VentureBeat |
- Making people happy about the smart grid: There’s (probably) an app for that
- Don’t expect a real Microsoft iPad competitor until late 2012 (report)
- Apple in talks for unlimited music downloads, not streaming
- Deals & More: Ruckus Media grabs $3.5M for family-friendly apps
- Q&A: Nvidia chief explains his strategy for winning in mobile computing
- Strategy means nothing without implementation
- How popular are you online? PeekScores knows
- No Twitter IPO this year, says co-founder Biz Stone
- Put that holding elevator music on hold with Fastcustomer
- Now that’s a rant: Brenda Brathwaite unloads on social game haters
- On the GreenBeat: Nexterra bags $15M for biomass power, Johnson Controls make $32.3M smart grid buy
- Sony touts its PlayStation Network, 70M and counting
- Disney looks beyond apps with HTML5 game maker Rocket Pack
- Amprius raises $25M for breakthrough batteries from Kleiner, Google CEO
- Thrutu lets you do more than just talk during phone calls
| Making people happy about the smart grid: There’s (probably) an app for that Posted: 04 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PST
Consumers have sued PG&E and Oncor over smart meters that they felt overcharged them (both suits were found to be without merit). Consumers in Illinois have claimed smart meters cause headaches and impotency. Recently, protesters in California’s West Marin County tried to block smart meter installers in an incident that resulted in two arrests. While there are plenty of industry watchers and executives who will say media reports of these snafus have blown the issue out of proportion, the incidents show there’s sometimes tension between consumers and utilities when it comes to the smart grid. With all that in mind, it’s interesting to see that one pilot happening in the U.S. is coming at the game with a new approach: Focus on the making the consumer happy about the smart grid. In particular, it wants to demonstrate that the smart grid can improve the quality of consumers’ lives, much in the same way apps add value to the lives of iPhone and smart phone users. Brewster McCracken, director of the Pecan Street Project in Austin, Tex., says its smart grid demonstration project is unlike any others in that is most concerned with the value to the customer, and not the utility. Part of the project’s goal will be to study how — and whether — the smart grid can provide value to the customer. "The customer will have final say about whether the smart grid is a smart idea," said McCracken in a recent statement. "The truth is that we – those working on and advocating for the smart grid – need to learn a lot more from customers than they need to learn from us. Before anyone starts prescribing solutions, we must develop a much better understanding of what customers value and how they're using energy now." In smart grid rollouts so far, there’s “not much of case made for what the value to customers will be,” McCracken told me when we met at the project’s offices in Austin recently. Of course, a smart grid-enabled home could save you money on your energy bill, but he doesn’t think there’s been enough of a value proposition made yet. A smart grid-enabled home isn’t as buzzy or hotly in demand as the latest iPad.
Point is, there is no killer application yet for the smart grid, a refrain I heard over and over again at the Smart Energy Summit in January in Austin. It’s true. There is no energy efficiency equivalent of Evernote or Instagram, Angry Birds or Twitter, though developers and entrepreneurs are trying to create them. And comparing the smart grid to the smartphone market makes sense for what smart grid hopefuls are trying to do.
Pecan Street’s first 100-home phase of the project went live last month, with an installed cost per home of $341. It’ll be interesting to see whether Pecan Street’s app-store approach yields creative apps for smart grid users.The project takes place in Austin’s Mueller community, is a recipient of the Department of Energy’s stimulus funding and has attracted partnerships and collaboration from local utility Austin Energy, GE Energy, Oracle, GridPoint, Cisco, Dell and IBM. It will eventually expand to include 1,000 homes. Smart grid investment will total $200 billion worldwide by 2015, according to a forecast by Pike Research. This represents billion-dollar opportunities for startups and major companies in everything from home energy management to building controls to lighting systems to demand response. Companies like Siemens, GE, Schneider Electric, LG and Intel are expanding their business to include offerings in home energy management and electric car charging. As the smart, tech-savvy home becomes an increasingly important part of energy and technology companies’ products, Pecan Street is right on one thing: Getting homeowners to like the smart grid will be key. [Top image via Flickr/Kevin Saff] Companies: Pecan Street Project People: Brewster McCracken
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| Don’t expect a real Microsoft iPad competitor until late 2012 (report) Posted: 04 Mar 2011 08:11 AM PST
That timing falls in line with what most expected for Windows 8. Since Windows 7 was released in late 2009, it seemed impossible for Microsoft to deliver its successor in 2011. If the news holds true, it means that Microsoft will only have Windows 7 to rely on for tablets this year and most of 2012. That hasn’t worked out well for the company so far, as it has led to failed devices like HP’s Slate. By the time Windows 8 is released, Apple will have released its third iPad iteration, and Android tablets will likely have evolved significantly. I’ve argued that Microsoft should look towards its mobile Windows Embedded Compact 7 platform for its tablet OS, instead of once again trying to rework a desktop OS to fit a tablet interface. Microsoft could conceivably have some master plan in mind for Windows 8 on tablets. But history doesn't inspire much hope. The company tried to convince us that Windows XP was a tablet operating system for years, and when that failed it ignored the tablet market altogether. Microsoft's many failures with bringing Windows to tablets proved that desktop interfaces are meant for the keyboard and mouse, not multitouch interaction. Microsoft is reportedly working on making Windows 8 more tablet friendly than any previous version of Windows. It may also bring in some design elements from Windows Phone 7’s spiffy “Metro” interface. The company announced earlier this year that it’s bringing Windows to ARM processors, which would allow Windows to run on the same sort of mobile chips powering Android tablets today, including Nvidia’s Tegra line of mobile chips. Photo via mendhak on Flickr Companies: Microsoft
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| Apple in talks for unlimited music downloads, not streaming Posted: 04 Mar 2011 07:14 AM PST
Such a change would lead to more flexibility for users, since they’ll be able to download music they’ve already purchased on their iPhones or iPads without syncing with their computers. But it’s still no music streaming service — one that would allow consumers to listen to music streaming over the web, instead of downloading — which has been the main thrust of iTunes revamp rumors since Apple purchased the streaming music company Lala in late 2009. Bloomberg’s sources say Apple is negotiating the unlimited download deal with music companies including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Vivendi Universal. In addition to letting users access their music collections without synchronizing to their computers, the download deal would also serve as an unlimited backup for user’s music. Additionally, it could serve as a stepping stone to a future iTunes music streaming service. Apple would need a robust infrastructure to let users stream media without interruption, and offering unlimited downloads would be a first step towards providing that. Photo via Cerebro Humano on Flickr Companies: Apple, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi Universal, warner music group
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| Deals & More: Ruckus Media grabs $3.5M for family-friendly apps Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST Today’s funding announcements include software for children’s apps, easy advertising, malware protection and bionic knees:
Vurve brings in $4.5M to simplify online advertising: The Palo Alto-based developer of software for managing ad campaigns has raised a first round of funding from Spark Capital, 500 Startups and True Ventures, TechCrunch reports. Based on a user’s budget, the company automatically generates ads on sites like Facebook, Bing and Google, then takes a 15 percent cut of the budget as a fee. The site launched to the public in November. Cyphort gets $1.2M to prevent cyber crimes: The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has raised funding to develop software for malware protection, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded in 2008, the startup, still in stealth mode, is developing solutions to protect enterprises and governments from attack. Tibion raises $10.2M for robotic knees: The developer of bionic devices for stroke victims has raised a second round of funding from Claremont Creek Ventures, Three Arch Partners and Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company’s devices, which are managed by a computer, help users learn to walk again. The company began marketing its device to rehab centers in 2010 and hopes to sell 60 to 70 devices this year. Companies: 500 Startups, Alsop Louie Partners, Claremont Creek Ventures, Cyphort, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, Ruckus Media, Spark Capital, Three Arch Partners, Tibion, True Ventures, Vurve
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| Q&A: Nvidia chief explains his strategy for winning in mobile computing Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST
Analysts have long predicted that Nvidia would be squeezed out of the PC and its rivals created combo chips that put graphics and microprocessor on a single chip. They criticized Nvidia for failing to create its own microprocessor. But Huang had a strategy in place. To prepare for this day, Nvidia added programmability to its graphics chips as far back as 2001, with the introduction of the GeForce 3. That enabled the company to start attacking Intel’s market by getting graphics chips to do non-graphics computing tasks. Programmability has enabled Nvidia’s graphics chips to get into a wider range of devices, from video servers to supercomputers. And now the company is in the midst of a new transition to mobile computing. This shift is perhaps the biggest of all, spearheaded by the company’s Tegra and Tegra 2 mobile processors. The Tegra 2 is in the Motorola Xoom tablet computer and the Motorola Atrix smartphone, both among a leading pack of Android devices that are challenging Apple’s dominance in mobile devices. And at the Consumer Electronics Show, Nvidia said it was working on a high-end ARM-based microprocessor called Project Denver. That microprocessor is expected to become one of a number of ARM chips that will be able to run an ARM-based version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Now that Huang has unveiled these big strategic moves, Nvidia doesn’t look so vulnerable anymore and Huang was able to fully articulate Nvidia’s strategy to Wall Street. Huang recently held a dinner with a small group of reporters. He started the conversation with his own version of Nvidia’s history, and where the company is going next. Below is an edited transcript of the group conversation.
And we call that Nvidia 2.0. That was the invention of programmable shader. The vast majority of today's computer graphics that you see has elements of that invention in it. Modern computer graphics is really due to the invention of programmable shaders. Well Nvidia 3.0 is about reinventing Nvidia so that we are able to address a much larger part of the computing market and there are several things that we wanted to achieve with Nvidia 3.0. We wanted to take the expertise that we've had for a long time and turn Nvidia into a parallel computing company. And so Nvidia 3.0 inside the company is really a parallel processor company with several specializations. One of them is visual computing, anything that's visually rich; we believe we can make a contribution to. And then the second thing is energy-efficient computing. Energy efficient computing has two elements to it and one side of it is mobile. We think that in the future the personal computer is a personal computer — not the PC — but a personal computer; the most desired personal computing device will be a mobile device. And the second aspect of it is the cloud. If you have millions and millions of processors in the cloud surely you would want it to be energy-efficient. And so we invented this technology called CUDA which is at this point probably the world's most pervasive parallel processing architecture. It powers the fastest supercomputer in Japan, the fastest supercomputer in China and many of the fastest supercomputers in the United States and around the world. Now inside the company we say the way we distilled Nvidia 3.0 down into actions is three arms. We say go parallel, go mobile and go ARM. Now a lot of you have asked me over the years what is our CPU (central processing unit, or computer’s brain) strategy and I've said over the years it was ARM. And I said it so matter of factly and it almost sounded like a joke. But it was the truth. It was the same thing I was telling our company inside that our CPU strategy is ARM. I believe that ARM will do for CPUs what Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. did for foundries (the contract chip manufacturers). When I first came into the industry, there was a phrase and I forget who, I think it was either (chip executives) T.J. Rodgers or Jerry Sanders that said, do you guys remember it?
A: Real men have fabs. The reason for that was during that time unless you owned a fab and had the ability to run a fab, develop the process technology to create the fab, you really couldn’t create a semiconductor company. Then TSMC came along. The idea of an open merchant foundry business where anybody can come and buy semiconductor manufacturing technology was really revolutionary. It created quite a few companies, including ours. Then I felt because of, if we believe in the mobile computing proposition, if we believed in that one of these days all of these mobile devices will be computers and they will be based on ARM processors and they will be reasonable computing devices. Then the volume of mobile devices phones — one billion going to four — is so large it would attract developers. They would create applications that make these mobile devices more wonderful. This virtuous positive feedback system would happen for the mobile devices as it did for PCs, except it's an order of magnitude larger. Instead of hundreds of millions of devices, it's several billion. And so that would make the ARM processor the most valuable instruction set architecture (or chip processing architecture) in the world. We've been talking to you about these three propositions for some time. We've been working towards this for sometime and at CES this year we were fortunate enough to package up a lot of these propositions and these ideas into a few announcements. The first announcement at CES was just simply announcing that we have real smartphones and tablets shipping with the Tegra Mobile processor. We needed a really good operating system to expose the benefits of Tegra. And finally it came along with Android 3.0. It has all the virtues of a modern operating system, it has hardware acceleration, video hardware acceleration for graphics, has a rich applications programming interfaces (APIs) just like Direct X has for Windows. So it's a wonderfully rich operating system, finally it came along and we were fortunate to partner with Google to bring that to the market. And so we were able to announce that at CES. The second thing we announced was Project Denver. We've been working on a CPU internally for about three and half years or so. It takes about five years to build any full custom CPU. And Project Denver has a few hundred engineers working on it for this period of time and our strategy with Project Denver was to extend the reach of ARM beyond the mobile, the handheld computing space. To take the ARM processor, partner with them to develop a next-generation 64 bit processor to extend it so that all of computing can have the benefits of that instruction set architecture. It is backward-compatible with today's ARM processors. And so by partnering with ARM to build this processor, we felt that we could bring the ARM processor into the PC because the PC is still a very powerful device and it's still able to do many things mobile devices cannot. We would go into the PC but retain the energy-efficient characteristic of ARM and would enable a new class of personal computers that has many times less power consumption than today's PCs but has the performance of today's PCs if not more. And so that was our vision with Project Denver.
So that was kind of CES. People still thought a cloud over our heads was our big battle with Intel. People said that Nvidia’s Intel chip set (MCP) business is going away and of course we announced that our dispute with Intel has been resolved. We've extended our cross license with Intel and the licensing revenues that would come to our company would be approximately $1.5 billion over six years. That by and large replaces and some the business that we lost with MCP. If you think about the net income that it generates for our company and you multiply by whatever ratio you would like, six times for example for a 15 percent net income company that one and a half billion dollars translates to quite a large revenue contribution over six years. It more than compensated for the MCP business that we lost. And so we were able to address part of the cloud over our heads with that settlement. And in the last part, and this is always the case when you demonstrate the first version of something, Tegra was our first success. All these smartphones and all these tablets that were announced at CES was really our first success. And so the question people had were maybe this Tegra was, is Nvidia really serious about mobile computing? Is this Nvidia and Tegra flash in the pan? And so at Mobile World Congress, we demonstrated our next generation mobile processor working almost perfectly. You can already use this thing right now; it's a perfectly working processor and was the world's first quad core mobile processor. It is the world's first mobile processor that can support a video resolution that is the highest of any computer in the world today. Whatever resolution you want it to support, we support, basically extreme HD. And as we demonstrated the world's first consumer product of any kind to decode 1440p at 30 frames a second. I don't think anything with the exception of large custom-made projector players have the ability to do that. There is no consumer appliance device in the world that can do that today. And we also demonstrated a performance that was five times that of our last generation and so we introduced Kal-El. In the process of introducing Kal-El we introduced the idea that we would bring to the marketplace three other processors over the course of the next two years. Just like we do with GPUs, there will be a new generation of architecture every year. Every single one of this project are fully funded and the expectation is within the next three or four years we’re going to bring to the mobile market performance that is nearly a hundred times higher than today's’ PC. And that’s the roll out if you will of our Nvidia 3.0 strategy. Any questions?
A: I think we thought about x86 for a very long time. There are two reasons why we decided not to do x86. Aside from, well the second reason is what I said earlier that in fact it’s the wrong instruction set architecture. The first reason is simply very large of course. The world’s not waiting for us to build yet another x86 and we’re not going to go hire a bunch of the world’s best engineers so that we can wake up in the morning to go do something that somebody else has already done 25 years ago. It’s not logical. And so it’s another way of saying it’s a commodity. Intel has got every single price point covered from $10 all the way up to $1000. There is not one nook and cranny we can cover by ourselves. AMD has covered everything else. And if you think about it for a second, how is it possible that AMD has a business model at all? And so that’s kind of the first reason. There is also a positive way of thinking about it. Why don't we go find something where we can add a real contribution? The negative way of thinking about it is there is some crazy person out there trying the same thing as Intel and it’s not working for them. At AMD, they actually make perfectly good CPUs. I’ve never met a CPU at AMD that I didn't like. They are all fine. They just can't win. Q: But if you go into the ARM world, there are more competitors. A: Yeah but that’s the beautiful thing though. It’s like we’re all using TSMC for manufacturing. It’s an equal playing field for everyone. The fact that you have a CPU is equal. You start with ARM. But then building a computer out of that is very different. You can build a race car or a minivan. And we have to go choose the different types of markets where we could add a lot value because we’re passionate about it and we’re very good at it. Media computing is something that we’re really good at it. Q: You didn't say it but you implied it. So does that mean that Intel is not an equal playing field? A: At no time is there an equal playing field with Intel. At no time. And the reason for that is because 90 percent of every one of your customers' livelihood depends on them. How is that an equal playing field? The way to think about it is to look at it from AMD’s view. If AMD’s customers were to give them 100 percent of their business, AMD would not have the capacity to serve them. If HP says I would like to give you a 100 percent of my business, AMD would just say I can't do it. There is not enough capacity in the world to do it. That basically says your competitor is in a position that is formidable. It is impossible to beat them. That says something about Intel’s position. Q: Then they have the intellectual property position too. This is what your court battle was over. If somebody wanted to get into the x86 market right now, they’d have to pay Intel some ridiculous price? A: You could but don't forget they’re paying us a pretty significant royalty now. Q: If you would just assume it’s about processors and not graphics? A: What is not a solvable problem is even if they give me rights to make an x86 chip, I will be building a commodity that at every price point they have an alternative to. And if they have an alternative to everything that I make, and it’s easier to buy from Intel, it’s just really not possible to distinguish yourself in an x86 world. And so that’s sort of the reason why, that’s one of the negative reasons why you don't do it. But the positive reason is we all want to go make a contribution to something and make a difference in the world. I mean you’re going to go spend $1 billion in r&d, you go spend $1 billion building something that matters. So that’s sort of the more first principle and logical thing to go to. And I think that when I think about investment, I tend to think about the time of our people. I don't want to waste the time of our people. I mean you get all this great talent, you convince them to come to Nvidia, and guess what you go get them to build: something that someone else has done. It’s no different from writing an article that’s exactly been written already. You want to tell a story in a new way, you want to add a new perspective. And so the perspective that we thought that we can really do is that in this area of energy efficient computing. The way you go about computing is radically different.
A: I didn’t say anything bad about them. That’s the reality. Q: So did you swap that Intel for Qualcomm and Samsung there (for your rival)? A: I don't know whether we swapped for anybody. We’re still competing as Intel; they’re still competing against ARM. I don't think anybody was swapped. We have simply added rivals. We have more competitors today than we ever had. Q: I remember back in late 1990s there were 60 competitors in graphics. A: That’s right. Q: How will you win? A: Well anything worthwhile doing you’re going to have a lot of competition. You can't choose something that’s worthwhile to do that you’d be so so arrogant to think that you’re the only person in the world that figured it out. It won't be for long. Well the question is can we add a unique perspective? That’s mobile computing on the whole account if we all haven't figured it out that’s the future. If everyone hasn't figured it out that’s because they’ve got their head in the sand. If graphics is important, if visual computing is important, we can add a perspective. If building a high performance computing device is important we can add a perspective. I think that at least mobile devices are still in ancient times. I mean frankly this is a whole bit like Windows 2.0. We’re going to look back at these phones and they’re just going to be gross. They’re going to be disgusting. I mean yucky. And you’re going to look at it and go; I can't believe I used that. Q: Just that I’d be interested to hear your views of kind of where you see the consumer in the computing industry in say three years? I ask the question in the perspective of what we should expect to see when we go to Best Buy say in two years. Is the smartphone and tablet section going to be much bigger or the PC sector? Are consumers going to know the difference between what they’re buying if Windows works on all of them? A: Excellent question. The old personal computer industry was, you bought a PC at Best Buy it’s based on Wintel (Windows and Intel). That’s the old PC industry. But we all know that the new personal computer industry is including that but it’s a mobile device and will be increasingly a mobile device. And it’s a foregone conclusion our children are much more enamored with iPhones and Android devices and tablets and now with PCs. But you know you don't buy mobile devices at Best Buy. You buy them at AT&T, Verizon stores. So Best Buy is really under a lot of pressure. If ARM is the most important chip architecture, then the most important processor in your computer is going to be an SOC (system on chip, or a processor with many other parts built into it).
A: That’s the amazing thing. That’s why it’s even more over than we think. The consumers aren't going to worry about that at all. Nobody ever picked up an iPhone goes, I wonder if this has an x86 or an ARM inside. I just know it’s an iPhone. I know, that’s how sad it is. That says everything. Q: Where does Qualcomm fit in this world? A: We compete with Qualcomm. I think about Qualcomm as a mobile company that is growing into computing. They grew up on the mobile side. Our strength is that we know computing really well. The more sophisticated the computers or tablets or smartphones, the more we have an advantage. Q: How fast does Denver have to get into the market? Can yo wait until Windows on ARM arrives? A: Denver can come out ahead. It does everything. Denver can't just be another CPU port. We have to bring a perspective about energy efficiency that the world has never seen and so that's something that we are quite excited about. Q: What do you think of the OS wars? A: Operating systems are really an ecosystem with all the companies around them. So other software companies, hardware companies, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). You learn how to work with that operating system in a way that really hard to put into words. Thousands of people are working together on a daily basis and you can't put that down on a piece of paper, or you just can’t answer how do you work with Microsoft? I don't know where to start. It's been 18 years; you know most people aren't married that long. And so when we started working on mobile devices with them, it's all the same people here. Instead of having Microsoft work with the ARM side of our company, we moved the ARM processor work into the PC set of our company because it is a lot easier to do that than to reconnect 4,000 relationships. We have that relationship with others as well. When you think about a new operating system, you think about what it is capable of doing as well as the ecosystem around it that makes it sticky or not sticky. There is a Windows ecosystem and an iPhone ecosystem that Apple has created. There is a Blackberry enterprise ecosystem. The question is how much more can you build like that? I think the answer is there are not many more out there. A: It’s an OS for HP because they can always use it for the printers and things like that. The question is what is everybody else doing? If you have an HP operating system, you disconnect a very large part of the computer industry from it. Dell and Acer don’t get involved in that. The question is do we get involved with them and that's a very tough question because supporting an operating system is an enormous undertaking as operating system gets more and more complicated.We support Windows, Macintosh, Linux because of our supercomputing work, RIM, and Android. Basically, that’s a huge investment for us already. Q: What are your priorities? A: Our priorities are Windows first, Android second. Q: So what is your relationship with the Nokia? If you want to have, if you've got a relationship with Windows, you may have a relationship with Nokia. A: The exciting thing for us is that Nokia used to be a non-opportunity for us because we never supported Symbian. Now that they are moving to Microsoft, we have a chance. Q: Does Apple have to lose market share for your market opportunity to get bigger? A: No. Apple has to get to a point where the number of projects that they have in the company exceeds their capacity as a company to build internally. Q: Is ARM on the Mac OS possible? A: I don't know their plans but if you look at it from 10,000 feet, it seems to make sense, right? Because if they go Mac on ARM, they could address some of their concerns with their own SOC. So instead of paying $150, they can pay $15. Q: Just to follow, who do you have to displace to get into Nokia? Who is there now? A: Mostly Nokia, when I say Nokia I mean I shouldn't say it that way, I would say ST Ericsson. ST Ericsson is almost 100 percent of Nokia. Used to be TI. I will say even maybe some TI still. Q: Do you think it is possible that Apple could have external CPU suppliers and internal going at the same time. A: Yeah. They use some of their own chip sets, they buy some of ours but it's only when the business opportunity get so large that they don't know how to address it. Q: Where is the Project Denver opportunity? Is is mobile, PCs, or servers? A: We are all about energy-efficient computing. Q: Does that mean Windows and ARM can address the entire market? A: I don't know. Nobody actually knows. My question is this: do you guys actually believe in five years time, whether you are in a desktop computer, or a mobile computer, is there some way that energy-efficient processing is not going to be enough for you? Can you actually imagine it? I think we are having a hard time finding markets it doesn't serve. It does HD, it plays games. Multiply the performance by 50. What can a computer do with that kind of performance? Do you need more? So it turns out there are still a ton of content creation opportunities for those supercomputing workstations. But for most of our normal computing average computing needs, I think a mobile device with a couple of watts of power consumption, which is 50 times less than the power consumed by your desktop today, is going to be enough. So my imagination tells me that the mobile computing market is going to become unquestionably the most important computer in the world. Mobile processors will address a very large part of the market. We are going to get to a point where you can enjoy the same game on any device. If sitting in front of your living room and you can play game on your big screen TV but if you want to pick up where you left off, you could just get back into the game on your mobile device. Q: Is there still a need for game consoles? A: Well I still think that there is a market for a dedicated device. It’s just simply wont be as large as it used to be, don't you think? Q: I am not sure. A: There are enough people out there who want a wonderfully designed game device. There is a market for people like that. Q: Well you could just have a little Nintendo chip that you put in your Android phones? A: Yeah or a Nintendo store on that phone. When Nintendo realizes that what they are really all about is helping people enjoy games, then they could do that. Why can’t you enjoy their games on any mobile device? And so maybe they realize that at some point and they'll say if you have a mobile device, we'd like you to play Mario on it and you can buy from this store. But if you want a dedicated device to play Mario, you can have it this way. If you want to play on TV, you play this way. Q: Do you think there will be another round of consoles coming? A: Oh, no question about it. Q: And can you predict when it will be in terms of how many years from now? A: We will build one of them, right. And the reason for that is because the world doesn't have enough engineering talent for anybody to build three of them at one time. It takes the entire livelihood of a computer graphics company to build one of them. And every single time they build one, my life is in danger. You build it once every five or seven years, but you have to build it all in a very short time. That’s because they wait and wait and then they say, ‘Can I have it next week?’ Q: So how much longer a life do you think Xbox 360 and the PS 3 have? A: Oh 10 years. But the next new console will happen before that. They are still selling PlayStation 2s. Q: So Project Denver raises the question as to whether there is use for more than four cores on a client-side device. So my hunch about Denver was maybe it's like a GPU with four cores attached to it. A: You are trying to trick me into telling you everything about Project Denver. Okay I fess up, and here is how it works. Q: Philosophically, we could keep adding more cores into the chip, right? But if you don't need more than eight threads of execution, or maybe 16 threads, then what else do you do for the CPU? Whereas if you can just add more GPU hardware, and more cache, then you can see the benefit. A: No, I mean there are many things that you said that are quite true. For example, for any application about six to eight threads is about all it could support. I mean you've got an audio thread, you got an artificial intelligence thread, you got a physics thread or a few of them, you got some basic collision detection threads. You don't have that many threads, but you could spawn off probably six to eight threads and in fact that's the reason why Xbox 360 has six cores and it keeps them pretty busy. I don’t disagree with you about the eight threads. The thing that I would also say though is that world has become highly multitasking, especially on these mobile devices. And when you're reading a book, listening to music or you're accessing a website, you want it to pop up real fast. When your web site is coming in, especially once you get Wi-Fi or 4G, you want it to come it fast. You get all these Java scripts all loading at the same time. That's a whole lot of threads you could process at the same time. So interactivity, the snappiness of an experience, the fact that you're doing a whole of things at the same time — you could be downloading an application, listening to music and browsing the web — you don't want that to slow down. Silicon cores are basically free. You really want never to give up the opportunity to delight somebody with a snappy experience. I think over time our expectation is that stuff ultimately will work and deliver a great experience. The silicon is almost free. The cores are free. I’m saying just buy them from me. Q: Do you thing that TSMC will lag behind in updating their process technology at a certain point? A: No in fact the exact opposite is true. There was a time when only Nvidia and AMD pushed the leading edge capacity of TSMC. TSMC really relied on Nvidia and AMD to drive their early ramps. But now that Qualcomm and others are now in the mobile computing business, there are more and more semiconductor companies that are pushing the high performance nodes and that's a good thing. I mean Qualcomm is now pushing the high performance nodes because they want more performance, right? And TI wants more performance and we want more performance, Marvell wants more performance. Q: Why did Intel miss mobile computing? A: I think when you are in a different position, you look at the world differently. It’s hard to see the world clearly when you are in the midst of enormous success and it's not their fault. You almost can't see it; you know what I am saying? I mean you can't see the other side because what you are doing is working so well. I mean could you imagine, I started a Chinese food restaurant and I got lines piled up to the other state. I would think that everybody in the world wants to be Chinese and so I will just keep building it out. The reason why we are certain that the future was going to be mobile computing devices was by extrapolation. We looked at what was inside mobile devices and extrapolated. When the ARM processors first showed up in a TI phone, do you guys remember that? I mean that was a wake up call for the world. That was 10 years ago, but that was a wake up call. Q: Where do you think the price of the tablets is going to settle at this year? A: It depends on what kind of tablets. The problem is touch has a lot of different types. There is the person who doesn’t mind resistive screens. There are 10-finger capacitive touch screens, or four-finger screens. There are more screens coming. If you want perfect touch and handwriting, that could still be an $800 tablet. You can go down to resistive touch screen and then pound the living daylights out of the screen before it knows you hit the screen, then that could easily be $199. Q: I think it depends on what Apple does. A: No. I believe that Apple does what Apple does and nobody else is going to compete with them. Q: So you don't think the Apple has a sort of particular pricing advantage? A: I don't think Apple products are going to be cheap and let’s think about that for a second, I think first of all, they have one advantage that everybody else doesn't have which is the Apple Stores. Best Buy commands a 30-point margin. When you sell at Best Buy, you lose 30 points. I mean that is huge. Apple has a cost advantage. Q: Are you shipping Tegra 2 chips for the Motorola Xoom? A: Oh yeah we are shipping the daylights out of it. Q: Back to Windows on ARM again: did you know about it before you greenlit Project Denver on ARM? A: We had to commit on Project Denver first. Q: So what made you think though that Microsoft would follow through with Windows ARM? A: We would have done Denver with ARM without Windows on ARM. Q: For whom? A: For mobile devices that don't use Windows. Q: Was there a sigh of relief when Microsoft made the announcement? A: Oh yeah. When Windows decided to use ARM, our market opportunity went from a billion units to 1.4 billion and that's the way I think about it. There are a billion smart phones and tablets and whatever and then now you add to it, 400 million notebooks and PCs. So the increase of our total available market by 40 percent is not a bad thing. So I was delighted by that. Okay, I moonwalked a little. Dan (Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing at Nvidia) and I hugged. Dan wept. I was happy, he wept, he wept, it was noticeable, he wept. He was that happy, he wept. Companies: advanced micro devices, Intel, Nvidia People: Jen Hsun Huang
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| Strategy means nothing without implementation Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:00 AM PST Everyone loves to talk about strategy, but simply having a plan won’t get you anywhere. Mark Forchette, CEO of OptiMedica says strategy is only as good as the tactical execution behind it in this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture given at Stanford University. Forchette tells of his time with Alcon, where sustained focus on implementing strategy led to a notably larger market share for the company. (Can’t see the video? Click here)
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| How popular are you online? PeekScores knows Posted: 03 Mar 2011 09:22 PM PST
People search company PeekYou has developed a program that lets you track how your online persona ranks relative to others’ on the Internet. It released data this week that showed that using its PeekScores data, the top five college dropouts with the highest web presence were Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell and Richard Branson. The company’s PeekScores service, launched this summer, now indexes people with their public web URLs, then takes into account a user’s known presence and activity on the Internet. This includes, but is not limited to, someone’s blogging, their participation in social networks, the number of friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content someone creates, and their prominence in the news. The program uses algorithms for analyzing and filtering public Web content, and matching it to the person who created that information or is mentioned in it. This involves methods for cross-checking key data points identified from different sources, such as recognizing which John Smiths on the Internet are one and the same and which of them are different people. PeekYou’s competitors include similar people finders Spock.com (now owned by Intelius), Wink.com (now owned by MyLife), Pipl.com and 123people.com. The space is particularly crowded now due to how much more often businesses and people are using these sorts of sites to make major decisions, said the company’s founder. “Not having a copious and well-defined presence on the Internet will soon be a serious detriment to anyone on the job market, if it is not so already,” CEO Michael Hussey told me. “Employers are placing increasing weight on a candidate's reputation on the Internet, and one's online persona will be weighed alongside one's resume for any given hiring decision.” “The same goes for prospective dates,” he added. “Chances are you'll get ‘Googled,’ and pretty much everyone knows by now that the results of that search can have practical consequences for you, both good and bad.” Prior to founding PeekYou in 2006, Hussey started the RateMy series of websites, which include sites such as RateMyTeachers, RateMyProfessors and RateMyFace. PeekYou served five million people in February, up 300 percent in the past year, and Hussey said the company believes it will grow 10 times larger in the coming years, as its index continues to grow and improve. Thus far, the company has raised $1.7 million total from investor Baldev Duggal of Duggal Dimensions. PeekYou is now profitable but said it is considering options for a larger investment this year to keep up with demand. Companies: 123people.com, Duggal Dimensions, Intelius, MyLife, Peekyou, Pipl.com, RateMyFace, RateMyProfessors, RateMyTeachers, Spock.com, Wink.com People: baldev duggal, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, michael hussey, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs
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| No Twitter IPO this year, says co-founder Biz Stone Posted: 03 Mar 2011 09:16 PM PST
“We have so many other things before we even think about that,” said Stone (pictured). “We are not even discussing it internally. It’s too far off.” Stone also put the kibosh on a story in the Financial Times earlier this week that the company is in talks with banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase & Co. to sell 10 percent of Twitter for an estimated $450 million. Stone said the story was “made up” and that the company is currently making money and won’t be shopping around for supplemental funds for at least a year. “We make money. We earn money from a suite of products … We have promoted tweets … promoted accounts, all of which are in our advertising mechanism,” said Stone. ”We are just really getting started. We have some internal forecasts [for advertising revenue for 2011], but nothing is really shared right now. We don’t need to set the world record or anything like that.” Investors looking to get a piece of Twitter’s international buzz pre-IPO have been pouring money into the startup for the past year. Last month, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen’s venture capital firm invested $80 million in Twitter via the secondary markets, while in December Twitter nabbed $200 million in a deal that valued the company at $3.7 billion. The money at stake is significant. Industry tracker eMarketer said in January that Twitter likely generated an estimated $45 million from advertising in 2010 and could generate about $150 million this year. The startup does not disclose its financial information. The possibility of getting in early on a company that will possibly be one of the most anticipated IPOs ever has had plenty of investors looking to snap up shares of the Twitter on the secondary markets, where early investors and employees can sell off their stock in companies. That trend has continued across the industry, as the darlings of Silicon Valley like gaming company Zynga and social network Facebook have watched investors grab chunks of their companies before going public. The practice had become so prevalent that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in December it was “investigating” how groups of investors were buying stock via the secondary markets — especially for tech firms. San Francisco-based Twitter was created in 2006 and currently employs about 350 people. Companies: Emarketer, Facebook, Financial Times, jpmorgan chase and co., netscape, Twitter, u.s. securities and exchange commission, Zynga People: Biz Stone, mark andreesen
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| Put that holding elevator music on hold with Fastcustomer Posted: 03 Mar 2011 05:10 PM PST
Well, it looks like there’s an online service that will finally assuage those fears called Fastcustomer. It’s ridiculously simple — a user just visits the website, types in a company and types in their phone number. After a few minutes, which they would otherwise spend on hold listening to bad elevator music, the user will get a call that will put them on-line with the customer service representative immediately. The company also has an iPhone application that does about the same thing with a different interface. The application has a list of companies that the user can select. They tap the company and can then close the application and wait for the call to come. The application landed on the Apple App Store late last month. An Android application is on the way as soon as the company finds an Android developer, according to a post on Y Combinator’s news aggregator Hacker News. The service on the website is free to use. The company said it has been on hold for more than 15,000 minutes, “because WE LOVES HOLDING,” according to its website. It uses Twilio, a telephony application programming interface (API) that gives developers a way to interact with dial tones and phone functions through programs. The average person is typically on hold for more than 50 hours each year trying to resolve any number of problems, according to the company. That number seems a bit high, but I know I’ve felt at least a touch of rage listening to that infuriating elevator music.
It does seem like a service like this is ripe for abuse — such as some bored kid on the Internet getting companies to call random people. So far, the company doesn’t have any plans to counteract that abuse — the team wants to see how the problem evolves and how to handle it in the future, they said in a post on Hacker News. But Fastcustomer is definitely something I plan on using the next time I have to get in touch with a customer service rep. Even if it is just to play a few extra minutes of Minecraft or a game on my Nintendo DS. Companies: Fastcustomer, Twilio
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| Now that’s a rant: Brenda Brathwaite unloads on social game haters Posted: 03 Mar 2011 03:11 PM PST
All of the insults hurled against social-game developers in recent years — chiefly that low production quality, knock-off designs, and cheap price points are destroying the industry’s creative values — have pissed her off. Her response: a kind of manifesto that may well convince more traditional game makers to move into social games. The game industry is undergoing a sea change, and Brathwaite welcomes those who want to pioneer games on a brand-new platform. As a cofounder of Loot Drop, a social-game developer in San Mateo, Calif., Brathwaite has put a stake in the ground saying that social games are not ruining the game-development industry. Her stance: social games are still games. They’re part of the same entertainment fabric. They aren’t mature yet, like console games, but they are no less deserving of praise because they appeal to audiences that are different from the hardcore gamers who play on the consoles. Brathwaite is a longtime game maker who worked at Siro-Tech for 18 years, building titles such as Wizardry and Jagged Alliance. More recently, she worked on Playboy: The Mansion and studied the thorny topic of sex in video games. In the spring of 2010, she crossed the divide between traditional game development and social games. She became creative director at LOLapps, where she co-developed Ravenwood Fair with John Romero. Her new company, founded with Romero and other traditional game industry veterans, will do social games with a focus on good design. The GDC rant session included a number of other industry luminaries as well, including Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds and Digital Chocolate chief executive Trip Hawkins. But nobody really got the fire going like Brathwaite’s fire and brimstone. Here’s a video of her rant in full. Note there is some profanity. Companies: Loot Drop People: Brenda Brathwaite
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| On the GreenBeat: Nexterra bags $15M for biomass power, Johnson Controls make $32.3M smart grid buy Posted: 03 Mar 2011 01:41 PM PST Here’s the latest action we’re following today on the GreenBeat: Nexterra Systems raises $15M for biomass power — The Candian company raised the cash from ARC financial and Tandem Expansion Fund. It makes small-scale biomass gasification systems that generate renewable heat and power systems. The company’s clients include the U.S. Department of Energy and Johnson Controls. It also has strategic relationships with GE and Johnson Controls. The cash will go towards market expansion. Johnson Controls buys EnergyConnect for $32 million — Building energy efficiency company Johnson Controls will buy smart grid company Energy Connect for $32.3 million. The transaction is expected to close in July. Energy Connect specializes in a demand response technology, which helps companie cut their peak-time energy use and save money. Utilities with demand response programs also offer financial incentives for participation. Better Place teams with Renault for electric car battery swaps – Electric car infrastructure startup Better Place opened today a center in Europe with its partner Renault, which makes the Renault Fluence Z.E. (pictured), an electric sedan. Better Place is unusual among other startups in that it offers battery swap stations, which allow users to swap out a depleted electric car battery for a fully-charged one — other companies like Ecotality and Coulomb offer charging stations. The Copenhagen, Denmark facility offers a subscription service with five fixed-price packages based on kilometers driven for Fluence Z.E. drivers. For 40,000 kilometers (about 25,000 miles) driven, an “all you can drive” option costs 399 euros a month, or about $557 a month. Other options include $278 to $348 per month packages. The Fluence Z.E. with Better Place mobility packages are expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2011. Suntech still sees brisk European business – Despite cutbacks in government subsidies, solar panel manufacturer Suntech says it will sell half its production this year in Europe, Reuters reports. The company does forecast a global oversupply of solar panels this year, but sees it as a temporary situation. Half of its production last year also went to Europe, and Suntech expects that number to only drop slightly. Enphase expands to Europe — The top solar microinverter company has expanded with its first European offices in France and Italy. The company has made more than 20,000 installations and shipped 500,000 units of its solar system equipment in North America, and says its expansion is aimed at capturing a share of the global inverter market. Europe is the world’s largest solar market, but there’s been some concern lately about government subsidy cutbacks there. Enphase says France, Italy and the Benelux region are gaining momentum in solar installations and are poised to rapidly adopt microinverters rather than the traditional larger, centralized inverter systems. Inverters convert energy generated by solar systems into usable energy for the grid, and microinverters — a hot area lately — accomplish the same thing, but more efficiently. Amprius raises $25 million for next generation batteries — The company says the cash will go to commercialize what it says will be the next generation of lithium-ion batteries, signing on major new investors like Google CEO Eric Schmidt and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers. Amprius is looking to commercialize high energy, silicon-based materials to for batteries that it says will offer a "dramatic increase" in energy, range and runtime for consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Companies: Amprius, Better Place, EnergyConnect, Enphase, Johnson Controls, Nexterra Systems, Renault, Suntech
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| Sony touts its PlayStation Network, 70M and counting Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:48 AM PST
The PlayStation Network, or PSN, is Sony’s attempt to engage its video-game console and PlayStation Portable audience in a larger online entertainment network that includes online games, movies and TV shows, and Sony exclusives such as Qore, a digital magazine, and The Tester original TV show. It’s a strategic asset for the console maker as more of the-video game audience moves into the online world. Susan Panico, head of the PlayStation Network in North America, said in a press event at the Game Developers Conference today that the PlayStation Home virtual world for console users has also reached 19 million users with an average session length of 70 minutes. In 2010, she said Home added 3 million users. Panico argued that the numbers show that the PSN audience of hardcore gamers is one of the most engaged that you’ll find. The audience plays lots of games, with two thirds of them going online to play games weekly. For context, Sony has sold more than 47 million PS 3s and 66 million PSPs. So the 70 million-figure is an impressive number. Microsoft has sold more than 51 million Xbox 360 consoles and, at last count, more than 30 million are on Xbox Live. Nintendo has sold more than 85 million Wii consoles, but the number of users that have gone online isn’t known. There are 948 games now available in the PlayStation Network store, as well as 4,000 pieces of add-on content for games. There are also 31,000 movies and TV shows available for download, not counting the content available on Netflix, Hulu, and sports content. Sony ’s network includes original games such as Flow and Flower, and the upcoming Journey from developer Thatgamecompany. Many of the original PSN games have ratings as high as games sold in retail stores. Sony’s holdings around the world include movie and television studios and music labels, giving it considerable content to put into its online services. But it has struggled to integrate those assets with its video-game and electronics businesses. “Our audience are interested in a broad array of entertainment and they like to get it all in one place,” Panico said. Panico said that January was the fifth-highest revenue month ever for the online store and it has strong year over year growth. (Sony doesn’t disclose precise numbers). She also said January was the sixth-best month for downloads. She said subscriptions for the PlayStation Plus membership service ($49 a year) are climbing and saw big lifts in December and January. Many games can still be played multiplayer for free, but the membership allows users to get into early beta tests for new games. Panico said that while PlayStation Home started as a place for users to chat and meet friends in a virtual world, it has not turned into a kind of theme park where users can play a wide range of games. Microsoft is the big rival with the online game service, Xbox Live, which costs $50 a year for multiplayer gaming. Microsoft competes across the board in providing all kinds of entertainment on Xbox Live. It has more than 30 million gamers and its advantages include frequent exclusives for games such as Call of Duty for multiplayer play. But Panico said that Sony has been emphasizing exclusive games of its own and she said that lots of Call of Duty gamers are choosing to play on the PS 3 as well. Sony’s added entertainment specials include the Qore digital magazine and Pulse, the biweekly entertainment update show. Millions of users tuned in to watch The Tester, a reality TV-style show where gamers competed to get a job testing games at Sony. Panico said Sony’s PlayStation video store saw an 80 percent increase in revenue in 2010. People: Susan Panico
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| Disney looks beyond apps with HTML5 game maker Rocket Pack Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:43 AM PST
Games and other apps built specifically for Apples iOS devices or Android devices have to be rebuilt in order to work on other platforms, so HTML5’s portability makes it appealing to developers and game publishers alike. The move mirrors Disney’s larger corporate strategy as well, in which it seeks to distribute its content across as many platforms as possible. Rocket Pack, based in Helsinki, Finland, will become a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company in the Disney Interactive Media Group. According to Fast Company, the price of the acquisition was between $10 million and $20 million. The one-year-old startup just released the first HTML5 game based on its Rocket game engine for developers. The game, called Warimals, is about the everlasting battle between cats and dogs. Rocket Pack promises its engine will be able to handle many kinds of social multiplayer features, including virtual currency to buy virtual goods. The engine works with Apple iOS devices, Android, and most major browsers on a PC or Mac. Here’s a sample of Rocket Pack’s work:
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| Amprius raises $25M for breakthrough batteries from Kleiner, Google CEO Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:41 AM PST
Amprius is looking to commercialize high energy, silicon-based materials to turbo-charge the next generation of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in everything from laptops to electric cars. The company says battery cells with Amprius technology will offer a “dramatic increase” in energy, range and runtime for consumer electronics and electric vehicles. "Our recent fundraising will enable us to deploy our first commercial product, validate our manufacturing processes, and launch a global presence," said Dr. Kang Sun, CEO of Amprius, in a statement. Battery technology has been winning investment lately from both private and public sectors. Advancements in battery technology are key to electric car adoption — they make up around 50 percent of the cost of an electric car, and their lifespan and performance is an ongoing concern for potential electric car buyers. However, some are skeptical that major advancements in batteries can be made. One scientist said the battery advancements won’t mimic the rapid leaps and bounds made over the past few years in the computer industry, and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is also sour on electric cars. He’s chosen to invest instead in a company that makes more efficient internal combustion engines. Google Ventures recently invested in Transphorm, a startup that reduces power conversion losses. Its technology could eventually yield more efficient electric cars, and doesn’t require battery advancements since the secret sauce is in reducing power naturally lost when it’s converted from alternating current to direct current. Battery startups that have recently won funding include ActaCell, which is looking to use a nano material to create a high-energy battery cell for use in hybrid trucks. GM’s venture capital arm has also invested in battery startups Envia Systems and Sakti3. The company declined to comment on what markets it would be tackling first, but in its press release, says its product has “recently achieved key validation milestones for consumer electronics applications such as smartphones and continues to advance toward requirements necessary for electric drive vehicle applications.” Other investors in this round of fundraising include VantagePoint Venture Partners, Stanford University, Trident Capital and Chinese funds IPV Capital and Qian Neng Fund. The company was founded in 2008 by Stanford professor Yi Cui. Companies: Actacell, Amprius, Envia Systems, GM, Google, Google Ventures, IPV Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Qian Neng Fund, Sakti3, Stanford University, Trident Capital, VantagePoint Venture Partners People: Eric Schmidt, Kang Sun
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| Thrutu lets you do more than just talk during phone calls Posted: 03 Mar 2011 10:34 AM PST
The free Android app, which landed on the Android Market today, extends the functionality of traditional phone calls by letting you share photos, location data and contact information. You can also vibrate your calling partner’s phone to “prod” them — think Facebook’s “poke” function meets the real world. It should be noted that much of this functionality is already available on smartphones, but you have to juggle multiple apps to use all these features, and there’s no guarantee the person you’re calling will have the same apps as you. Thrutu simplifies that process by giving you a single unified interface to share information during a phone call. The app comes with a few caveats: It only works on phones running on GSM networks like AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s in the US, or on Sprint’s 4G WiMax network. That’s because those networks can handle voice and data traffic at the same time. Verizon and Sprint’s 3G CDMA networks can’t juggle voice and data simultaneously. The fact that Thrutu doesn’t work on Verizon is a big problem for the app, as that network is home to some of the most popular Android phones like the Droid line. Both callers also need to run Thrutu to take advantage of its features. That means you’ll need to plan ahead and make sure your friends install the app before you call — you can’t just be spontaneous. And since Thrutu only works on certain phone networks, you likely won’t be able to use it with all of your friends and family. Eventually, Thrutu plans to add social media connectivity, games support, real-time video and the ability to let you plan events. BlackBerry and iPhone versions of the app are on the way as well. Thrutu is certainly providing a useful upgrade to the classic phone call, but it still has plenty of hurdles to overcome before it can be useful to everyone. The Silicon Valley-based company is the consumer division of Metaswitch Networks, which is backed by Sequoia Capital and Francisco Partners. Companies: Metaswitch Networks, Thrutu
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Smart grid and smart meters are an inevitable part of America’s energy future, but at least when it comes to consumers, it has gotten off to a bumpy start.
So Pecan Street wants to focus on “the great applications that people want,” McCracken said. What’s more, the applications aren’t likely to come from the utility, but third-party providers, he argues. (“Do you get your apps from Apple or Verizon?” he asks.) McCracken sees the energy industry as comparable to the telecom industry, noting that it has transformed from a highly regulated, conservative industry into a competitive market filled with innovative, cutting-edge approaches. And in the same way that cell phone service providers offer free or discounted phones for subscribers, McCracken thinks utilities could one day offer free or discounted smart grid devices to ratepayers.
Control4, for example, last year 
Following on the heels of several previous reports, it appears that Microsoft won’t be ready to deliver its first operating system built with tablets in mind, Windows 8, until late 2012, 
I hope Apple announces its new plans for digital music purchases soon, because I’m getting tired of the constant speculation. This time around, it seems that Apple is negotiating deals with record companies to allow customers to download music they’ve purchased across multiple devices, 
Ruckus Media lands $3.5M for storybook apps: The developer of mobile apps geared toward children has 
Jen-Hsun Huang has reinvented his graphics chip firm 
Q: Tell us about your strategy.
Q: Jerry Sanders (former CEO of Advanced Micro Devices) said that real men have fabs (or chip factories).
But we timed it with Microsoft so that 15 minutes later, key members of the press could walk across the hall, go into Microsoft’s press announcement and there Steve Sinofsky of Microsoft would announce that next generation Windows would be based on ARM. And so everyone now sees the picture that our CPU strategy really is ARM, that we intend to take the ARM for mobile devices all the way to supercomputers. ARM is now the only CPU in the world that will have deep penetration in the mobile devices, the PC, servers and supercomputers. And so I think at CES our strategy for Nvidia 3.0 was crystallized and people understood what we were trying to do — that we were trying to build a modern version of a computer technology company.
Q: At what point did you guys sort of decide that x86 (Intel-compatible microprocessors) had just many roadblocks for you?
Q: Now that you’re getting $57 million a quarter from Intel, you might start saying nice things about them, right?
Q: Do you expect consumers to care about what’s happening at the chip level?
Ever wonder how popular you are on the Web — and how you stack up to others?
White-hot microblogging startup 
I hate being on hold on the phone. I always feel obligated to keep my hand on my phone, and I have a chronic fear that I’ll finally make it off hold the second I put my phone down.
The service is similar to 
Social-gaming entrepreneur Brenda Brathwaite delivered a rant at the 
An executive at Japanese entertainment conglomerate 
Disney has acquired gaming startup 
Battery startup Amprius has 
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