Daily Technology News

Nanosolar, a maker of thin-film solar panels, said that it has raised $300 million to accelerate production of solar-power facilities in Berlin and San Jose, Calif.

The round of funding, which was completed this spring but announced Wednesday by Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen on the company’s blog, brings the total money the six-year-old company has raised to half of a billion dollars. Nanosolar is one of the darlings of the clean-tech investing craze.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Nanosolar’s strategic investors include power company AES Corp., equity firm the Carlyle Group, and electric utility company EDF–the three of which formed AES Solar as part of the deal, Roscheisen said. Those alliances will presumably help Nanosolar develop utility-scale solar power that would be cost efficient.

Other investors were hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, the Skoll Foundation, and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s fund, he said.

“The new capital will allow us to accelerate production expansion for our 430 megawatt San Jose factory and our 620 megawatt Berlin factory,” Roscheisen wrote.

He did not say when the facilities will be complete. But he said that the funding will help the company meet demand for the thin-film solar technology it introduced in December. Nanosolar is one of several companies betting on a photovoltaic-alternative known as copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), which purportedly convert more sunlight into energy than other types of thin-film materials.

“The alliance for solar utility power is the outcome of a year long effort on behalf of our strategic partners examining the solar industry, investigating virtually every solar company on the planet, and conducting one of the most thorough due diligence efforts,” he wrote.

• News - Business Tech

  Hyundai booth raided at German tech fair

  Customs police seize flat-screen TVs from the company’s booth at the IFA consumer electronics show.

• Gallery

  
  Photos: Top 10 reviews of the week

• News - Apple

  Tethering coming soon to iPhone 3G?

  If the latest e-mail claiming to be the work of Apple’s CEO is accurate, iPhone 3G owners might soon be able to get their laptops online using their phone.

• Outside the Lines

  EIC Squared: Psystar vs. Apple, Cisco vs. Microsoft, Dell’s cloud

  On this episode of the EIC Squared podcast, CNET News’ Dan Farber and ZDNet’s Larry Dignan discuss the week’s news.

• Video

  
  USB device spies on mobile phones

• News - Wireless

  Preparing for Gustav

  With the vicious hurricane on a path toward New Orleans, emergency workers and telecom carriers are rushing to prevent a repeat of Katrina.

• Video

  
  Up close with one-to-one computing

• News - Politics and Law

  Sarah Palin Wikipedia edits–fast and furious

  There’s nothing like the vice presidential nomination of a relatively unknown (and female) governor to push the Wikipedia edit machine into high gear.

• News - Cutting Edge

  Art design for the masses, chosen by the masses

  Industry execs say crowdsourcing is one of the best ways to stay on top of consumer trends, so a host of new sites are asking professional and armchair designers to submit art for sneakers, skateboards, car art, and stationery.

• Gallery

  
  Photos: Your ticket to the Democratic convention

• Crossfade

  Lykke Li, ‘Little Bit (Loving Hand Remix)’: Free MP3 of the Day

  Lykke Li’s debut EP (produced by another unmissable Swede, PBJ’s Bjorn), is fragile and searching and entirely sublime. Download a free MP3 of “Little Bit (Loving Hand Remix)” courtesy of CNET Download Music.

• News - Politics and Law

  Democrats find ‘green’ political convention tough to enforce

  The idea of the “greenest” convention in the party’s history was an attractive one. But tens of thousands of humans generate a lot of trash. And not everyone wanted to give up their Yukon XL SUVs.

The Dear Adobe site lets people vent about Adobe products and vote about the gripes.

(Credit: Dear Adobe)

A lot of people use Adobe Systems software, and apparently a lot of them feel the need to vent.

Web designer Erik Frick created the Dear Adobe site where users can enter gripes and vote for or against others’ gripes. “It started from a conversation between Adam (Meisel) and myself complaining about Photoshop. Both of us being Web design nerds, we figured, ‘Why not create a forum for people to vent? Who knows, maybe Adobe will listen,’” he said Tuesday on the site’s inaugural blog posting.

Sure enough. Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack said the site generated more than 30 e-mails within Adobe in the first two days, and Nack himself responded to a few gripes at the site.

“Just because it would be unprofessional of me or others to rant about this or that aspect of the company in public, don’t for a second think it’s not happening behind closed doors,” Nack said, acknowledging complaints about Creative Suite 3’s installation and update software.

Frick created a top 50 gripes list. It’s possible the results are skewed to early gripes, since it appears the site presents random gripes for readers to vote on and early gripes have had more exposure. Even so, it’s still illuminating to see a mass venting of the spleen: some want Adobe to slow down and cut the bloat, others to speed up with new features. One gets sympathy for Adobe as well as for its customers.

On the overall list:

Gripe 126: “Lens flare is played. Let it go.”

Gripe 675: “Linux users luvs u. We can has Adobe applications and a currents Flash versions? Kthanxbai.”

Gripe 6: “You kindly turn off the highlight on text when choosing a color for it, but not when choosing a different weight. Would you kindly do this, or kindly jump off a cliff? ”

Gripe 366: “please don’t copy Microsoft’s naming and bundling conventions. I want CS3 not CS3 pro, CS3 pro advantage, CS3 pro plus, CS3 no frills, CS3 pro max, CS3 pro extra pro max… ”

(Credit: Dear Adobe)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Maybe we’ve been driving too many very nice cars lately, but the 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550 didn’t excite us much when it arrived in the garage. It’s hard to follow acts like the Maserati GranTurismo and the BMW M6, and we tend to like shorter, more nimble sports cars. But the SL550 won us over with its handling on winding mountain roads and its striking looks with the sun blazing overhead and a nice ocean-scape in the background.

We were also prepared to be disappointed in the car’s cabin electronics when we saw the old-style Mercedes-Benz interface, a plastic OK button surrounded by four directional buttons. But delving into this system, we discovered updated electronics behind the rather poor front, including a hard drive-based navigation system, iPod integration, and Bluetooth cell phone support.

Read the review.

General Electric’s wind energy division is trying to find a “Goldilocks” turbine design, one that’s not too big and not too small.

Like other wind manufacturers, GE is benefiting from booming demand for wind turbines in Europe and in the U.S., even with the possibility of a renewable-energy tax credit lapsing later this year.

A fan blade for a GE aircraft engine made of carbon under development at GE’s Niskayuna, N.Y., lab. GE is translating work done on materials for engines to turbine blades.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News)

Still, the rapid expansion is being throttled by high prices of steel and other commodities, making wind power more expensive.

So instead of making bigger and bigger machines, manufacturers are trying to squeeze more energy from conventionally sized wind turbines.

That will be done by using alternative materials, better electronics, and shaping turbine blades to better capture the wind, said Stephane Renou, who manages research and development for General Electric’s wind technology platform.

“The optimal point is changing…and going bigger is not the answer,” Renou said. “Turbines in the two or three megawatt zone are the most efficient and the best cost per kilowatt.”

A 2 megawatt or 3 megawatt wind turbine is still large. The tower on a 2.5 megawatt machine can stand nearly 330 feet high.

But making 5 megawatt or 6 megawatt turbines, as some off-shore turbine makers are doing, also means more raw materials, notably steel, which drives up the cost. The logistics of delivering and assembling these massive components can add to costs as well.

To get more power from the same footprint, GE is looking at a variety of technologies, said Renou, who oversees development at four GE wind research centers around the world.

“I see a lot more technology going into each of the components, especially the blades,” he said. “The blades will look more funky and twisted to get better performance.”

By adding more carbon composite to turbine blades, GE can add 16 feet to their length, which translates into a significant boost of energy.

Although it’s four times more expensive than fiberglass, carbon also gives blades more flexibility, allowing them to operate at higher wind speeds.

GE is also working on electronics controls to optimize performance and sound level of entire wind farms, Renou said.

A 2.5 megawatt turbine–a size GE intends to stick with.

(Credit: GE)

Limits in transmission line capacity are a barrier to both wind and solar energy. Wind farms and solar plants are typically best placed in remote areas, far from the areas on the coast where demand for electricity is highest.

One of GE’s research teams is developing software for modeling how to best place turbines in a wind farm while another is working on the electronic controls to get wind power fed into the grid most effectively.

Overall, Renou said that wind technology is developing quickly and is getting more competitive on a price-per-watt basis with natural gas generators, which themselves are going up in price.

But perhaps just as significant, having a range of materials and technologies to work with gives GE more flexibility in how to assemble a turbine. Supply chain disruptions have contributed to product shortages and project delays.

“We’re working on supply-chain flexibility by providing different technology options,” Renou said. “It’s all about having options at this point. We will structure things to have all the raw materials at the right costs.”

One area that GE’s wind labs is not pursuing aggressively is energy storage. A handful of companies and utilities are looking at truck-sized batteries or underground compressed-air storage to incorporate renewable energy more reliably.

But Renou said that storage attached to wind turbines is not likely to happen in the next two years. Instead, beefed-up transmission lines, along with smarter power-grid management, could push wind to make up 10 percent of power generation, up from less than 1 percent now.

“The grid is a fantastic source of energy storage. Wind variability can be handled by the grid and grid management,” he said. “It’s more about policy and grid development.”

Update at 3:22 p.m. PT: Text of first caption corrected.

• News - Business Tech

  Intel acquires Linux mobile developers for Atom

  The chip giant has acquired open-source mobile specialist Opened Hand, which will now focus on developing a Linux software stack for Atom processors.

• Gallery

  
  Photos: Your ticket to the Democratic convention

• News - Apple

  Tethering coming soon to iPhone 3G?

  If the latest e-mail claiming to be the work of Apple’s CEO is accurate, iPhone 3G owners might soon be able to get their laptops online using their phone.

• Outside the Lines

  EIC Squared: Psystar vs. Apple, Cisco vs. Microsoft, Dell’s cloud

  On this episode of the EIC Squared podcast, CNET News’ Dan Farber and ZDNet’s Larry Dignan discuss the week’s news.

• Video

  
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• News - Wireless

  Europe reduces cap on voice-roaming prices

  Price reductions are due to EU regulation that aims to “curb the excessive roaming charges consumers had to pay for roaming calls.”

• Video

  
  Up close with one-to-one computing

• News - Gaming and Culture

  Audio slideshow: Video game orchestra

  In this audio slideshow, a symphony orchestra takes us on a trip down memory lane playing some of the most dynamic video game music written to date.

• News - Cutting Edge

  Art design for the masses, chosen by the masses

  Industry execs say crowdsourcing is one of the best ways to stay on top of consumer trends, so a host of new sites are asking professional and armchair designers to submit art for sneakers, skateboards, car art, and stationery.

• Gallery

  
  Photos: Up close and one-to-one

• The Car Tech blog

  Review: 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550

  CNET Car Tech reviews the 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL550.

• News - Politics and Law

  Democrats find ‘green’ political convention tough to enforce

  The idea of the “greenest” convention in the party’s history was an attractive one. But tens of thousands of humans generate a lot of trash. And not everyone wanted to give up their Yukon XL SUVs.

Is Hasselblad feeling some pressure from the more plebian realm of 35mm SLR cameras?

That’s the thought I had when I got a promotional e-mail from the high-end camera maker offering a 31-megapixel H3D-II and an 80mm lens for $17,995–a lower price, the company is eager to note. The tagline of the promotion: “If you thought you couldn’t afford a Hasselblad, think again.”

Hasselblad’s H3DII-31 medium-format camera now can be purchased for $17,995 with an 80mm lens.

(Credit: Hasselblad)

Those of you who aren’t photographers for Vogue advertisers or astronauts taking snapshots of the moon might not be familiar with the Hasselblad name, but it’s a prestigious brand that makes “medium format” cameras. However, like every camera maker, it’s navigating choppy waters during the transition from film to digital photography.

For photography, bigger can be better. The larger film area provided by medium-format cameras can outdo the smaller frame size of 35mm film in detail, and some of those advantages carry over to digital sensors.

But with digital, the math is unforgiving: it’s not much more expensive to make a large frame of film, but it’s a lot more expensive to make a large digital image sensor. Medium-format digital camera technology from Hasselblad, Mamiya, Phase One, and others are costly, and indeed, even the 35mm format is confined to a small, higher-end segment of the SLR business as camera makers moved to sensors that are roughly two-thirds the size.

The H3D-II uses a sensor that’s 44×33mm, significantly larger than the 36×24mm of 35mm film but not as large as the 50-megapixel 48×36mm sensor Kodak builds for Hasselblad’s top-end camera.

Canon, the leading seller of 35mm SLRs, has its eye on the medium-format market. Its $8,000 top-end 21-megapixel EOS-1Ds Mark III is specifically geared for studio photographers, for example. Sony has committed to full-frame 35mm digital SLRs, with a 24-megapixel model planned for later this year, and Nikon is rumored to have its own high-resolution full-frame rival in the works. (I should have been clearer that I meant a high-resolution Nikon alternative to the EOS-1Ds Mark III; Nikon has offered a lower-resolution though high-sensitivity full-frame model since introducing the D3 in 2007.)

Hasselblad is aware of the threat: “For a little more than high-end 35mm solutions and much less than many competing medium format solutions, you too can begin using the world’s most advanced digital camera system,” the company said.

(Credit: Pirelli & C. S.p.A.)

The handling characteristics of the average car are primarily determined by the tires and the few square inches that are their contact patch. Up until now, tires have been decidedly low tech, at least to the untrained eye. Pirelli is aiming to change this, while giving us more information about what happens where the rubber meets the road, with its upcoming Cyber Tyre technology.

Essentially, the Cyber Tyre is an intelligent tire with an RFID microchip embedded that communicates with the car’s electronic systems, such as ABS and traction control, relaying information about the state of the tire. This information includes operating temperature and pressure, road surface information, vertical load exerted on the tire, and dimensions of the footprint area. The chip is powered by the vibrations of the rotating tire and is molded into the tire’s carcass.

By monitoring the state of the tire, many problems, such as blowouts or fuel economy loss due to underinflation can be eliminated preemptively. Pirelli hopes that by locating sensors in the tire itself, the vehicle will be able to react more quickly to issues with traction than systems with the sensors located further up the drivetrain. We think that when you’re dealing with thousands of pounds of metal rounding a turn while perched on a few square inches of rubber, every nanosecond counts.

DENVER–The Democratic Party has boasted that its convention here will be “the most environmentally-sustainable” gathering in the party’s history, complete with a director of sustainability, low-power lighting in some areas, and calculations of carbon footprints.

Some of the goals include diverting 85 percent of waste that would normally go to a landfill, finding hundreds of people to sort waste into recycling-compost-landfill containers, and devising what The Wall Street Journal described as “lean ‘n’ green” catering guidelines that say food described thusly must not be fried and shall contain three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.

That was the claim. And it has worked to a large extent: a troika of trash containers (again, recycling, compost, and landfill) dot the convention complex, even in areas that aren’t officially part of the event. Drinking straws are made from corn and biodegradable. Room keys for hotels are made of wood. Delegates are buying carbon offsets.

But reality doesn’t always match expectations. Bikes aren’t permitted inside the convention’s security perimeter, so golf carts and other vehicles are used. The wooden card keys proved buggy, and some were replaced with more-reliable plastic. Fried mini-donuts were prominently on sale inside the Pepsi Center. Party VIPs and celebrities told their decidedly non-green town cars and GMC Yukon XL mega-SUVs–rented from limo provider A Class Above Transportation–to idle, with engines and air conditioning on, in the nearby pickup area. (What self-respecting conference-goer wants to climb into a GMC Yukon when it’s a toasty 93 degrees in the shade?)

Plus, a gathering of tens of thousands of people (and perhaps 70,000 for Barack Obama’s Thursday acceptance speech) generate a whopping amount of trash. Even if it’s sorted, recycling Obama-Biden signs takes energy, as does trucking in what the Journal reported to be 900 volunteers to monitor waste cans and perform the trash-separation, thereby taking them away from tasks that might be more productive.

Let us stipulate that the Democratic Party, perhaps because it was good marketing or perhaps because it was a sound principle, made an effort to promote recycling here. But whopping huge mounds of trash remain unavoidable–and the presence of idling SUVs–show that the concept remains more of a slogan than reality. (Then again, probably the only way to hold a “green” convention is to do it entirely over the Internet.)

These and the other photos were taken at the Democratic convention near the Pepsi Center. When you have tens of thousands of people, huge mounds of trash are inevitable.

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

• News - Business Tech

  After flight delays, FAA may add backup system

  The Federal Aviation Administration plans to upgrade its decades-old technology for flight-plan processing and potentially add a third backup system.

• Gallery

  
  Photos: Raising accessibility standards

• The Open Road

  Piracy as a core business strategy

  Could piracy be a key differentiator in driving a band’s success?

• Outside the Lines

  EIC Squared: Psystar vs. Apple, Cisco vs. Microsoft, Dell’s cloud

  On this episode of the EIC Squared podcast, CNET News’ Dan Farber and ZDNet’s Larry Dignan discuss the week’s news.

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  Democrats: Twitter, text, or telephone?

• News - Digital Media

  Veoh decision setback for Viacom but Google not off hook

  The pornographers who sued Veoh didn’t notify the video-sharing site before filing lawsuit and also didn’t prove that Veoh’s business model depended on piracy. Viacom did send take-down notices and argues YouTube thrives on infringing content.

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  Bigger blogger presence at DNC

• News - Politics and Law

  Sex ads on Denver Craigslist spike with Democrats’ arrival

  Correlation or causation? You decide: As Democrats gathered in Denver, sex-wanted ads increased roughly 70 to 80 percent on Craigslist.

• News - Cutting Edge

  Rocket Racing League takes off with new engine, DKNY

  The league, an aspiring Formula 1 for rocket racing, chooses a new liquid oxygen-alcohol engine from Armadillo Aerospace, a suborbital space company founded by Doom creator John Carmack.

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  Images: The highs and lows of digital drama

• Webware

  YouTube gets closed captioning support

  Users now can embed closed captions that show up as semitransparent overlays in videos. No word yet, though, on a mobile version.

• Green Tech

  GE reshapes the future of wind power

  How to make wind 10 percent of electricity generation? Funky-shaped turbine blades, high-tech materials, and smarter grid connections, says GE’s head of wind research.