Car Companies Standardize Plug for Electric Vehicles
In what can only be considered an “it’s about f’ing time” momement leading automotive and energy companies have reached an agreement for a standardized plug for electric cars. Some of the automakers include in that agreement are Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Toyota and Mitsubishi.
The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, will be unveiled Monday at the world’s biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.
No time frame for the introduction of the plug was mentioned, saying that talks between the companies were ongoing.
Energy firms signed up to the accord include Eon, Vattenfall, EDF, Npower, Endesa and Enel.
Berlin hopes that one million electric cars will be on the road by 2020. RWE and Daimler launched a pilot project in Berlin in September.
YouTube to take on Hulu
YouTube has announced it will be launching a premium section with movies and TV shows. Google has been growing its collection of full-length movies. In November of 2008 MGM announced that it would begin adding some of its films to YouTube, starting with films like The Magnificent Seven and Bulletproof Monk. TEarlier this month rumors spread that Sony was working on a similar deal to add films to YouTube. Apparently, MGM, Sony, Crackle, CBS, Lionsgate, Starz and a handful of other distribution companies are now on board. Ok so this is Google’s move to monitize on YouTube. This puts them in direct competition with Hulu, which has a pretty good head start. Having said that, everybody knows YouTube and not everyone knows Hulu (despite their tv spots) so Google has the YouTube brand and existing traffic to help propel it moving forward.
The downside… YouTube will use third-party players from services like Crackle. “YouTube has agreed to display the films using a video player from Crackle, Sony Pictures’ own video site. The studio will control all the advertising for the films and Crackle will also get credit for the traffic,” according to CNet. That’s a shame… one of the attractive things about YouTube is that everything is displayed using Flash and let’s face it, everybody has Flash. So the premium content may end up requiring a bunch of different players to view all of the content. I’m sure this was done to appease the content providers, but it’s unfortunately as it will present a less unified experience.
Students will be able to get Windows 7 at a deep discount OR free
Windows7 is getting close, beta’s have been flying out the door and it’s nearing Release Candidate status. However, pricing information has yet to be released. What is known is that if you are a student there are some ways you can get Windows 7 at a pretty deep discount or even for free when the final version is ready later this year.
1. Any new computer sold between June 26, 2009 and January 31, 2010 that comes installed with Vista will qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7. So if you’ve got your sites on a new PC, you should hold off just a little while longer (this applies to everybody, not just students).
2. Many schools belong to the MSDNAA or Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance. If your school is one of them, check with their MSDNAA site (each school has their own) when the Windows 7 is released and see if your MSDNAA site offers it.
3. There is also a a special site from Microsoft which provides free software to people with a valid e-mail address from any of the qualifying schools listed. It’s called Microsoft DreamSpark and it’s possible Windows7 will be released there as well.
4. If you’re in the US, Canada or Europe, and are in school, there’s a site called Journey Ed that gives out software and other kinds of products at a discount. All you need is some kind of proof.
Microsofts latest ad – Lisa and Jackson get a Sony VAIO
Seems like Microsoft might *cough* FINALLY be getting some advertising right. Microsoft’s latest Laptop Hunters ad follows a mom and her kid. Lisa and Jackson say they need a computer which is “fast” because they need to “look up stuff” before they “get to baseball.” (uh… ok) They have a a sub-$1500 budget. Somewhere in the middle they take a look at a Mac — which Lisa notes are “popular at this age” (total Apple snub… “they’re for kids!”). Regardless, they’re both so turned off by the cute-but-small computers that they hurry back to the affordable VAIO section and make off with a 16-inch laptop.