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One of the biggest decisions that self-published authors have to make is how to price their ebook. What’s the sweet spot? Self-publishing platform and digital bookstore Smashwords analyzed 11 months’ worth of sales — $12 million, 120,000 ebooks sold — to discern some best practices for self-published authors. The full report is here. Among the findings:

Most authors price at $2.99…

Smashwords founder and CEO Mark Coker found that authors chose to price at $2.99 ”more frequently than any other price point. In last year’s survey, $.99 was a more common price point than $2.99. In this year’s survey, $2.99 was [chosen] about 60 percent more often.”

…but $3.99 sells the most copies.

Smashwords’ findings suggest that those $2.99 authors should price up by a dollar: “One surprising finding is that, on average, $3.99 books sold more units than $2.99 books, and more units than any other price except FREE. I didn’t expect this. Although the general pattern holds that lower priced books tend to sell more units than higher priced books, $3.99 was the rule-breaker. According to our Yield Graph, $3.99 earned authors total income that was 55% above the average compared to all price points.”

Coker also noted that “Books priced between $.99 and $1.99 continue to underperform when we look at the book’s total earnings. $1.99 performs especially poorly. It’s a black hole. I’d avoid that price point if you can.”

Coker acknowledged that if everyone starts pricing their ebooks at $3.99, the enhanced sales effect may be lost: “Today, [the] $3.99 price point appears to be an underutilized opportunity because there are fewer titles than $2.99 and readers respond favorably to $3.99. However, if thousands of authors shift their pricing to $3.99 tomorrow, would the edge diminish? I don’t know the answer to that.”

The full survey, which also includes findings on book length and title length, is here.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock / Borys Shevchk

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Author to Audience: Disintermediation in Publishing
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Amazon’s E-book Imprints: Another Big Threat to Publishers

With the demise of Google’s Reader bearing down on news readers, Flipboard has released a new update to their app that adds some interesting new features. Foremost among the changes is the ability to create your own “magazine” on Flipboard with the simple press of a big “+” button in the app and naming the magazine. This essentially gives users the ability to create their own curated sources of news with the option to make the “magazine” public or private. Along with adding content to a magazine as you read within the Flipboard app, users can also add items from their Android device like photos or they can add an article directly from the Flipboard widget or even from social networks.

Extending the magazine creation capability beyond mobile devices, Flipboard has established a new Flipboard editor for desktop browsers along with a “bookmark” button to ease the content addition process. The new app is also more integrated with Android so that content can be easily shared via social networks or by other means like email.

While many users are looking to apps like feedly or Digg as a replacement for their Google Reader news aggregator, it looks like Flipboard has decided to take a slightly different tack in attracting users to give their solution a try.

Check out the video below showing the new features of Flipboard. If you are interested in trying out Flipboard, just use one of the download links below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Google Play Download Link

Come comment on this article: Flipboard updates app to enable user created magazines, interaction with desktop web version

Altus Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on middle market manufacturing companies, is buying Rocla Concrete Tie Inc., a maker of pre-stressed concrete railroad ties. Terms were not disclosed. The sellers were AH Belco S.A., a Belgian holding company and were advised by CoView Capital Inc. Rocla Concrete is based in Denver.

PRESS RELEASE
Altus Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on middle market manufacturing companies in the U.S., announced today the acquisition of Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc., the leading US manufacturer of pre-stressed concrete railroad ties. Altus, along with the company’s senior management team, made this investment to support Rocla’s continued participation as the U.S. leader in producing concrete ties for freight, transit and high speed rail requirements as well as its expansion into select foreign markets. The financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. The sellers were AH Belco S.A., a Belgian holding company and were advised by CoView Capital, Inc.

Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc. (“Rocla”) is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and has manufacturing plants in Pueblo, Colorado; Amarillo, Texas; and Bear, Delaware. Rocla, which was founded in 1986, manufactures pre-stressed concrete railroad ties and turnout ties for Class I railroads, commuter passenger operations, transit authorities and industrial operations. Concrete ties are increasingly seen within the U.S railroad industry as a superior product because of their durability, uniform quality, reduced maintenance and prolonged rail life.

Peter Urquhart, Rocla’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are extremely excited about the opportunity of working with Altus Capital Partners to accelerate growth and create additional value through expansion both in the United States and internationally. Combining our history, assets and people with the investment and energy of Altus Capital Partners gives all of us at Rocla a great feeling of optimism for our future.”

Russell J. Greenberg, Managing Partner of Altus Capital Partners, commented, “Altus is pleased to partner with the Rocla management team in acquiring the leading producer of concrete railroad ties in the United States. We recognize and value management’s depth of capabilities, which has earned Rocla its industry leadership position. We look forward to working with and supporting management to expand both within its existing customer base as well as to take advantage of international opportunities that are available.”

About Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc.
Rocla is the leading producer of pre-stressed concrete rail ties in the United States. Major customers for its products include Amtrak, Burlington Northern and Union Pacific, as well as other Class I railroads, light rail/transit projects, high speed corridors and industrial/ports all around the country. Rocla began producing ties in the United States in 1987 and now has manufacturing plants in Pueblo, Colorado; Amarillo, Texas; and Bear, Delaware. For more information on Rocla, please visit www.roclatie.com.

About Altus Capital Partners
Headquartered in Wilton, CT with offices in Lincolnshire, IL, Altus Capital Partners invests alongside management in profitable small to medium-sized manufacturing companies domiciled in the U.S. that have proprietary technologies, processes and products. The Altus investment team is led by three partners, who, in 17 years of investing together, have acquired 24 platform companies.

The post Altus Capital Partners Buys Rocla Concrete appeared first on peHUB.

A miracle puppy has survived after being locked in a car for almost a month, Missouri authorities say.

When a Chevy Suburban was towed to a city lot on April 8th, the doors were locked and authorities couldn’t enter the vehicle. For that reason, the puppy, who has been named Kia by her rescuers, went unnoticed until Monday, when an employee at the tow lot saw her lying in the window.

“We will give her some proper medical care. She is very, very dehydrated and obviously very malnourished,” said Tori Fugate, spokeswoman for the Kansas City Pet Project. “We will get some food in her.”

The dog apparently survived on fast food remnants from bags strewn about the vehicle but obviously had no access to water the entire time she was locked up. Despite being dehydrated, Kia is recovering from her long stay inside the car and is living with a foster family until she is well enough to go up for adoption.

The car, which was found abandoned and blocking an interstate on-ramp, was protected by state law, which says no one can enter a locked vehicle until it is cleared to go up for auction. If it hadn’t been for a chance sighting, Kia would probably have died within the week.

“I am not sure how the dog miraculously survived its encampment,” government spokesman Danny Rotert said. “We are very happy Kia has found a foster home. We’re excited that she’s healthy and on the mend. It’s pretty miraculous, and we are so sorry that it happened. Poor pup.”

Big Switch Networks announced a joint solution with F5 to simplify how private cloud data center networks are built and orchestrated, enabling customers to deploy the rich network services they expect from traditional networks in an automated fashion consistent with the provisioning speeds of virtual workloads. Using the Big Virtual Switch network virtualization application, it provides two-way coordination between virtual network segments and F5 Application Delivery Networking services.

The combined solution integrates the Big Virtual Switch network virtualization application, BIG-IP Application Delivery Networking (ADN) services and OpenStack into a flexible and unified cloud orchestration framework, using the F5 BIG-IQ Cloud REST API. Big Virtual Switch dynamically provisions virtual network segments, or slices of the network, for applications and workloads and enables automation. The solutions supports the BIG-IP iControl API and the BIG-IQ Cloud REST API. It will also support both native management and OpenStack Horizon Management Dashboard.

“Inserting ADN services, and doing so automatically, is very important in virtualized network and SDN environments, and can only be achieved with a truly programmable system,” said Mansour Karam, Big Switch Networks vice president of business development and strategic alliances. “Big Virtual Switch and BIG-IQ from F5 are both prime examples of programmable systems, and we are enthusiastic about working together to deliver a network automation solution.”

“Intelligent networking continues to be at the forefront of customers’ minds,” said Jason Needham, VP of Product Management and Marketing at F5. “Integrating application delivery components with emerging SDN and cloud architectures provides a path for organizations to seamlessly increase efficiency and add programmability to their systems. As a key innovator in the SDN space, Big Switch is a great partner, and we look forward to adding further value for joint customers through enhanced efforts with their team.”

Hearthside Food Solutions, a company backed by Wind Point Partners, is selling its Golden Temple business, which makes cereals and granola. The buyer is publicly traded Post Holdings Inc. Terms were not released. Hearthside is based in Downers Grove, Illinois.

PRESS RELEASE
Hearthside Food Solutions (“Hearthside”), a Wind Point Partners portfolio company, announced today that it has reached an agreement to sell its Golden Temple business, a manufacturer of all-natural ready-to-eat cereals and granola, to Post Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:POST). The transaction is expected to close after required regulatory approvals are received.

Hearthside, headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill., is a full service contract manufacturer of high quality grain-based food and snack products. Wind Point acquired the Hearthside platform in April 2009, in addition to three subsequent acquisitions, including the Golden Temple business in 2010. During Wind Point’s ownership, Hearthside has grown into the largest independent bakery in the U.S.

Wind Point invested in Hearthside in partnership with Rich Scalise, who joined as CEO at the time of Wind Point’s investment. Rich is a 35-year veteran of the food industry who most recently served as President of Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, a division of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAH). Rich previously spent 18 years with ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) in a number of roles including his last position as President and COO of ConAgra’s $3 billion Refrigerated Foods Division.

Mark Burgett, a managing director at Wind Point, said, “In addition to providing an attractive return on our investment in Golden Temple, the divestiture will allow Rich and his team to focus exclusively on Hearthside’s core business of contract manufacturing.”

Rich Scalise, CEO of Hearthside, commented, “Golden Temple performed very well over the past three years, and we grew both revenue and EBITDA significantly. Golden Temple products have a strong market position within all-natural cereals, and we think they will be an excellent addition to Post’s product portfolio.”

Wind Point’s other investments in the food industry include Shearer’s Foods (acquired in October 2012), Rupari Foods (acquired in July 2011), Nonni’s Biscotti (acquired in February 2011), Ryt-way Industries (acquired in August 2008), Santa Maria Foods (sold to Sofina Foods in 2012), and Bakery Chef (sold to Ralcorp in 2003).

About Wind Point Partners
Wind Point Partners is a private equity investment firm that manages commitments of approximately $2.5 billion. Wind Point focuses on partnering with top caliber CEOs to acquire middle market businesses where we can establish a clear path to value creation. Additional information about Wind Point is available at www.windpointpartners.com.

About Hearthside Food Solutions
Hearthside Food Solutions, headquartered in Downers Grove, IL, is the nation’s largest independent bakery and a full service contract manufacturer of high quality grain-based food and snack products for some of the world’s leading premier brands. Hearthside operates 13 food manufacturing facilities in six states with a workforce in excess of 5,000.

The post Hearthside Food Solutions Sells Golden Temple appeared first on peHUB.

WASHINGTON — Images from Landsat satellites provided free to the public by the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey were the starting points for “a new breakthrough” reported today by Time and announced on the Official Google Blog. Using its Earth Engine technology, Google has compiled decades of Landsat images into a new, interactive time-lapse experience.

“This news is the latest example of how the Department of the Interior’s policy of unrestricted access and free distribution of Landsat satellite imagery to the public fosters innovation and mutual awareness of environmental conditions around the globe,” said Anne Castle, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science. “The 40-year archive of Landsat images of every spot on earth is a treasure trove of scientific information that can form the basis for a myriad of useful applications by commercial enterprises, government scientists and managers, the academic community, and the public at large.”

Other commercial products, such as ESRI’s Change Matters, also utilize Landsat imagery, providing data for a deeper geographic understanding of the changing world.

Landsat data can assist a broad range of specialists in managing the world’s food, water, forests, and other natural resources for a growing world population. The Landsat images contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum. Consequently, they can show where vegetation is thriving and where it is stressed, where droughts are occurring, where wildland fire is a danger, and where erosion has altered coastlines or river courses.

Landsat satellites provide a view as broad as 12,000 square miles per scene while describing land cover in pixels the size of a baseball diamond. From a distance of more than 400 miles above the earth surface, a single Landsat scene can record the condition of hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland, agricultural crops, or forests.

“With its long-term historical record of the entire globe and widely recognized high quality of data, Landsat is valued all over the world as the gold standard of land observation,” said Castle.

Ready access to authoritative Landsat images provides a reliable common record of Earth conditions that advances the mutual understanding of environmental challenges by citizens, researchers, and decision makers around the globe.

USGS and NASA have distinct roles in the Landsat program. NASA develops remote-sensing instruments and spacecraft, launches satellites, and validates their performance. The USGS then assumes ownership and operation. For example, USGS will operate the newest satellite in the Landsat series – Landsat 8 – starting on May 30, 2013, following a successful launch from the Vandenberg AFB on February 11, 2013.

For More Information

• See the USGS website for more information on Landsat and to view the entire image gallery
• See today’s Google Blog to learn about Google’s announcement, the Google Earth Engine and how to explore the new global, zoomable time-lapse map as part of TIME Magazine’s new TIMElapse project
• Read the Time Magazine article TIME and Space
• For another example of the application of Landsat imagery, go to ESRI’s Change Matters
• Learn more about NASA and the Landsat Program 

Disclaimer: Any use of trade, firm or product names does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.  No warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the Department of the Interior or the U.S. Government as to the accuracy and functioning of the commercial software programs cited in this news release, and the U.S. Government shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the Landsat satellite imagery and data employing these software programs.

The fluoride mystery has stumped scientists for almost 50 years. How exactly does it help stop tooth decay? Scientists may finally be onto an answer.

A recent study suggests that the fluoride mystery is actually pretty simple – the mineral reduces the ability of bacteria to stick to teeth. This makes it so that the bacteria that causes cavities and other nasty mouth problems are easily removed with brushing.

Scientists used artificial teeth to study the effects of fluoride, but stumbled upon some problems. The main issue was that tooth composition can vary wildly so the effect of fluoride can change dramatically on a tooth-by-tooth basis. Still, they found that the artificial teeth, when subjected to fluoride, repelled negatively charged bacteria by negatively charging the tooth itself.

The study is inconclusive, however, and the fluoride mystery will continue to spur controversy. The most controversial, of course, is that fluoride is added to drinking water to prevent tooth decay. Scientists say that the fluoride in water is a controlled amount that poses no risk to humans who drink it, but some people still refuse to drink fluoridated water for fear that it may pose health risks.

Regardless, much research must still be conducted before scientists can fully understand the fluoride mystery. The next step is to see if fluoride can actually weaken bacteria, thus disabling its ability to build up “fortresses” on teeth.

[h/t: LiveScience]

Lux Capital has named Bilal Zuberi as a partner in its Palo Alto, Calif., offices. Bilal joins from General Catalyst Partners, where he was a Principal in the firm’s Boston office.

PRESS RELEASE
Lux Capital, a leading venture capital firm, today announced that Bilal Zuberi was joining the firm as a Partner in its Palo Alto office. Bilal joins from General Catalyst Partners, where he was a Principal in the firm’s Boston office, making investments in transformative technology companies including Gridco Systems, Arc Energy, SunBorne, CleaResult, SynapDx, and CyPhy Works. He will focus on identifying and leading early-stage investments across the Energy, Technology and Healthcare sectors, and will also work with existing Lux portfolio companies.

“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Bilal for a number of years and working together as a co-investor,” said Peter Hebert, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital. “At Lux we continue to believe the combination of brilliant entrepreneurs and scientific innovation will drive immense industry shifts, leading to the creation of extraordinary companies. With Bilal’s track record of investing in and helping to build deep technology businesses, he will be a instrumental part of executing upon our strategy.”

“Lux isn’t afraid to think differently and invest in unconventional spaces where others aren’t looking, but outsized returns can be harvested,” said Zuberi. “I’ve seen firsthand how they roll up their sleeves and do the hard work necessary to help build a great company. They aren’t just investors, they are entrepreneurs first and foremost – this helps them attract innovators and game-changers, and why it’s a team I am so proud to join.”

“Bilal is extremely bright, widely networked and passionate about supporting entrepreneurs,” said Naimish Patel, Co-founder and CEO of Gridco Systems. “I believe these are among the most valuable attributes a venture investor can provide to founders. He is a magnet for great people and opportunities, and I’m excited to continue to work with him at Lux Capital.”

Zuberi spent the last 10 years as an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage technology companies. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Bilal was a co-founder of GEO2 Technologies, an advanced materials technology company, and a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. Bilal was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and holds a Ph.D. from MIT. At General Catalyst, Bilal also co-founded RoughDraft.vc, an initiative to invest in early stage student startups, and the annual University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium.

Lux Capital recently announced that it had begun investing from Lux Ventures 3, with total commitments of $245 million.

About Lux Capital
Lux Capital is a leading venture firm focused on founding, seed and early stage investments in emerging technologies. Lux takes an active role in helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses in Energy, Life Sciences and Technology. The Lux investment team has founded more than 20 companies from scratch, including Caliper, Genocea, Illumina, Kala, Kurion, Lux Research, Nanosys, Neurocrine Biosciences, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

The post Lux Capital Adds Bilal Zuberi appeared first on peHUB.

With Microsoft admitting the need for a course correction with its next version of Windows, some commenters have been lobbing the dreaded “New Coke” comparison at the company, referring to Coca Cola’s calamitous decision in the 1980s to rework its tried-and-true formula for sugary soft drinks. In some ways this comparison is apt because it seems that Microsoft took something that wasn’t broke — in this case, the excellent Windows 7 desktop operating system — and tried to fix it in a haphazard manner. But while it’s true that Windows 7 wasn’t broken from a desktop user perspective, Microsoft’s smartphone and tablet strategy was in desperate need of an overhaul that the company tried to address creatively with Windows 8.

Continue reading…

This week’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals match between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs went into overtime, inflaming passions and making the Maple Leafs’ loss that much more brutal. However, a couple of glances have now overshadowed the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Actress Elisha Cuthbert, who is currently dating Maple Leafs Captain Dion Phaneuf, was spotted rolling her eyes at April Reimer, the wife of Maple Leafs goalkeeper James Reimer. The incident occurred just after the final goal was scored by the Bruins. The pair’s upset-looking glances inspired speculation in the tabloids that the pair might be having a fued:

It turns out, however, that the two are just fine, and Reimer tweeted a pic out to prove it. She states that she and Cuthbert were, in fact, rolling their eyes at “the jerk beside us,” who she claims made a rude comment:

Cuthbert backed up Reimer with her own tweet, stating that she is “insulted and disappointed” by the comments she has gotten:

Upon close inspection of the video, Reimer’s explanation of the event seems true. The man sitting beside her can be seen saying something just before the eye roll, and Reimer even looks over at the man before casting her gaze up at Cuthbert. Though it’s impossible to know for sure what the man said, it’s a decent guess that it had something to do with James Reimer’s goaltending skills.

New York City food trucks are adding a new item to their menus: free Wi-Fi. Starting on Thursday, 30 roving restaurants in the Big Apple will be sporting virtual operator Karma’s 4G mobile hotspots, offering anyone in the vicinity 100 MB of free access.

The participating trucks are run by empanadas specialist Nuchas, Andy’s Italian Ices, mobile burger flipper Frites ‘N’ Meats and coffee wagon Mudtruck. Karma is also installing the hotspots — which connect users through Wi-Fi to Clearwire’s WiMAX network — at Mad. Sq. Eats, a seasonal outdoor market in Madison Square Park.

Once interested web surfers log into a hotspot (under the Your Karma SSID) using Facebook, they will receive 100 MB of free data access, which they can use not only at the hosting food truck but also at any other participating food truck or any other Karma hotspot. If you like the hosting food truck’s Facebook page, you receive an additional 25 MB.

The fascinating thing about Karma is that unlike other wireless ISPs, it doesn’t just sell you access to your own mobile hotspot. Karma gives you access to everyone else’s hotspots, too. Any Karma customer can link to any Karma hotspot — whether it is on a food truck or in your neighbor’s pocket — allowing you to use your megabytes wherever its ad hoc network of devices are present.

Karma doesn’t want to be another mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) selling devices and bulk megabytes. Instead it hopes to build a social mesh network that divorces access from the device. If Karma can achieve scale, customers will no longer be forced to tether their tablets or PCs to a single modem they have to lug around wherever they go, said Karma CEO and co-founder Robert Gaal. By working with food trucks, Gaal said, Karma can seed its social mesh network in more places, helping it achieve that scale.

“This all started because the Mudtruck was parked around the office from TechStars,” Gaal said in an email. “During our time in the program and after, we kept in touch with them. At one point, we figured that all those people in line for the truck with their eyes glued to their phones might need some Wi-Fi. The first tests we did worked really well, so we approached many more after.”

After using up your initial 100 MB of free data, you can buy an additional gigabyte for $14, and that data never expires. Since Karma is so small today, customers will need to get their own dedicated hotspots if they expect to get a connection in most places. But Karma offers incentives to share your connection with as many people as possible: for everyone who connects to your modem you get 100 MB of free data, and any data those guests consume isn’t subtracted from your data bucket.

Eventually it may be possible to be a Karma customer without ever owning a Karma modem. As more customers buy into the service, the likelihood of finding a Karma signal will increase, especially in areas where internet users converge like airports and coffee shops. Gaal said Karma will also build on the food truck project and began seeding hotspots in other heavily trafficked areas.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Mobile 2012 and beyond
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Funny videos of news anchors and weathermen losing their cool on television are nothing new on the Internet. Some might even say that they’re what makes the Internet worth using. No? Either way, they’re usually pretty funny.

Reddit has unearthed a new one where the weather segment begins after a Depends commercial featuring former NFL defensive tackle Tony Siragusa talking about “guarding your manhood”. Needless to say, the weather guy found the commercial amusing:

[via reddit]

 

Google certainly pulls no stops when it comes to making life easier for those of us that happen to travel abroad and that’s why it has announced the next great additions to its Translate app— Phrasebook on the go the addition of 16 new languages for the translate by camera function. The latest addition to the app allows users to save common phrases such as “Where can I find a museum?” and automatically sync the phrases in your Phrasebook to your various Android devices using the Google Translate mobile app— allowing you to carry the more useful phrases on the go. All that’s need are literally a few simple taps, sign into your Gmail account and bam— you’re in business.

Also, users will now be able to utilize camera-input to find translations in 16 additional languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Swedish. You can check out more details when you hit up the source link.

source: Google Translate Blog

Come comment on this article: New Google Translate update allows users to take Phrasebook on the go and brings camera-to-translate function to 16 new languages

This is the forth article in a series on DCK Executive Guide to Data Center Designs.

Historically, data center IT loads have been relatively stable and predictable if viewed over a 24 hour or weekly period. This is beginning to change for several reasons. The first is virtualization, which originally allowed for individual applications which were running on distributed and underutilized servers, to be consolidated on to more centralized hardware resources such as bladeservers, resulting in higher CPU and overall server utilization, contained in less space. More advanced virtualization software offers energy management features which can monitor computing demands. Excess resource capacity such as un-utilized servers can be put into low power sleep modes or even be powered off automatically when not needed, but which would power up and then be put back on-line as computing demands rise.

The second reason is that the IT hardware itself became dynamic while becoming more energy efficient. Instead of wasting substantial amount of power when idle, they now reduce power significantly when idle, yet draw more power (and generated more heat) when called upon to do work. The US EPA Energy Star program for data center equipment requires this for Energy Star certification of IT equipment such as servers, since 2009 and now is in the process of finalizing the standards for Storage and Network equipment. (see part 3 Energy Efficiency)

The result is twofold; the overall total IT power and cooling load has begun to vary more over time as the amount of computing load increased and decreased over a 24 hour cycle. Moreover, the heat IT loads have begun to shift from rack -to-rack and row-to-row, in response to demand driven computing activity, creating traveling hot-spots across the data center.

While the overall goal is to improve the energy efficiency of the IT systems, this has challenged a lot of older more traditional cooling system which were not designed to handle these new more dynamic conditions. When considering a new data center design, the IT team needs to work with the facility design team to provide more information on the type of hardware they plan on using, as well as any of the energy management features of the virtualization software, which can impact the design of the cooling system.

The complete Data Center Knowledge Executive Guide on Data Center Design is available in PDF complements of Digital Realty. Click here to download.

Woohoo! For all you social media fiends out there, we’re keeping the updates flowing. Both the Twitter and LinkedIn apps will be receiving an update for BlackBerry 10 smartphones today. The apps will be available for free download in the BlackBerry World storefront. These enhanced apps make it easier than ever to stay connected and do more with your social and professional contacts, while on the go.

I’m sure you can’t wait to check out some of the new features and enhancements you can look forward to when you pick them up. Check out all the details below.

New Features for Twitter version 10.0.3/10.1.3

• Enjoy more content with Universal Search –See more content when you’re searching. You’ll be able to view related profiles, tweets and top tweets, photos and relevant searches all on one page.
• Always Fresh Content – Content that is always fresh and up to date. Automatic caching gives you the current information at your fingertips without having to manually refresh your tabs.

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New Features for LinkedIn version 10.0.3/10.1.3

• Find your current contacts on LinkedIn: With the latest update, you can import the personal address book from your BlackBerry 10 device to LinkedIn, making it easier to view and connect to your contacts on LinkedIn.
• UI improvements: We’ve updated the overall design of the LinkedIn application for BlackBerry 10 to improve the user experience. These updates include improved visual styling, better pull down functionalities for refreshes, touch down feedback on clicking list items, and more.
• Follow and learn about companies :An important element of LinkedIn is the ability to connect to companies and subscribe for company related updates and content. The latest version of LinkedIn for BlackBerry 10 allows you to view information about the companies you follow in greater detail, such as:
• How you’re connected
• About
• Jobs
• Similar Companies
• News & Updates
• Other Updates: We’ve made quite a few additional updates to LinkedIn for BlackBerry 10. These include inbox enhancements, deleting and archiving messages, people search improvements, and the ability to update your profile photo from within the app. To get all the details, visit the official app page on the BlackBerry World application storefront.

Do these updates have your mouth watering? Download them now on BlackBerry World: Twitter v10.0.3/10.1.3 and LinkedIn v10.0.3/10.1.3 and let us know what you’re most excited for in the comments below.

Please note the apps may take up to 24 hours to appear in BlackBerry World storefront.

With the advent of wearable tech, apps and operating systems will have to radically adapt to the changing ways users want to interact with their devices and the world. One startup that thinks it is up to this challenge is San Francisco-based Dekko, a new company founded by the husband-and-wife team that used to work at augmented reality pioneer Layar.

Dekko plans to launch its real-world operating system Thursday, which brings the promise of augmented reality (AR) to fruition using the camera on your mobile device, powerful computer vision algorithms, and some serious financial backing.

Dekko’s tech overlays content on the real world, a kind of out-of-the-device OS that goes way beyond just superimposing search results over a snapshot of a landmark or restaurant, like Google Glass does. The system actually builds up a 3D model of the scene in front of you from image frames, then reconstructs it and inserts whatever you want — a favorite cartoon character, perhaps, or a guided walking tour — onto the image. “The tech layer can run anywhere that the camera can see anything,” said Dekko CEO and co-founder Matt Miesnieks. This is a big change from other AR efforts that require an anchor or a known object to interpret the scene.

The biggest advance from Dekko is the ability to complete the entire AR process — scene modeling, object recognition, and reconstruction — in real time on the relatively limited processor of an iPad Mini. This is impressive considering computer vision techniques still struggle with basic pattern recognition, even with powerful post-processing. Dekko’s algorithms don’t even rely on two cameras (like the stereo vision of human eyes) or an infrared field (like the Kinect) to calculate depth. The system just uses the slight differences between moment-to-moment image frames to build up a 3D model of the world, and focuses on surface textures to segment objects.

As is the case for other AR ventures, the cluttered and dynamic real world still poses a challenge for Dekko. The OS works best in static environments, and can now model a 10-by-10-foot window in front of the user. Miesnieks is confident that his team can solve the problem of tracking far objects, and said the window will be expanded to 100-by-100 feet in the next six months. Real time reconstruction at the pixel level should also become possible, with improvements in mobile device GPUs and CPUs.

Co-founders Matt and Silka Miesnieks are veterans of another AR outfit, Layar, which superimposes digital content onto snapshots of printed pages. Disillusioned with what he calls the “gimmicks” of earlier AR efforts that devolved into marketing, the Miesnieks are focusing on gaming as Dekko’s entrée. “We consciously chose gaming as a vertical because it’s often how new technology is introduced to the market,” he explained, citing Microsoft’s bundling of Solitaire with Windows to get users comfortable with graphical user interfaces. “It’s a new way for people to see apps outside the box.”

Dekko’s tech will almost certainly have advertising applications as well. Samsung, Intel, and Facebook have already expressed interest in using it to augment their services and devices, and Dekko is in talks with major hardware manufacturers to integrate its core tech into new devices. On the app side, toy, game, and media companies want to have their superheroes and creatures frolicking among the dishes and books on your coffee table. This capability will be demonstrated when Dekko Monkey, a tabletop game app, comes out this summer.

Dekko is working jointly with developers to build apps rather than just opening up its tools, since Miesnieks thinks that the company occupies a unique space and has privileged and complex algorithms. He concedes that a tension exists between framing Dekko as a tech platform versus a stand-alone app. “Augmented reality has the exciting potential of a goldmine, but no one has come out with a nugget of gold,” Miesnieks mused. “We need to go in ourselves to get the first nugget before selling shovels to others.”

Dekko has already scored something akin to gold, securing $1.9 million in funding last September. Today the company announced an additional $1.3 million of seed funding, mostly from MicroVentures. That cash should help Dekko scale up its OS and make good on the AR promise of a seamless experience between digital and real.

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