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Jean-Louis Gassée blogs on Monday Note. He’s been doing it since Feb 4, 2008.

Gassée has done many things, but he’s best known for having been Apple’s CEO for a time. These days he’s a VC “general partner”. It’s safe to assume he’s rich beyond my paltry dreams of avarice. Why does he bother writing a not-terribly-famous blog? I don’t think it’s for the adword revenue.

My best guess is that he’s helping out the blog’s co-author, and that he writes for love. Alas for those who write to live, his free stuff is better than the best of the WSJ. Such is the curse of early 21st century journalism.

Today he takes on the Google-Microsoft cloud apps war. It’s fantastic stuff (emphases mine) …

Cloud 2.0 – Monday Note

… Last year, Microsoft’s total sales were $58B, down 3% from 2008 … Note the Operating Profit, 35%. The company spends 15% of its revenue in R&D and 28% in Sales, Marketing and General Administration….

… Compare this to Apple’s 29.5% Operating Profit, 3% R&D, and 9% SG&A [selling, general and administrative expense] with a comparable revenue level, in the $50B to $60B range annually…

… Microsoft’s Net Income is 25% of revenue, Apple’s is 22%….

… Microsoft Office represented 90% of the $19B Business Division sales, with a nice 64% Operating Profit … Roughly 60% of all Microsoft’s profits come from Office and a little more than 53% from Windows OS licenses (or what MS calls its “Client” business):

So… Office + Windows, 60% + 50% = 110% of Microsoft’s Operating Profit? The math is complicated by the losses in something called “Corporate-Level Activity”… …and, more importantly, by the hefty 73% operating loss in the company’s Online Services Business:

If I’m interpreting Gassée’s writing correctly, Apple’s numbers are only comparable to Microsoft’s because Microsoft “wastes” a huge percentage of revenue. Microsoft’s R&D percent spend is 5 times Apple’s and Microsoft spends 3 times as much on selling, general and administrative expense – not to mention “corporate-level activity”. If Microsoft were as stingy as Apple, their profits would be mind-blowing. Microsoft Office is a money-factory.

I’m reminded of an old Cringely column, in which he opined that Microsoft could have any profit number it wanted to have.

Gassée continues from numbers to user experience, saying the same things I’ve whined about but that, honestly, I never see mentioned anywhere else

.. Google Apps aren’t Office killers. I’ve been using Gmail in both the free and paid-for accounts. The basic email functions work well, but managing contacts is awful. (Months ago, I heard Google had an internal project called Contacts Don’t Suck. I’m still waiting.)…

… I’ve tried to use Google Docs to write, share, and edit these Monday Notes. Failure. Compared to any word processor, Google Docs feels clunky and constrained, and hyperlinks die when you download the document…

… Google Apps aren’t “there” yet. They’re still clunky, to say nothing of managing the “stuff behind the desk”. They’ve been quickly upgraded–perhaps too quickly– at the expense of the user experience. If managing Google Apps is as complicated as running an Office DVD install program, an important part of the Google theory falls apart. We see the trumpeted announcements of large organizations and governments that have turned to Google Apps, but what we don’t see is a courageous journalist going back to the proud early adopters a year later to tell us what actually transpired.

So why is it that only cranks like me and outliers like Gassée ever point out where Google fails? It’s a bit hallucinatory. Gmail’s contacts function has been terrible for years (starting with the weirdly isolated link to “contacts” in Gmail). Google Docs are still very weak (though about to move up a notch), and things are worse when you look at the channel confusion around Blogger, Google Doc, Buzz and Google Sites.

Really, I do love a lot about Google, but they have to give up on the idea that good design is emergent.

Go and read his Cloud 2.0 post and the “related columns” he references at the end. Don’t forget to marvel at the strange age we live in, where some of the best journalism is done for love*.

* P.S. As a bone to the pros, Gassée drops a broad hint on how they could write something interesting – go to the early adopters of Google Apps and tell us what happened.

With Tyler Clippard(notes) on pace to pitch over 110 innings and Brian Bruney(notes) on pace to walk over 110 batters (not really, but close), the Washington Nationals have called-up Drew Storen(notes) to aid the relief corps. Bruney was designated for assignment.

It shouldn’t take long for Storen to find himself pitching in high-leverage situations for Washington. This from MLB.com’s Bill Ladson:

[Jim] Riggleman is hoping that Storen will be one of the late-inning relievers. The Nationals have had a tough time finding a reliever who could help setup man Tyler Clippard and closer Matt Capps(notes). … "We are going to use him as needed," Riggleman said. "I wouldn’t use him in long stints. It will kind of find itself where those innings will be."

Storen, 22, was the tenth overall pick in the 2009 MLB Draft and he’s been considered the Nats’ closer of the future ever since. The right-hander was a dominant reliever in his two seasons at Stanford (12-4, 15 SV, 116 Ks in 99.0 IP), then he was nearly unhittable at three stops in Washington’s minor league system in 2009 (11 SV, 0.78 WHIP, 49 Ks, 8 BB in 37.0 IP). This year, he’s divided his time between Double-A and Triple-A, and he’s been terrific at both levels (1.12 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 15 Ks in 16.0 IP).

Nonetheless, you’re not adding Storen immediately in standard mixed leagues. He has a chance to finish the year as the Nats’ closer, sure, but he doesn’t have the job just yet. He’s of interest in N.L.-only and/or dynasty formats right now — and he’s certainly in play in leagues that use holds as a category — but that’s as far as it goes. Capps has been annoyingly good. Until that changes (or Capps is dealt), Storen will only have low-dosage ratio value in fantasy leagues. 

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Photo via US Presswire

If you’re Yoichi Wada and you have a bunch of followers on Twitter asking you about release dates, things can get old really fast. But the Square Enix president isn’t going to lash back at the queries

Climate Wire: The Atlantic Ocean hurricane season begins June 1, and scientists tracking the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are beginning to think about what would happen if a storm hit the growing slick.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration won’t release its initial hurricane season forecast until Thursday, but experts said it would only take one storm in the Gulf to complicate the ongoing effort to stanch the gushing oil and limit its environmental impact.

NOAA talking points list a number of open questions, such as whether the oil plume could affect storm formation by suppressing evaporation of Gulf water and how a hurricane could change the size and location of the oil slick. There’s no record of a hurricane hitting a major oil spill, experts said.

Still, several scientists are worried that a hurricane could drive oil inland, soiling beaches and wetlands and pushing polluted water up river estuaries.

“My ‘oh, no’ thought is that a hurricane would pick up that oil and move it, along with salt, up into interior regions of the state that I am convinced the oil will not reach otherwise,” said Robert Twilley, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University.

“The bottom line is, how much oil are we going to get into our wetlands? We don’t know,” he said. “This thing is gushing out in these huge numbers.”

That’s a question that Florida State University researchers Steven Morey and Dmitry Dukhovskoy are trying to answer with computer models of storm surge and ocean currents.

A somewhat mixed picture

“The storm could potentially transport the oil over some distance, we’re not sure how far,” said Morey, a physical oceanographer. “It could maybe break up the masses of the oil, through mixing. And it could also cause oil to wash over the land in a storm surge.”

He and Dukhovskoy hope to have initial results by the time the storm season begins in roughly two weeks. But first they must tweak their computer models to take oil’s physical properties into account.

“Oil on water changes the stress on the water from the winds,” Morey said. “Oil will essentially slide over the water and change the roughness of the water. That’s why we call it an oil slick. … The waves present a technical challenge, as well.”

But Dukhovskoy said he believes the hardest problem might be predicting the size and location of the slick at the beginning of hurricane season, so the scientists can feed it into their computer models.

While the government hasn’t released its initial predictions for this year’s hurricane season, other experts expect an active year.

Last month, Colorado State University forecasters Bill Gray and Phil Klotzbach said they “continue to see above-average activity for the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.” The pair are betting that warm ocean temperatures and a weakening El Niño will produce 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes. Half of those, they say, will be major hurricanes — classified as Category 4 or 5.

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We, and others, have had an eye on the comings and goings at CA Inc. (CA), the IT management software company in Islandia, New York. In the process, we can’t help but notice that one common denominator is the cash that keeps going to its executives, whether they’re coming or going.

On May 7, Sonya wrote about the employment agreement the company gave newly minted Chief Executive William “Bill” McCracken. But late on Friday, the company also filed its 10-K, and with it the Separation Agreement and General Claims Release it entered into on March 15 with John A. Swainson, McCracken’s predecessor as CEO.

As executive separation agreements go, it’s pretty streamlined: Six pages, 20 clauses, and $5.4 million in cash, representing double his salary plus target bonus, and then a prorated bonus for the year of termination. He also gets 18 months of health-care coverage under COBRA, a $28,004 value.

The rest of the package is harder to gauge: The agreement provides that the company will accelerate the vesting on any restricted stock that he holds that would have vested in the two years through March 15, 2012. According to the company’s last proxy, filed in July, that would include any awards under the 2008-2010 Long-Term Incentive Plan and the 2009-2011 LTIP. Just how many shares Swainson will actually hold from those programs isn’t clear; tentative figures put on them last summer totaled $2.46 million, but that includes a number of assumptions; moreover, it was 10 months ago.

Presumably Swainson also gets to keep the $2.3 million he had accumulated under the company’s deferred compensation arrangements through last year’s proxy, plus any earnings or company contributions since then.

All in all, not quite as cheery as the hello McCracken got — but it’s far from a chilly farewell.

HTC has just unveiled their next Android handset this morning. Called the Wildfire, it’s a Sense UI smart phone that follows in the footsteps of HTC Tattoo with a bit of Desire form factor. Like other Sense-based devices, the Wildfire features Friend Stream, Peep and the other widgets that help add flavor to their custom build of Android.

One feature that makes its debut on the Wildfire is the new application sharing widget. Designed to help users share and discover new Android applications, it allows for anyone to recommend titles to friends via text, email, twitter, etc.  Friends will then receive a link taking them directly to the application within the Android Market.  In another first for the handset maker, the phone comes with HTC Caller ID which displays your contact’s Facebook profile picture, latest update, and birthday reminders.

If you are looking for cold hard specs, the Wildfire comes with:

• Qualcomm MSM7225 528 MHz processor
• 512MB ROM, 384MB RAM
• Android 2.1 (Eclair) and Sense UI
• 3.2-inch QVGA TFT capacitive touch screen
• 5 megapixel camera w/auto focus, LED flash
• 802.11 b/g
• GPS, AGPS
• Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
• 3.5mm audio jack; microUSB
• Proximity sensor
• G-sensor
• Compass
• Light sensor
• FM radio
• Optical joystick

Look for the new HTC Wildfire across major European and Asian markets starting sometime in the third quarter (Q3 ’10).

LONDON – 18 May, 2010, 07.00 CEST – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced HTC Wildfire™, a new HTC Sense-based Android phone that integrates the most popular social networks to help bring your friends closer to you. HTC Wildfire closely follows the success of the acclaimed HTC Desire and makes the company’s signature HTC Sense experience accessible to a younger audience.

“Today’s social networks provide an essential forum for friendship with more than 400 million users* – many of whom are young adults – actively sharing their lives with their friends through Facebook,” said Florian Seiche, Vice President, HTC EMEA. “HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends.”

HTC Wildfire helps you stay connected with those who are most important to you through HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. You won’t miss out on the fun as HTC’s Friend Stream application seamlessly gathers and displays content from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised stream of updates. HTC Wildfire enables you to stay up to date with your friends’ posts, comments, alerts and photos, wherever you are.

In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including when you last spoke, recent text messages and emails, and social network updates. When your friend calls, HTC Caller ID displays their Facebook profile photo and latest update, as well as a reminder if their birthday is fast approaching.

Thanks to a new app sharing widget, HTC Wildfire enables you to recommend an application by email, text message or over social networks. Your friends will receive a link allowing them to find the application on the Android Market with a single click and download it to their phone.

Florian Seiche continued, “We understand that people need a better way to navigate their way through the tens of thousands of applications that are currently available on the Android Market. In fact, our own independent research found that consumers are not only hungry for the latest and most popular applications that their friends are using, they want an easier way to find and download them. For the first time ever, you can recommend the newest and coolest apps to a friend or group of friends with HTC Wildfire. With so many applications to choose from, there’s a world of content to discover and pass along to your friends.”

HTC’s latest advanced smartphone is great for viewing and sharing photos on Flickr and for surfing the internet thanks to its 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen. A five-megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash allows you to capture special moments, while a 3.5mm audio jack and micro SD card slot mean you are never without your favourite songs.

Availability

The new HTC Wildfire will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets from Q3 2010.

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Sex And The City 2 is facing a ban in Abu Dhabi, the conservative Arabic city in which it is set.

The plot of the eagerly-awaited chick flick — a follow-up to 2008’s Sex And The City: The Movie — features series stars Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, Charlotte York, and Samantha Jones on vacation in Abu Dhabi.
Last year, city officials turned down a request to film on location, forcing the cast and crew to head to Morocco to recreate the Abu Dhabi setting. Now, however, Shooting Stars — Warner Bros.’ distributor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — has revealed that Arabic decency officials have still not made a decision about whether or not to bring the film to cinemas in Abu Dhabi after its release in North American and Europe later this month.

The original SATC Movie, which is the big screen adaptation of the hugely popular television series that ran every Sunday night on HBO from 1998 to 2004, was not shown in the UAE when it hit theaters across the globe two years ago. The film and all promotional materials bearing the word “sex” were also banned in two Iraeli cities in 2008.

The world’s saddest iMac has no friends other than this purple iPod nano. And nobody likes purple, either. $41. [Chinavasion via OhGizmo!] More »










IMac – Hardware – Shopping – Digital Portable Players – Consumer Electronics

Never trust a TLA (three-letter acronym) or those who use them, unless the abbreviation provides some value in terms of repetitive usage  or is accepted as an industry standard. Too often TLAs are used as a screen between those who are listening and the incompetence of the person talking. TIGs (thermally insignificant geometries) as a TLA is neither useful nor accepted, I just made it up. Thermally insignificant geometries however are at the heart of the art of CFD based electronics cooling modelling.

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A far cry in terms of both size and capability from the “bricks” of just over a decade ago, the smartphones of today are virtual offices and entertainment arcades that fit in your pocket. As we reported last month, America’s Department of Homeland Security is examining whether the ability to detect dangerous airborne chemicals should be the next function that mobile phones add to their ever-expanding utility belts. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have now begun work on a prototype sensor that could help map airborne toxins in real time…
Continue Reading UPDATE: Toxin-detecting mobile phone prototype in development

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Courtney House

An excellent nursing student who had been eager to begin her career helping others, Courtney House was supposed to graduate with her classmates last week. But the senior died in September 2009 only months after being diagnosed with cancer.

Courtney’s memory was honored at the College of Nursing’s commencement exercises with a special pinning ceremony, where her mother and stepfather, Gail and Charles Andreason, were presented with the nursing pin that Courtney would have received at graduation.

The nursing pin is a type of badge worn by nurses to identify the nursing school from which they graduated. They traditionally are presented to students at graduation or at a pinning ceremony as a symbolic welcome into the profession.

Courtney, a straight-A student, always gave 100 percent in her efforts, said Gary Ramsey, chair of the undergraduate nursing program.

“Even after her diagnosis with cancer, she remained committed to pursuing her nursing degree and made arrangements to continue some of her courses in the College of Nursing. Her integrity of strength and character were present until the end of her life,” he said.

When only 3 months old, Courtney was diagnosed with respiratory papiliomatosis, a disease that causes recurrent polyps to form on the larynx and trachea. Courtney’s family was told that the condition was not life threatening but would require laser treatments to be done every so often to remove the polyps. Before Courtney’s passing, she had endured 158 laser surgeries.

At age 5, during one of those surgeries, a machine malfunctioned shooting pieces of silver into Courtney’s lungs. In the process of removing the silver, the polyps seeded into her lung tissue. The incident made her more prone to lung infections and abscesses in the years that followed.

Courtney and her family knew that there was a possibility that the polyps could become malignant but hoped this would never happen.

In June 2009, Courtney began working 12-hour shifts at a local hospital. After the first couple of weeks, she started experiencing lower back pain, which at first she attributed to the new long hours.

Initial doctors appointments and blood work showed that Courtney’s calcium was high but otherwise nothing was wrong. Eventually, she ended up in the emergency room with severe pain. An abdominal CT scan showed that lymph nodes in her abdomen were enlarged; lymphoma was suspected.

While grave news, Courtney and her family understood that lymphoma could be a very treatable cancer and they worked to prepare Courtney for the treatment plan to come. A biopsy was scheduled to confirm the lymphoma but after comparing the results of the biopsy with Courtney’s PET scan results, she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in her lungs, lymph nodes and hip bones.

The Rock decorated in Courtney's honor.

Courtney died Sept. 15, 2009.

In a blog posted shortly before her death, Courtney wrote about having God on her side.

“The doctors can say what they want but I know who holds my future. To me, this is just another trial in life that I, with God’s help, will overcome and will be able to use my story to tell others what God has done for me. So I have chosen to turn this over to God and let the world see what he can do! Please pray and thank God every day for all he has done and will continue to do. God is so good.”

Courtney’s family has established the Courtney House Memorial Scholarship in her honor. Once the endowment is fully funded, the scholarship will be available to a rising senior in nursing with preference given to students in Knox County. To contribute to the Courtney House Memorial Scholarship, please contact the College of Nursing development office at 974-2755.

Pregunta de la semana: ¿Qué definirá los asuntos ambientales para los jóvenes de hoy?

En la actualidad, los jóvenes están más activos que nunca en asuntos ambientales y están haciendo una diferencia enorme. Esta semana, celebramos sus esfuerzos para proteger el medio ambiente del mañana durante la ceremonia de los Premios Ambientales Juveniles del Presidente en Washington, DC

¿Qué definirá los asuntos ambientales para los jóvenes de hoy?

The LA Times has a post on some (unambitious) studies into solar power generation growth over the next 40 years – Solar power could produce 25% of global electricity by 2050, studies say.

By 2050, the world could be getting a quarter of its electricity from solar power, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

Releasing two “roadmaps” for photovoltaics technology and concentrating solar power, the agency said that the two technologies could generate 9,000 terawatt hours of energy within four decades.

At the Mediterranean Solar Plan Conference in Valencia, Spain, agency officials said that the combination could enhance energy security while cutting carbon dioxide emissions by almost 6 billion metric tons per year by 2050. …

Concentrating solar power, which focuses solar radiation onto a small area and is usually applied in large-scale plants under clear skies and bright sun, will be dominated by sunny regions such as North America, North Africa and India. The agency’s Renewable Energy Division said it will be able to compete with coal and nuclear power plants by 2030. …

The study, which was requested by the G8 member nations in a 2008 meeting as part of a series of 19 energy technologies, covers the science, financing and policy necessary to make photovoltaics an integral part of the global power infrastructure. …

The agency recommends that governments establish long-term targets and policies around the technology to encourage investments and installations. Incentives and financing schemes, such as funding opportunities for rural projects in developing countries, would also help.

Right now, just four countries can produce more than 1 gigawatt from installed photovoltaics systems: Germany, Spain, Japan and the U.S. But countries such as Australia, China, France, Greece and India are catching up.

In many regions by 2020, power from photovoltaics is expected to be about as cheap as electricity from existing sources – a pricing point known as grid parity.

Global photovoltaics capacity has already been ballooning by an average of 40% each year since 2000. And public expenditures around the world for photovoltaics research and development have doubled over the same period from $250 million in 2000 to $500 million in 2007.

A companhia espanhola Seat está passando uma das piores fases de sua história. Depois da crise econômica que atacou o mercado automotivo, a empresa ficou perto de encerrar as suas atividades. Mas ainda não se dão por derrotadas, segundo o novo presidente da Seat, James Muir, que tem um plano de salvação em mente.

Segundo Muir, fechar as portas será a última hipótese a ser considerada enquanto a marca Seat existir. Então o plano de ação para os próximos cinco anos consiste em renovar toda a linha Seat nesse tempo, pois segundo ele, o únic modelo que tem uma forte competitividade no mercado é o Ibiza. Os outros modelos, como Leon e Exeo, não ficaram muito bons.

Então, em breve teremos notícias de uma nova geração do Exeo, começando “do zero”, e outros modelos esportivos mais atraentes. A picape Tribu será elimidada de vez, mesmo estando pronta. Outro modelo que ajudará a montadora em poucos meses será o Alhambra.

Via | Auto Portal

(more…)

Even that most basic of kitchen appliances, the humble teakettle, is getting a high-tech makeover in the form of Breville’s One-Touch Tea Maker. The fully programmable unit takes the guesswork out of brewing that perfect cuppa by providing the right water temperatures and brewing times to suit different tea varieties. The device even does the “jiggling” for you thanks to a fully automated tea basket that moves up and down to gently agitate the leaves to precisely infuse your tea…
Continue Reading Breville One-Touch Tea Maker produces the perfect cuppa every time

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Jeff Daniel Marion

KNOXVILLE — Poet Jeff Daniel Marion will be the Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence at the University of Tennessee Libraries for the 2010-2011 academic year. As Writer in Residence, Marion will organize the Writers in the Library series of readings held in the John C. Hodges Library.

“I am thrilled that Jeff Daniel Marion will represent the UT Libraries at our literary events this year,” said Dean of Libraries Barbara Dewey. “We are offering UT students the opportunity to interact with a distinguished poet and eloquent Tennessee voice. Furthermore, everyone is invited to our Writers in the Libraries series to meet Jeff and to hear some of our exceptionally talented regional authors read from their works.”

Marion grew up in Rogersville and now lives in Knoxville. From 1969 until his retirement in 2002, he taught creative writing at Carson-Newman College, where he was poet-in-residence, director of the Appalachian Center, and editor of “Mossy Creek Reader.”

Marion has published eight collections of poetry, and his poems have appeared in more than 75 journals and anthologies. “Ebbing & Flowing Springs: New and Selected Poems and Prose, 1976-2001″ was the winner of the 2003 Independent Publishers Award in Poetry and was named Appalachian Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association. The book was one of three finalists for the Benjamin Franklin Award. His latest collection, “Father,” was awarded the 2009 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize.

Other recognitions include the first Literary Fellowship awarded by the Tennessee Arts Commission in 1978, the Appalachian Writers Association’s Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award in 2002, and an Educational Service to Appalachia Award from Carson-Newman College in 2005. He has served as poet-in-the-schools in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia; was twice poet-in-residence for the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Humanities; and in 1998 was Copenhaver Scholar in Residence at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.

Marion founded “The Small Farm,” one of the region’s most distinguished poetry journals, which he edited from 1975 to 1980. For 20 years he operated Mill Springs Press, producing chapbooks and broadsides from handset type on a Vandercook proof press.

As Writer in Residence, Marion will have access to the resources of the UT Libraries and also a quiet retreat in the Hodges Library to work on his current projects, new collections of poems and memoir essays. His appointment begins Aug. 1.

The position of Writer in Residence was established in 1998. In 2005, it was named in honor of the late Jack Reese, a former chancellor of the university, longtime UT English professor and avid supporter of the UT Libraries and the local writing community.

—

C O N T A C T :

Jo Anne Deeken, UT Libraries (865-974-6913, [email protected])

American Superconductor has signed a $445 million deal with China’s Sinovel Wind Group to provide core electrical components for 1.5 megawatt wind turbines.

The Devens, Mass.-based American Superconductor will begin shipments to Sinovel in 2011 and continue for 30 months. The deal extends an existing multi-year, $450 million contract for the components.

American Superconductor has grabbed big headlines in the last year by providing components for the Tres Amigas power grid project in New Mexico.

Sinovel, currently the world’s third largest wind turbine manufacturer based on market share, has been growing rapidly and aims to become largest wind company in the world.

The deal allows American Superconductor to make inroads into the Chinese wind market, which is expected to add 18 gigawatts of capacity this year.

At the same time, Western companies have increasingly been squeezed out of the market as state-financed projects show a preference for domestic wind companies such as Sinovel and Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co.

American Superconductor Chief Executive Officer Greg Yurek said while the deal principally supports Sinovel’s core 1.5 MW turbine, his company has also provided power electronics for 3 MW and 5 MW prototype wind turbines.

Sinovel accounts for 70 percent of American Superconductor’s revenue stream, according to Bloomberg, which cited Barclays Capital.

As previously speculated, AT&T has revealed that June 6th (a date that launch-day Sprint Pre owners should recognize) as the launch date for the WiFi-equipped, blue-backed Palm Pixi Plus on its website. It will be selling for the previously announced price of $49.95 with a new two-year contract.  While you eagerly wait to get your hands on the svelte phone, go ahead and read our Verizon Pixi Plus review to get a good idea about what you’re getting into. 

Thanks to arthurthorton for the tip!