Spherical glass lens concentrates sunlight by up to 10,000 times, boosts solar cell efficiency

Spherical glass lens concentrates sunlight by up to 10,000 times, boosts solar cell efficiency

Eking out more power from solar cells is an ongoing challenge for scientists, and now architect André Broessel has developed a spherical glass energy generator that's said to improve efficiency by 35 percent. Acting as a lens, the rig's large water-filled orb concentrates diffused daylight or moonlight onto a solar cell with the help of optical tracking to harvest electricity. In certain configurations, the apparatus can be used for solar thermal energy generation and even water heating. In addition to the oversized globe, Broessel has cooked up a mobile version of the contraption for domestic use and an array of much smaller ball lenses with dual-axis tracking that offers 40 percent efficiency. These devices aren't the first venture into concentrated photovoltaics, but they are likely among the most visually impressive. If the Barcelona-based architect's vision of the future comes true, you'll be seeing these marbles incorporated into buildings and serving as standalone units. Hit the source links below for the picture spread of prototypes and renders.

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Spherical glass lens concentrates sunlight by up to 10,000 times, boosts solar cell efficiency originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/28/spherical-glass-lens-solar-energy-generator/

Twitter removes client sourcing for tweets on the web

It might be polite to include a “via” or “h/t” in your tweets that contain information gleaned from other users, but don’t think Twitter will provide that same courtesy to tweets that are delivered by its third-party developers.

Twitter has now removed sourcing on individual tweets accessed on the web that used to indicate which clients or apps were used to publish the tweet, such as Twitter for iPhone, the web, or Tweetbot for iOS. A Twitter spokesperson said the change, which had already been implemented on mobile, is to “simplify” the information being presented, but it comes as Twitter cracks down on external use of its API by third-party developers.

“This is new on web and was already the case on mobile,” said Carolyn Penner, a spokeswoman for Twitter. “This is part of our ongoing work to simplify tweets and emphasize the content being shared.”

This summer, a firestorm between Twitter and developers erupted as Twitter worked to limit the influence of third-party developers using its API and monetize its product. Right now even the smallest of changes, such as the removal of tweet sourcing, is seen by many developers as evidence of Twitter’s increasing control over the product.

If you're making a Twitter client or anything else based on Twitter's API, please stop now. It will only be more painful later.—
chris dixon (@cdixon) August 27, 2012

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr user Rosaura Ochoa


from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/08/27/twitter-removes-client-sourcing-for-tweets-on-th...

20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week


After Shark Week and the Olympics, television finally had a chance to catch its breath. Social engagement numbers weren’t as high as weeks past, but viewers nonetheless gravitated toward some of the old favorites. SpongeBob, Family Guy and The Simpsons took a commanding animated lead, with combined social media mentions over 1.3 million. And we’re [...]

More About: Entertainment, Social Media, TV, Trendrr, infographics, social tv, social tv charts

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/08/27/social-media-tv-chart-8-27/?utm_source=feedbur...

Is Twitter good or bad for political journalism?

With the Republican National Convention getting underway in Florida this week, the volume of political coverage is likely to explode, and therefore so is the volume of posts to Twitter and other social networks — something that was much more of a niche phenomenon during the last election campaign in 2008. While posting to Twitter was commonplace on the various candidate buses and at political events at that time, a political reporter for BuzzFeed says “now Twitter is the bus.” As a recent post at Politico noted, the hyper-connected and real-time nature of the political cycle now means that stories can emerge and get circulated almost everywhere with lightning speed, and that has changed the nature of the game. But is it good or bad for journalism?

The Politico piece, about an incident on Friday involving presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, calls it the “21-minute news cycle.” As Dylan Byers describes it, Romney made a comment at a campaign stop in Michigan about how no one had ever asked him for his birth certificate — a crack that appeared to refer to the controversial “birther” debate over where President Barack Obama was born. Within a matter of seconds, a reporter attending the event had posted the remark to Twitter, where it was then retweeted hundreds of times over the next few minutes (according to data Politico got from the Twitter-analytics service Topsy).

Political brush fires can erupt within minutes

Several minutes later, Politico and BuzzFeed had both posted items on it making the connection to the “birther” debate, and BuzzFeed had posted a video to YouTube of Romney making the statement. Within minutes, the Romney campaign had issued a comment saying the remark was taken out of context and that the candidate did not mean to dredge up the birth certificate issue again — a statement that was followed quickly by one from the Obama camp, which accused Romney of doing exactly that. Over the next few hours the news made its way to TV news shows and elsewhere, but most of the heat from the incident had more or less died down by the end of the day, and Byers noted that the event is a perfect example of how things have changed:

“Four years ago, the fallout from a controversial remark would have taken hours, if not a full day, to unfold. In 2012, social media, which enables reporters to file in real-time and puts increased pressure on campaigns to speed up their response time, has brought the pace of the news cycle down to a matter of minutes and seconds. The ‘one-day story’ — itself an archaic term in the 21st century — has become the one-hour story.”

This phenomenon is something we discussed at the paidContent 2012 conference in New York earlier this year, during a panel that I moderated with Vivian Schiller of NBC News and Josh Marshall of the political blog network Talking Points Memo. As Marshall described it, social media — including blogs such as his, which started the process that was later accelerated by Twitter and Facebook — have not only sped up the news cycle but have added new “vectors” that political analysts of all kinds have to take account of. In other words, instead of just paying attention to the New York Times and one or two political talk shows, everyone has to pay attention to Twitter as well, and to new sources of political content such as BuzzFeed and Huffington Post.

virus signYou could argue that the tendency for inconsequential or even irrelevant incidents to get blown out of proportion has increased thanks to Twitter and the appearance of “viral content” sites like BuzzFeed (which has been making a big push into the political sphere since it hired former Politico writer Ben Smith) and that is probably true. But then, such incidents also got blown out of proportion by television talk shows and news programs and newspaper columnists before blogs and Twitter and Facebook came along. In many ways, all those tools have done is speed up and enhance a process that has been underway for decades.

Irrelevant stories also burn out faster

During our conversation in June about social media and political coverage, Schiller also argued that the speed with which Twitter and other networks operate can be beneficial as well — since it can help defuse or tamp down an incorrect or ridiculous report that might otherwise have taken hours or even days to disprove through traditional media channels. As Byers noted in his story, the Romney comment might have turned into a multiple-day issue, as newspapers picked it up and it worked its way through the usual sources of political commentary, but instead it was mostly out of gas within a few hours. As reporter Sasha Issenberg put it:

“These little stories catch fire on Twitter more quickly than they did even with bloggers in 2008, but it also means that they burn out faster.”

There’s another element of Twitter and social media that could be beneficial during an election campaign, and that is the way that such tools allow for sources directly connected to events to comment and affect the news flow — something that could help alleviate the “pack journalism” effect that Jeff Jarvis and others have complained about, in which thousands of reporters congregate at a single event and repeat the same kinds of information over and over. Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci has written about how social media can be an effective tool to combat this phenomenon during events such as the “Arab Spring” revolutions in Egypt and elsewhere, because it allows other non-traditional sources to become part of the narrative.

This phenomenon of having “the sources go direct,” as blogging pioneer Dave Winer has described it, is probably one of the biggest disruptive effects that Twitter has introduced into political journalism — and its impact, both positive and negative, is only going to become more obvious as the nation gets closer to the election. Whether it is primarily good or bad depends a lot on your perspective. Is it bad because there is more sound and fury that signifies nothing, or is it good because irrelevant stories burn themselves out more quickly and the sources of information have become broader?

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr users See-ming Lee and Nils Geylen


from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/08/27/is-twitter-good-or-bad-for-political-journalism/...

Where to watch the Republican National Convention live online

The election season is getting into high gear with this week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., where Mitt Romney is expected to become the party’s official presidential candidate. News networks will have a close eye on the event, but real political junkies will watch the entire event unfold live online, where numerous websites are providing live streams, video chats and fact-checking commentary.

The convention officially started Monday, but most of the scheduled program was postponed because of Hurricane Isaac. The convention is scheduled to end on Thursday, and an updated schedule of the program is available on the GOP’s website,

Check out our ultimate guide to following the RNC online:

We will update this list as other streams, sites and apps become available, so check back frequently throughout this week.


from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/video/republican-national-convention-live-stream/?utm_sourc...

Facebook and CNN Launch Hub for Election Insights


Social media, meet broadcast media. Facebook and CNN have teamed up to launch a new tool Monday that tracks buzz on the world's largest social network in the lead-up to November's 2012 presidential election.

The tool, which lives at CNN.com/FBInsights, displays a slick layout of maps, charts and other visualizations to show how many people are talking about President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as Republication candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. You can then sort the analysis by state, gender, region and time period.

The data hub uses Facebook's Page Insights tool and its "People Talking About This" measurement combined with mentions across the social networ…
Continue reading...

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, cnn


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/08/27/facebook-cnn-election-insights/?utm_source=fee...

Why I think Evernote CEO Phil Libin is underrated

Evernote, the digital locker software, is an unlikely success story in Silicon Valley. Last week at the Evernote Trunk Conference, its annual developer lovefest in San Francisco, the company announced that it has around 40 million users. The company had about 25 million users when it announced a $70 million funding round in May 2012. That is some nifty growth.

It doesn’t have the sizzle of companies like Twitter and Instagram. It lacks the presence of Box.net. It makes up all that with a methodical approach to business that has made it a quiet success story. It has steadily grown its sales and it has boosted is user base. It has over 200 employees who are based out of its offices on Highway 101 in the heart of  Silicon Valley. Evernote has its legions of fans that continue to grow despite increased competition from others. And a lot has to do with the company’s CEO – Phil Libin.

Evernote CEO Phil Libin

Libin, at his conference this past Friday said that he wants to have a billion users. That momentary lapse of reason from Libin aside, I remain a fan of Evernote and Libin. The software (and the service) sits on my multitude of devices and browsers — a key reason for its success — and it benefits from what I call outsourcing-not-so-important data from your cortex. If I use Instapaper as my web DVR, then Evernote is my digital research repository.

The Freemium Story

It is the poster child of the post-mobile Freemium company: like MLB and Netflix, it is available on pretty much every platform, making using Evernote frictionless. What Libin and his crew have done right: they have understood that theirs is a service and the more people use it, the more they will pay for it. And in order for getting them to use Evernote more often, they had to create end points such as apps and browser extensions in order to keep growing.

Of course, in this quest for boosting usage, the company has worked hard on attracting developers and rolling out new applications on top of Evernote. I am not sure if I care much for these new add-ons: for me their basic functionality of clip-and-store is still the key. Even the applications on iOS have started to feel bloated. But that is just a minor quibble in what I find is a useful service. (I mean how else would I keep track of dozens of iPad covers I find on the web for a future story. ;-) )

I spent time with Libin when he took over as the CEO of the company – long before the company had raised millions of dollars and had found fawning fans on Sandhill Road. In his forties, Libin is a programmer-turned manager and has a long history in the software business. He came across as a thoughtful fellow with a clear and concise plan. At the Startupnomics conference over the weekend, he shared with the attendees that Evernote had a six year plan and they are focusing on one thing every year.

The Six Year Plan

For instance, the company focused on growth in 2009. In 2010 it was variable cost management. A year later, it was focus on getting people to come back regularly. For 2012 the focus is on getting people to engage more with the service. Next year, the Evernote focus is on converting people to paying customers and then ratcheting up the profit machine.

So far, Evernote is humming along according to plan. The latest engagement boosting technique: a partnership with paper notebook maker Moleskine and launching a Moleskine notebook. Scribble your notes in the note book and use the phone camera to snap pages and load them to Evernote. This is actually more fun than it sounds.

More than the products, Libin has developed a great culture at his company. When I was reading his interview with the New York Times, I was struck by the similarities in our two companies, including  our approach to technology. There is one little thing he said that to me is the sign of a great CEO

The most important baseline skill for any position is communication. We want you to be able to explain what you mean; we want you to be articulate. That cuts out a lot of people, because a lot of people are probably pretty good technically, but if you don’t have excellent communication skills it’s going to be very frustrating for you and for other people. Other than that, then there’s just a core set of skills for the position.

This little insight tells everything about the company – open, clear and concise communication means that you are always managing expectations, another one of Libin’s management philosophies. From those close to Libin say that those two qualities have earned him a lot of room from his investors who know that he is going to come through.

At end of 2012, the company is going to launch Evernote Business with focus on companies big and small. It would obviously allow the company to charge more money and offer more features including the all important: control to the administrators. The company desperately needs to grow its revenue base if it wants to go public. Evernote is rumored to have over a million premium customers. This corporate-market focused products can quickly add to the sales — Evernote for Business is going to be launched in December 2012 and will cost $10 per user per month. All that, is part of Libin’s plan.


from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/08/27/evernote-ceo-phil-libin/?utm_source=feedburner&u...

Daily iPhone App: Bridge Call Dialer speeds conference calling

As much as we love the multitasker flexibility of the iPhone, there are situations where you might find it slightly inconvenient to have your email, notepad, address book and phone all stacked atop one another on a touchscreen. Most business professionals experience one of those situations on a regular basis: the simple (or not so simple) conference call.

Sure, if your meeting host is using an integrated service that supports iOS directly (WebEx, GoToMeeting, Fuze Meeting etc.) then it's one-button easy to join the call via VoIP or a callback. But most of the time, you'll find yourself jotting down a bridge number and PIN on a piece of paper, or switching between apps hastily to memorize the access code before the voice prompt times out. Not ideal.

That's why I'm so fond of AHUB's $1.99 iPhone utility Bridge Call Dialer. The feature list is brief and the interface utilitarian (at best), but what it does it does oh so well. If you've got a calendar appointment with a conference call number listed, pop open BCD and it will scan through the event description.

Tap once to enter the bridge number, again to capture the PIN, and then tap "call." Watch, pleasantly relaxed, as BCD hands off the dial string to the Phone app, complete with pauses and octothorpes, to join you to the conference.

The current version of BCD lets you save one-click "frequent calls" detail so you can quickly rejoin a regularly scheduled phone meeting. You can also associate a conference call number and PIN with a particular iPhone contact; that way, whenever that person sends you a meeting invite, their conference info will be prepopulated automatically.

New in BCD 3.0 is the ability to specify a VoIP app to handle calls selectively (on WiFi or when they're internal PBX calls), rather than using the iPhone's built-in phone. Configuring your VoIP tool in BCD requires that the dialing app support a URL scheme to hand off the number, which not all apps do; Talkatone is explicitly supported, and it looks like Acrobits SIP, Line2 and the open-source Siphon all have the ability to take a call handoff. I'd love to try it with Skype or Bria, which are my go-to apps for calls, but it may take some tweaking.

The next time you reach for a pen and paper before a conference call, consider a $2 investment in streamlining your day and treat yourself to a license for BCD.

Daily iPhone App: Bridge Call Dialer speeds conference calling originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2012/08/27/daily-iphone-app-bridge-call-dialer-speeds-con...

2 Maps to Make You Stop Comparing Boston to NYC or Silicon Valley

Having grown up in New Jersey and lived in D.C. and then Boston, I used to think I’d really expanded my horizons by not ending up in New York like a lot of people I’d grown up with. That is, until I read Richard Florida’s book Who’s Your City in which he introduces the concept of “Mega-Regions.” More on that in a second.

First, check out this map of venture capital investments and startups by The Atlantic Cities (which Florida edits):

If your natural inclination is to compare Boston to New York or San Francisco, I want to suggest a different comparison. What if you looked at Boston, New York, and D.C. as a single entity and compared that to San Francisco? By that metric the Northeast still lags in VC dollars and total startups, but we’re ahead in number of companies that scored investment in 2011.

My point isn’t to score some sad, partial win against the valley, but to consider for a second Florida’s mega-region concept. He and his team map the regions using satellite images of the planet at night, where light functions as a proxy for contiguous economic activity. Here’s the map:

When I saw this map for the first time, I realized that for all my moves, I’d never really lived outside of the one mega-region in which I was born and raised. That was sad for me.

But the mega-region paradigm is, I think, useful in the context of startups and innovation. Yes, Boston VC’s are increasingly investing in New York (truer in sectors like internet than in others) but I still view the competition between cities as unwise.

Boston is one of a few major hubs in one of the most innovative and economically productive regions on the planet. So the next time someone asks you about Boston vs. New York or Boston vs. Silicon Valley, tell them you’re bullish on the BOS-WAS corridor.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/08/27/2-maps-to-make-you-stop-comparing-boston-to-ny...