Unfortunate timing means I’ll miss a huge chunk of this year’s South by Southwest Interactive festival happening in my hometown of Austin,…
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Google Fiber coming to four more cities
Update: Google has since confirmed that it will expand to 18 cities within the four metro areas below, with construction to start…
Read MoreYelp unveils up-and-coming cities after analyzing 61 million reviews
Some surprising cities are on the up-and-up, according to Yelp review data.…
Read MoreHow Texas became an unlikely leader in renewable energy
Few people think of Texas as a renewable energy leader. The oil mad state is known for drilling and Enron. So you…
Read MoreTexas and Turkey show why Twitter is often the only media outlet that matters
Twitter may not want to be seen as a media entity, but when news breaks and traditional media outlets are not around -- as in Texas and Turkey -- it quickly becomes the only media source that matters…
Read MoreHow a photo on Twitter helped kill a controversial Texas abortion bill
A controversial abortion bill was headed for passage by the Texas legislature, until a tweet helped kill it at the last minute.…
Read MoreCheck out some of the new data center hotspots (for co-lo that is)
Data centers are the manufacturing floor of the web and cloud computing, so it makes sense that the amount of data center capacity added in the last two years as been measured in millions of square feet. But where it's added is changing.…
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The deal that Nest struck with Texas energy provider Reliant to have the energy retailer provide a Nest thermostat free in exchange…
Read MoreU.S. Cellular launching LTE in March with 2 Samsung gadgets
Next month, consumers in smaller towns and cities across the U.S. will have access to their first LTE network as U.S. Cellular ramps ups its commercial 4G service. The regional CDMA operator will start selling a tablet in March and a Galaxy smartphone in April.…
Read MoreThe top 10 trends from the year’s big smart grid show
One of the year's largest smart grid conferences -- DistribuTECH -- closes today in San Antonio, Texas. It's like the CES for utilities, power companies and the vendors that are trying to sell them stuff. Here are the top 10 trends I took away.…
Read More6waves Lolapps bulks up some more, acquires Escalation Studios
Social gaming company 6waves Lolapps (which is now going by the shortened moniker "6L") is continuing its stated quest to take on industry leader Zynga. The company is announcing Wednesday the acquisition of Escalation Studios, a Dallas, Texas-based mobile game company.…
Read MorePiazza gets $6M Series A to help with college homework
Piazza, the social network that lets college students and instructors discuss material online, has closed on $6 million in a new Series A funding round. Piazza's service is meant to counteract study group snobbery and eliminate students' fear of asking "dumb" questions.…
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1.4 million Pennsylvanians switched their power supplier in 2011 as the state follows Texas into the deregulated power market. Deregulated markets allow…
Read MoreOpportunities and Challenges for Energy Market Deregulation
Deregulated energy markets, with companies competing with one another for customers, could be great places to test technologies and services to get customers engaged with their utilities. Whether that will lead to them saving energy at the same time is less clear, however.…
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Happy New Year, everyone — welcome to a new year of efforts to obstruct policy progress on the greentech front. The state…
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I’m wrapping up my visit to Houston for the Texas Electricity Professionals Association‘s fall conference, and thought I’d share some more information…
Read MoreThe State of Deregulation (Competition) in Power Markets
California’s grand experiment with power market deregulation ended with a bang in 2001, when Enron-engineered rolling blackouts. But in Texas, power market deregulation — or competition, as folks down here prefer to name it — is in full swing.…
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What’s going on in the world of competitive electricity markets? To find out, I’ve come to Houston, where the Texas Electricity Professionals…
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The state-by-state setbacks for utilities’ smart grid dreams have come to Illinois. The Chicago Tribune reports that a court ruling has found…
Read MoreFurther Proof Apple TV Apps Are Coming
A tear-down of the new Apple TV reveals that the device loads a whopping 8 GB of Flash memory. Wait, didn't Steve Jobs tell us that we won't download any movies to the device? That's because he wants to keep those 8 GB for apps.…
Read MoreWhy Texas is the Smart Meter Market to Watch
The Lone Star State may lag behind California in its number of smart meters deployed, but it’s taken a lead in regulations and funding. And those are just a couple items in a long list of reasons why, despite one or two cost barriers, Texas may emerge as the leader in smart meter deployment.…
Read MoreWhy Texas is the Smart Meter Market to Watch
When it comes to the future of smart meters, don’t look to California — set your eyes on Texas. The Lone Star State lags California in sheer numbers of meters deployed, but has taken a lead in supporting them with regulations and funding.…
Read MoreVideo: DFJ Mercury on VC Investing in Flyover Country
The venture industry is contracting at the moment, with overall dollars going into venture capital funds shrinking by 57 percent in the second quarter from the year before. Amid this background DFJ Mercury, a Houston-based affiliate fund of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, raised a $70-million second fund.…
Read MoreIn the Heart of Texas, a Wind Power Transmission Snag
Nobody likes high-voltage transmission lines running through their backyards, not even in the energy-loving heart of Texas. Recently a group of landowners (the Heart of Texas Landowners Coalition) persuaded the state’s regulators to force utility Oncor to reroute a $100 million transmission line around their property.…
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