Wrapping up the first day of GigaOM’s 2013 Structure:Data conference, entrepreneurs from six startups talked about big ideas that show ideals for how to derive valuable insights from large sets of data. Read more »
What can a pair of Google engineers do with their technical prowess at home? Create an Android app that controls a lawn watering system through an Arduino board and the web! Read more »
Masabi is a U.K. startup specializing and cloud-based smartphone ticketing technologies for public transit, and it just landed a $2.8 million strategic investment led by Bill Ford’s Fontinalis Venutures. Read more »
There’s already a ton of data flying around, but the amount just scratches the surface of the data deluge that will come with the Internet of Things. Better get ready, says Snaplogic CEO Gaurav Dhillon. Read more »
Beleagured Chinese solar giant, Suntech Power, was once the largest solar maker in the world. This week the company was forced into bankruptcy. But it’s not all bad news. Read more »
Fjord IT opens its first data center space in Oslo and is banking on a air cooling technology and cheap hydropower to attract European customers who want low-carbon cloud services. Read more »
One of the few investors to make money from backing cleantech startups, The Westly Group has finally closed on a $160 million cleantech fund. Read more »
America has joined the rest of the world in switching from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file” system. Here’s a quick summary of the change and why it will not have a big effect on the patent system. Read more »
Companies that are still looking to produce biofuels from plant waste (and not corn) are making slow, but steady progress on milestones in 2013. Read more »
As cleantech investing continues to evolve, an accelerator focused on cleanweb startups is dropping its accelerator program in favor of becoming a venture capital firm with an in-house design studio. Read more »
President Obama starts to show his hand for how he’ll keep support going for clean energy and greener vehicles, and also fight climate change, at a time when Congress won’t likely approval major budget increases or aggressive policies. Read more »
Contrary to the politics and headlines of the day, clean energy is a relatively trusted sector, and companies should be leveraging that good faith to lead. Read more »
Solar panels are breaking through into the mainstream. Last year there were a record-breaking amount of panels installed on rooftops in the U.S. making solar the fastest growing source of energy in the U.S. Read more »
Electric Imp, which is building out a cloud service and Wi-Fi module that will plug into any device to get it online, is betting that the internet of things will be based on Wi-Fi. Read more »
Dreaming and doing are far apart. Here’s three potential problems — from environmental containment to economics to infrastructure — for mining natural gas from the sea in Japan. Read more »
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks held a relatively successful IPO on Wednesday. Here’s 5 reasons why I think that was important for the smart grid, and for cleantech. Read more »
Google X is a lab where the company hatches big ideas like driverless cars or Google Glasses. The head of the lab told an audience about what the the place does to foster and protect a Peter Pan level of creativity. Read more »
Suntech Power once seemed unstoppable as the largest solar panel maker in the world. Now it’s facing internal turmoil and market forces that could very well lead to its demise. Read more »
The co-founder of electric car startup Fisker has resigned, after having stepped down as CEO a year ago. The company has stopped production of its cars as it searches for a partner, investor or acquirer in China. Read more »
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks saw its shares soar almost 30 percent in morning trading on its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is settling around $21 per share, up from a pricing of $17 per share. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks prices its IPO at the midpoint of its planned range, but ends up selling a million more shares, leading the company to raise $81 million. The smart grid company debuts on the New York Stock Exchange today under the symbol SSNI. Read more »
Silver Spring Network’s IPO could be as early as Wednesday (yep tomorrow). It’s been a year and a half since Silver Spring first filed to go public. Read more »
Google is showing off samples of the first apps made by companies for its new augmented reality device Google Glass, including apps to read headlines, email and see photos. But this is the app I really want: augmented reality to overlay carbon emissions data. Read more »
Mobile network tester Spirent found that VoLTE 4G calling technology has made some big improvements in power efficiency since its last round of tests, but it still has far to go before it can match 2G voice. Read more »
San Francisco startup Automatic emerges from stealth mode with an iPhone app and a gadget that plugs into your car to monitor driving behavior. Read more »
Startup Alphabet Energy, which makes materials out of silicon that convert heat into electricity, has raised a $16 million series B round led by Canadian natural gas company Encana. Read more »
Philips announces its new developer outreach effort and hints at future features for the Hue lighting system. Read more »
Tesla has quietly pushed back production of its third electric car, the SUV/minivan, the Model X. The car is important for the company and signals to the world that Tesla is an automaker with a line of cars that appeals to a broader demographic. Read more »
In a wide ranging interview at the SXSW festival in Austin on Saturday, entrepreneur Elon Musk talked about his crazy life bringing the world life on Mars, electric cars, and solar rooftops. Read more »
Life360 has received a lot of interest from automakers as location-sharing becomes a hot technology in the connected car. It’s planned car app lets you know not only where the kids are but how to get to them. Read more »
Developers will be able to migrate their software to energy-efficient ARM-based microservers with hardware vendor Boston’s new cloud, dubbed ARM as a Service. Read more »
One of the more subtle problems with the first wave of cleantech investing I think has to do with passion, identity and save-the-world over exuberance. It’s hard to call that a fault, but when it comes to making money in the VC model, it’s a problem. Read more »
Using chip and hard disc drive manufacturing processes, startup Gridtential is rethinking the simple lead acid battery to be able to store more energy and be lower cost. The company just got a seed round from The Roda Group to move closer to commercialization. Read more »
We chat with Alex Hawkinson, the CEO of SmartThigns on the problems and possibilities of the internet of things. Some of his use cases will surprise you. Read more »
Danish weather app firm Robocat plans to move into hardware with Thermodo, a tiny digital thermometer for mobile devices. An SDK is promised, too, opening possibilities for new temperature-aware apps. Read more »
Europe needs to do more to reduce wasteful energy consumption, and its policy makers are looking at how to green its data centers to help them achieve a 2020 energy efficiency goal. Read more »
Now that SolarCity is publicly-traded it’s got the quarterly numbers game to play. In its first earnings report post-IPO SolarCity’s shares drop on quarter loss. Read more »
Say goodbye to the much-hyped artificial leaf from MIT-spin out Sun Catalytix. According to MIT Tech Review the startup is now building a flow battery, which is a major change in strategy for the venture capital and Department of Energy-backed company. Read more »
Google’ vice president of data centers, Joe Kava, outlines how the search giant’s pursuit of data center designs corresponds nicely to the company’s ten governing rules. Well, almost. Read more »
eBay has released a trove of information about the efficiency of its data centers, and plans to do so quarterly as part of a mission to continuously track computing resources and tie them to bigger business goals. Read more »
