Category: News

There must be some of you out there who look at the Cygnet, this strange combination between Aston Martin’s brilliant design cues and the size of the otherwise lovable Toyota iQ and say: isn’t that cute? Yes, it is, BUT IT’S WRONG!

The departure from the classic, yet sporty feel of a regular Aston Martin is best depicted in the video you will see at the end of this piece. Most of us associate Aston Martin with James Bond, fine drinks, sophisticated weapons, suits and beautiful wo… (read more)

Rachel Tompa wrote:

Last May, the Seattle startup Nanocel won the University of Washington’s yearly business plan competition. Now the company—founded by UW mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Dustin Miller and recent UW MBA grad Daniel Rossi—is gearing up for a big year in 2010. Their planned first products, affordable fluid-based cooling systems for computer chips, will fill a large void in the market, Rossi and Miller say.

Nanocel’s technology uses a combination of microfluidics and novel plastic materials to cool devices more cheaply than other liquid-based systems and more efficiently than cooling fans. The products use thousands to millions of very thin (between one and 100 micrometers wide) vessels to circulate tiny amounts of liquid in close contact with the computer chips, or other device components prone to overheating. Nanocel is eco-friendly, Miller says, in that it could save vast amounts of energy over current air-based cooling methods.

Two of the biggest problems in the computer industry are keeping large server farms from overheating and extending battery life in laptops and other portable electronics. “We are currently using over three percent of the nation’s energy on cooling the Internet,” Miller says. Industry calculations say that fluid-based cooling could cut that energy use in half. “That’s a staggering number.”

On an individual scale, a cooling technology that uses less energy will lead to longer battery life, reducing energy usage and keeping more batteries out of landfills. “This can have a real impact, not only at the country level but also at the consumer level,” Miller says.

Miller, who is working on his doctorate in a plastics lab in UW’s mechanical engineering department, says Nanocel is not the first to think of replacing fans with liquid, but other fluid technologies out there use expensive materials such as metal or silicon, making them unfeasible for most consumer products. After seeing a lecture on microfluidic cooling technologies, Miller realized they looked similar to things he was building in the plastics lab. Nanocel’s technology is the first to combine plastics with microfluidics to create a heat sink, Miller says.

Once the technology was invented, Miller joined forces with Rossi, the business expert, and the two did extensive market research to find out who might be interested in Nanocel’s product. It turns out everyone is interested, the founders say. Their potential partners and customers mainly include computer chip manufacturers and designers, Miller says, but they are also talking with companies that make gaming consoles, servers, and hardware.

“There are tons of shelf-ready products that can’t go to market because they’re too hot,” Rossi says. That’s because fans aren’t powerful enough to cool them down, and liquid technologies are too pricey.

As for Nanocel, “the process was originally developed for areas in food packaging or disposable packaging,” Miller says. “So, for the cost of a coffee cup, you can have a heat sink that used to be made out of copper,” Rossi adds.

From the beginning, Nanocel has worked very closely with the UW TechTransfer office, the two say. They’re currently working out a deal to license the technology from the office, as it was developed at UW. The two have used many of the programs the TechTransfer office offers, Rossi says. “We’ve really gotten a lot of help from them,” he says. “I’m grateful, and we’re going to use it for all it’s worth.”

Jim Roberts, UW TechTransfer’s business development officer, was involved in helping Nanocel get off the ground by bringing in student interns to help work with the team, reviewing their practice presentations and business plan, and helping the two make connections in the Seattle business scene. “We’re excited about this technology. We think it has many applications,” Roberts says. “They’ve got all the right ingredients to be a successful company.”

Since the UW business plan competition, the Nanocel founders have incorporated the company, continued their market research, and are gearing up for their first angel funding round in early 2010. They’ve been working on putting together an advisory board and have been talking to many potential clients and partners, Rossi says. None of these are done deals yet, but Miller and Rossi say they’ve gotten enthusiastic responses from everyone they’ve talked to about their product.

“Everyone needs a technology like this,” Miller says.

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Subaru and sportswear company Columbia joined forces for developing a new special edition Forester for the Australian market that will go on sale across the country this week. Codenamed Forester X Columbia, the range will be limited to 1,050 units and will be offered with either a manual or an automatic transmission.

According to globalmotors.net, pricing for the special edition Forester will start at $33,990 for the manual and $35,990 for the automatic. Additionally, customers ch… (read more)

As we’ve all heard before, it’s often “who you know,” instead of “what you know,” when it comes to the world of business. And that’s even more true for the greentech industry, which became the leading venture capital investment sector in the third quarter of 2009 largely based on investments from the U.S. government’s stimulus […]

Rod Brooks wrote:

Robotics, in the noughties (I have rank ordered them in importance):

1. Thousands of remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft in the U.S. military.

2. Thousands of supervisory controlled ground robots in the U.S. military.

3. Millions of autonomous home cleaning robots in people’s houses.

4. Autonomous vehicles in the two DARPA grand challenge demonstrations.

5. Deployed automated logistics robots in fulfillment centers.

[Editor’s Note: As the decade comes to an end, we’ve asked Xconomists and other technology leaders around the country to identify the top innovations they’ve seen in their fields the past 10 years, or predict the top disruptive technologies that will impact the next decade.]

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The 9ff GT9-R tuning of the Porsche 911 increases power to a whopping 1120 hp! This means we get acceleration to 100 km/hr in just 2.9 seconds, 300 km/hr is reached in 15.8, and the top speed hits 414 km/hr. 9ff has achieved this by taking the six cylinder boxer biturbo to four litres.

Production will be limited to just 20 units, and “less” extreme versions of 987 hp and 750 hp will also be available. The latter will have a Tiptronic, five-speed gearbox, although it can still reach 300 km/hr in 20 seconds. Each GT9 will be made on the basis of the customer’s specifications, meaning no car will be the same. See the 9ff GT9 gallery below.

Chrysler Group officials decided that it is time for the logo of the new Ram brand to get on top of dealerships throughout the country. This is just one of the changes Chrysler decided to apply to its dealerships after the company emerged from bankruptcy under Fiat management.

Though most dealers had to get money out of their own pocket to pay for upgrading their signs according to company requirements, they will not have to pay for this next change, as Chrysler will pick up the b… (read more)

In what has become a recurring trend for Stanford men’s basketball, the winter break slate featured a number of near misses against prominent opponents, coupled with only a smattering of wins. Its conclusion – a 92-66 slaughtering at the hands of rival California – was the most disheartening loss to date.

After a farily disappointing string of games over Winter Break, the Cardinal finds itself one game below .500.

The Cardinal came out of finals week in impressive fashion. UC-Davis’ (5-8, 1-0 Big West) trip to the Farm was an unsuccessful one – Stanford (6-7, 0-1 Pacific-10 Conference) rolled, 85-69. All five starters finished in double figures and sophomore Jack Trotter notched the best performance of his young career, registering a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

“I wanted to come out aggressive and get on them before they could get on us,” Trotter said.

Senior Landry Fields, per the usual, tallied 21 points to lead the Cardinal. Through 13 games he is 10th in the country and second in the conference with a 23.2 points per game average. He did not drop below 20 points in any of the winter break games.

That included a heartbreaking 71-70 defeat at the hands of a one-loss Oklahoma State team (11-2, 0-0 Big 12) at Maples in the Cardinal’s next contest. Stanford played one of its better games, particularly late in the second half, but could not overcome a 12-24 performance from the free throw line. Despite a double-digit deficit at the midway point of the half, the Cardinal closed the gap to one with seven seconds left. Fields, playing with four fouls and sophomore Andrew Zimmermann, whose 14 points were a career high, led the resurgence. With Fields feeding Zimmermann, the duo established a presence in the post that Oklahoma State had a hard time thwarting.

It seemed natural that the game’s final play would be designed for Fields, with Zimmermann playing a role, but it did not seem to go as planned – Zimmermann wound up with the ball and looked for Fields, who was fairly well defended. He chose instead to drive, with his shot falling innocently off the backboard.

“There was so much going in the last seconds,” Fields said. “It just shook out that I couldn’t get the ball.”

Stanford’s next contest was nearly as close. The Cardinal traveled to Illinois to take on a surprising one-loss Northwestern squad. Senior Drew Shiller, who netted 12 points on 4-5 shooting from beyond the arc, led the Cardinal early. Though tied at the half, the Wildcats (10-3, 0-2 Big 10) created a 10-point lead with under six minutes to play, but nine straight points from Stanford sharpshooter sophomore Jeremy Green cut that gap to one with under two minutes left.

But further success was fleeting – Northwestern hit their shots and Stanford did not. The Wildcats emerged victorious, 70-62. It was another attainable win that fell out of the Cardinal’s grasp – the team was not helped by its 28 team fouls, as opposed to Northwestern’s 13. Free throws continued to be an issue, as Stanford again shot just 50 percent from the charity stripe.

Fields and Green continued to impress against Texas Tech (12-2, 0-0 Big 12), combining for 51 points and 19 rebounds, but the Cardinal, despite just a four point halftime deficit, fell behind early in the second period and could not recover – the Red Raiders maintained a steady lead throughout and won 100-87.

There were silver linings in the three losses to teams with a combined three defeats at the time. Among them were Fields’s continued dominance and Green’s development into one of the nation’s best three-point threats.

But the shortcomings were also evident. Sophomore Jarrett Mann took over point guard duties early in the year, but he turned the ball over a combined 16 times over the first two losses. Outside of Zimmermann against Oklahoma State, there was practically no post presence.

The Cardinal did pick up a win against James Madison (6-6, 0-2 CAA) in a harder-than-expected game. The Dukes led early and prevented Stanford from pulling away, even at home. Still, the Cardinal was able to create a large enough gap later and led by nine with 14 seconds left; it took two desperation three pointers by James Madison to bring the final score to 80-76.

But the victory was only a brief respite – Stanford’s foray into Pac-10 competition began with a drubbing in Berkeley. The Bears (9-4, 1-0 Pac-10) led by 20 at the half and had no answer for senior Jerome Randle, one of the main contenders (along with Fields) for conference Player of the Year.

“Offensively, we wanted to run our offense. We thought that we’ve been doing that pretty efficiently all year long and we wanted to continue to try to come down and play with some poise, keep good spacing, move the basketball and share it,” said Head Coach Johnny Dawkins. “At times, we were able to do it well, but we weren’t able to consistently do it well enough.”

The road does not get any easier, as Stanford will host USC, one of the best defensive teams in the country, on Wednesday, as the Cardinal delves deeper into Pac-10 play, with a 2-4 winter break record in hand.

Sure, that’s not a Pixi you see on the right there, but if you look at it from reeeeally far away then you might get an idea of what Palm has next in store for its Centro sequel: Pink. (The colour, not the singer.) In some of the least surprising news ever, an anonymous tipster has sent Engadget a photo of Sprint’s inventory, which clearly shows “BUY BACK PALM PIXI PINK“.

Why unsurprising? Well, Palm does have a history with this sort of thing, and with Valentine’s Day a month-and-a-bit away a pink Pixi might be just the thing for your ball-and-chain lady friend / effeminate man friend. Perhaps we’ll be hearing something at CES… Anyway, photo’s after the break.

The Stanford women’s volleyball team’s NCAA tournament run – and season – came to an end on Friday, Dec. 11, with a loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the regional semifinals. After dispatching Long Island easily in the first round and battling to a second-round five-set victory against St. Mary’s, the Cardinal fell to Michigan, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25, 11-25.

Stanford was led in its first-round victory by senior Janet Okogbaa’s 13 kills and junior libero Gabi Ailes 11 digs, which gave her Stanford’s career record. After rolling through their first-round match against Long Island, Stanford knew it would face a tough opponent in Saint Mary’s, but the Cardinal was up to the challenge and pulled out an intense five-set victory, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 15-13. Juniors Alix Klineman and Cassidy Lichtman, who posted 28 kills and 17 digs and 11 kills, 19 assists and 17 digs, respectively, led Stanford, who advanced to the regional semifinal with the win.

“We played a very good St. Mary’s team in the round of 32 and had to fight our way into the next round,” Lichtman said. “I really believe it was sheer will to win that got us through that match.”

In the regional semifinal, the Cardinal faced a tough Michigan team, and couldn’t pull out the victory. The Cardinal fell behind in the first set after a 6-1 Michigan run and was unable to come back. Michigan hit .545 in the opening set to Stanford’s .258 hitting percentage. After dropping the first set 18-25, Stanford found itself down 2-5 to start the second set. Following a kill and a block by Okogbaa, Stanford tied the score at seven-all.

More kills by freshman Jessica Walker, Klineman and Lichtman put Stanford up 15-12 before a Michigan run tied the set at 23-23. A kill by Lichtman and an ace by Walker gave the Card the second set, 25-23, and tied up the match.

But the Cardinal couldn’t carry its momentum over to the third set and fell behind 3-8 early. Stanford remained down the entire set, rallying to within one point at 19-20 after two aces by Ailes and a kill by Klineman. It wouldn’t be enough, however, and Michigan would take the set, 22-25. In the fourth set, Stanford was unable to find its offense and lost the set, 11-25, and the match. Klineman led the Cardinal with 18 kills and eight digs, while Okogbaa ended her Stanford career with nine kills and five blocks.

“Against Michigan, our passing broke down a little, we had some last-minute injuries and our offense was not balanced enough,” Lichtman said. “They were a great team and they deserved the win.”

However, the team remained positive about the season as a whole and continued its tradition as a powerhouse program. The Cardinal recorded its ninth consecutive 20-win season, won its fourth consecutive Pacific-10 Conference championship (16th overall) and advanced to its 29th straight NCAA tournament. Additionally, four members of the team were named All-Americans, with Lichtman on the first team, Klineman and Okogbaa on the second team and Ailes as an honorable mention.

“Our team undoubtedly improved dramatically from the start of our season,” Okogbaa said. “There were moments in the beginning when just about everybody was uncertain about how successful we would be. Our hard work and determination, however, proved to us and everyone else that we were a good team and, contrary to poll predictions, capable of attaining another Pac-10 title.”

The Cardinal, picked to finish third in the Pac-10 Coaches Preseason Poll, exceeded expectations this year and ended with an overall record of 23-8.

“The beginning was a bit frustrating when we were trying to figure out who we were and how to make our system work but we ended up with some great high points,” Lichtman added. “We handed Washington their first loss of the season when everyone thought they were invincible, we beat both UCLA and USC on the road, and we had one of the greatest comebacks ever against California to clinch the Pac-10 title for the fourth straight year.”

The avalanche of corporate changes and appointments within GM continues in 2010 as well, as the American manufacturer announced the appointment of John Montford as a senior advisor to GM interim CEO Edward Whitacre and Robert Ferguson as vice president of Government Relations.

"John and Bob are proven professionals who have worked in an environment of intense regulatory and political complexity, Whitacre said about the two. I’ve worked with both through a number of issues ove… (read more)

For European Pre owners, the webOS App Catalog has been something of a cruel joke, as we’re forced to watch our American brethren get all the cool new stuff while we’re left with the dregs. Fortunately that’s about to change: Palm today announced that paid applications would be coming to the European App Catalog in March 2010. Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach waxes lyrical on the Palm Developer Network Blog:

The general app catalog model is not new, but what we’re doing with it is. The Palm developer program extends the unique web orientation of the Palm webOS platform, providing developers innovative opportunities to leverage the web as a promotional channel for applications. We offer greater freedom and choice of how to get your applications to market and unparalleled control to promote and grow your business.

Developers interested in getting their apps into the catalog can find full instructions on the Developer Network Blog. Just remember there’s a global audience out there…

The Guardian reports that north sea countries are planning a “vast clean energy project” – Sun, wind and wave-powered: Europe unites to build renewable energy ‘supergrid’.

It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany’s vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway’s fjords: Europe’s first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality this month, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.

The network, made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to €30bn (£26.5bn), would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power – that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable.

With a renewables supergrid, electricity can be supplied across the continent from wherever the wind is blowing, the sun is shining or the waves are crashing.

Connected to Norway’s many hydro-electric power stations, it could act as a giant 30GW battery for Europe’s clean energy, storing electricity when demand is low and be a major step towards a continent-wide supergrid that could link into the vast potential of solar power farms in North Africa.

By autumn, the nine governments involved – Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland and the UK – hope to have a plan to begin building a high-voltage direct current network within the next decade. It will be an important step in achieving the European Union’s pledge that, by 2020, 20% of its energy will come from renewable sources.

“We recognise that the North Sea has huge resources, we are exploiting those in the UK quite intensively at the moment,” said the UK’s energy and climate change minister, Lord Hunt. “But there are projects where it might make sense to join up with other countries, so this comes at a very good time for us.”

More than 100GW of offshore wind projects are under development in Europe, around 10% of the EU’s electricity demand, and equivalent to about 100 large coal-fired plants. The surge in wind power means the continent’s grid needs to be adapted, according to Justin Wilkes of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). An EWEA study last year outlined where these cables might be built and this is likely to be a starting point for the discussions by the nine countries.