dv-depot.com » Free Trial http://www.dv-depot.com The best in Gadgets & Tech Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:14:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Hands-on video with Tesla’s electric Model X http://www.dv-depot.com/87187/hands-on-video-with-tesla%e2%80%99s-electric-model-x/ http://www.dv-depot.com/87187/hands-on-video-with-tesla%e2%80%99s-electric-model-x/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:14:20 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/87187/hands-on-video-with-tesla%e2%80%99s-electric-model-x/ Tesla unveiled its third electric car the Model X, an electric SUV/minivan hybrid, during a sneak preview at its design studio in Hawthorne, California on Thursday. We took GigaOM TV’s Green Overdrive show down to the event and got this first hands-on video with the car and an interview with Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk. Check it out:



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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/87187/hands-on-video-with-tesla%e2%80%99s-electric-model-x/feed/ 0 Survey: Weigh in on the Honeywell-Nest lawsuit http://www.dv-depot.com/87144/survey-weigh-in-on-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/ http://www.dv-depot.com/87144/survey-weigh-in-on-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:14:26 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/87144/survey-weigh-in-on-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/ The news on Monday that thermostat giant Honeywell slapped startup Nest with a lawsuit for patent infringement throws an unexpected wrinkle in the landscape of the smart thermostat this year. These connected energy devices — often overlooked but finally getting some attention in 2012 — have been poised to be a gateway into the connected home, working with mobile phones, utility meters, and heating and cooling systems. Honeywell’s lawsuit, which you can read more about here, claims that “many features of the Nest Thermostat infringe Honeywell patents.”

How might this new lawsuit impact the growth of the overall smart thermostat market? We want you, GigaOM readers, to weigh in below, and we’ll release all the details of the survey in a research note.

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  • Let the battle for the smart thermostat begin
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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/87144/survey-weigh-in-on-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/feed/ 0 How to charge the Volt with clean power http://www.dv-depot.com/86979/how-to-charge-the-volt-with-clean-power/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86979/how-to-charge-the-volt-with-clean-power/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:14:22 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86979/how-to-charge-the-volt-with-clean-power/ GM’s communications service OnStar could some day enable owners of GM’s electric car the Volt to charge their cars primarily with any available clean power. OnStar says it’s partnered with grid wholesale operator PJM Interconnection to test out a service that receives a signal for how much solar or wind power is available when a Volt is charging.

OnStar could grab that clean power signal and deliver it to the electric car owner via a dashboard or mobile app and enable the car owner to decide when to charge the car. OnStar says Google is testing out the tech on 17 of its Volts at its headquarters. OnStar is showing off the tech at the DistribuTECH show in San Antonio, Texas this week and I got a brief glimpse of the tech at the booth.

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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86979/how-to-charge-the-volt-with-clean-power/feed/ 0 Nice work web! More than 13M of y’all fought SOPA http://www.dv-depot.com/86907/nice-work-web-more-than-13m-of-y%e2%80%99all-fought-sopa/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86907/nice-work-web-more-than-13m-of-y%e2%80%99all-fought-sopa/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:14:20 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86907/nice-work-web-more-than-13m-of-y%e2%80%99all-fought-sopa/

SOPA protests in New York

On Wednesday, the web went wild (or dark) and more than 13 million people protested the potential passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its companion bill in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Fight for the Future, an organization created to organize the online protests, offered some stats today to show exactly how wild things got. Here’s the organization’s breakdown of activism by the numbers, in infographic form:

The results were impressive. More than a third of U.S. senators are opposed to PIPA in its current form ahead of the vote on the bill next week — 36 are opposed, including 5 who were formerly co-sponsors. And as the Senate votes on PIPA next Tuesday, those 13 million are invited to watch the live stream and by submitting their stories on how they use the Internet to be read by Senators who have pledged to filibuster the bill. Go, online activism.

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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86907/nice-work-web-more-than-13m-of-y%e2%80%99all-fought-sopa/feed/ 0 Infographic: Linux lovers love big data http://www.dv-depot.com/86898/infographic-linux-lovers-love-big-data/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86898/infographic-linux-lovers-love-big-data/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:14:21 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86898/infographic-linux-lovers-love-big-data/ For anyone thinking the big data trend is a flash in the pan, some new evidence to the contrary. A hefty 75 percent of IT pros and developers responding to a new Linux Foundation survey have their eye firmly on this big data phenomenon.

More than three-quarters of the 428 respondents “expressed concern” about big data and nearly 72 percent (unsurprisingly) said they will use Linux to support big data applications.  The respondents, while biased towards Linux — this is the Linux Foundation after all – do not work in a vacuum. A respectable 35.9 percent said they plan to use Windows to meet their big data needs.

The survey queried IT/IS people and developers in organizations with 0 million or more in annual revenue and 500 or more employees.  Just less than half  (41.6 percent) of the respondents are based in the U.S. or Canada.

For more of the data, scroll on.

Feature photo courtesy of scoobygirl

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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86898/infographic-linux-lovers-love-big-data/feed/ 0 Tesla plans to unveil electric Model X SUV in February http://www.dv-depot.com/86730/tesla-plans-to-unveil-electric-model-x-suv-in-february/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86730/tesla-plans-to-unveil-electric-model-x-suv-in-february/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:14:21 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86730/tesla-plans-to-unveil-electric-model-x-suv-in-february/ In the latest of our New Year’s resolutions series, I chatted with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about his goals and resolutions for 2012. While most of his efforts will be on getting the company’s electric sedan, the Model S, to the first customers in July, Musk told me that Tesla plans to unveil the Model X — its third car, which is an electric SUV — at an event on February 9th.

Musk says in our interview that he thinks the Model X “will be very well received.” Tesla raised hundreds of millions of dollars in a second share sale last Summer partly to fund development of the Model X and last year Tesla said it was looking to bring the Model X to the first customers in late 2013, and would shoot for 15,000 units per year of the Model X starting in 2014.

To read the rest of Musk’s goals and resolutions for 2012, check out our New Year’s package.

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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86730/tesla-plans-to-unveil-electric-model-x-suv-in-february/feed/ 0 Verizon backs away from $2 convenience fee http://www.dv-depot.com/86671/verizon-backs-away-from-2-convenience-fee/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86671/verizon-backs-away-from-2-convenience-fee/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:14:23 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86671/verizon-backs-away-from-2-convenience-fee/ That didn’t take long. A day after Verizon confirmed it was going to charge for single credit and debit card payments online and over the phone, it backed down following a chorus of complaints online. This Internet thing works, apparently.

Verizon originally framed the convenience fee as a way to cover costs for single payments. It was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 15. But many, including my colleague Kevin Fitchard, saw the fee as a way to direct people to pay bills through their preferred channels including AutoPay, which is one of a number of payment methods that would not require a fee.

“At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time,” said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless.

Verizon may have been motivated by news that the Federal Communications Commission was also looking into the fee. “On behalf of American consumers, we’re concerned about Verizon’s actions and are looking into the matter,” the FCC said just hours before Verizon reversed course.

Verizon already has to deal with questions about recent LTE outages. And the fact that it was introducing a new fee that seemed to penalize its own customers did not go over well with consumers, some of whom brought up comparisons to Bank of America’s failed debit card fee.

It’s nice to see that Verizon was listening to consumers and reacted quickly to its overreach. But it should have known that a fee like this wouldn’t have gone over well. Score another one for the Internet.

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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86671/verizon-backs-away-from-2-convenience-fee/feed/ 0 Boxee releases new PC version – as a farewell gift http://www.dv-depot.com/86592/boxee-releases-new-pc-version-%e2%80%93-as-a-farewell-gift/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86592/boxee-releases-new-pc-version-%e2%80%93-as-a-farewell-gift/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:14:23 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86592/boxee-releases-new-pc-version-%e2%80%93-as-a-farewell-gift/ Boxee released version 1.5 of its software for Windows, Mac and Linux users Monday – but at the same time announced that it is moving away from supporting computers for its platform. The latest version, which comes with a completely revamped UI, is up to par with the upcoming 1.5 version of the Boxee Box, safe for the availability of some of its most poplar apps. Though there will be some big exceptions: PC users won’t be able to access content from Netflix, Vudu and Pandora due to DRM restricitions.

Boxee has always had a difficult relationship with PC users – the platform originated on Mac computers, but Boxee moved towards CE devices with the release of its Boxee Box more than a year ago. The company promised back then that it would release an updated version for PCs as well, but this took longer than expected, which led to some disgruntled reactions from users.

Boxee VP of Marketing Andrew Kippen explained to me today that today’s release is a way to make good on this promise. But the accompanying blog post is also making it very clear that the company won’t be supporting this platform going forward: The new 1.5 release for PCs will only be available for download until the end of January.

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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86592/boxee-releases-new-pc-version-%e2%80%93-as-a-farewell-gift/feed/ 0 Unboxing Nest’s learning thermostat http://www.dv-depot.com/86589/unboxing-nest%e2%80%99s-learning-thermostat/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86589/unboxing-nest%e2%80%99s-learning-thermostat/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:14:22 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86589/unboxing-nest%e2%80%99s-learning-thermostat/ The hottest item that you probably couldn’t get for Christmas this year was the Nest learning thermostat — the smart gadget has been sold out for weeks and you can’t get one until 2012. But I bought one a couple months ago for a Christmas present for my parents and the device finally showed up a couple days before the big day.

Since I was planning to give it as a present, I didn’t want to configure the device, but I did want to do a lil unboxing for y’all so you can see what it looks like and what you get inside. The packaging does remind me of Apple products (the creators designed the iPod and the iPhone), but the real test will come when we try to install the thermostat. I’m slightly worried about my parents tackling this project, but I’ll let you know how they fare in a couple weeks.



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]]> http://www.dv-depot.com/86589/unboxing-nest%e2%80%99s-learning-thermostat/feed/ 0 A visual history of mobiles: Past, present and future http://www.dv-depot.com/86485/a-visual-history-of-mobiles-past-present-and-future/ http://www.dv-depot.com/86485/a-visual-history-of-mobiles-past-present-and-future/#comments Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:14:21 +0000 shaun http://www.dv-depot.com/86485/a-visual-history-of-mobiles-past-present-and-future/ Sometimes I can’t help but think back to my first cellular phone back in the mid-1990′s. But the history of mobiles started a decade prior, when phones were beyond the means of most consumers. Now we have countries with more mobile subscriptions than people and the phone itself is used less and less for it’s original purpose: Voice calls.

This infographic, courtesy of Savings.com, brings together historical datapoints showing the decreasing cost and size of mobile devices, in conjunction with more capable hardware and services.

Interestingly, the “phone of the future” will support HD graphics, electronic payments and can be used as a game console. Galaxy Nexus owners are already living in the future then as the smartphone with its NFC chip can be used as wireless wallet, is great for watching HD videos and connects to console-quality game services in the cloud, such as OnLive, right now.

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