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The Obama Administration has appointed Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson to lead an 18-person, bi-partisan commission tasked with tackling the country’s deficit. USAToday is running a fairly typical piece looking at the multitude of moving pieces that contribute to the nation’s fairly-staggering $12.8 trillion debit load, and the variety of partisan and often factually-challenged bickering that surrounds the debate. Buried down at the bottom of the piece is an odd solution to a very complex problem. According to Bowles, the commission has contacted Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer about Microsoft creating “a deficit-reduction video game” that would allow the average American to attempt balancing the budget. Details are scarce, but it would appear that the likely browser-based game would act to “virally” educate the public on how reducing the deficit isn’t easy. In other words, it’s a PR move designed to seemingly justify why we continue to fail — instead of solving the problem. And here we were busily waiting for a Tea Party MMORPG, or Halo 4: Die Deficit Die.

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By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

The first volume licensing arrangements for Microsoft Office 2010 will be made through company partners on May 1, almost two weeks earlier than expected. This news today from the company’s Office Engineering team, which released the final build of all versions of the company’s principal applications suite today.

“Since the start of our public beta in November 2009, we’ve had more than 7.5 million people download the beta version — that’s more than 3 times the number of 2007 beta downloads!” reads this afternoon’s post by the Engineering team. “The feedback that we’ve received from all these programs has shaped the set of products we’re excited about, and that I’m sure will delight our customers.”

Pre-orders for individual US customers have already started from Microsoft’s online store. There, customers will find the Home and Student package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) available for $149.99. This time, it’s Outlook that’s the premium component in the bundle; the Home and Business Package, which adds only Outlook to the Home and Student arrangement, sells for $279.99. The Professional bundle, which adds Publisher and Access, sells online for $499.99. Although SharePoint, Visio, and Project 2010 share the marketing umbrella with the other Office components, they are sold separately.

The delivery date for consumer Office bundles has not yet been set. However, the official Office launch date (any more, software is almost never launched once only) is May 12, when Microsoft officials including Business Division President Stephen Elop will lead a gala press presentation from the NBC Studios in New York City.

Though Microsoft unofficially absorbed a truckload of user-crafted suggestions from the MakeOfficeBetter.com Web site launched by two company employees (and recently shut down), it’s the beta program where company engineers did the most listening to tester suggestions. From personal experience in that program, I can happily report that engineers were very receptive to input.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

by Grist

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I know. I know. The phrase Securities and Exchange Commission is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. But the SEC did something sort of landmark last January: in a 3-2 vote, commissioners approved guidelines that urge companies to regularly disclose climate change-related risks (and opportunities) to investors. If you’re a big box store importing underwear from China, or an insurance company indemnifying coastal businesses, you’ll have to start accounting for the carbon cost of all that transportation, or the projected rise in global sea levels. We’re not talking laws here, just guidelines. But the SEC’s decision should make corporate America take climate change more seriously, and it may even push American businesses and investors—and the rest of us—to start thinking long-term again, a nice ability to rediscover if we ever hope to combat climate change. We’ve convened some heavy hitters to weigh in on what happens next. Call in to hear them predict the future [on Monday, April 19, 2pm EDT, 11am PDT, at 347.934.0400.]

Kristen A. Sheeran
Executive Director at Economics for Equity and the Environment Network
“Environmental risks have largely been absent from long-term planning because we’ve been rooted in a mindset that’s shorter, and that believes we’ll be able to adapt with a more prosperous economy and investment in technological changes. That mindset is changing, and this ruling is a clear indication of that shift.”

Sara Robinson
Fellow, Campaign for America’s Future
“Accepting limits is a very new thing for Americans. But the average American feels that the crazy
days are over and we have to get serious about how make it through the winter. We are gathering ourselves to live in a world
with more limits.”

Julie Fox Gorte
Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Pax World Management Corporation.
“I do think corporations can lead. A few have. And corporations are going to have to lead if we’re going to be able to live on this planet.”

Related Links:

Tea Party supporters far less informed about climate change than general public

The Climate Post: Why isn’t the Keeling Curve more famous?

The Real Problems with Paul Krugman’s Climate Economics Primer

Like the rest of Europe, the UK has a Kyoto-level ambitious renewable energy plan to reduce its CO2 emissions 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. As part of achieving this, the island nation plans to build an astonishing 32 Gigawatts of off-shore wind by 2020, enough to supply a quarter of its electricity.

However, a “lack of investment in the vessels used to build offshore wind farms could hinder Britain’s ambitions to shift to renewable energy”, E.ON UKs Robin Rigg told Reuters. He is the head of one of the leading companies in the consortium of companies meeting the UK’s 32 Gigawatt target.

It will take an armada of vessels to get the huge parts of modern turbines out into the North Sea to deploy them in off-shore wind farms. In today’s world, the supply chain is lacking. There are not enough ships that can carry turbines, and building these ships will take a huge investment. (more…)

By Sanford J. Selman

In its majority opinion of January 21, 2010 (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission), the US Supreme Court overturned decades-old rules prohibiting unlimited spending by corporations and unions on election advertising. This ruling is certain to have a far reaching impact as it gives complete freedom to corporate interests to use their considerable financial strength to influence voter opinions of political candidates and sets the stage for a rightward shift in US public policy.

The potential impact on the US cleantech sector is clear – the prospects for advancement of federal carbon legislation (i.e. cap-and-trade) or any other government-led clean energy initiative (e.g. renewable energy mandates) have just gotten much worse. Most negatively impacted by the passage of such rules would be energy companies and coal-fired utilities whose sheer size dwarfs that of their clean energy counterparts. With billions of dollars invested in existing fixed assets, these enormous enterprises can be expected to take an active role in future elections now that Citizens United has freed their hands to help their favored candidates win election.

But there are many potential losers.

For starters, failure to develop the US clean energy sector results in a loss of US jobs both in the manufacture of this equipment as well as construction and operation of the power plants and related systems. A 2009 report from the Pew Charitable Trusts noted that clean energy jobs in the US grew at an annual rate of 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007 as compared to 3.7 percent annual growth for all US jobs over the same period. While many countries in Europe and Asia are looking to cleantech to drive jobs growth, comparatively weaker support for cleantech in the US could slow job growth in this historically strong sector.

Second, there is a trade balance issue. A recent front-page New York Times article (January 31, 2010) suggested that the US could trade its dependence on imported Mideast oil for dependence on imported Chinese wind turbines, solar panels and other energy-related hardware. Today, four companies out of each of the five largest wind turbine and solar cell manufacturers in the world are based outside the US. The rapid development of China’s battery and electric vehicle sectors, driven by central government policy, is impressive. Japan and Korea are likewise vying for leadership in battery technology. Citizens United will cause the US to fall further behind in key cleantech sectors where it once held dominance.
Third, consumers lose because we are less likely to have access to the fullest possible range of choices when it comes to purchasing and consuming energy.

And finally, the environment ends up losing since it will be impossible for the US to bring its considerable carbon footprint under control absent strong government leadership.

Implications for cleantech investment, which reached surpassed $5.5 billion globally even in a dismal 2009, are also significant. According to the Cleantech Group, North American venture funds accounted for almost two-thirds of global cleantech investment activity in 2009 – down about 10 percentage points from 2008. And increasingly, this money is finding its way to companies based outside the US. Chinese companies accounted for 72% of global cleantech IPOs in 2009 and Chinese cleantech M&A activity reached an historic high in 2009. Both statistics demonstrate the intense growth of the Chinese cleantech sector.

Cleantech investors’ US strategy will, by default, be forced to focus on sectors where economics are the primary driver and government support mechanisms are relatively less important. These sectors include energy efficiency and green building technologies, smart grid and distribution automation, water conservation and treatment, resource-efficient manufacturing and material technologies, and recycling and waste reduction.
Due to the “separation of powers” mandated by the US Constitution, there is no easy way to undo Citizens United although Democrats are hard at work drafting legislation to restrain its impact. Notably, President Obama took a swipe at the decision during his recent State of the Union address – a rare event by a sitting President. While the complexion of the US Congress won’t change overnight, Citizens United deals a blow to the US cleantech sector with potentially far reaching implications.
Sandy Selman is a longtime cleantech investor and the Managing Director of Asia West LLC.

Content provided by and all rights reserved to CleantechBlog.com. Also check out http://www.cleantech.org

In future wars, our soldiers will be equipped with flexible, solar-powered computer displays on their wrists. And making it work has required a complete rethinking of how flexible displays are made. More »

Palm Inc. announced today via a SEC 8-K filling that Michael R. Abbott, Senior Vice President of Software and Services, submitted his resignation. The filling details that his employment is expected to terminate effective April 23, 2010.

Mr. Abbott joined Palm in 2008 and lead the team that developed webOS. His management bio at Palm.com states Michael leads the application platform and services development for the company’s next-generation Palm webOS platform. […] Before joining Palm, Michael was the general manager of .NET Online Services at Microsoft, where he led efforts to deliver a services platform that enabled the development of large-scale Internet-based services. No reasons were given for his departure.

Auto analyst Max Warburton, of Bernstein Research in London, says that Chrysler may not survive in its current form even after posting an “astonishing” profit in March. Warburton said that many question still remain about CEO Sergio Marchionne’s rescue strategy for the Auburn Hills automaker despite his efforts to slash costs.

Warburtron’s report comes less than a week before Marchionne’s scheduled plan to unveil a five-year restructuring effort for Fiat SpA in Turin. He said that the CEO will likely announced that Chrysler came close to breaking even for the quarter after a profitable March.

“We remain unconvinced Chrysler will survive in its current form despite Marchionne’s blood, sweat and tears,” Warburton said. “A slimming down of Chrysler to be just Ram, Jeep and a U.S. production base for Fiat looks a realistic exit strategy to us.”

Chrysler spokesman Gualberto Ranieri declined to comment.

Marchionne recently said that he is committed to make Chrysler break even in 2010.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Marvell is going to Hollywood next week in an effort to show the film industry what it’s missing because the U.S. has such slow broadband speeds. The chip firm is teaming up with Jason Reitman, director of “Up in the Air,” at the W Hotel in Hollywood on Tuesday, where it will show off a line of chips destined for home modems and residential gateways that can handle broadband speeds of between 100 Mbps and 2.5 gigabits per second.

Why should Hollywood care about fast broadband? Well with such fat pipes, 3-D would just be the beginning. One might be able to film a group of actors located in different parts of the world instead of bringing a bunch of people to one location. Plus the actual movie-watching experience could come even more immersive if broadband speeds in the U.S. were more than 600 times faster than the nation’s average of 3.9 Mbps.

But unfortunately for those of us in the U.S., we’re not actually going to see Marvell’s Avanta chips designed for fiber networks for a while. Nafea Bshara of Marvell explains that the lack of competition between ISPs and coupled with the lack of a big government push to increase speeds means that Marvell is counting on the Asia-Pacific region for sales of the Avanta chips over the next few years.

But once we get fat pipes — and symmetrical ones with both fast upstream and downstream speeds (GigaOM Pro, sub req’d) – Bshara says we could experience the best aspects of having services reside in the cloud. “There are whole new applications and new business models for the Internet,” Bshara says. “We want to encourage new breakthrough usage models that will really drive broadband and Hollywood can do that.”

Forget email. He envisions a world where web-based hardcore gaming is possible and there’s no need for someone to decide between a Playstation or a Wii console because they’ll be able to access whatever type of game they want over the web. However, he may be overestimating Hollywood’s willingness to usher in the future of streaming movies instead of buying DVDs.

Michael Giberson

Today the CFTC approved Media Derivatives Inc.’s request to create a futures exchange based on box office receipts.  The exchange “is primarily focused on the development of a variety of products to benefit the entertainment industry with one if its initially proposed products being designed to help mitigate risk and enhance the successful financing of motion pictures through trading of opening weekend domestic box office receipts.”

See also reports at Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

Media Derivatives’s Trend Exchange market is one of two similar proposals that have been submitted to the CFTC for approval.  The other proposal has been submitted by Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment and brokerage company, which acquired play-money site Hollywood Stock Exchange a few years ago.

Today is a historic day in Mobile Tech Manor. It is the first day in a decade that I have no service on the Verizon phone network. I canceled my long-time account as I signed up for Sprint 4G service to go with my Palm Pre voice line on Sprint. It wasn’t a move I made lightly, I tested the Sprint 3G and 4G networks and decided the Sprint service was a better value for me. I entered the Verizon store to cancel my voice and data lines with mixed emotions. The lying I was blasted with by Verizon employees made the process much easier on me than I thought it would be.

I entered the Verizon store and was signed in to wait my turn for service. I told the guy I was canceling my service and didn’t need a salesperson. He immediately sent me to a second salesperson and explained that I wanted to cancel my service. They both then asked why I would do that. I explained I signed with Sprint for the 4G service, and that I was switching as Verizon had nothing comparable at this time.

They both stated, eerily at the same time, that the Sprint 4G was not really 4G, it was “only WiMAX.” I replied that I knew that, but it was much faster than the EVDO 3G service of Verizon. Then they both asserted that the Sprint WiMAX service was not available “anywhere in the U.S. outside of Houston.” I looked at them and told them that was not true. Sprint has rolled out the 4G service in at least 11 cities across the country.

Then they argued that Verizon’s LTE service was almost ready for launch, and would be launched covering the “entire U.S.” all at once. I asked for them to put that in writing, and that stopped that claim in its tracks.

They took me to the Customer Service department, which I’d asked for upon entry to the store, and handed me off to “Steve”. Steve pulled up my account on the system and asked why I wanted to cancel both lines with Verizon. I explained once again that I had already signed up with Sprint, mainly for the 4G.

He called a manager over to the station who looked at the screen and then informed me that the Sprint 4G service was not available anywhere in the U.S. outside of Houston. I was getting ticked off and told him he was blatantly lying to me about that. He then told me that Sprint’s WiMAX was only a little bit faster than Verizon’s 3G. I told him he was lying yet again. Then he told me that Sprint’s 3G network was “nowhere near as fast as Verizon’s 3G network.”

I’d had enough at this point and I informed him that the Sprint 3G was the same EVDO technology that Verizon used, and it was just as fast. I asked to speak to the division manager to complete my business. At that point they tapped a few keys on the screen and informed me I was duly canceled. The whole thing left me with a very bad taste in my mouth for the way Verizon conducts business. Which is a shame after a decade of happy patronage.

Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub req’d)

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) started offering free turn-by-turn navigation on its latest Android handsets in November, sparking off a chain of events.

After the announcement, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) followed suit and stopped charging for its navigation services, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) shut down its Wayfinder mapping division; and folks like Garmin, if anything, focused more on building and releasing their own phones. But the biggest impacts may have immediately been felt in Europe, where Nokia continues to be the dominant handset-maker.

In February, 21.1 million consumers in five major European countries used their phones for navigation, representing an increase of 68 percent compared to a year ago, comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) reports. That sounds about right. Nokia said two weeks after making navigation free, the service was being downloaded at a rate of one every second.

Reuters reports that this compares to 20.4 million personal navigation devices sold in those markets in 2008 and 2009 in total, according to research firm GfK.

Of those 21.1 cellphone navigation users, 68 percent accessed the service while in a car or other vehicle with 27 percent doing so while walking, running or cycling. “That these services offer similar functionality to premium services without the significant price-tag has certainly contributed to their early success,” said ComScore analyst Alistair Hill.

Related

• Google Rolls Out Navigation To More Android Devices; Will Other Smartphones Follow?
• Nokia Follows Google Down Free-GPS Route In Drive Against TomTom
• Nokia Says Free Ovi Navigation Driving A Download Every Second
• Free Maps From Google and Nokia Drive Vodafone To Shut Down Wayfinder

Warning against the dual threats of complacency and unrealistic expectations, Secretary Janet Napolitano of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged Americans Thursday (April 15) to “be prepared, not scared” in confronting domestic and international terrorism. Napolitano gave a speech and answered student questions during an appearance at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

The secretary provided an overview of her department’s latest efforts to track and interrupt terrorist plots and operations, which can range from violent extremists at home to cyber attacks launched from afar.

“Securing America against these threats — while simultaneously expediting the legal flow of people and commerce, and staying true to the values and rights that define our nation — is the essence of the 21st century enterprise we call homeland security,” she said.

Napolitano cited the “heightened law enforcement presence” at the nation’s airports and the sharing of resources among federal, state, and local agencies to confront threats “on the frontlines” more effectively. She also urged citizens, businesses, and communities to develop and discuss their emergency preparedness plans in order to “get smarter and better equipped to deal with a range of potential emergencies.”

“Terrorism is a tactic designed not just to kill, but to make us feel powerless. But we are never powerless,” Napolitano said. “We control the way we prepare ourselves, the way we anticipate and combat the threats, and the way we respond if something does happen.”

Answering questions by audience members who criticized current U.S. enforcement tactics, Napolitano said, “There is a crying need for immigration reform,” but she acknowledged that we are “a nation of laws.”

Napolitano said a framework for immigration reform recently proposed by U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham will help to update enforcement efforts to deal more effectively with such critical issues as family unification and illegal immigrants already in the country.

“If we want a better set of laws, there [are] no better people than the people in this room to make sure it happens,” she said. “As policymakers, you can advocate and vote … Washington, D.C., needs to hear that it is now time to move forward.”

Napolitano’s forum appearance at the Harvard Kennedy School was part of a two-day visit to New England.

An Oregon middle school teacher who attempted to organize efforts to "infiltrate" and "dismantle" Tea Party demonstrations has been placed on paid administrative leave while state officials investigate whether he used school time and resources to develop his website, CrashTheTeaParty.org.

Jason Levin, who indicated earlier in the week that he and his colleagues would work to make the conservative organization’s members look racist, ignorant and homophobic during their tax day protests, professed his innocence on Friday, stating that the charges are without merit.

"The fact that teachers are held to a higher standard when exercising their right to free speech (in their private lives) is patently unfair," Levin told TalkingPointsMemo.com.

Over the last few days, the Beaverton School District has been inundated with calls and emails from local residents who are outraged with the school teacher’s behavior and who are asking for him to be terminated.

Conservative radio host Lars Larson explained on his show on Wednesday that it is not a matter of free speech, but rather an issue of trusting someone to work with children who furthers their political goals "by lying, stealing and damaging somebody else’s reputation."

"If you ran a Klan website on your own time, do you think you would be excused?" Larson asked. "If you ran a porno website, which is also legal, do you think you would be excused in that kind of job?"

Meanwhile, Levin told the news source that he is now looking to sell his website to anyone who is interested.

We previously reported that several hundred myTouch 3G Slide phones were gifted to select T-Mobile employees last week in Las Vegas. These units were handed out early in a joint effort by T-Mobile and HTC so users could test out the phones and provide their feedback before launch. One of our sources was lucky enough to receive this phone and they were nice enough to provide us with a 30 minute virtual hands on.

First off, we are being told the final name for the phone is the myTouch 3G Slide. No launch date has been provided, but it sounds like the device will launch in May. The phones given out are using the final hardware, but the software is still in beta as T-Mobile works with HTC to tweak it.

The following are some quick notes I jotted down during my tour of the phone. No spec sheets were provided with the devices, but we were able to discover most of the major specs.

Display: It is hard to tell from the leaked pictures, but the Slide will feature a larger display than the original MT3G. Our source compared the display with an iPhone 3G S (3.5 in) and said they were the same size. I was unable to determine if the display was AMOLED or not.

Camera: The Slide features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. This is an improvement over the MT3G which had 3 MP and no flash.

Processor: We don’t know the exact model number, but I did confirm it has a 600 MHz ARM11 processor. This could be the Qualcomm MSM7227 or MSM7627.

Memory: From what we can tell the Slide features the same 512 MB ROM / 512 MB RAM as seen in the HTC Nexus One. The phone should ship with an 8 GB microSD card.

HSPA+: The source claimed the Slide will be used by T-Mobile to promote their HSPA+ network, but I do not think it supports the full HSPA+ speeds. Instead I believe it supports HSPA 7.2 which is compatible with the new HSPA+ network. Qualcomm just started to sample some of their HSPA+ chipsets (MSM8260, MSM8660 and MSM8270), but those have a 1.2 GHz Scorpion processor which is faster than what is used in the Slide.

Battery: 1300 mAh as reported earlier.

Operating system: This was already known, but the Slide has the latest Android 2.1 firmware (still kernel 2.6.29) and HTC’s new Sense UI. All of the latest Sense UI features like Leap are included, but the UI has been tweaked to T-Mobile’s liking. It is the same UI as the leaked Espresso ROM that was revealed earlier this year. Users can select between 5-7 home screens.

Hardware extras: The Slide features a proximity and light sensor. The external speaker is much louder than the original MT3G. An optical trackpad is used in place of the trackball.

Multitouch: The Browser, Gallery, and Maps applications all support pinch zoom.

Live Wallpapers: Sorry, these are not supported. This is not that big a surprise considering the processor is ARM11 based.

Accounts & sync: Since the device is Android 2.1, it supports multi accounts. There were a few new additions not seen on my Nexus One. Flickr is now an integrated account you can sync. There is also the option to sync your T-Mobile account so they can store your photos.

Software extras: Lots of T-Mobile bundled apps like AppPack, My Account, and more. There is a myTouch Music app which is a semi-clone of Pandora. Quick Office is included along with some games like Abduction. None of the bundled apps can be removed at this time. Swype is the default virtual keyboard, but users can switch to the HTC keyboard or a new one called Dragon Dictionary.

Gaming: Our unofficial gaming benchmark for mid-range Android phones has become Raging Thunder 2. The game was designed for high-end phones like the Droid and N1, but the source claims it plays at an acceptable frame rate on the Slide. This is a surprise because we tried the game in our Motorola Devour review (also 600 MHz ARM11) and it was not playable. The additional RAM found in the Slide could be the reason for the performance boost.

Overall impressions: Our source claims they were extremely satisfied with the Slide (and they came from the G1). The phone is slimmer than the G1 which is nice for those considering an upgrade. The performance of the Sense UI was great and no lag was experienced on the home screen. The battery life is typical of any Android phone and got them through the day.

Related Posts

• Which upcoming Android phone is black, red, or white and features a Genius button?
• All U.S. Android phones to receive Android 2.1, but some will require a wipe
• More myTouch Slide pics and details leak
• T-Mobile myTouch Slide details slip out
• 7 reasons to choose the Sprint HTC EVO 4G over the Nexus One

According to an SEC filing today, Palm’s Senior Vice President of Software and Services, Mike Abbott, is leaving the company on April 23rd.

Abbott should be a familiar face to webOS lovers – he has introduced us to many of the key features and tools for webOS, including Project Ares, the (hopefully) forthcoming Mojo Messaging Service for push notifications, and the original Early Access Program for webOS developers.

Before anybody links this to rumors of Palm’s imminent demise, we’ll note that we have also recently been tipped that Palm is still actively looking for new employees from Engineers to a Brand Strategy Director. So, you know, don’t panic.

Anyhow, we wish Mike the best of luck in the future!