skip questions or answer them incorrectly, while others might want to skip answering the form altogether. Here are some free tools that can make the process easier for both parties:

SurveyMonkey

The first time I heard about SurveyMonkey I knew I could use it to improve the response rate — and the quality of responses — for my client questionnaires. It’s been very useful to me even if I’m only using the free version (the paid monthly plan is $19.95 per month). There are limits to the free version though, such as having only 10 questions and 100 allowed responses per survey. Still, I find that these limits are more than enough for small projects.Your client’s contact information (name, address, email, web site, etc.) is all considered as one question.

One practical feature of this service is that you can identify which questions are optional and which ones are required. When I send out client questionnaires via email, some important fields are often left unanswered, but that hasn’t happened since I started using SurveyMonkey. And, when you’re done working on the project, you can use it to send a client satisfaction survey as well.

Writeboard

Writeboard by 37signals is another app I’ve used for sending client questionnaires. Unlike answering your questions via email, clients don’t have to copy and paste anything or do much scrolling. They just have to type in their answers after each question. This makes it useful for other types of written collaboration as well, such as asking your client to make specific comments on copy, proposals and other text.

Now, why use something like Whiteboard over more feature-rich online writing apps such as Google Docs? First of all, I find that the clean and minimalist interface is more reassuring to clients who aren’t tech savvy. They aren’t worried about clicking the wrong buttons since there’s only one (“Save this Writeboard”). Also, it’s easy to send an invitation that your clients can just click and visit — no need for complex instructions on how to access the app.

The only disadvantage I see is that you can’t analyze client responses collectively and make reports. Still, the simplicity and straightforwardness of the app is enough reason to try it with your more technologically challenged clients.

Your Own Web Site

Alternatively, you can host a questionnaire on your own web site by programming your own form and uploading it. Even if you don’t have programming skills, there are many free apps that can help you do this such as Email Me Form, WuFoo, and MyContactForm. While they also have paid plans, the free plans have enough features for most client surveys.

In the end, the solution you use must depend on your clients. Whichever is easier and faster for them is likely to be the same for you.

What tools do you use to create and send client questionnaires? How have they worked for you?

Image by svilen001 from sxc.hu

So, how’s your knowledge of Sanskrit mythology? Yeah, me neither. But don’t assume that’s a hindrance to enjoying the independently produced web series The Vetala, which frames its premise around the emergence of an ancient hostile spirit surfacing in modern times. Because to do so is a major disservice to an extremely well-made dramatic thriller, whose supernatural underpinnings only become evident later in the life of the series.

Vetala, another web series immigrant from Vancouver, British Columbia (which also recently gave us Riese and Hurtling Through Space), opens on Lily (Candace Chase) and Alex (Paul Mendel), two college students doubling as investigative journalists on the trail of a gun syndicate. (Why they’re only college journalists, not professional ones, is a detail that frankly doesn’t make much sense, but it’s a minor one in the grand scheme of things.) However, in Episode 1, a meet-up with a source goes badly for Lily, and an increasingly strange series of events results.

A big key to Vetala’s success is an intriguing choice in the way Lily reacts to her situation — which is to say, she’s totally freaked out. But her reaction doesn’t make her any less strong as a character, and instead truly grounds the supernatural events of the series in the real world. Lily’s initial denial of what’s happening is reminiscent of the way a real person would react to the action that occurs, and gives her a level of believability similar narratives have failed to execute.

Vetala is also a triumph of low-budget production; writer/director Damon Vignale has a knack for faking locations and shooting around high-cost action that helps the series look much more expensive than it is — great score, sound design, and graphics adding a professional polish to the goings-on. Episode 5, Premonition, contains one of the best no-budget effects I’ve ever seen, using character reactions, sound effects, and one well-staged aftermath shot to effectively convey an event it can cost Hollywood hundreds of thousands of dollars to fake.

The first season, only seven episodes long, comes together as an intense and action-packed ride with intriguing cliffhangers to each episode’s conclusion — the only major misstep is that the finale of the show concludes with a grand reveal of the Vetala, who turns out to be a Gollum-esque CGI monster, decently rendered for this scale of production but clearly, tragically fake. Hopefully in the promised season 2, he’ll return to the shadows — where he was far, far scarier.

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So, how’s your knowledge of Sanskrit mythology? Yeah, me neither. But don’t assume that’s a hindrance to enjoying the independently produced web series The Vetala, which frames its premise around the emergence of an ancient hostile spirit surfacing in modern times. Because to do so is a major disservice to an extremely well-made dramatic thriller, whose supernatural underpinnings only become evident later in the life of the series.

Vetala, another web series immigrant from Vancouver, British Columbia (which also recently gave us Riese and Hurtling Through Space), opens on Lily (Candace Chase) and Alex (Paul Mendel), two college students doubling as investigative journalists on the trail of a gun syndicate. (Why they’re only college journalists, not professional ones, is a detail that frankly doesn’t make much sense, but it’s a minor one in the grand scheme of things.) However, in Episode 1, a meet-up with a source goes badly for Lily, and an increasingly strange series of events results.

A big key to Vetala’s success is an intriguing choice in the way Lily reacts to her situation — which is to say, she’s totally freaked out. But her reaction doesn’t make her any less strong as a character, and instead truly grounds the supernatural events of the series in the real world. Lily’s initial denial of what’s happening is reminiscent of the way a real person would react to the action that occurs, and gives her a level of believability similar narratives have failed to execute.

Vetala is also a triumph of low-budget production; writer/director Damon Vignale has a knack for faking locations and shooting around high-cost action that helps the series look much more expensive than it is — great score, sound design, and graphics adding a professional polish to the goings-on. Episode 5, Premonition, contains one of the best no-budget effects I’ve ever seen, using character reactions, sound effects, and one well-staged aftermath shot to effectively convey an event it can cost Hollywood hundreds of thousands of dollars to fake.

The first season, only seven episodes long, comes together as an intense and action-packed ride with intriguing cliffhangers to each episode’s conclusion — the only major misstep is that the finale of the show concludes with a grand reveal of the Vetala, who turns out to be a Gollum-esque CGI monster, decently rendered for this scale of production but clearly, tragically fake. Hopefully in the promised season 2, he’ll return to the shadows — where he was far, far scarier.

In a speech this morning at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., the president urged legislators to “consider a new program to provide incentives for consumers who retrofit their homes to become more energy-efficient” and proposed “that we expand select Recovery Act initiatives to promote energy efficiency and clean energy jobs which have been proven to be particularly popular and effective.”

Today’s speech comes on the heels of reports that the White House has been considering a 2-year, $23 billion program to encourage homeowners to undertake weatherization projects such as adding air sealing, insulation and energy-saving lightbulbs — dubbed the “cash for caulkers” program — widely cheered, unsurprisingly, by the home energy retrofit industry.

Overall, the U.S. home energy retrofit market is poised to grow about 15 percent per year to $35 billion by 2013, up from $20.7 billion last year, according to a recent report from SBI Energy. But all is not rosy in the world of energy-efficiency startups. Business leaders surveyed earlier this year expressed a belief that a turnaround for these companies could hinge on more incentives and legislation from the government. Interest in energy-efficiency projects among North American businesses is growing, but oftentimes is not leading to actual investments in the technology because they just can’t spare the cash.

Getting a second chance at government funding for efficiency and energy projects could also provide a shot in the arm for companies that lost out in earlier funding rounds of popular programs. This morning Obama declared it “a positive sign that many of these programs drew so many applicants for funding that a lot of strong proposals — proposals that will leverage private capital and create jobs quickly — did not make the cut.”

The Department of Energy’s high-risk green energy fund, ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy), offers one of the most dramatic illustrations of this. For the 99 percent of proposals that did not receive funding under the program’s first, $151 million round of grants, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said the agency may opt to host a fair to let venture capitalists sniff them out as possible investments.

For some ventures, however, the prospect of new funding opportunities may come too late. Battery developer Imara, for example, has just called it quits after failing to secure financing for a planned scale-up of its production capacity. And green car developer Aptera’s marketing chief, Marques McCammon, told Wired’s Autopia recently that the company — which is delaying production of its inaugural vehicle in the face of dwindling cash reserves — now finds itself “at a strategic disadvantage to some of the other companies in this space” that have received government funds.

According to the Obama administration, efforts to promote job creation in the green energy and efficiency markets are not just about the more direct impacts of reducing power consumption (and the associated emissions) and utility bills, and stimulating economic activity. They are also meant to position the U.S. as a major player in the global market for this equipment and technology.

As White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a media briefing yesterday, “[T]here’s a short-, medium- and long-term benefit to establishing our nation as the clean energy leader of the world. Somebody is going to build millions of solar panels. Somebody is going to build wind towers and wind turbines and create the power that’s going to light our homes and heat our homes and cool our homes for decades to come. The question is, which country is that going to be?”

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The problem of information overload is one of the most frustrating and inspiring issues on the web today — inspiring because of all the cool, hard and unimagined ways it will be dealt with. Today we bring you Cascaad, the latest and greatest startup attacking the problem.

This morning we had a chance to talk to Erik Lumer, CEO of Cascaad. You may remember Lumer as the chief and co-founder of Babelgum, the European video startup that underwent oh-so-many strategy changes. Since leaving Babelgum two years ago and guesting as interim CEO of live video startup RawFlow, Lumer has had his eye on the prize of a “personal information system.”

Cascaad, which is waiting on Apple to approve its free iPhone app and will soon launch a web client, has built a discovery engine that combines a whole bunch of signals to build a real-time flow of what matters to each particular user. The Milan-based company, which has 10 employees and has raised about $1 million from Innogest Capital, describes its technology as a combination of “graph-based recommender systems, machine learning, natural language processing and semantic web data aggregation.”

Cascaad starts out by logging in a new user via Twitter and picking up the list of who he follows there to judge their relevance and authority and build a “personalized sphere of influence.” Lumer himself follows only four people on Twitter, so I can’t imagine he’s terrifically overwhelmed there, but the service also learns from other input such as keyword-based channels and user activity.

Then Cascaad figures out what’s rising quickly in your world and what it means. That doesn’t just go for news; it might also be a tweet (or later, a post from another service) about a local restaurant, or anything that is sparking a conversation. And it doesn’t have to come from someone you follow directly.

If that description is too fuzzy for you, here are some metaphors and similes Lumer — who is currently out raising another round of funding for Cascaad — used through the course of our conversation:

• “The feeling is very similar to radio — you turn it on, start listening.”
• “We’re like TweetMeme but better at picking up weak signals.”
• “We’re the Powerset for the real-time web.”
• As compared with non-personalized services like Twitter’s trending topics: “The everything is pointless. It’s overwhelming and it’s so noisy.”

Another way I would describe Cascaad is as a Facebook News Feed for the world. But the problem for any service trying to combat information overload is that you’re just adding to the problem until you actually substitute it for people’s existing activity. We’ll let you know when Cascaad launches and you can try it for yourself.

Lazyfeed has relaunched itself with an emphasis on making things even easier for you and, thus, making you even lazier (to use its own terminology). Topic-based readers (a subject we’ve written about before) have become popular of late, but Lazyfeed appears to be gaining the most attention. This latest update improves its real-time results.

The biggest change brings a dynamic real-time look and feel to the experience as your topics automatically update themselves. (You no longer need to click them.) That might not seem like a big deal, but if you track many different topics that adds up to a lot of clicks over the course of time.

The question will be whether or not you like this busier activity. When Friendfeed added its real-time updates feature earlier this year, many of its users complained about it being too active. The answer was a simple pause button option that allowed you to freeze all updates until you felt all caught up. I think Lazyfeed will need to add the same pause button feature.

Personally, I love it. I think the sooner we get the news and information, the better. I think services such as Lazyfeed and guzzle.it are on the right track. They are ushering in a new era in news readers. We’re no longer restricted to just the RSS feeds that we’ve manually subscribed to or even who we follow on Twitter — by simply adding the topics we’re interested in tracking, we’re able to keep on top of the latest news in real time.

Do you like the new Lazyfeed update? Is it too busy for you?

Let me set up the scenario before sharing my experiences. T-Mobile kindly loaned me a webConnect USB stick that works on their 3G network. The hardware is only capable of downloading data at 7.2 Mbps while uploads theoretically max out at 5.76 Mbps. So essentially, the hardware I used can’t possibly take full advantage of the faster test network. However, you can see the difference between T-Mobile’s standard 3G network and this test 3.5G network. From my home, I used the webConnect stick to hit Speedtest.net, a popular bandwidth testing website. In my home office, I saw speeds comparable to EVDO: 1.11 Mbps down and 0.67 Mbps back up.

Using the same hardware in the HSPA+ test network, speeds dramatically increased: 5.58 Mbps down and 1.23 Mbps up. Using the pingtime to measure latency, both tests were comparable: 118ms at home and 115ms in the test network.

I actually expected slightly faster upload times, but I’m not going to be too critical of the test network: it’s not optimized. When T-Mobile rolls out HSPA+, I’d expect the production network to be more efficient than the test network. And while fast uploads are useful, I suspect that there’s far more demand in general for downloads than uploads.

While I was able to test with the provided hardware, I realized that I have another device that’s better equipped to try HSPA+: the loaner Nokia N900 that was delivered over the weekend. This device can handle downloads up to 10Mbps and uploads at 2Mbps. So how did it do? I’ll let the picture tell the story:

Just a simple hardware swap offered a noticeable boost to the download speed of the test network. At 1.5 Mbps faster, the gain alone is quicker than many 3G connections used today. Using the Nokia N900 for a few minutes on this network was like using it over a home Wi-Fi connection — the web came to me on the road as fast as I needed it too.

But consumers don’t really care about speedtests. They want an enjoyable mobile web experience when actually doing things, so that’s what I did. A few highlights of the experience:

• I downloaded our latest MobileTechRoundup podcast. The 32.1 MB audio file was on my computer in 44 seconds.
• Watching a high-res Hulu video was like watching it at home over my FiOS connection.
• Viewing an HD YouTube vid worked with nary a stutter, nor any buffering.
• I uploaded an 11.6 MB audio file in 78 seconds.

Ultimately, the test network performed very well — most T-Mobile customers should be happy when the HSPA+ network rolls around to their neck of the woods. And that gets me back to the timing and crossroads we’re at — T-Mobile tells me that HSPA+ is anticipating deployment by mid-2010. The carrier is currently in the process of migrating from its 3.6 Mbps HSPA network to 7.2 Mbps. And it’s not just for new hardware — many existing handsets like the G1, MyTouch and TouchPro 2 can take advantage of the in-progress network upgrade. That benefit can go a long way when compared to the WiMAX alternative, which requires new hardware for its network.

Speaking of WiMAX, I have to travel back in time for a minute. I remember attending the WiMAX launch in Baltimore last year and getting a taste of those speeds. The network wasn’t a test network and yet the speeds I witnessed generally weren’t faster than what I saw today. There was the occasional 6 Mbps download, but my repeated testing hovered around 3.5 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps back up. Testing the HSPA+ network today deals a bit of a body blow to WiMAX in my mind — T-Mobile will have it rolled out faster and existing hardware will benefit immediately from it. LTE is bit of a dark horse in all this, although Verizon recently claimed we should expect downloads in the 5 to 12 Mbps range with uploads around 2 to 5 Mbps. While that is faster than what I saw today, the service is planned for 25 to 30 locations by the end of 2010. T-Mobile is expecting all of their high-speed coverage areas to see HSPA+ speeds by the middle of 2010. And let’s not overlook AT&T. It is is just now deploying 7.2 Mbps HSPA in six cities and expects to offer it to 25 markets by the end of 2010. Looks like the race for faster mobile broadband is on and in my backyard, T-Mobile’s HSPA+ just took the lead.

Today is my last day with NewTeeVee/GigaOM.

How’s that for not burying the lede?

As corny as it sounds, I can’t stop thinking about The Matrix as my time here winds down.

More than two years ago, I quit a rather lucrative job working with short-form filmmakers to join Om and his rag-tag group of bloggers. There was no latte machine, no cafeteria, heck, they had no office, but after following the killer work on NewTeeVee since its launch, there was an undeniable spark — and I wanted to be a part of it.

So I took the red pill, as it were, and joined GigaOM. I may not have awoken on some space ship and suddenly known kung-fu, but my eyes were open. I thought I knew a lot about online video coming into this job. I quickly realized how much there was to learn.

And learn I did. Over the last two years and more than 2,100 posts, I have gained a little more knowledge about the industry and become an infinitely better writer. But I’m ready for my next challenge. I’m not leaving to blog anywhere else because Om has assembled the finest group of journalists writing the best stories online or anywhere. Anything else would be a pale imitation.

Instead, I’m looking to get back to my passion for fiction storytelling. So I’ve taken a job as the vice president of Machinima.com’s director’s program (keeping true to my blogger work ethic, I start tomorrow morning). There I’ll be working with the next-generation of talented content creators to use video games as a new way to tell stories.

The little words “thank you” aren’t nearly enough for Liz and Om and the rest of the crew here. They are the smartest, hardest working, most honest people in this business. This has been the most challenging, but ultimately the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. I leave with a heavy heart and will always be indebted to them.

I also want to thank you, the NewTeeVee community. You’ve kept me honest, on my toes and always on the lookout for the next big story.

I leave you in better hands than mine as Janko Roettgers and Liz Shannon Miller will be stepping up and joining Ryan in taking NewTeeVee to the next level. I’ll be reading everyday.

If you want to keep up with me and my next adventures, you can follow along at Twitter.com/ChrisJAlbrecht.

Thank you for everything,

-Chris P.S. Hopefully this move will turn out better than those crappy Matrix sequels.

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The digital music companies that gave investors high hopes in 2007 haven’t resulted in great returns in 2009. Imeem and iLike have produced weak exits for stakeholders, and Apple’s purchase of Lala seems to have generated a lukewarm return at best. In an afternoon panel concerning venture funding at yesterday’s SF MusicTech Summit, three VCs outlined their new expectations for music startups: They’re not giving up on music investments, but they’re starting much smaller.

Although a handful of companies have raised substantial rounds this year — among them Pandora, Spotify and MOG — expectations for digital music companies are vastly different than they were a couple of years ago. The lone home-run exit, Last.fm’s $280 million sale to CBS that resulted in a payday for Index Ventures in mid-2007, now seems like ancient history. Indeed, panelist Mark Sugarman of MHS Capital conceded that it “was done in another era.” (MHS held a stake in iLike, and Sugarman noted that “we did make money on the acquisition.”)

Rather, Sugarman, along with Larry Marcus of Walden Venture Capital and Ethan Jacks of Silverwood Partners spent much of the panel discussing investments with much smaller needs and humbler goals. Marcus, a Pandora stakeholder, said flatly that he would refuse any investment that requires expensive deals with record labels, as Imeem and Lala did, adding that he was primarily interested in those of $2 million or less in companies “that are already up and running.” Jacks, too, said startups that might have aimed for $30 million in funding a few years ago should now be targeting the $5 milion-$8 million range. “Small and scrappy is beautiful,” he opined.

The lack of strong exits and nonexistent IPO window may have turned off many investors, but the digital music sector isn’t completely bereft of opportunities. Marcus, for one, was especially bullish on the possibilities offered by music-enabled phones — he’s invested in song-identifying technology developer Melodis, whose Midomi product is among the top paid music apps on the iPhone. And Jacks offered this bit of perspective: $154 billion of venture money is still waiting to be invested. With that kind of money floating around, and music startups continuing to innovate, opportunities are bound to present themselves — even if VCs don’t expect what they did a couple of years ago.

Image courtesy Julie Blaustein.

The United Nations’ historic Climate Change Conference, the COP15, hosted in Copenhagen (read more coverage over on our sister site, Earth2Tech) — has seen the usual political controversies, notably leaked emails from the UK Met Office.

I suspect what the world’s citizens are looking for isn’t righteousness or posturing, but leadership and pragmatism. What can we do as individuals to adjust our lifestyles? Though it’s debatable whether our energy literacy and awareness should be oriented around carbon or power usage, carbon seems to be the current consensus.

As web workers, we perhaps work under the assumption that our commute-free lifestyles are relatively low-carbon. However, it’s sensible to actually quantify and monitor the impact that home workers really are having on the environment. Fortunately, services are beginning to emerge that help home workers to measure and track their carbon footprints.

Time Magazine recently ranked the personal carbon footprint as one of 2009’s best inventions. AMEE — a leading carbon tracking startup — just last launched a new offering that claims to make measuring and reporting on a home worker’s carbon footprint much more straightforward.

Learn more about home energy management with this report from GigaOM Pro for just $79.

AMEE is currently currently targeted at companies with remote workers, and is only providing its tracking and measurement engine to users of AlertMe’s smart metering solutions. Here’s how it works:

• Workers will need to install an AlertMe Energy kit (around $114) into their home that monitors and reports their home’s energy use.
• The AlertMe kit sends data to AMEE to calculate a carbon footprint.
• Aggregated data from all remote workers is structured to fit a company’s reporting requirements, with appropriate formats and visualizations. Data can be viewed live, by location, as an aggregate and in compliance with external reporting frameworks.

Though the service is currently designed to help employers track and report their home worker’s usage there seems little reason not to offer the same solutions to independent web workers. More significantly, when smarter appliances can individually report how we use heating, cooling, computing and other equipment, web workers will have a better range of data with which to make lifestyle decisions and to play their part in managing climate change.

Are you employing personal carbon strategy or using tracking/measurement services?

Photo credit: stock.xchng user safegear

Ever since I wrote about Square, the new electronic payments startup co-founded by Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey, I’ve been getting calls from folks expressing a wide range of opinions as to the likely success (or failure) of the young company. In my post I singled out VeriFone and Symbol Technologies as two companies that will be especially disrupted by the rise of the iPhone (and iPod touch) as they shake up the enterprise mobility market.

VeriFone is happy to disrupt itself, or so it seems. The San Jose, Calif.-based company today announced PAYware Mobile. The service, which includes VeriFone’s mobile payment system, also includes a card reader disguised as an iPhone sleeve that can be used by merchants to swipe cards and accept payments. The product is likely to ship in January 2010.

A VeriFone spokesperson, in an email, took thinly disguised digs at Square when he said that “[T]his is no fob that can be easily damaged” and “Nobody seems to know whether Square is secure or what the fees are with their system. The VeriFone system is definitely a grown-up payment device.” There is one aspect of Square, however, that sets it apart from its competitors: its use of social networking tools and virality. It is squarely shooting for person-to-person commerce.

Also of note is the fact that Incase is rumored to be making payment sleeves with similar commerce functionality that fit around iPod Touch devices and are being used at Apple stores now. There are many other iPhone-based payment solutions that are currently under development. As I’ve said before, the iPod Touch is Apple’s stealth weapon and is causing disruption across the industry — including in enterprise mobility and in expensive hardware.

The World Bank started off its talk by reiterating that the clean development mechanism (CDM) — the market structure that helps industrialized nations gain and trade credits from green projects created in developing nations — is a “proven tool to support greenhouse gas mitigation.” Warren Evans, Sector Director, World Bank Environment Department said the CDM is “exceeding expectations” in terms of the number of projects and capacity, and has been acting as a catalyst for private capital investments.

But as part of a report that the World Bank hopes to issue next April, the group said it has been analyzing its data and looking for lessons that have emerged over the last decade about how to make this type of program more efficient and effective. “It hasn’t always been easy,” said Martina Bosi, head of the World bank’s carbon finance division, referring to the decade of growth, but “we’ve come a long way.” Here’s seven lessons that the World Bank says it’s learned about how to attract more private capital, maximize emission reductions, slash costs and address other issues in carbon finance:

1). Unpredictability in the CDM: The World Bank says unpredictability in the CDM has constrained the amount of private capital that investors add to projects. That uncertainty can be about when the projects will expire or a lack of organized oversight of the projects. The CDM examines, approves, funds and verifies projects, and the rules are “too complicated,” and the regulation is “changed too frequently,” said Bosi. As we’ve written before, most investors like as much certainty as possible before committing financing (VCs can be an exception), and greentech businesses are attending COP15 this week to look for more certainty in international emissions reductions.

2). CDM Lifecycle Too Long: The time it takes a project to be approved and eventually audited can be about 18 months, said the World Bank. That is just “too long,” said Bosi, when it comes to trying to integrate and attract private capital to projects. This time needs to be cut down.

3). Better Communication: In order to maximize the CDM’s ability to attract private capital and reduce carbon emissions, we need better communication between auditors and project developers.

4). Reduce Transaction Costs: We need to reduce the costs it takes to set up, approve, fund and audit projects. A reduction of the logistics costs means more funds for projects.

5). Avoid Negative Affects of Projects: Some CDM decisions and project funding has had a “disproportionate negative impact,” on the least developed countries. The World Bank’s Bosi said that for example non-sustainable biofuel projects have led to deforestation. These negative effects clearly need to be carefully considered and managed.

6). Environmental Sustainability: Projects need to maintain “environmental integrity” at all times. Yet additionality — determining whether a carbon reduction would have happened with or without the project in place — has proven to be “a challenge.”

7). How to Scale Up: The more funding, the more projects, the more emissions reductions. We need to scale up the CDM, and we need these logistical improvements to effectively scale up, said the World Bank.

With this beta build of Chrome for Mac, there’s no support for bookmark synchronization, which is a bit of a let-down. I’ve already used that feature in ChromeOS on my netbook and it’s there in Chrome for Windows as well. Hopefully, we see that get added soon. Also in the works are extensions for Chrome, much like those for Firefox, but extensions are also specific to Chrome for Windows as of now. The Apple Blog points out a few other missing features: 64-bit support, App Mode, Gears and multi-touch support. The first two items aren’t deal-breakers for me, but I’d really like to see offline and multi-touch gesture support sooner rather than later.

Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers delivered the opening address at this morning’s Cisco Financial Analyst Conference in San Jose, Calif., where he stressed collaboration applications, server virtualization, and video as key points of focus for his company — along with healthier growth.

As he did during Cisco’s quarterly earnings report at the end of August, Chambers described aggressively moving into “market adjancies,” where widespread demand is likely, as the company’s strategy going forward. “We don’t move into market adjancies randomly,” he said. “We don’t move if we don’t believe the market won’t be global.”

Chambers especially focused on the company’s growing portfolio of collaboration applications, including video- and telepresence-oriented ones. The company wants to improve its WebEx-based position in the video conferencing market through its acquisition of Tandberg, and is moving aggressively into the corporate email market, among others.

Chambers said the company’s divisions are targeting enterprise, commercial, service provider, and consumer customers. Quite a few of the demonstrations shown during his address appeared targeted at the SMB market. Some of the company’s recent offerings, such as WebEx Mail, have been just as focused on small- and medium-size businesses as on enterprises.

Chambers said he is aiming to return Cisco to 12-17 percent annual revenue growth, and that the analysts in attendance should hold him accountable for those numbers, which would be improvements over recent results. He also noted that the company’s core routing and switching operations are healthy, although he did not point to them as growth drivers.

He said he is focused on making smart acquisitions, and that Cisco typically succeeds when it buys companies, especially focusing on keeping existing talent in acquired companies. In addition, Chambers noted that he tries to focus the company on “innovation combined with operational excellence,” although he maintained that the latter is most important.

The Cisco Financial Analyst Conference is going on all day today, and we will update this report as more announcements arrive.

Join TiE Silicon Valley tonight for an evening that will feature C-level executives from emerging leaders like Silver Spring, Smart Synch, eMeter, and Tendril, and a corporate giant like Cisco. During this panel discussion, we’ll hear stories from smart grid leaders on how their technology and business plans have shaped the industry: what challenges lie ahead, how they see the market space evolve into entrepreneurial opportunities, predictions about the future role of the energy ecosystem and that of the existential smart grid. We will also discuss the near- and long-term road map for the smart grid — with an emphasis on drivers in network infrastructure and applications. Register here.

Cox Communications today inched closer to a full-blown deployment of wireless offerings by launching its mobile phone and high-speed Internet services in the test markets of Hampton Roads, Va., Omaha, Neb. and Orange County, Calif. But the company has yet to disclose pricing or any other details that will help determine whether the longtime cable operator can compete in the world of mobile.

Cox said it will expand across the initial three markets next year, growing its workforce in each by roughly 20 percent through its own retail locations. It plans to eventually offer enterprise services to its existing business customers.

The Atlanta-area telecom announced plans to jump into the mobile space last year and has since moved quickly toward that goal. Cox in 2008 spent $304 million to acquire 22 spectrum licenses as part of the 700 MHz auction, and has tapped Chinese gear vendor Huawei to build out its CDMA network. Meanwhile, it’s secured a roaming agreement with Sprint to augment service while the network is completed.

As Stacey noted last year, the triple play of voice, video and data has been successful for cable operators, so a quadruple play that adds wireless is particularly attractive. And Cox’s installed base of 6.2 million residential and business cable customers could prove fertile soil for integrated services offered in bundles. We still don’t know how much Cox’s service will cost, what kind of handsets it will offer or how it might differentiate itself from the entrenched mobile players, but new competition in mobile broadband could be very good news for users. And it just may help assuage federal regulators who appear increasingly antsy to intervene in the industry.

We received word this morning that YouTube has decided to end its short-lived video downloads beta program. David Rodriguez of StuffWeLike.com posted a video explaining the move yesterday along with an excerpt from the email he received from YouTube.

The email from YouTube stated:

“We want to thank you for supporting and participating in this beta test and for helping us make YouTube better, but we have decided not to fully productize this, for now. This means that we will continue to support downloads of videos that you previously submitted, but that you will not be able to enable any new videos for download. We apologize if this will cause any inconvenience. Meanwhile, we are re-evaluating on an ongoing basis whether/when to launch Downloads capability on YouTube as a fully supported commercial feature for all users and partners.”

We spoke with Rodriguez by phone this morning. He said he had been a part of the program since March and offered some of his videos for download both for free and for 99 cents. However, Rodriguez said that he never got any indication as to whether or not anyone was downloading his work.

YouTube’s decision to shut down the download program comes at a time when it is reportedly looking at charging to view some premium content via streaming. We’ve contacted YouTube for comment about this story and will update as we hear more.

The YouTube video download beta program launched in February of this year and was offered to partners. Rodriguez says he’s not really upset about the program closing as he would prefer to not have downloaded versions of his content in the wild, where people could upload it elsewhere.

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If you thought the movie 2012 was disaster porn, just wait for the entertainment apocalypse that Redbox’s dollar-a-night movie rentals will bring about. That, in a nutshell, is the bottom line of a new report (PDF, hat tip to Video Business) from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. that says Redbox’s low-cost movie rental will cost the entertainment industry $1 billion in revenue. It’s a disaster!

This loss in revenue will lead to a slowdown in movie production, crops will wilt, the earth will turn to salt, etc. The study says that Redbox is disrupting the home video industry in four ways:

• DVD sales are cannibalized
• Customers will want lower rental prices from other outlets
• The perceived value of movies will be harmed
• Redbox’s sale of discs into the aftermarket conflicts with other retail channels

Redbox’s kiosks also will send shock waves throughout the industry and could lead to the loss of 9,280 jobs, $35.4 million in contributions to health and welfare funds being cut, and a reduction of $30 million in tax revenue.

At this point a director would cue the author of the LAEDC report to shake his fist, glare at the sky and yell, “Damn you, Redboooooooooox!!!!!”

While the report spends much of the time decrying Redbox and its kiosk ilk, it does hedge itself a bit, saying that “foregone revenues from low-cost new release DVD rentals may be hard to distinguish from other transformational shifts in the industry,” like the current recession we’re in, new technologies like direct digital download/streaming, and people opting for other forms of entertainment like games and social networking.

In response to the report, Redbox told Video Business that it actually helps the industry grow, and that some of the LAEDC’s data may be flawed.

It should be noted that LAEDC’s mission is to “attract, retain and grow businesses and jobs for the regions of L.A. County,” so it has an agenda. Data from this report will probably make its way into the legal battles Redbox is currently waging with half the Hollywood studios.

The problem the video industry is facing isn’t a new one. New technologies are creating a fundamental shift in the way we consume entertainment. Vilifying Redbox won’t change the fact that change is upon us. Instead of fighting the future, Hollywood should be figuring out how to profit from it instead of the past.

The developer builds of late have been pretty stable, but now you can download the official Google Chrome for Mac Beta. Released today, the Beta should offer Mac users a more stable browsing experience, one that hopefully is more representative of what the full release will eventually look like. It’s been a long time coming for us Mac users, but was the wait worth it?

I’m going to try my best to use Chrome as my default browser for a decent length of time, in order to give it a fair shake. But I am a little worried about potential feature scarcity. As has been reported before, the Chrome beta is missing some things that its Windows counterpart offers. Below is a brief list of what’s been omitted, and why it worries me that some of these things aren’t there with this new beta.

• App Mode: One of Chrome’s greatest strengths is its ability to create Fluid-like single site browser instances that work more like apps than websites. It’s great for Gmail, Google Docs, and any other web app that has its own dashboard, menus, etc. The option is there, it’s just grayed out for now.
• Gears: I know Gears is dead in general, as per a recent announcement, but for now the existing implementation is much appreciated. I’d like to hold on to it as long as possible, pending HTML 5’s gradual rollout, but the Chrome Beta isn’t onboard.
• Multi-touch Gestures: Both the trackpad and the Magic Mouse’s multi-touch gestures won’t work in this beta of Chrome. That’s a big omission when you’ve become as dependent on multi-touch as I have, especially in terms of mobile computing.
• 64-bit Support: Chrome is 32-bit only, despite Snow Leopard’s focus on 64-bit performance. It’s not a major strike against it, since the browser is still blazingly fast in my experience, but it could become an issue down the road if Google doesn’t give its browser a bump up.

There are other things I’ve left off my list, like full-screen browsing, for the simple fact that I don’t use them that often and they probably won’t affect my experience. And despite my complaints about what isn’t in this beta, what is there is very impressive indeed. The speed with which Chrome renders pages never ceases to impress, no matter how many times I take the browser out for a spin on either Windows or Mac machines.

Tabs also still do run as isolated processes, which is the major advantage Chrome brought to the table in the first place. Now when I have 57 tabs open across five windows on three screens, a badly coded Flash ad on one of them won’t force me to start fresh. Wait, that might not be a good thing…