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In their recent op-ed on the ethanol mandate and gas prices, Tom Buis and Bob Dinneen greatly misled Politico’s readers with both contradictory claims and withholding crucial facts. Both the government’s own analysis and common sense tell us ethanol mandates …

The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes out in just a few days, or a few weeks, depending on your carrier. While you wait to get your hands on the Samsung’s latest smartphone, you might be curious as to how the screen holds up to being attacked by knives, keys and coins.

Well, indulge your curiosity as the first scratch test has emerged on YouTube. Romanian YouTube user Szabolcs Ignacz got his hand on the Galaxy S4 and put it through seemingly every kind of abuse that could possibly scratch or damage the display. Check it out:

If you’re too lazy to watch the video, just know that the screen holds up like a champ. That’s because the Galaxy S4 uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 in its display. Gorilla Glass 2 was already pretty much scratch proof, and the third iteration of Corning’s super tough glass only proves once again that it’s the gold standard in mobile device displays.

[h/t: Droid Life]

Learning thermostat startup Nest plans to announce a variety of energy services Monday that, in partnership with utilities, can help consumers reduce their home energy consumption and save money on their energy bills. While Nest has been focused on selling its thermostats directly to consumers, these new energy efficiency services show the undercover power that Nest’s hardware can deliver while working with a utility partner.

Nest is initially launching three different types of energy efficiency services working with a couple of utilities in Texas, including Reliant Energy and Austin Energy, California utility Southern California Edison, and east coast utility National Grid. Nest has been working with Reliant Energy, the utility arm of NRG Energy, since the summer of 2012 to offer Reliant’s customers’ its thermostat.

Nest’s most important new service is its answer to a demand response program, which it’s calling Rush Hour Rewards. Demand response programs are widely used by utilities to better manage the grid, and utilities use them to collectively get some of their customers to curb their energy consumption during peak grid events, like late afternoon on a hot summer’s day. For Rush Hour Rewards, the Nest thermostat uses a variety of techniques to shave off energy consumption during a peak grid event, but while maintaining comfort levels within the home.

Customers opt into the Rush Hour Rewards program and agree to have their thermostat automatically managed during that time period; in return, they save money on their energy bill. They can override the programs whenever they want. Customers who participate can save between $20 to $60 per season, according to Nest.

The startup went out of its way to not use the words “demand response” in its service’s name and marketing, and it seems to have put substantial thought into how to market this to consumers to make it attractive. Nest has also been piloting Rush Hour Rewards for over two years, it said.

Nest’s two other programs include an instant online rebate program, where customers can get one of the learning thermostats when they sign up for an energy plan, and a service called Seasonal Savings, which is a reoccurring energy efficiency tuneup. Seasonal Savings nudges the temperature or cooling slightly to see if the tiny changes affect your daily behavior. If you override those changes, the software will remember that and adjust, but Nest says that 80 percent of the time people acclimated to the small adjustments.

Behind these new services is the cloud-based big data algorithms that are the secret sauce of Nest, and which Nest has now named Auto-Tune. Now that Nest has gotten hundreds of thousands of thermostats out there in the market, and has done two years of field trials, it has been able to collect a large amount of data about how customers use and react to temperature and cooling changes. Nest uses this data about behavioral changes to inform its services and how its algorithms work.

Nest combines this behavioral data with utility data, weather data, personal use data, demographics data and more to collectively manage the thermostats and deliver energy savings. Nest said its services sit between the consumer and the utility, and they approve eligible customers, monitor how the services are performing and how the customers are reacting.

Nest’s offering could be powerful because the company first worked to begin to build a brand and a consumer-focused buzz. Other startups are offering next-generation demand response services with utilities, including EcoFactor, Opower, EnergyHub and others. But the biggest difference between these startups and Nest is that Nest has developed and sells its own learning thermostat.

Nest was founded by a team from Apple, and is led by designer Tony Fadell, who developed versions of the iPod and iPhone. The company is backed by Google Ventures, Venrock, and Kleiner Perkins.

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• Big data meets the smart grid
• What the utility of the future looks like
• California’s New Energy Data Privacy Rules: Some Answers, Many Questions

The Nest thermostat has already gone through a hardware revision or two and found its way onto plenty of physical and virtual store shelves, but parent company Nest Labs is eager to get it into even more households in short order.

The Palo Alto company has just announced that it has teamed up with energy providers from across the country that will see new climate-control services (not to mention some rebates) go live for customers in a handful of markets.

So far, the list of partners includes National Grid, NRG Energy, NRG subsidiaries Reliant and Green Mountain Energy, Austin Energy and Southern California Edison. You can probably guess what markets those last two serve. These newly forged partnerships could see adoption of the household gadget surge — customers who ink deals with National Grid, for instance, can claim a $100 rebate to help defray the costs of a Nest thermostat.

While the others don’t offer much in the way of actual cash back, Nest’s tie-ups emphasize the long-term value of having a Nest over a run-of-the-mill thermostat. The way the folks at Nest look at it, their gadget is only going to become more useful as the days get longer and warmer, and those new services I mentioned earlier should only help matters when it comes to the cost-conscious.

First up is Nest’s so-called Rush Hour Rewards, which are meant to reduce the load on already-strained power stations once it starts getting really hot outside. Rather than cranking the temperature down low and leaving it there as a hapless human might, the Nest instead gets a feel for the sorts of climates its users prefer and will sporadically turn down the temperature to keep things within that preferred range. By occasionally introducing blasts of cold air instead of just leaving things to run at full blast, the Nest can keep your house at about the same temperature as before without much of a corresponding bump on the bill.

Also part of the package is what Nest calls “seasonal savings,” which will see the smart thermostat measure user temperature preferences over the course of the year and make minor modifications over the course of a few weeks. The idea is to reduce a user’s heating bill by carefully acclimating them to a new, more cost-efficient temperature scheme without the residents even noticing.

For now, only customers who select certain plans with those power companies can use these new services, but I very much doubt that team Nest is content to leave things as they are. These sorts of deals will only serve to raise the company’s profile, and buy-in from power partners is a big deal for Nest especially as the company’s rivals have moved to make their own wares smarter. Consider Honeywell: it already filed a lawsuit against Nest last year for supposed acts of copyright infringement, an allegation that Nest Labs vigorously disagrees with. Meanwhile, the conglomerate is gearing up to release a rather handsome smart thermostat of its own, so deals like these could help Nest stay a step ahead of the pack.

Here’s a roundup of some interesting items we came across this week in our reading of data center industry blogs for April 22nd:

Microsoft’s ITPAC – Perfect for Off-the-Grid Computing – At the Microsoft Global Foundation Services blog, Sean James discusses the durability and portability of the company’s ITPAC modules: “You might wonder how temperatures as low as 20-below zero would affect the functionality of an ITPAC and the servers inside. The answer, it doesn’t. They are pre-manufactured with a recycled steel shell that will protect the hundreds of servers inside it from the harsh Wyoming climate. On cold days, say below 50 Fahrenheit, a portion of the hot exhaust air from the servers is redirected internally through a mixing unit on top of the ITPAC where it mixes and warms the air to a temperature suitable for the servers. On hot days, the ITPAC can pull outside air in to help cool the servers.”

Six Months After Sandy – Now What? – At The WHIR, Philip Koblence of NYI shares reflections on life after the hurricane: “Six months after Sandy, what have we learned? With the devastation that storm tore through the Metro New York area, planning for critical events has been redefined. No Business Continuity Training Program, no Uptime Institute report, could ever predict what happens under such extreme circumstances.”

Navigating China’s Paradox & Possibility: 4 Keys to Success – A the Equinix Interconnections blog, David Wilkinson offers insights on the Chinese market: “Moving into China’s capital markets as an institutional or individual investor, broker, fund manager, technology provider or any company can be daunting amidst so many variables. There are numerous regulations and policies that need to be followed for any segment of the industry and often the entrenched domestic competition are hard to displace. For companies coming into the Chinese market it is a move that requires a great deal of research and insight into the machinations of the economy – how it operates – and a keen eye for the paradoxical.”

Energy Savings for Federal Data Center Consolidation – At the Schneider Electric blog, Miles Auvil looks at a potential savings opportunity for federal agencies: “Energy Service Companies (ESCO’s) and the Department of Energy have advocated the use of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC’s) for Data Centers. A few projects have emerged in the past year, some of which are viewed as pilots, but we have yet to see wide scale adoption. In light of FDCCI and the current fiscal environment a significant opportunity for IT is being missed. ESPC’s allow federal agencies to conduct energy projects with no upfront capital costs, minimizing the need for Congressional appropriations.”

Critical Considerations during a Data Center Migration – At the Data Center Design blog, Larry Davis of PTD Data Center Solutions offers tips on migrations: “Planning and perspective are critical when it’s time to complete a migration (or consolidation) of data center assets. Planning and perspective allow you to take a step back and make sure your approach holds water, allow you to check with peers in the industry for accepted best practices, and allow you to keep your job when the migration goes smoothly.”

What is a “Working” Data Center – At SwitchScribe, Mark Thiele looks at criteria for data center success: “My idea of successful isn’t just that the task was accomplished, but that it was accomplished the best way possible with the least risk and with excellent operational efficiency. I’m also a little bit of a worry wart when it comes to the environment. So when I see industry players and enterprises touting data centers that I know don’t meet my criteria for sustainable, successful and efficient operations, it bugs me.”

I continue to be amazed by some of the things Google captures in Street View imagery for Google Maps. We’ve seen everything from dead bodies to people having sex on the side of the road, and of course some stunning imagery of underwater scenes, the Grand Canyon, and maybe even a portal to Hell.

This isn’t so much amazing as it is just kind of weird. Worth a look, nevertheless.

This is the interior of a company called NMedia Solutions in Drummondville, QC. Let’s enter the party:

There’s plenty more where those came from.

This is obviously just a business having some fun with Google’s indoor photography, and should probably serve as encouragement to other businesses not to be so boring if you have Google taking photos of your office or store’s interior.

[via reddit]

In the latest GigaOM Research podcast, analysts Phil Hendrix and Doug Stephens discuss retail’s future in a mobile-first world: what’s broken, and how mobility, apps, and data can lead the way to change.

(download)

iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES
Host: Adam Lesser
Speakers: Dr. Phil Hendrix and Doug Stephens

PREVIOUS GIGAOM PODCAST EPISODES:
Instgram’s Twit-storm, Netflix nabs Disney, GMail’s Pretty iPad App

RoadMap re-run, our talk with Instagram’s Kevin Systrom

iTunes 11, When Things Connect, Sun Volt

What Aspiring New Media Stars Should Know About Agents and Managers

Holiday Gadget Gift Guide

War Tweets, Google TV and Nexus 4

Director Jay Duplass on low-fi movies through high-tech

Election Dissection, Ditching DSL and Dumping the iPad

Sandy’s Social, Infrastructure Impact and Forstall

Windows 8 Surfaces, and disruption eruption

iPad Mini, iMac gets skinny

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

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• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• The 2013 task management tools market
• How emerging technologies will influence collaboration

The management and quality control of application programming interfaces or APIs is hot now. That’s why CA Technologies is acquiring Layer 7 in a deal announced Monday, just days after Intel announced plans to by Mashery, another API management player. Mulesoft, another API management player, just snagged $37 million in Series E venture funding, bringing its total to $81 million.

Successful implementations of APIs enable applications to talk to each other and share data with other authorized applications. And, according to CA:

“the combination of CA and Layer 7 solutions will help organizations to better manage and secure APIs and deliver more confidently and quickly the cloud, mobile and composite applications that run today’s business services.”

As GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham explained last year: APIs are “the connective tissue of the cloud.” A company can offer API access to its own web services or data either “for a fee or as a way of building out its own platform,” she wrote. Amazon, for example, publishes APIs to its own web services to enable customers to make use of those web services.

As an example, if you have an app for Acme Airlines that alerts you of flight delays or changes, that app was enabled by Acme’s APIs. The availability of well-written and documented APIs can build a network effect around the services themselves, making them more ubiquitous and potentially more valuable to users. Companies like Mashery, Layer 7, Apigee and Mulesoft make sure their customers’ APIs are well crafted to enable the smooth flow of authorized information to flow from one application to another.

The news of the buyout, terms of which were not disclosed, comes out of CA World, the company’s annual customer conference in Las Vegas. It’s a big week for legacy IT players to buy stuff: Earlier on Monday CA rival IBM said it’s purchasing UrbanCode to bolster its devops expertise.

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• Infrastructure Q1: Cloud and big data woo enterprises
• The Case for Increased M&A in 2011: Actions and Outlooks
• Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight

Apple has made a small update to its downloading options for iTunes purchases – small but potentially helpful.

Starting now, users will be given an option to download purchased content later.

When you purchase something, let’s say a TV season, you’ll be prompted with a “Download Now?” dialogue box. From there, you’ll be given the option to download now or save it for later. if you choose “later,” the content will be accessible to download any time in the future via the cloud.

The new download option will affect purchases of TV seasons, Season Pass, movie bundles, music box sets, or individual movies or TV episodes using iTunes 11 or iOS 6 or later.

It’s not a huge update, but it’s significant. Let’s say you think of something that you want to buy, you buy it, but then you don’t really have the connection to attempt a massive download. This feature could be incredibly useful for those who make a habit of downloading big packages.

Of course, the new download later option is only available for users who live in places where Apple supports iTunes in the cloud.

[Apple Support via MacWorld]

Ever wonder how Disney used to get character movements so lifelike before today’s computer technology existed? Well, this is how: they filmed actual scenes from animated movies with real actors so they could mimic the poses and actions on paper. Check out these awesome photos, which layer the animation and live-action scenes.

Hat-tip to Buzzfeed.

Continue reading…

One of the most controversial pieces of legislation currently making its way through the Senate is the Marketplace Fairness Act. In essence, it would allow states to collect taxes from online purchases even if the online store doesn’t have a physical presence in the state. Brick-and-mortar stores claim the bill levels the playing field with online retailers while opponents say it would put undue regulations on online businesses while making the tax code even more cumbersome. Guess which side the White House agrees with.

The Hill reports that the White House has formally announced its support for the Marketplace Fairness Act. The Senate will hold a procedural vote on the bill today at 5:30 p.m. The newfound endorsement from the White House will most likely play a role in the debate today.

White House press secretary Jay Carney issued the following statement in regards to the bill:

“This administration has carefully considered the legislation, and our team has met with a broad array of people on the issue. And we have heard overwhelmingly from governors, mayors and the business community on the need for federal legislation to level the playing field for our businesses and address sales tax fairness.”

Obviously, retail stores have a vested interesting in seeing this passed, but its the governors that are probably pushing for it most. Most states are in dire need of cash. Collecting sales tax from every U.S.-based online store, regardless of location, could potentially bring billions of dollars in revenue to states. Carney said that the potential tax revenue would help states fund “K-12 education, police and fire protection, access to affordable health care, and funding for roads and bridges.”

The bill faces some pretty stiff resistance not only from Senate Republicans, but online businesses and conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform. Ebay is even enlisting its sellers to protest the bill.

The common complaint from those opposed is that the bill would put undue burdens on online retailers. The current tax system has created a symbiotic relationship between online companies and the states. The states attract online companies to set up a physical presence in a state through a number of perks while the company brings tax revenue and jobs to the state in question. A universal online sales tax destroys that relationship by making online companies collect sales taxes for states that they receive no benefit from.

Of course, there’s an argument to be had that retail stores just need to better compete with online retailers. Retail stores have a number of advantages over their online retailer competition, but rarely do they ever use them. Perhaps its time for retail stores to stop driving away customers with stupid policies and instead create an inviting atmosphere that transforms shopping into an experience that’s just not possible with online retailers.

At this point, it’s too early to tell exactly what kind of damage, if any, the Marketplace Fairness Act would cause. It could possibly do nothing, but some are right to fear that it would legitimately hurt the operations of online retailers like Amazon while providing no real benefit to retail stores.

Looks like House of Cards has been working for Netflix: The streaming service made more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time in its corporate history in Q1 of 2013, according financial results published Monday. And with solid subscriber additions, Netflix is also on target to hit 30 million subscribers in the U.S. this quarter.

Revenue rose to $1.024  billion in Q1, compared to $889 million in Q1 of 2012. The company added 2.03 million domestic subscribers now has 29.17 million subscribers in the U.S., compared to 23.41 million in Q1 2012. Internationally, Netflix added 1.02 million subscribers, which brings the total number of subscribers outside the U.S. to 7.04 million, compared to 3.07 million a year ago.

Developing story, more to come.

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• How consumer media will change in 2013
• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content

As new details surrounding last week’s Boston Marathon bombings begin to emerge, revelations concerning the life of the two suspected bombers are also popping up. Now, authorities in Middlesex County, Massachusetts say they are investigating one of the bombers in connection with a triple homicide that took place in 2011.

According to a report from ABC news, authorities are looking for a possible connection between Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder of the two brothers suspected of the marathon bombings, and the murders.

The murders in question took place in Waltham, Massachusetts. According to ABC, the three victims had their throats cut with “their heads nearly decapitated,” and marijuana was left covering their bodies. Thousands of dollars in cash was reportedly left behind at the scene of the murders.

One of the victims, Brendan Mess, was a man Tsarnaev had been doing mixed martial arts training with. Tsarnaev was an amateur boxer.

Though the investigation into the murders is still open, police have admitted having few leads. In light of recent events, Tamerlan is now receiving a second look as a suspect in the murders.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died early Friday morning during a shootout with police. He was the wife of a Rhode Island woman named Katherine Russel and the father of a 3-year-old girl. An alleged photo of Tsarnaev’s body began circulating shortly after his death.

(Image courtesy the comment/Johannes Hirn)

YouTube is currently testing a new feature called “YouTube Mix,” which is an auto-generated playlist of up to 50 related videos located in the right-hand suggested videos section.

Once clicked, the YouTube mix continuously plays 50 videos that YouTube’s algorithms have determined you may like based on what you’re currently watching. Of course, YouTube has been suggesting related videos in the sidebar for years, but the new Mix option lets you cycle through 50 related videos without having to click around and find them on that sidebar.

Once you load up the YouTube Mix, you can sit back and enjoy all 50 videos in the randomly-generated order. Or, you can skip around or shuffle the videos, as you can with any other hand-curated YouTube playlist.

YouTube confirms to The Next Web that the new Mix playlist will simply generate another 50 related videos, if you happen to run out of things to watch.

Of course, YouTube Mix is simply another tool your YouTubers to use to find new content that they may have otherwise never stumbled upon. It falls in line with other recent efforts made by YouTube to better highlight content from the sites creators. Last week, YouTube announced an update to the homepage that will increase the video visibility in the channel stream.

As part of a public exchange of letters (his, ours, his) regarding TED’s views on the line between good and bad science, Deepak Chopra has asked us to post a talk he gave at TED in 2002 (four years before TED began free online distribution of some of its talks). Here it is:

We never posted Chopra’s talk before because, frankly, it seemed unfocused, and it used the language of quantum physics in a way we thought was misleading. We admired Deepak’s desire for a more spiritual, connected world. But in our curatorial opinion, this particular talk wasn’t right for the homepage of TED.com.

We add just one talk each weekday on our homepage, chosen from thousands of candidate talks in our archives, and strive for a broad variety of topics and styles designed to inform, entertain and inspire. We listen to, and learn from, the views of our global community, and we accept that people won’t always agree with our choices!

Carl’s Jr. has a Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich. Yep.

At least one restaurant in Newport Beach, California has them, though it is not on the Carls. Jr. website menu.

A sign for the product has made its way onto Instagram.

(via user spec_j)

Apparently it’s a slab of ice cream placed between two halves of a strawberry Pop-Tart, packaged, and sold for $1.49.

Here’s a video of a couple of guys getting their hands on one (NSFW language):

One guy gives it a “six out of ten”.

It’s unclear how many restaurants are selling these, and whether or not they’ll make it to a wider release. I’m sure the Internet buzz will help its cause (unless it all comes out like the video above).

HUB++ LED Disco Edition is a notification customization utility for all your BlackBerry 10 messages. The app includes lots of options for audio alerts and LED color patterns so you can distinguish between types of message or contact.

The multi colored LED has the ability to give you lots of details about who is calling or which type of message that unchecked message is. Great if you’re the type of person who appreciates good phone etiquette but still wants to be in touch for emergencies. The customization can get a little specific like you can have a different sequence for whether or not your supervisor has been cc’d on the message.

The other advantage HUB++ brings is how quickly you can have a message acknowledged as read or flagged for later reading using their natively developed add-on to BlackBerry Hub.

The latest update brings BBM notifications to the supported message list as well as support for the new Q10 smartphone.

Click here to buy HUB++ for BlackBerry 10 for $2.99 from BlackBerry World.

As previously reported, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been officially charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (an improvised explosive device) against persons and property within the United States resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death.

If convicted, Tsarnaev faces the death penalty or life in prison.

The Justice Department released a statement, as well as the complaint document. In this, we learn some interesting details. For example, there is a description of a carjacking episode the suspects engaged in. Here’s the relevant section from the document:

Near midnight on April 18, 2013, an individual carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A victim of the carjacking was interviewed by law enforcement and provided the following information. The victim stated that while he was sitting in his car on a road in Cambridge, a man approached and tapped on his passenger-side window. When the victim rolled down the window, the man reached in, opened the door, and entered the victim’s vehicle. The man pointed a firearm at the victim and stated, “Did you hear about the Boston explosion?” and “I did that.” The man removed the magazine from his gun and showed the victim that it had a bullet in it, and then re-inserted the magazine. The man then stated, “I am serious.”

The man with the gun forced the victim to drive to another location, where they picked up a second man. The two men put something in the trunk of the victim’s vehicle. The man with the gun took the victim’s vehicle. The man with the gun took the victim’s keys and sat in the driver’s seat, while the victim moved to the front passenger seat. The second man entered the victim’s vehicle and sat in the rear passenger seat. The man with the gun and the second man spoke to each other in a foreign language.

While they were driving, the man with the gun demanded money from the victim, who gabe the man 45 dollars. One of the men compelled the victim to hand over his ATM card and password. They then drove to an ATM machine and attempted to withdraw money from the victim’s account. The two men and the victim then drove to a gas station/convenience store in the vicinity of 816 Memorial Drive, Cambridge. The two men got out of the car, at which point the victim managed to escape.

You can read the full complaint here (pdf).

In related news, this afternoon, reddit issued an apology for “dangerous speculation” that occurred on its site in the wake of the bombings.