Author: Serkadis

Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. (Due to the holiday-shortened week, I’m including fewer posts than usual.) First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Can a single bottle of soda decimate your company? Absolutely. — Entrepreneurship guru Steve Blank writes about how seemingly insignificant things, like the availability of free soda, reflect the big challenges startups face as they grow.

2010’s hottest contenders: 8 products to watch — Columnist Saad Fazil picks eight products that could make a big splash in 2010, from note-taking service Evernote to smartphone maker HTC. He also points out some of the big trends that will be shaping multiple industries.

Panasonic’s new home battery could store a week’s worth of electricity — Panasonic appears tobe charging into the green market, first with deals to supply batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles, and this week with the announcement of a massive lithium-ion storage battery that is supposedly capable of powering an average home for up to a week.

80legs sets its web crawler free — 80legs is a web-crawling service that promises to let smaller companies to build their own mini-Google. Now it’s making the service even more accessible to bootstrapped entrepreneurs, researchers, and others, by offering a free version.

And here are four more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:

Metaplace to shut down its site for thousands of virtual worlds — Virtual world platform Metaplace announced that it needs to make “a strategic shift,” and will close its site on Jan. 1. When that happens, some 70,000 virtual worlds will disappear from the internet.

Why so few paid Android apps? Blame Google Checkout — Only 21 percent of the location-based Android mobile apps in Google’s Android Market app store have a price tag, according to a new report co-authored by mobile analytics firm Distimo. Vincent Hoogsteder, the firm’s chief executive, tells us why.

Google acquisitions may signal big push against Microsoft Office – Googlers have been talking about how 2010 will be a big year for improving their Google Docs word processor and turning it into a real competitor against Microsoft Word. Recent Google acquisitions (confirmed and otherwise) suggest some of those new features will come from startups.

Spotify biding time for the right contracts before U.S. debut — The most eagerly anticipated music service this side of the Atlantic Ocean didn’t cross the pond this year. What’s going on? We sat down with Spotify’s vice president of products to find out.

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BEIJING, Dec 27 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) – A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in …

What’s the best complement to a trial run of plug-in hybrids? Why, matching solar stations, of course! Toyota Industries Corp has announced that it’s been developing solar charging stations for its new Prius models. The first place to test out the chargers is unsurprisingly Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, where 21 stations will be built across 11 locales including government offices and train depots. Probably not worth planning a trip around, but if you want to be that extra special sort of tourist, schedule your vacation for sometime after April 2010.

Toyota’s plug-in hybrids getting companion charging stations next year in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: Fred Singer, Kenneth Haapala

SEPP SCIENCE EDITORIAL #41-2009 (Dec 26, 2009)

By S. Fred Singer, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project

[Note: This is the second of a series of mini-editorials on the “junk science” influencing the global warming issue. Other topics will include the IPCC’s Assessment Reports 3 and 4, the UN Environmental Program and some individuals heavily involved in these matters.]

Junk Science #2: IPCC’s Second Assessment Report (IPCC-AR-2, 1995, published in 1996)

IPCC assessment reports, and particularly their Summaries for Policymakers (SPM), are noted for their selective use of information and their bias to support the political goal of control of fossil fuels in order to fight an alleged anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

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It’s been a tried and tested phenomenon that as a device gets older, so does it get cheaper. And you know what happens when the hardware gets cheaper: the software goes cheap, too. Publishing giant, Capcom, concurs

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For years, runners have been able to take advantage of Nike+, a nifty accessory that lets your iPod communicate with your shoes to turn it into a personal running coach of sorts. Soon, cyclists will have access to a tool that’s in the same vein as Nike+, but far more powerful. It’s called Pedal Brain, and it allows your iPhone or iPod Touch to receive and interpret data from a variety of exercise devices that use the ANT+ wireless protocol. ANT+ is used by cyclists (including many professionals) to accurately measure and analyze their performance over a ride, but until now there hasn’t been a way to connect these devices to your iPhone.

That’s where Pedal Brain comes in. The bootstrapped startup is making a small device called the Pedal Brain Synapse that plugs into your iPhone or iPod Touch and allows them to receive this data, which is then interpreted by an iPhone app. The application shows you how you’re performing in real-time (you’ll want to mount your iPhone in plain view) and can also use GPS to show the position of your team members. Once you’ve completed your ride, you’ll be able to log on to the Pedal Brain site to get more detailed analysis. The site will also have an integrated platform for coaches, so you sign up to get your own trainer to help plot your future rides and track your progress.

Pedal Brain founder Matt Bauer acknowledges that there are a handful of other cycling applications available for the iPhone, like Map My Ride, but says that these only offer basic data. That’s because they rely on your phone’s GPS for data, which can help gauge the distance you’ve travelled but can’t measure many of the things that ANT+ devices can. Bauer explains that power (in Watts) is a common metric used to gauge your progress, and can’t be accurately determined using GPS alone.

Pedal Brain’s iPhone/iPod accessory, which has already been approved by Apple, will be available through local bike shops this spring. The company is targeting a March release date and plans to sell the device for between $130 and $190. The online service will be subscription based, though users will be able to get a limited version for free (you won’t be able to track your data for longer than a couple weeks).

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

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BEIJING (Reuters) – A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in coal-dependent China …

This weekend the main Chinese legislature adopted an amendment to the renewable energy law, requiring that utilities must buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators. Utilities refusing would be fined up to an amount double that …

In light of the recent event of a Nigerian national attempting to bring down a plane entering the US territory, the TSA has been reported to be considering banning ALL electronic device on board all flights. Yes,

The Cross River Gorillas have been named the rarest subspecies of Gorilla, and just recently, the first professional footage has been captured according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. These gorillas live in the densest part of the jungle in Cameroon and are very rarely spotted, little less captured on film of any sort.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes Enfuses New Life in Old Franchise

Reviewed by David M. Kinchen

Forget the argument about the “traditional” portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective Sherlock Holmes: Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. John H. Watson brings new life to the old franchise.

After all, there have been about 200 movies about the world’s most famous fictional detective, so who’s to say what is traditional and what isn’t.  Many purists point to the late Jeremy Brett’s British television portrayal as the best of the traditional ones. Ritchie benefits from an excellent writing team: Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson for the screen story and Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg for the screenplay.

Ritchie (Rocknrolla, Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) directs with his usual hectic pace, with stop action, plenty of explanatory flashbacks and relentless music by Hans Zimmer, the king of relentless movie scores.

Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes  is enhanced by the excellent casting choices of Mark Strong as the villain Lord Blackwood and Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, whose loyalties are divided throughout the movie; you never know when she’s working for Blackwood and when she’s helping out Holmes and Watson. I’m glad McAdams used a North American accent — she’s Canadian — for Adler. In the one Conan Doyle story that Adler actually appears, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” she’s described as an opera singer from New Jersey.

Speaking of accents, Downey’s British accent is acceptable and he maintains it throughout the movie. Downey is a Holmes of action, participating in bare knuckle boxing matches and is adept at martial arts. His Holmes is the messy Oscar Madison to Watson’s neat and fussy Felix Unger in an “Odd Couple” interchange between the detective and the about to be married Watson.

The plot is not based on any one of the 56 short stories and four novels of the canon, but includes elements of many of them as serial killer Lord Blackwood attempts to use magic and the infiltration of a masonic/illuminati type organization to engineer a putsch against the British government. Blackwood echoes Adolf Hitler in a reference to his dream of a millennium long government, similar to Hitler’s goal of a “Thousand-Year Reich.”

Summing up, Sherlock Holmes (128 minutes, PG-13, my rating 3-1/2 out of 4 stars) is the most entertaining version since Billy Wilder’s 1970 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes which had an hour cut from its original shooting script. There is sure to be a sequel, as it’s set up at the end of the film by the Irene Adler character.

Word of mouth and fans of Ritchie’s films drove the Christmas Day opening box office total of Sherlock Holmes  to $24.9 million, compared to the $23.6 million Christmas take for Avatar.  I’m guessing Sherlock Holmes will gross at least $200 million.

Pandora 2154: Avatar Left Me Glowing In The Dark

Movie Review: Avatar–An Environmentalist Tale

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We don’t know where this is coming from so take it with a grain of salt, but rumor has it from AndroidSPIN that the progenitor Android device, the T-Mobile G1, is destined to officially get an over-the-air update for an Eclair build, Android 2-point-something. It’s not specified which version — whether it’s 2.0 or the Nexus One-tastic 2.1 — will be coming out, but if we had our say, always shoot for the latest and greatest. Hey T-Mo, we know the holidays are pretty much over, but could you validate these whispers for us? Thanks!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 2.0 (or maybe 2.1) officially coming to T-Mobile G1? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week in Australia, an ancient whale fossil estimated between 25 and 28 million years old has been discovered, and offers some unique insight into evolution and predatory habits.

The whale, which has been dubbed the ancient dwarf whale since it measures only about 9 feet in length. It’s believed that this whale shares eating habits of today’s baleen whales like the minke, humpback and blue whale. The jaw and skull structures indicate that like today’s species it might use a mud sucking and filter feeding method of eating. However, what’s also unique about this particular fossil of the whale is that it also has teeth – unusual for a whale of this type.

Researchers believe that this what is also a bit of an evolutionary anomaly. Likely an ancestor of larger similar whales that adapted in order to eat small prey through mud sucking methods as well as larger prey with its teeth.

Image Via: Flickr User Mike Baird with a Creative Commons License

Only one carry on? No electronics for the first hour of flight? I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first glass and giving them free drinks.