The move is important because Verizon’s smart home pilot — and commercial product that will come out later in 2011 — is one of the first moves from a major U.S. telco to offer energy management services, and could kick off the nascent energy management industry. To date, despite a lot of attempts by startups in the market, the home energy management space hasn’t yet taken off.

Z-Wave is a proprietary wireless technology that uses chips basically made by one vendor: Sigma Designs, which acquired Z-Wave chipmaker Zensys in 2008. The Z-Wave Alliance does have prominent members, including ADT, Black & Decker, Danfoss, Leviton and Ingersoll Rand, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have proprietary roots. In contrast the wireless standard ZigBee has tens of millions of chips and modules being made by multiple vendors for dozens of device partners.

But to date ZigBee has been a technology embraced by the power industry and utilities, instead of consumer electronics makers. Z-Wave has the lead in overall home automation products on the market, with about 250, compared to ZigBee’s 100 certified devices (these numbers are from December).

The smart home product from Verizon will include a connected thermostat, smart plugs, appliance modules, windows and door sensors, and a service gateway, all enabled by Z-Wave. The connected camera, which can be used for security applications, will use WiFi. Using this connected gear, consumers will be able to monitor and manage both their home energy consumption, and security services.

Verizon is working with 4Home, the home automation company that was recently acquired by Motorola, for its smart home trail. 4Home has long been a member of the Z-Wave alliance.

Verizon’s principle architect for its Home Monitoring and Control services, John Valdez, and Jack Eastman, Verizon product manager, told me in an interview last week that Verizon is initially focused on Z-Wave for its smart energy home service because the wireless technology is “more readily available,” than working with the utility-embraced home wireless standard ZigBee.

There are more consumer-focused and commercially available products based around Z-Wave, said the Verizon execs. But that doesn’t mean that Verizon won’t be including other wireless technologies including ZigBee in the future: “We are more than happy to integrate anything into it.”

The progress of Z-Wave in the smart energy home, is apparent in other deals, too, which we pointed out in this article for GigaOM Pro, subscription required. For example, Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo said in October it planned a Z-Wave-based home energy management offering, featuring “smart tap” power sensing devices and home routers from Sumitomo.

Smart meter makers — which have turned to ZigBee in droves — also aren’t exactly rushing to open systems to connect with home device makers, points out the Verizon execs. In fact in Verizon’s energy product it includes something it calls a “smart meter,” but not one of the ZigBee-based standard ones. Instead the Verizon energy product includes a circuit clamp, which records energy usage and connects to an interface via Z-Wave.

The Verizon execs said that they will be working closely with Sigma and the Z-Wave Alliance to push for a more open approach.

• Z-Wave: Gaining Ground on ZigBee for Home Energy Networking?
• Is the Opt-Out Model the Future of Home Energy Management
• The Developer’s Guide to Home Energy Management Apps

Image courtesy of Ytechblogs via Creative Commons license.

Veebeam’s product offering includes a set-top box that connects to the TV and a wireless USB dongle that together enable users to send any web page or video stream from the PC to TV. While broadband set-top boxes like Apple TV, Roku and the Logitech Revue are limited by what web content they can connect to due to rights issues, the Veebeam solution enables users to connect to anything on the Internet. Also, since Veebeam uses the Wireless USB protocol, its streams are more reliable than if the PC and TV are connected via WiFi network.

Veebeam was formed by a merger of two startups in 2008, when Staccato Communications and Artimi joined forces, and took in $20 million after the companies merged. Not long after, Veebeam decided to go after the consumer market. The company announced its consumer product last month, and expects to begin shipping systems in the coming weeks.

According to Veebeam, the latest funding round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners, Intel Capital and Oak Investment Partners, and also included existing investors Bay Partners, Formative Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Vision Capital. Veebeam now has 40 employees spread throughout offices in Burlingame, Calif., Cambridge (U.K.) and Bangalore, India.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: (sub req’d)

• Three Reasons Over-The-Top TV Apps Will Beat Big-Cable
• Strategies for the Future of Digital Content Storage
• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide

While Green says it’s still too early to talk about what a Zimride mobile application would look like, he notes that the potential for mobile to unlock a new audience for ride sharing will be “absolutely huge.” A mobile app would open up the possibility for different types of trips for a more casual, dynamic user, says Green. For example, the bulk of current Zimride riders are consistent commuters and planners who book pretty far in advance online, but a mobile app could facilitate more on-the-spot, random, last-minute and dynamic trips.

Other new carpooling startups have embraced mobile even more quickly than Zimride. Two-year-old Carticipate bills itself as the first mobile ride-sharing app with a location-based platform. The app can match you and your carpooling needs by where you are at any given time. It might not have the trusted feeling of the college networks and corporations that Zimride relies upon, but it’s simple and intuitive.

Weeels is another ride- and taxi-sharing service that has mobile baked into its core. Conceived by David Mahfouda on a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 2006, the current Weeels mobile app has been under development since the fall of 2009. Carpooling service provider Avego also has already launched its iPhone app, which can dynamically find open seats in carpools.

It’s been the mobile platforms of iPhone and Android that have really enabled unobtrusive, location-based apps to be developed around car data and now ride sharing. Laura Schewel, the co-founder of Virtual Vehicle Company (VEVCo), which builds apps based on cell phone GPS data, told me that Google and Apple’s mobile operating systems enabled VEVCo to make an app that was inexpensive and could pull driver information without the consumers having to add in manual input. That’s the key: Don’t ask users to do any more than they have to.

However, the real heart of how Zimride has been able to bring in big name customers — 55 corporate and university partners and counting — is that they’ve created an ecosystem based on users trusting the networks they use for ride sharing. For example, three companies that work in an office park are comfortable pooling together their users for rides because they’re neighbors. Or college students know the other car poolers will be other students, so there’s a level of trust that the ecosystem provides.

That kind of trust could be harder to manage for mobile-focused startups, given the nature of an app that is looking to organize dynamic, casual trips. Wheels, Carticipate and Avego might have drop-dead simple mobile apps already available to install and use, but the filters and comfort levels don’t seems as reassuring.

Neither, I would guess, are the revenues. Zimride’s Green says the company is break even now, before it’s invested in expansion, and it makes money via subscriptions from its big name customers. It’s hard to see how the other companies will make money at the end of the day from consumers wanting to share their rides.

For more research on where computing meets electric vehicles check out GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Why Google Android’s Electric Vehicle Deal with GM Matters

The App Developer’s Guide to Working With Ford Sync

Report: IT Opportunities for Electric Vehicle Management

You can eject from the sidebar in Finder, or from the desktop (dragging to the trash). However, there’s also a third way: a menu bar item. Apple doesn’t show this item by default in Snow Leopard, which led me to try and find a way to enable it. It’s actually fairly easy:

1. Open a Finder window and go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras.
2. Double click on Eject.menu and it should appear instantly in your menu bar.

You can move the menu bar item by holding down the Command key and dragging it around. You can also get rid of it by dragging it off the menu bar, where it’ll vanish in a puff of smoke, just like you’d drag an item off the Dock.

Checking Your Current State of Affairs

First, go to the Finder, right-click on your hard drive, and select “Get Info.” Under the General heading, you’ll find the details on your drive’s Capacity, Available, and Used space. It seems like I’m always shocked at how low that Available space number is, despite my best efforts to keep my Mac’s storage well-groomed. Media files (music, movies, photos) tend to be the main culprit, but Applications and other documents and support files may be to blame as well. The key is in identifying exactly what is taking up that space before you take any sort of action.

Disk Visualization

Disk visualizers are the way to go. They give you an easy way of looking at which folders contain the heavyweight files that you may or may not need (or can at least backup to an external drive if your hard drive space is at a premium). Grand Perspective and Disk Inventory X are somewhat old-school in their visuals, but are free. JDiskReport is a long time favorite of mine (also free) but in 10.6, it requires Rosetta to be installed as it’s not a Universal app for OS X. (The OS installs Rosetta for you, but if you don’t want extra background chaff, this may be a deal breaker for you.) OmniDiskSweeper is also free, but doesn’t have much in the way of visuals. WhatSize has been around for a while, and has a nice user interface and some great features to remove files once they’ve been found. It’ll set you back $12.99. Then there’s DaisyDisk, which looks stunning and works very nicely, although doesn’t have all the nice-to-have removal features. DaisyDisk goes for $19.95

Getting Rid of the Extras

As an extra tip, there are some system type files that are notorious for taking up lots of unnecessary space for many users, a major one being language packs. OS X ships with support for many different languages. There are some solutions out there for easily getting rid of those language packs to reclaim some storage space — just make sure you read the fine print so you don’t break anything!

Printer drivers are another thing that OS X comes loaded-down with. The premise is noble — make it easy for Mac users to use nearly any printer, but that convenience comes at a cost. If you regularly use only a couple of different printers, you may want to look into removing the dead weight drivers.

And lastly, a tip for iPhone/iPod/iPad users: iTunes keeps full backups of your iDevice stored within iTunes. I discovered recently that as I’ve upgraded my iPhone hardware over the years, my number of backups as grown, and taken up several extra gigabytes of storage. It’s probably worth curating those out-of-date backups while you’re at it.

Maintenance

Great! By now you’ve hopefully identified many of the files that are eating up space on your precious hard drive. You’ve either determined them deletable, necessary, or candidates for backup. So how do you maintain the space that you’ve reclaimed and/or have left? Unfortunately there’s no all-encompassing solution (that I’ve found yet), but the following are some applications which offer good solutions for keeping on top of your hard drive using maintenance practices.

Hazel (which we’ve written about plenty) can watch folders for you and perform intricate actions that you decide upon and build based on your criteria, and costs $21.95 — well worth it! AppZapper ($21.95) is the uninstaller that OS X lacks. CleanMyMac is a well-rounded system maintenance solution for cleaning out unused system caches, and other bloat-type files that build up over time. It costs $14.95 for six months or $29.95 for lifetime use. A smallish shareware utility called Singular identifies duplicate files on your hard drive. It was updated recently, but the developer’s main website is currently down, and I don’t recall the cost. Lastly is Squeeze. It doesn’t remove files like the rest, but it does work on compressing your drive’s files to save space. It’s sort of magical, and costs $12.95.

Bloated hard drives — whether from your own files, or the system’s — can impact the performance of your system. Using these tools to maintain that available space will not only help keep your Mac running well, but also keep you informed of the space you have, so you’re not caught by surprise when you run low on storage. Good luck waging war on your hard drive!

Once you’ve registered with the service and set your time zone, you simply forward your email to a specially formatted @followup.cc email to specify when the reminder will be sent (at a specific time or on a certain day). For example, to set a reminder three days from now you would add the email address 3d@followup.cc to the email, or to set a reminder for for 4 p.m, you add the email address 4pm@followup.cc. There’s a full explanation of the reminder syntax here (note that adding the followup.cc email address to the “To:” or “Cc:” fields means that everyone who receives the email will also get the reminder — if you add it to the “Bcc:” field, only you’ll get the reminder).

Reminder emails quote the original email, and include a box telling you when the reminded was created. They also contain “snooze” links, which let you quickly re-set the reminder for some time in the future.

Helpfully, you can get a calendar view of all upcoming reminders at the Followup.cc site; clicking on a reminder allows you to edit or delete it:

A settings page is also available at the website, where you can get links for adding reminders to your RSS reader or calendar, and also get a bookmarklet that allows you to set follow-up reminders on web pages.

Need some tips on how to construct that follow-up email? Check out Dave Clarke’s excellent recent article, “The Art of the Follow-up.”

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Email: The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated

(Via Download Squad)

You’ll need an iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2nd-gen, as well as the redsn0w jailbreak, which you can download from here. Now you’re set to do the real work, but first a disclaimer: the procedure is rather simple, but be warned that you could easily brick your device if you’re not careful. Also, jailbreaking will void your warranty, so be smart and restore your device with iTunes before you take it down to the Genius Bar.

Got it? Great.

If your device is still running on iOS 3.x, you’ll need to upgrade to 4.0 before you proceed. Just go into iTunes, click on your device in the sidebar, and check for updates.

The Nitty Gritty

1. When you start-up redsn0w, you’ll need to point it to the iOS 4 IPSW, which, if you’ve already installed iOS 4 on your device, should be at ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/ and will be named something like iPhone1,2_4.0 for the iPhone and iPod2,1_4.0 for the iPod.

2. If you’re using an iPod, redsn0w will ask you to clarify whether it’s one of the newer models that start with “MC.” You can check this by going to General -> About on your iPod and scrolling down to “Model.”

3. Now you can decide what features you want redsn0w to enable. You can choose to install Cydia (which is like an unwalled version of the App Store), Verbose boot (which gives you every detail of what’s going on while your device boots), Custom boot logo, and Custom recovery logo. That’s nice, but you can also enable multitasking, home screen wallpapers, and the battery percentage indicator, which are the really great benefits from doing this.

4. Connect your device to your Mac and turn it off by holding down the lock button until a red slider appears, which you should then slide. Make sure your device is completely off before you continue, meaning there should be no spinning progress indicator, or anything, on the screen.

5. Be prepared for this part, because redsn0w will start on this step immediately once you click “Next.” You’ll need to put your device into Device Firmware Update (DFU) mode. redsn0w will walk you through it, but you’ll need to be quick. The process basically goes like this:

• Hold down the lock button for 3 seconds
• Without releasing the lock button, hold down the home button for 10 seconds
• Without releasing the home button, let go of the lock button and continue holding the home button for 30 seconds, though redsn0w should start doing its thing before the 30 seconds are up. Once you see a grey background on your screen, you can let go of the home button.

6. Watch while redsn0w jailbreaks your device and enables all the features that Apple left out. Do not yank the device of the cord, no matter what happens. That’s a recipe for bricking your device. Just relax and go get some coffee, or drool over the new Mac mini. When you come back, your device will be running with all the features you envied the 3GS for. Tip: You can enable the battery percentage indicator by going into Settings -> General -> Usage and turning it on.

How does the old hardware handle multitasking?

4.0 was already sluggish for me without multitasking. Rest assured, your performance won’t improve if it was already sluggish. But it hasn’t gotten worse, at least on my device, and if you’re going to use a sluggish OS, you may as well have all the features enabled, right?

Is your device running faster after the 4.0 update? Slower? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

I generally wait to see how a new product is received before upgrading. I’ve been holding off on moving to Mac OS X 10.6.4, for example, because it’s reported to break some software that I depend on. But for some reason, I decided to upgrade to iOS 4, the latest version of the operating system for my iPod touch, the first day it was available. Unfortunately for those of us who use Exchange to sync our mail, calendars, and contacts with Google Apps, the upgrade required the re-syncing of this data, which in turn slowed Google’s servers to a crawl. It took almost 24 hours before I again had a usable device.

During that time, I got to thinking about the questions I should have asked myself before starting the update. Here’s what I came up with; please add your thoughts in the comments.

• Do you need the new features of the update? If it fixes security issues, then probably yes. If not, then you should consider whether the update will actually improve your workflow. For example, one of iOS4′s new features is the ability to create “folders,” or groups of applications, on the home screen. Is this important to you, even given its limitations? Another feature is multitasking, which has gotten mixed reviews, at best.
• What will the update cost? Of course, some new hardware and software isn’t free, but even if the manufacturer isn’t charging, what is the value of the time and effort it will take you to move to the new version? I suspect that evaluations of this question are why many companies are still using Windows XP and IE 6.
• Are there technical issues in the new version that may cause problems? This is where blogs and discussion forums can be lifesavers. If I had waited only a couple of hours before starting my iOS 4 upgrade, I would have found several posts and threads describing the exact issues I encountered, and would have known to wait until they were resolved.
• What are the consequences if something goes wrong? How easily can I revert to a previous version? Can I afford down time? Luckily, I wasn’t going anywhere the other day, but if I had been, it would have been very inconvenient not to have access to my email, calendars, and (especially) to my contacts.

How do you decide when to upgrade?

Image by Flickr user .schill, licensed under CC

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

It notes the ability to interact with traditional cable programming and schedule recordings on your DVR, then spends a lot of time on the search bar, which offers access to cable programming, local recordings, Netflix streams and web content. Some of the sites shown include CBS.com, NBA.com, YouTube, Whitehouse.gov and Twitter.

The video also puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that Google TV will open up the TV to content other than video by featuring Last.fm and Farmville. Notably absent is Hulu.com, a site that was part of the original demo of Google TV at the company’s developers conference in May. Google said at the time that the platform would technically be capable of playing Hulu videos, but that content owners could make the decision to block it. Hulu has declined to say whether it will be available on Google TV, but has in the past tried to disable platforms capable of playing its content on TV sets.

Google’s demo video doesn’t really contain any new information not mentioned at Google I/O, but it shows off Google TV as a working product — which the company itself was unable to do at Google I/O due to various tech mishaps.

In fact, web video was one of the big winners of this year’s Webbys, with Hulu winning both the Webby and the People’s Voice Award in the Broadband category, and OK Go receiving the Film & Video Artist of the Year Special Achievement Award. Read on for a complete list of web-video related winners.

Notable video winners in the Webby’s website category:

BEST USE OF VIDEO OR MOVING IMAGE: http://www.hboimagine.com (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

BROADBAND: Hulu (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

EVENTS: Ted.com (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

FAMILY/PARENTING: SesameStreet.org (Webby Award Winner)

MOVIE AND FILM: The Auteurs (Webby Award Winner), District 9 (People’s Voice Winner)

RADIO/PODCASTS: TED.com (Webby Award Winner)

TELEVISION: Colbert Nation (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

YOUTH: PBS KIDS (People’s Voice Winner)

The complete list of winners of the Online Film & Video Category:

ANIMATION: Pixar Intro Parody (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

BEST EDITING: Driftless: Stories from Iowa (Webby Award Winner), Hibi no Neiro (Tone of Everyday) (People’s Voice Winner)

BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: Isabella Rossellini – Green Porno (Webby Award Winner), Amir Blumenfeld (People’s Voice Winner)

BEST REALITY/VARIETY HOST: Jen and Barb, Mom Life (Webby Award Winner), IGN Daily Fix (People’s Voice Winner)

BEST USE OF INTERACTIVE VIDEO: Jetueunami.com / Ikillafriend.com (Webby Award Winner), Cold War Kids’ “I’ve Seen Enough” (People’s Voice Winner)

BEST WRITING: The Onion News Network (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

COMEDY: INDIVIDUAL SHORT OR EPISODE: The Onion News Network (Webby Award Winner), WebSite Story (People’s Voice Winner)

COMEDY: LONG FORM OR SERIES: Web Therapy II (Webby Award Winner), Jake and Amir (People’s Voice Winner)

DOCUMENTARY: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE: Waterlife.nfb.ca (Webby Award Winner), In Silence: Maternal Mortality in India (People’s Voice Winner)

DOCUMENTARY: SERIES: DAVIDLYNCH.COM PRESENTS INTERVIEW PROJECT (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

DRAMA: http://www.hboimagine.com (Webby Award Winner), The Captive (People’s Voice Winner)

EVENTS & LIVE WEBCASTS: We’re All Fans (Webby Award Winner), the AP’s Live Coverage of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama (People’s Voice Winner)

EXPERIMENTAL & WEIRD: Green Porno, Seasons 2 and 3 (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

HOW-TO AND DIY: CHOW.com’s You’re Doing It All Wrong (Webby Award Winner), Viral Video Film School: The Internet’s Dumbest How-To Videos (People’s Voice Winner)

MUSIC: Queen & The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

NEWS & POLITICS: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE: Alabama’s Homeboys (Webby Award Winner), Gun Markets of Pakistan (People’s Voice Winner)

NEWS & POLITICS: SERIES: Held by the Taliban (Webby Award Winner), Carbon Watch (People’s Voice Winner)

PUBLIC SERVICE AND ACTIVISM: Love Project Music Video (Webby Award Winner), Words (People’s Voice Winner)

REALITY: The Specials (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

SPORTS: Sonicsgate (Webby Award Winner), 26.2 Or Die (People’s Voice Winner)

STUDENT: GameZombie TV (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

TECHNOLOGY: CNET TV (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE: The Vice Guide to Travel – Liberia (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

VARIETY: Live From Daryl’s House (Webby Award Winner), Reel Good Show (People’s Voice Winner)

VIDEO REMIXES/MASHUPS: Auto-Tune the News (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

VIRAL: Queen & The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody (Webby Award and People’s Voice Winner)

For links to each show, as well as producer and agency affiliations, please check the complete list at Webbyawards.com.

Picture courtesy of (CC-BY-SA) Flickr user nick farnhill.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series (subscription required)