Intel Capital Gives Shot of Green to Chinese Solar Venture

Intel has made its first green tech investment in China with a $20 million position in Trony Solar Holdings, which makes solar and wind power equipment. The investment comes from Intel Capital's $500 million second China technology fund.

Intel's investment, its first in clean technologies in China, will be used by Trony to enhance its production and research and development, the Chinese company, based in the southern export hub of Shenzhen, said in a statement.

Trony, set up in 1993, has sales in more than 20 countries.

The two companies did not provide details on the size of Intel Capital's equity stake or other terms of the investment.

"Investing in 'clean-tech' is relatively new for Intel Capital," said Stephen Eichenlaub, Intel Capital's managing director. "Clean technology area will take on a large strategic significance for Intel's future."

Escaping Oil
In addition to its investment in Trony, Intel Capital also announced plans to invest in NPH Holdings, a Chinese company specializing in electricity storage systems for renewable energy. But no details were provided.

China's renewable energy industry is growing quickly, as the country attempts to shift away from heavily polluting coal and oil-fired power generation to cleaner, more efficient energy sources.

It's not a question of surging oil prices but of long-term sustainability, Eichenlaub said.

"Our challenge as investors is to find technologies where we should be supporting innovation where the price of oil doesn't matter, because we can't control it," Eichenlaub said.

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Sony Announces Pro-Photographer Program

Sony unveiled its professional photographer program at the PhotoPlus Expo tradeshow.

Based on synergies between their unique styles of photography and Sony’s line of α (alpha) cameras, Sony hand-selected five professional photographers to be included in its first-ever professional photographe program. These pro-photographers—Andy Katz, David McLain, Christina Mittermeier, Brian Smith and Matthew Jordan Smith—have recently been using the alpha (model DSLR-A900) camera and an assorment of lenses.

By following their unique visions, each of the photographers created the images in a gallery that is on display today at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Sony Electronics also added two new models to its family of S-Frame digital photo frames—including the company’s first 10-inch model here at the PhotoPlus Expo trade show.

The new 10-inch and 8-inch digital photo frames (models DPF-D100 and DPF-D80) have high-quality SVGA resolution (800 x 600 pixels) LCD screens. They are Sony’s first digital photo frames that offer a 4:3 aspect ratio.

This apect ratio eliminates borders around the digital photos and allows pictures to fill up the screen. Photos appear larger on theses frames’ displays than digital photo frames with the 16:9 aspect ratio.


Visit Sony’s news and information site (www.sony.com) to find out more about the professional photography program, digital photo frames and SnapLab™ products unveiled at PhotoPlus.

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HP's Mini Notebook is a Real Deal Eee PC Killer

In my opinion, Apple is my favorite. But I decided to look upon other brands for laptops. Like the HP's Mini Notebook. I actually found this review about the HP's Mini Notebook being a real deal Eee PC Killer. It's been less than a year since Asus first sprinkled its Eee PCs with magical miniaturizing dust, yet these low-cost, diminutive laptops have already taken off like an F/A-18 catapulted from an aircraft carrier. In the past nine months alone, the industry has produced a spate of "mini-me-too" offerings, including Cloudbooks, Airs, Winds and other ebulliently named subnotebooks.

Seriously, it was only a matter of time before the big boys of computing decided to get in on this burgeoning and potentially lucrative category. Dell has already announced plans to release a cheap (and derivatively named) E mini notebook for $300 in August. And then there's HP with its new 2133.

Despite beating Dell to market by a few months, it's clear the company put a substantial amount of thought into its initial offering. Price-wise, the 2133 remains competitive with other itty-bitty notebooks, coming in at $600 for the Vista Business version. A Linux OS is available for $100 less while a Windows XP "upgrade" will cost you $100 more.

Unlike many of its tiny compatriots, this is one of the few mini notebooks that didn't feel cheap and flimsy in our hands, due in no small part to its fetching brushed aluminum and plastic outer shell. That casing does add slightly more to its overall weight, which is 2.8-lbs sans battery and 3.7 with the power source attached, but rest assured, you won't have any trouble toting around 2133.

Even more impressive is the fact that HP flat-out nailed the QWERTY keyboard on its first try — something other manufacturers are still struggling to perfect. In fact, we found the (almost) full-size keyboard to be one of the most responsive and comfortable we've used on a mini notebook thus far.

While these standout features make the 2133 competitive with the MSI Wind and Asus Eee PC 900, this category is all about hitting the right balance of features. The importance of those features will vary depending on the user, but in general the big three are: price, battery life and weight. One can argue that screen size, processor power, storage capacity and keyboard size can also make or break a mini notebook experience. Amazingly, the 2133 tends to shine in most of these areas as well — with a few exceptions.

The one big drawback — especially when compared to other ultraportable notebooks — is the processor. While other manufacturers have already started cramming Intel's power-efficient yet highly capable Atom processor into their dwarf notebooks, the 2133 comes with a decidedly feeble 1.2-GHz Via processor. While it looks good on paper, we found that web pages still tended to render at a snails pace, and most multitasking were mind numbingly slow. Granted, that may have a lot to do with running Vista, but it was still annoying. Similarly, battery life was also an issue for us. We squeezed a little more than two hours out of 2133, and while that's not much different from other mini notebooks, it is by no means acceptable.


Original Article

Best Buy’s Geek Squad Gets Extended-Service Program

Effective Sept. 14, all Best Buy extended-warranty plan names were changed to Geek Squad Black Tie Protection to reflect increased service and coverage options and other benefits not found in traditional retailer service plans, the company said.

The program offers coverage for hundreds of products across the home theater, PC, car, digital imaging, mobile and portable CE categories, and is designed to provide options in scope and term of coverage to suit the varying needs of customers.

“Geek Squad Black Tie Protection delivers the support our customers tell us they want to safeguard their gear, a level of support that only Best Buy is able to provide,” said Best Buy president/COO Brian Dunn. “By listening to our customers, we’re evolving service and reliability to a whole new level.”

The service plans are available exclusively on products purchased at Best Buy, are backed and administered by AIG WarrantyGuard, and leverage the retailer’s fully owned Geek Squad services infrastructure for support.


“We have a responsibility to be there for our customers, and a unique capability in Geek Squad to serve them,” said Jeff Severts, Best Buy’s services VP. “The combination of Best Buy product support with Geek Squad service has produced one of the best protection and service plans available anywhere.”

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Recycle Your Electronics

Global Warming, what could we do to help prevent it from happening? Of course, we recycle our cans, plastic bottles, and much more things. But what most people don't know, is that you can actually recycle your electronics! This could help out with global warming tremendously. People don't realize that every little thing can benefit our children's future and much more.

When recycling, you can do the following:
Search For An Electronics Recycler in Your Area
Important Considerations:

* Reuse is Preferable, but Don’t Dump Your Junk!

The NCER encourages reuse of working, newer equipment as the first option for used electronic equipment, and has listed several non-profit and other reuse programs below. However, many of these programs are unable to handle broken or severely outdated equipment. It is always advisable to call ahead to see if your used equipment meets that program’s needs.

*

Protect Your Data

If you are reusing or recycling a laptop or desktop computer, your personal data could still be on your hard drive. Most recyclers have hard drive wiping policies, but it is always in your best interest to protect your personal information by erasing or destroying your hard drive. There are many hard drive wiping software programs available. You can read more about the importance of hard drive erasure as well as do a comparison of some of the more popular software programs by going to Tech Soup’s website at: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page5726.cfm

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Call Ahead

Many recyclers are not set up to take small loads of computer and electronic equipment – many deal strictly in e-cycling on a commercial level. As a result, you should contact recyclers ahead of time to ensure that they can receive your equipment. A few handy search engines for electronics recyclers are included on this page.

How to Choose an Electronics Recycler:



Sometimes it’s not easy to tell who is a responsible recycler and who is not. One of the best ways to choose a recycler is to rely on the recommendations of credible environmental groups. For example, several recyclers have signed the Computer Take Back Campaign’s Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship, formally committing them to responsible electronics recycling practices. Go to http://www.ban.org/pledge/electronics_recycler_pledge.pdf to view a list of these recyclers.

Original Article

Start Selling HP Smartphones

HP has announced an agreement with Vodafone in Europe to resell the HP iPAQ Voice Messenger and the HP iPAQ Data Messenger, starting in the UK, with other European countries to be announced.

The HP iPAQ Voice Messenger and HP iPAQ Data Messenger are the latest additions to the HP smartphone portfolio, and both support Windows Mobile 6.1. The HP iPAQ Voice Messenger is a 3G smartphone with an integrated 20-key keypad. The HP iPAQ Data Messenger is a 3G smartphone with a large touchscreen display, full slide-out alphanumeric keyboard and built-in GPS capabilities.

HP is taking mobile computing beyond borders and boundaries to something truly global as a result of our relationship with Vodafone,” said David Wright, vice president and general manager, Personal Systems Group, HP UK&I. “Our new HP iPAQs will enable people to stay connected seamlessly on Vodafone’s high speed networks to the information, content and people that matter most to them.”

Both smartphones feature a unique five-way optical navigation button that provides a “gliding” sensation when scrolling through menus, and intelligent predictive text capabilities that learn user’s vocabulary and style from messages and emails for progressively faster and easier message composition.

Both devices feature ample memory to access important Microsoft Office Mobile files and store photos and music with up to 8 gigabytes of micro secure digital (SD) storage.

Will this be better than the iPhone? Well, I guess we just have to see. Pricing will be announced it November, so if HP really want to compete with Apple then they should have a similar price.

Original Article

T Mobile's G1 MOST OBNXIOUS FLAWS

I still think that the iPhone is number one with all of the touch screen phoens made out there. I found this article about the major flaws of the G1. Which I still don't get.. is it called Android or G1?! Apple has contacts and syncing which comes in handy if your phone ever fails on you.. but the G1 doesn't have that.. basically it's being supported by a cloud. This article also claims that the connection could be slower than EDGE network. So many companies attempt to make a better phone that the Apple iPhone, but yet have to succeed in such a hypothesis. While I was more impressed by the T-Mobile G1 than I thought I'd be, the list of catches for Android and the phone are quickly piling up—some that might very well be dealbreakers. Topping the list, it's tightly integrated with your Google account—so tightly that you can only use one Google account with the phone. If you want to switch to another account, you have to do a whole factory reset. Update: T-Mobile has patched up some of them—the 1GB cap is gone, and they'll unlock the phone for you after 90 days.

Contacts and Syncing: As mentioned, there is no desktop syncing app. It's all about the cloud—your Google contacts and cal are considered the masters. So if it's all on your desktop or god forbird, MobileMe, you've gotta move it over to your Google account.

Video: There's no video playback at all right now, except for YouTube. The expectation is that developers will create video playback apps and the requisite support.

Hardware Inadequacies: No multitouch on the G1 and there never will be, since the panel itself doesn't support it.

Miscellaneous: You've gotta have an SD card for any kind of music or video playback, once the latter arrives—there's no internal storage for media playback.

Bonus T-Mobile obnoxious flaw: If you're lucky enough to live in one of the markets sprinkled with 3G, after you've used 1GB of data, T-Mobile will slow you down to 50Kbps for the rest of the month. That's slower than EDGE, which is theoretically capable of 384Kbps, though in real world it's closer to 100Kbps.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE