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Mac Mini DVD Blunder

Dec 15

Posted by the editor in the products, the technology | No Comments

A couple of months ago my DVD burner (Superdrive) stopped working, well not stopped pursay, more like stopped burning and read CDs and DVDs at an alarmingingly slow rate, and at times, not at all.  Some of you may recognise the warning messages from Toast below.

Toast Error 1

Toast Error: Sense Key = HARDWARE ERROR Sense Code = 0x44, 0xD9 Internal Target Failure

Toast Error 2

Toast Error 2 : Sense Key = ILLEGAL REQUEST Sense Code : 0x21, 0x02 BUFFER UNDERUN

Now I read the forums, I asked around, I was even going to blast air into the slot loader with a compressor as recommended in some forum (don’t remember which one), but decided that it was a better way to start by picking up a 4 Euro Disc cleaner from my local newsagent instead.  Dammit, it worked :) I’m not only burning at higher speeds than before, my bus speed has improved.  At one stage I had used a USB2 burner to try and do my backups, but found that it was giving me just as many errors, I have no idea how Apple managed to tie the internal drive into the rest of the USB bus, and in my mind it seems implausible, but it’s managed to speed up now that the drive is dust free.

I came across quite a few people pointing fingers at Apple when their drives went wonky, I have to admit that I was going to start pointing too, however, in retrospect, the MacMini was in the room when I was assembling furniture, drilling holes in the wall, and even when I had the plasterers in another room.  This just reaffirms my faith in Apple design and quality.  To this day I still don’t know why Windows XP on my DELL Poweredge keeps spitting Blank DVDs back out at me, even on brand new drives.

Specs: Mac Mini 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram MacOSX 10.6.2 Snow Leopard, Toast 10 Titanium.  When evaluating the issue, I used multiple ways of recording, each having their own issues, but never actually burning a complete disc.

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Wrapping Solar Cells around an Optical Fiber

Oct 30

Posted by the editor in the environment, the technology | No Comments

By Katherine Bourzac for Technology Review

Dye-sensitized solar cells are flexible and cheap to make, but they tend to be inefficient at converting light into electricity. One way to boost the performance of any solar cell is to increase the surface area available to incoming light. So a group of researchers at Georgia Tech has made dye-sensitized solar cells with a much higher effective surface area by wrapping the cells around optical fibers. These fiber solar cells are six times more efficient than a zinc oxide solar cell with the same surface area, and if they can be built using cheap polymer fibers, they shouldn’t be significantly more expensive to make.

Solar on fiber: An optical fiber (left) is covered in dye-coated zinc-oxide nanowires (closeup, right). Both images were made using a scanning electron microscope. Credit: Angewandte Chemie

The advantage of a fiber-optic solar-cell system over a planar one is that light bounces around inside an optical fiber as it travels along its length, providing more opportunities to interact with the solar cell on its inner surface and producing more current. “For a given real estate, the total area of the cell is higher, and increased surface area means improved light harvesting and more energy,” says Max Shtein, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan who was not involved with the research.

Fiber-optic solar cells could also be used in ways that aren’t possible currently. Zhong Lin Wang, professor of materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech, says fiber solar cells would take up less roof area than planar cells because long lengths of the fibers could be nestled into the walls of a house like electrical wiring.

Dye-sensitized solar cells use dye molecules to absorb light and generate electrons. The Georgia Tech group first removes the cladding from optical fibers and then grows zinc-oxide nanowires along their surface, like bristles on a pipe cleaner. Next, the fibers are treated with dye molecules, which the zinc-oxide structures absorb. The advantage of coating nanowires, rather than a smooth surface, with the dye is that the wires collectively have a very large surface area. The more dye molecules there are over a given area of such a cell, the more light it can absorb, says Wang. The dye-coated fibers are then surrounded by an electrolyte and a metal film that carries electrons off the device. The work is described online in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

“The question is, can you absorb all the light using a small amount of materials?”

“The question is, can you absorb all the light using a small amount of materials?” says Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science at Stanford University. Building a nanostructured cell on an optical fiber provides a way to do this by increasing both the surface area covered by the dye and the effective path length of the light, he says. The longer a photon travels through a solar cell, the more opportunities it has to interact and generate an electron.

One potential stumbling block for fiber cells is getting enough light inside them in the first place. Wang’s devices only collect light at their tips, so to get enough light into such a solar cell without having to track the sun, smaller fibers might be bundled together. Cui says the tips of the fibers could be made of materials that are very effective at directing light into the fiber. Another way to overcome this problem is to build fiber cells that can absorb light along their entire length, not just at the tips–which Michigan’s Shtein is working on. This is tricky, because it means the cells’ coatings need to be both electrically conductive and transparent, an unusual combination.

However, Shtein says that fibers that absorb light from the sides offer “an interesting architecture for light capture, because you can distribute the fibers in space in a way that helps you capture more photons more effectively than you can in a planar device.” The shallower the angle at which light hits a planar cell, the more light reflects off its surface. But the light reflecting off the curved surface of a fiber at a shallow angle will hit an adjacent fiber. These cells could be designed so that it’s not necessary to install them with sun-tracking systems, and they would work on cloudy days when the light is diffuse, Shtein says.

Wang says the next step is to try different materials. So far, he has built the cells on quartz optical fibers, which are relatively expensive. Next he plans to try making the cells using cheaper polymer fibers.

via Technology Review: Wrapping Solar Cells around an Optical Fiber.

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Aussie atheists knocked offline

Oct 22

Posted by the editor in the technology | No Comments

Two major Australian atheist websites were taken offline by distributed denial of service attacks earlier this week.

The organisations, the Atheist Foundation of Australia and Global Atheist Convention, have been in the news down under for organising a Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne early next year.

The attack, on Tuesday, took the sites offline for about 24 hours. It is not clear where the attack originated – Australia lacks a violent religious minority. The group also tried to run an atheist bus advert campaign but had their slogans rejected.

Admins added extra RAM and improved caching to get the site back online.

The attack has been reported to the Australian Federal Police, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

via Aussie atheists knocked offline • The Register.

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7 Things You Should Know About Upgrading to Windows 7

Oct 22

Posted by the editor in the technology | No Comments

Thursday is a big day for Windows users. Microsoft is finally making Windows 7 publicly available, and the number of pre-orders for the operating system on Amazon.com has already surpassed orders for Harry Potter in the U.K.

Not bad for an operating system that costs $120 and doesn’t even have any magic wands or dragons in it.

That’s a good indicator that a lot of people are upgrading, and we’re sure there will be even more that follow after consumers spread the word about the vast improvements in Windows 7 over its predecessors. Here’s a simple guideline of what you should know to ensure your upgrade process is smooth — from purchase to install.

1. The upgrade is worth it

We’ve written about Windows 7’s strong points as well as the its weaker points. On balance, we’re confident saying his is the best Microsoft operating system yet. If you’re running any earlier version of Windows, you’ll almost certainly want to upgrade — and you should feel no hesitation about buying new computers preloaded with Windows 7.

2. It will cost you

Apple offers an upgrade to its latest operating system, Snow Leopard, for $30 — and you can even take advantage of it if you don’t have the previous version, Leopard. Not so with Microsoft: You’ll need to pay $120 for the upgrade — or even more, depending on which version you get. (Unless you’re a smart shopper and can find a discounted price. See tips 6 and 7 below for details on which version to buy and how to find discounts.) As with previous versions of Windows, Microsoft has created a bewildering array of variations.

3. Double-check compatibility with your hardware

Paranoid about losing access to some of your third-party accessories and software after upgrading? You should be, at least a little bit. Microsoft claims Windows 7 will work smoothly with most third-party gadgets and software, but to be on the safe side, you should check out the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. The tool automatically scans your system and provides a report of any potential issues, as well as steps to resolve them.

4. Scout for computers shipping with Windows 7

If you’ve been shopping for a new computer — but waiting for Windows 7 to come out first — there’s a Microsoft tool to help search for new computers that ship with Windows 7. It’s called PC Scout, and it searches for computers based on your preferences. As of this writing, the results don’t bring up Windows 7 systems (since Windows 7 isn’t officially released yet), but the website clarifies all the computers listed in the database are eligible for a Windows 7 upgrade. That means if you purchase one of those computers today, all you have to pay is $10 for shipping, and you get the Windows 7 upgrade free. By the time Windows 7 ships, the PC Scout should be showing results for computers that include Windows 7.

Amazon customers shopping for Windows 7 computers: There’s a web page just for you<. Amazon breaks down a list of netbooks, notebooks and desktops shipping with Windows 7, so definitely check those out.

5. Upgrading from XP? Back up your data, wipe and migrate

Windows XP users cannot do a straight upgrade; they’ll have to back up their files, format their hard drive and perform a clean install. After your fresh copy of Windows 7 is on your computer, Microsoft offers a tool called Easy Transfer to migrate your files.

(If you’re a Vista user, you’ll be able to upgrade without doing a clean install — though fresh installations are generally recommended for optimal performance anyway whenever you switch to a new operating system.)

6. Know what you want

Disregard the awful, intimidating Windows 7 upgrade chart when you’re picking a version to buy. Choosing the right version really isn’t as complicated as Microsoft has made it sound in the past. Consumers: The vast majority of you should go with Windows 7 Home Premium. Business users: Most of you will want to go with Windows 7 Professional. (There’s a Windows 7 Ultimate edition, but that’s aimed at a very niche audience of ultra geeks who want to do everything they could possibly imagine doing with their computers.) Again, if you want to be safe, use the Upgrade Advisor to check your hardware and software compatibility.

7. Look for limited-time discounts

If you’re buying Windows 7 while it’s brand new, you shouldn’t be paying the full price. Microsoft and its partners are holding a weeklong sale called “7 Days of Windows 7.” Companies offering Windows 7 discounts with Microsoft include Best Buy, Dell and Acer. You can sign up to hear about daily offers on Windows.com. Also, you can check discount-aggregation sites such as PriceGrabber.com or Froogle.com to find the cheapest Windows 7 deals.

via 7 Things You Should Know About Upgrading to Windows 7 | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

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Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses

Oct 19

Posted by the editor in the cars, the environment, the technology | No Comments

Municipal transit agencies have tried to reduce the carbon footprint of their bus fleets using a range of options over the years, from biofuels and hydrogen to batteries and hybrid-electric diesel. Now a Chinese company and its U.S. partner say that ultracapacitors could offer the greenest and most economical way of powering inner-city buses.

Fast charger: A bus that runs entirely on ultracapacitors charges up at a bus stop in Shanghai. The buses can only travel three to five miles between charges, but the ultracapacitors allow for fast recharging at designated bus stops. Credit: Sinautec Automobile Technologies

Fast charger: A bus that runs entirely on ultracapacitors charges up at a bus stop in Shanghai. The buses can only travel three to five miles between charges, but the ultracapacitors allow for fast recharging at designated bus stops. Credit: Sinautec Automobile Technologies

There’s just one catch: the best ultracapacitors can only store about 5 percent of the energy that lithium-ion batteries hold, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge. This makes them ineffective as an energy storage medium for passenger vehicles. But what ultracapacitors lack in range they make up in their ability to rapidly charge and discharge. So in vehicles that have to stop frequently and predictably as part of normal operation, energy storage based exclusively on ultracapacitors begins to make sense.

Sinautec Automobile Technologies, based in Arlington, VA, and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, have spent the past three years demonstrating the approach with 17 municipal buses on the outskirts of Shanghai. On October 21, the two companies will offer a one-day demonstration at American University in Washington, DC, where an 11-seat minibus running on ultracapacitors will spend the day shuttling people around campus.

The trick is to turn some bus stops along the route into charge stations, says Dan Ye, executive director of Sinautec. Unlike a conventional trolley bus that has to continually touch an overhead power line, Sinautec’s ultracapacitor buses take big sips of electricity every two or three miles at designated charging stations, which double as bus stops. When at these stations, a collector on the top of the bus rises a few feet and touches an overhead charging line. Within a couple of minutes, the ultracapacitor banks stored under the bus seats are fully charged.

“It’s a brilliant concept,” says ultracapacitor expert Joel Schindall, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. “It’s not well suited for electric-only cars, but it is practical to stop a bus every few city blocks.”

The buses can also capture energy from braking, and the company says that recharging stations can be equipped with solar panels (although this is mainly to further the perception that the vehicles have a lower carbon footprint). Ye says the buses use 40 percent less electricity compared to an electric trolley bus, mainly because they’re lighter and have the regenerative braking benefits. They’re also competitive with conventional buses based on fuel savings over the vehicle’s 12-year life, based on current oil and electricity prices. Sinautec estimates that one of its buses has one-tenth the energy cost of a diesel bus and can achieve lifetime fuel savings of $200,000.

“The ultracapacitor bus is also cheaper than lithium-ion battery buses,” says Ye. “We used the Olympics (lithium-ion) bus as a model and found ours about 40 percent less expensive with a far superior reliability rating.” Ye adds that the environmental benefits are compelling. “Even if you use the dirtiest coal plant on the planet, it generates a third of the carbon dioxide of diesel when used to charge an ultracapacitor.”

Buses in the Shanghai pilot are made by Germantown, TN-based Foton America Bus Co, which uses ultracapacitors manufactured by Shanghai Aowei. The ultracapacitors are made of activated carbon and have an energy density of six watt-hours per kilogram. (For comparison, a high-performance lithium-ion battery can achieve 200 watt-hours per kilogram.) Clifford Clare, chief executive of Foton America, says another 60 buses will be delivered early next year with ultracapacitors that supply 10 watt-hours per kilogram.

“The ones in Shanghai right now have been on the road for three years without incident, without failure whatsoever, which in the bus industry is phenomenal,” says Clare, who adds that his company is in talks with New York City, Chicago, and some towns in Florida about trialing the buses. “It will end up being a third generation of the product, which will give 20 miles [of range per charge] or better.”

Sinautec is also in discussions with MIT’s Schindall about developing ultracapacitors of higher energy density using vertically aligned carbon nanotube structures that give the devices more surface area for holding a charge.

“So far we’re able to get twice the energy density of an existing ultracapacitor, but that’s not enough,” says Schindall. “We’re trying to get about five times.” Schindall says that this would create an ultracapacitor with one-quarter of the energy density of a lithium-ion battery.

“Right now the [Foton] buses can only go every other stop, a range of about 5 or 10 city blocks, and that’s okay for some routes, but here in the Boston area that would be too far [between charging spots],” Schindall adds. “If they could double that, or even quadruple that, it would increase by an order of magnitude the numbers of routes for which it could be a technical solution.”

There are some other important limitations. The 41-passenger buses, based on current technology, have a maximum speed of just 30 miles per hour, lose 35 percent of their range when air conditioning is turned on, and have weak acceleration. But even under these conditions, they could still prove practical for municipal, campus, airport, and tourist buses.

We want to replace a large portion of the diesel fleet in the United States

“We want to replace a large portion of the diesel fleet in the United States,” says Ye. “We do need to have charging stations throughout various points of the network, but as energy density goes up, the number of stations will go down.”

via Technology Review: Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses.

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Sour: It’s What Carbonation Tastes Like

Oct 16

Posted by the editor in the health, the ingredients, the technology | No Comments

adamcomerford/Flickr

The carbon dioxide in your favorite soda pop tastes sour to your tongue, thanks to an enzyme that converts CO2 into protons that sour-sensing cells can detect.

That means your Coca Cola isn’t just packed with high-fructose sweetness, but, perhaps counterintuitively, its carbonation delivers a delicious squirt of sour too, according to a new study in mice, published Thursday in the journal Science.

“The same taste cell has all the machinery to turn carbon dioxide into protons and then detect the protons as sour taste stimuli,” said Alexander Bachmanov, who was not involved in the study.

The discovery is of particular interest in the food and beverage world, Bachmanov said, because carbonation has long been recognized as a complex phenomenon for the mouth. Even if the sour-sensing cells signal that the carbonation is sour, there are more elements to the process of actually tasting, say, soda water.

“If you think about carbonation, it has more than one attribute,” he said. “One is sourness, which we perceive, but there is probably also some tactile sensation how the bubbles form and burst, tickling the tongue.”

The researchers, led by longtime taste researcher Charles Zuker, now at Columbia University Medical Center, conducted the study using mice that had been genetically altered to lack sour-sensing cells. They found that such mice could not detect carbon dioxide, as seen in the chart. While the study was carried out with mice, the mechanism is expected to have been preserved in other mammals.

Zuker and his colleagues posed a natural evolutionary question: Why would mammals have developed such an excellent carbon dioxide detector?

“CO2 detection could have evolved as a mechanism to recognize CO2-producing sources — for instance, to avoid fermenting foods,” they wrote.

One happy irony of such a hypothesis is that the very same mechanism that allowed our deep ancestors to recognize and avoid fermentation allows modern humans to intentionally create the fermented beverages beer and champagne.

Or, our carbonation-detecting skills could be an accident. The sour-cell enzymes might be maintaining the pH balance of the taste buds, and the tang of soda water is just fallout.

Accident or adaptation, from sparkling wine to Coca Cola to energy drinks to the carbonated yogurt popular in Iran called doogh, humans love carbonation in its many forms. Though their share of the beverage market might be slipping a bit, the world’s population still spends half its drink money on carbonated quenchers.

Zuker’s company Senomyx develops artificial flavors, and have disclosed that they have a partnership with Coca Cola, among other companies.

via Sour: It’s What Carbonation Tastes Like | Wired Science | Wired.com.

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Stephen Hawking gives up academic title

Oct 2

Posted by the editor in the health, the technology | No Comments

legostephen

A new Lucasian Professor will be appointed in the near future

Professor Stephen Hawking has given up a prestigious academic title.

The physicist, who has motor neurone disease, is completing his last day as Cambridge University’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

The university said it was policy for holders of the title to retire at 67 and Prof Hawking was 67 in January.

Prof Hawking, who is one of the world’s leading cosmologists, will continue working at the university and a new Lucasian Professor will be appointed.

Previous holders of the title, founded by MP Henry Lucas in 1663, include Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Sir Joseph Larmor and Sir James Lighthill.

Prof Hawking, who began work in Cambridge in 1962 and has held the Lucasian Professorship since 1979, is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College.

He gained fame following the publication of his best-selling book A Brief History of Time in 1988.

via BBC NEWS | UK | England | Cambridgeshire | Hawking gives up academic title.

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Apple’s Tablet Could Be Print Industry’s Lifeboat

Oct 1

Posted by the editor in the books, the products, the technology | No Comments

The more you think about it, the more obvious it is that an Apple tablet would specialize in reviving dead-tree media (i.e., newspapers, magazines and books). All the rumors suggest the device would be a larger iPod Touch/iPhone with a 10-inch screen. Previously Wired.com argued that redefining print would would be a logical purpose for a gadget this size, and Gizmodo today has even more details to prove that this is Apple’s goal with the tablet.

Gizmodo’s Brian Lam cites two people related to The New York Times, who claim Apple approached them to talk about repurposing the newspaper onto a “new device.” Lam notes that Jobs has called the Times the “best newspaper in the world” in past keynotes. (I recall him saying that when introducing the iPhone’s web browser at Macworld Expo 2007.)

Lam proceeds to cite a vice president in textbook publishing who claims publishers McGraw-Hill and Oberlin Press are collaborating with Apple to move textbooks to the iTunes Store. The possible distribution model would involve a DRM’ed “one-time-use” book, which could spell out to lots of money for publishers while reducing pricing of e-books for consumers.

Lastly, Lam claims several executives from magazines met at Apple’s Cupertino campus to demonstrate their ideas on the future of publishing, where they presented mockups of magazines in interactive form.

Those are all strong data points, and we agree with the overall argument. Wired.com in July speculated that an Apple tablet, in addition to an e-book section in iTunes, would be a killer combination to compete against Amazon’s Kindle and e-book store. We suggested an à-la-carte purchase model for textbooks so students could download single chapters as opposed to purchasing entire books. The suggestion from Lam’s sources about a DRM’ed “one-time-use” book would probably be a more attractive model for publishers.

Meanwhile, Amazon recently launched a pilot program with some universities to determine how to sell Kindle-compatible textbooks in the Amazon.com e-book store. It doesn’t appear to be going well: Princeton students are complaining the Kindle DX is disappointing and difficult to use, according to a Fox News report. We’re not surprised: In May, Wired.com polled students on their impression of the Kindle DX as a replacement for textbooks, and most of them dismissed the idea. Apple has a clear opportunity to seize the e-publishing market, and it appears the company has that precisely in mind.

via Apple’s Tablet Could Be Print Industry’s Lifeboat | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

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Intel Plans Even Tinier Circuits in 2011

Sep 23

Posted by admin in the products, the technology | No Comments

CEO Paul Otellini holds a silicon wafer containing the world’s first working chips built on 22nm manufacturing technology (top). Lower photo: Closeup of a 22nm SRAM die. Both photos courtesy Intel.

SAN FRANCISCO — Moore’s Law coming to an end? Not if you ask Intel, which announced Tuesday that it plans to offer chips based on a 22 nanometer process technology in the second half of 2011.

The 22nm chip packs in more than 2.9 billion transistors into an area the size of a fingernail. That’s double the density of the 32nm chips that are currently the cutting edge; most of Intel’s CPUs today are still based on a 45nm process.

Generally, the smaller the circuits in a computer chip, the more complex features the chipmaker can integrate into that chip. Small circuits also have the potential to increase the computing speed, but the tradeoff is increased power consumption, heat production, and — with very small circuits — increasingly large challenges in keeping the circuits electrically isolated from one another.

At the company’s developer conference here Tuesday, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini (above) showed a silicon wafer containing the first working chips built on the technology. The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as logic circuits that will be used in future Intel microprocessors.

“We are moving ahead with development of our 22nm manufacturing technology and have built working chips that will pave the way for production of still more powerful and more capable processors,” said Otellini.

Moore’s Law, first introduced by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965,  postulates that the number of transistors on a cost-effective integrated circuit will double every two years. One way to describe how well transistors are packed is the smallest geometric feature that can be produced on a chip, usually designated in nanometers (billionths of a meter).

In late 2007, Intel started mass production of chips based on the 45nm technology. The company has said it plans to introduce 32nm processors early next year.  By comparison, the Intel 4004 microprocessor introduced in 1971 was based on 10,000nm process. A human hair is approximately 100,000 nanometers.

The 22nm wafer is made up of individual die containing 364 million bits of SRAM memory. SRAMs are used as test vehicles to demonstrate technology performance, yield and chip reliability. Once the technology works on SRAMs, Intel will move to utilize it in CPU production.

At 0.092 square microns, the 22nm process based chips contain the smallest SRAM cell used in working circuits ever reported, said Intel.

via Intel Plans Even Tinier Circuits in 2011 | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

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Better Place debuts EV services platform at Frankfurt Motor Show

Sep 21

Posted by the editor in the cars, the environment, the products, the technology | No Comments

Names additional ecosytem players for scaling up production and on track for global deployment plans including first switchable battery EV from Renault

Better_Place_logo_20090501
Frankfurt (Sep 15, 2009) — Today, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Better Place marked its next major technology milestone by demonstrating its electric vehicle (EV) services platform for making electric cars more convenient and affordable than internal combustion engine cars, unleashing a new era for wide-scale EV adoption. In conjunction with Renault’s unveiling of the world’s first switchable battery EV for Israel and Denmark, Better Place announced a newly expanded agreement with Renault, committing both companies to a volume of at least 100,000 electric cars in both countries by 2016.

As global demand for EVs builds and production scales so must the infrastructure. As a result, Better Place also named additional ecosystem players including Continental of Germany, Flextronics, Intel, Microsoft, and TÜV Rheinland as Better Place seeks to scale up global production of its EV services platform and infrastructure deployment capabilities.

“Next year will be an exciting year for the auto industry and for consumers as the first wave of electric cars hit the streets,” said Shai Agassi, Better Place Founder and CEO. “The industry needs to continue to overcome the obstacles of extended range, price and impact on the grid if we’re going to be able to deliver a better experience than what consumers currently get. Better Place is committed to working with existing and emerging players in this exciting new category, which has the potential to drive the industry to sustainable growth in the near term and beyond.”

Better Place showcased its EV services platform, which manages at scale the charging of electric cars and the impact on the grid, moments after Renault unveiled its five-seat, electric sedan designed and developed for initial introduction for Better Place subscribers in Israel and Denmark in 2011. Additional switchable EV models from Renault are currently under review.

To enable mass market EV adoption, the Better Place solution includes interfaces designed to support all kinds of electric vehicles announced and under development, thereby providing a comprehensive infrastructure that the automotive and utility industry can count on for the transition to EVs. It’s the combination of infrastructure – to physically charge the car – and the “information train” of data – which is used to optimize the charging and manage the grid – that forms the heart of the EV services platform.

Inside the car, Better Place manages the vehicle’s energy plan through an on-board computing platform, codenamed “AutOS.” The AutOS platform performs complex energy calculations to create a personalized energy plan for each driver.

Outside of the car, Better Place has architected a master data center, which acts as the “brain” of the network. The Better Place data center enables “smart charging” of all electric cars on the network by optimizing and prioritizing when, where and how much each car is charged. Doing so minimizes the impact on local utilities while carefully orchestrating the state of charge for all batteries on the network so that every car is “topped up.”

As a centrally controlled function, the data center integrates any data across the entire network including: the availability of charge spots and battery switch stations; the state of charge of each battery; the ability to harness peak levels of renewable energy generation; topography maps and traffic patterns; and driving habits and patterns.

By integrating the data, Better Place has a 360-degree view across the entire network of charge spots, battery switch stations, electric cars, batteries and local utilities, enabling an entire ecosystem of industry players to deliver a more convenient and affordable electric car.

Better Place Expands Ecosystem to Include Continental, Flextronics, Intel, Microsoft and TÜV

As Better Place readies for system-wide testing in Israel next year, the company identified additional industry players with global scale and cross-industry expertise including the automotive supplier Continental, Flextronics, Intel, Microsoft and TÜV Rheinland.

For the production of charge spots, Better Place today announced that it has signed an agreement with Flextronics, one of the world’s leading electronics manufacturing services provider. Better Place awarded the contract to Flextronics because of its ability to give Better Place competitive advantage through Flextronics’ global scale and expertise across the industries that Better Place intersects, namely automotive, infrastructure and consumer devices.

Better Place and Flextronics will jointly engineer, develop and stress-test 1,000 next generation charge spots in the field before deciding to scale up volume to 100,000 production-grade charge spots by 2011. Such an order will represent the largest order for charge spot production in the history of the industry. Better Place currently is field testing nearly 800 charge points in Israel in a variety of private and public locations including curbside locations, parking lots, shopping malls and private residences.

Better Place, which is an active participant in the global standards bodies, will demonstrate charge spot standards’ compliance with the world’s two leading charging connector standards – IEC 62196 and J1772 – in Frankfurt.

Better Place R&D is working closely with Continental of Germany and Intel and Microsoft R&D, developing the most modern computing platform for inside the car. Better Place is developing its AutOS in-car platform with Continental to produce in volume an automotive-grade head unit, which incorporates Microsoft Windows Embedded and is powered by the Intel® AtomTM processor. The combination gives AutOS the extra horsepower needed to quickly conduct energy management and planning calculations that form the cornerstone of enabling peace of mind for drivers. The always-on connectivity of the unit also enables the “connected car” to seamlessly communicate with all of the components of the Better Place network.

“We at Continental are pleased that we are doing our part to help Better Place on its way to success,” said Helmut Matschi, President of the Interior division and member of the Executive Board of Continental AG. “The connection between the car, the Better Place network and the driver is ensured by the head unit we will develop. We look forward for the start of series production.”

By building an open architecture platform on industry-standard building blocks from Continental, Intel and Microsoft, Better Place will enable developers to build innovative applications on the AutOS platform much like the innovations that have sprung from the Apple iPhone. The AutOS system works by tapping into a limited number of standard CAN messages that all cars use to communicate diagnostics by read-only, giving OEMs an easy on-ramp to plug into the entire Better Place system.

In Israel, both Intel and Microsoft also have signed up as Better Place “Vision Partners,” agreeing to transition to electric vehicles when commercially available in 2011.

“At Microsoft, we are committed to software and technology innovations that help people and organizations around the world improve the environment,” John Fikany, Microsoft, VP, Commercial Sector Industries. “Better Place’s vision for accelerating the transition from oil-based transportation to a sustainable mobility model will help to draw in a new ecosystem of players and innovations all aimed at fighting climate change. We view electric cars as roaming consumer electronic devices, which have the potential to move from niche product to mainstream, and we’re excited that Better Place is developing their solution using Microsoft technology.”

“There’s a natural technology intersection between enabling powerful, yet energy efficient computing platforms and the drive toward electric transportation,” said Staci Parmer, director of in-vehicle infotainment for Intel. “We see an obvious fit for the Intel® AtomTM processor in the Better Place solution to enable a unique, connected experience for the next generation of electric transport.”

Finally, Better Place also announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement with TÜV Rheinland, a global provider of technical, safety and certification services, to evaluate and certify the safety of the network as a first step of broad deployment certification, which will be standard in all Better Place geographies.

Better Place On Track to Deliver Globally as Demand Builds

To date, Better Place has signed up orders from more than 50 Vision Partners in Israel – representing a total car park of approximately 35,000 ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles – which have committed to convert a portion of their ICE fleets to Better Place when commercially available in 2011. These fleet customers include the Israel operations for multi-national companies including Cisco, FedEx and IBM, among others.

In Denmark, Better Place is currently building similar demand among visionary companies. Better Place already has announced several partnerships with municipalities and a partnership with the local insurance company, TrygVesta, which will offer a 40% discount on insurance premiums for owners of EVs. For the UN Summit on Climate Change (COP15) in Copenhagen in December, Better Place will build a showcase to celebrate the EV as a scalable solution for fighting climate change.

In Australia, Better Place recently announced Canberra, the nation’s capital, as the site for its first citywide roll out of electric vehicle infrastructure in Australia where the company is on track for 2012 commercial availability.

In North America, Better Place has worked actively with local partners and government in Ontario, Canada, the San Francisco Bay Area and Hawaii to create the necessary conditions to foster a competitive EV marketplace. These three regions have made a commitment to accelerating the adoption of EVs through progressive policies aimed at consumer adoption, streamlining infrastructure deployment and in some cases, adding EVs as a competitive alternative for public sector procurement policies.

In Japan, Better Place recently won the first-of-its-kind project from the government to demonstrate electric taxis with switchable batteries. The company will kick off the demonstration in January 2010.

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