A few names of interest to me have been busy.  First, Shai Agassi and the Better Place folks are at it again (or still) – this time in Japan.  A page on the Better Place website contains more info than I would care to write and some great videos and photos.  So, have a look here: http://www.betterplace.com/global-progress/japan.  To summarize, Better Place has opened a battery-switch station in Tokyo, currently for the exclusive use of taxis.  The claim is that, since taxis account for about 20% of tailpipe emissions, then converting ALL of the cities taxis will take a nice big bite out of future contribution to pollution in the city.  I have a feeling that Shai’s friend Mr. Ghosn (Nissan) may have played a major role in making this a reality.

Maybe the New York cabbies would be a good target.  Although, I think that Shai should probably speak to Hydro Quebec first. (Local humour)

Next on my list is Burlington Hydro.  They are running the GridSmartCity (http://bit.ly/GridSmartCity) project that was a secret to me until I stumbled upon it via one of my many Twitter followees (those I follow).  One of my earlier EV posts mentions the fact that I have family in Burlington (Ontario, Canada), so you must know that I’ll have to have a word with my dad about keeping me in the dark on this one.  Again, I’ll summarize.  GridSmartCity aims to collect and analyze data for projects in Green Energy, Energy Conservation, Renewable Energy and Smart Grid initiatives.  One study that has taken off this April is the Pure Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project, which will study the use of electric vehicles in commercial fleet applications.

Meanwhile, I am getting a charge (oooh, pardon me) out of the “data” presented in some of the promotional materials.  For those pushing plug-in technology, a full charge can be as fast as half an hour.  For Better Place, pushing their battery-switching system, a charge can take from three to six hours (a battery-switch is faster than a gas fill-up).

In other environmentally friendly auto news, Carlos Ghosn (him again?) has teamed up his Renault-Nissan Alliance with Daimler in an effort to revitalize the Smart brand.

During the week of April 19, Nissan (more Ghosn?) started taking US orders for the all-electric Leaf.  Orders beat expectations, totally over 6,600 in the first week.

There have also been some positive news items recently about advances in battery technology, thanks in no small part to the bright folks at MIT.  Nanotech seems to be at the forefront of the latest breakthroughs.  I found an interesting website, http://www.nanotechproject.org, which keeps tabs on products that make use of Nanotech.  It’s not specifically related to electric vehicles, but worthy of note, I believe.

Well, I’m getting off-topic.  So, I’ll end it here for today.  With the World Cup starting in just over a month (June 11), I plan to post some thoughts about “the beautiful game” shortly.

On one topic or another, there’s more to come…

A really interesting aspect of Shai Agassi’s business model is that it closely resembles that of cellular service providers.  So, in the same way that your level of commitment to your cellular provider (contract term) reduces the price of the phone, your commitment to Better Place (total miles or miles-per-year) reduces the price of the car, since you don’t own the battery.

Ever the cynic, I’m still trying to see where this might fall apart.  The one thing that may not work so well is the branding.  If Better Place want other car makers to come on board, the gazillion dollar auto marketing machine will have to seriously retool.  Think about it.  When was the last time you saw a TV ad for Motorola cell phones?

Actually with the current recall catastrophe(s), the shoe may be on the other foot for Toyota.

I’ll be watching for the solution to this as Better Place progress with their wooing of the giants.  Nissan-Renault aren’t small potatoes.  So, Shai and co. are in good company.

It would seem that, over the past twenty years, we have seen an exponential rise in telecommuting.  Although some entrepreneurs have taken on the challenge of exploiting this trend, we don’t really NEED much in order to work from home.  Network services, specifically VPNs, have become more popular on the employer’s side.  For the home, adequate Internet access speeds have already become affordable to pretty much anyone with regular employment.

This trend could greatly decrease automotive traffic and the various impacts it has on our environment and our lives.  The idea of having an extra hour or more, every day, to use any way we wish can be a compelling argument for telework.  We are well aware of the health benefits of avoiding the stress of rush hour traffic.  Most of us have felt it at some point in our lives.  Even for those who plan well and who don’t mind the sluggish pace and occasional freeway parking lots, stress can come from excess delays that inevitably cause late arrivals, or even missed appointments.  And think of the quality of the air we breathe during a rush hour commute.  No wonder many of us arrive at the office “exhausted”.

But an individual, sitting at home, alone, day after day, can feel isolated.  Most of us need social interaction – a coffee break with conversation, or a little social gathering around the proverbial water cooler.

I believe that there is plenty of room here to explore speculative opportunities in real estate or office leasing and management.  There are “Telecommuting centers” or “Remote office centers” popping up here and there and I believe that these ought to become much more popular.  I also see the future of large suburban condo tower development going this way, with several floors of apartment/condos; perhaps a couple of floors of efficiency hotel rooms, a gym/spa/shower facility and at least one or two floors of office space.  Of course, a significant portion of the available parking space would be equipped for bicycles and plenty would be reserved for the ubiquitous, uber-compact “city cars”.

Although these centers may not have quite the cost benefits of individuals’ homes, the isolation factor may be detrimental to morale – a reverse of one of the desired effects of telecommuting.  One would imagine that the placement of these centers outside of urban areas would allow a square-foot cost benefit.

But why am I not seeing more of this kind of development?  I am either completely out of touch with the development that’s actually happening, I have overestimated the telework trend, or I have misjudged the requirements.

As usual, time will tell.  Stay tuned…

I’m sure that most people understand this resistance, but I’ll just use a personal perspective to make the point.  About once a year, my wife and I, along with our two boys, drive from our home in Montreal to my father’s place just west of Toronto, some 600 kilometres (375 miles).  It takes about six to seven hours, including a stop for a meal and gas.  On average, existing electric technologies would require that I stop three or four times to recharge, for a few hours each time, making the trip take 15 hours or more.  And that’s assuming that I would be able to maintain the same average speed of 110kph (65mph).  This does not take into account the potential delays caused by legal issues related to “stealing” electricity, since recharging stations don’t yet exist along the highway between Montreal and Toronto.  To say the least, this would be something of an inconvenience.

So, a few years ago, along comes Better Place, with its CEO and EV evangelist, Shai Agassi.  His solution is not so much a car (nine Better Place models are being manufactured by the Renault-Nissan alliance, which is run by this fascinating character: http://bit.ly/c24Oed, but that’s another story).  Agassi’s idea, which is currently being implemented in Denmark and Israel, is more about an infrastructure of battery replacement points, called “switch stations”.  For long drives (over 120 miles), one would use a switch station to “switch” their low battery for a fully charged one – in and out in only two minutes.

Naturally, Agassi is passionate about his project and seizes any opportunity to get the message out.  He is featured on TED (http://bit.ly/2XO6C) and has been interviewed by most of your favourite news sources.  Links to interviews, as well as some marketing videos, can be found on the Better Place website, http://www.betterplace.com.  The company also has a Twitter account that you can follow (http://twitter.com/btrplc).

Although Better Place is not yet doing business in North America, Nissan do produce the Leaf (http://bit.ly/4lviqL), a pure EV, which is slated for launch in late 2010 in Japan, the United States and Europe.

As a little further reading on the subject, I discovered this page (http://bit.ly/9JzMlI) listing several upcoming, current and past electric vehicles.

I have mentioned flexible displays in a couple of my recent posts.  Now, I am seeing two other technologies, one of which will almost certainly converge with flexible displays.  Thin polymer film touch screen technology is now available in a kind of peel-n-stick product.  Aside from its natural application as a “touch” overlay for on-screen document mark-up or “hands-on” marketing, I see great potential for this stuff in combination with flexible displays.  Wired did a piece on the new product from Displax, here: http://bit.ly/aR0zxi.

The second technology, which is perhaps less likely to converge with flexible displays, is liquid glass.  This stuff can be sprayed onto most any surface at a thickness of 1/1000 of an inch.  The Telegraph published an article this Monday, which you can read here: http://bit.ly/dBDPKo.

It seems that, yet again, a little research can provide a wealth of info.  I have to give credit to Google (duh!), Twitter and AllTop as sources.

I have found that E-Ink, http://bit.ly/gapTz, who are currently making news as a supplier to Tablet and e-reader manufacturers, have been working on flexible display technology since 2000.  Also, Technology Review has just today published an article on “Roll-to-Roll Plastic Displays” here: http://bit.ly/d42a53.

So, this technology is coming along nicely.  However, at this point, as TR points out, the biggest hurdle is consistency in production.  The manufacturing technology isn’t up to the level required to mass produce quality displays.  If you’re into the details, Tech Radar ran a story last March http://bit.ly/19nV3l that provides a little more info on a process called SAIL (also mentioned in the TR article), in which HP uses a product from Phicot.

My take on all of this news is basically pure joy.  I am very pleased to see these companies currently producing “simpler” products (e-readers) and thereby garnering public attention and producing revenue and, hopefully, some profits.  This bodes well for future development of products that interest me personally.  For example, if you checked the link above, you may have seen that E-Ink has an artist’s concept of a roll-up unit, measuring about ¾” x 7” (about the size of a Churchill cigar).  It appears to be designed to clip onto the proverbial pocket protector (after all, it will begin life as a pure geek play).  My vision of this product is not a simple e-reader, but rather what we all have come to know as a portable computer, with all of its Swiss army knife capabilities.

Time will surely tell.  Stay tuned…

Yet another of my fantasy gadgets, flexible e-paper from LG, should see the light of day this summer: http://bit.ly/6sKSNJ

I have said for some time that technology like this, a flexible screen that can be rolled up, will be key to the future of mobile computing.  Obviously, a rolling screen is easier to manufacture (currently) than one that can be folded.  So, I believe that the clamshell device (smartbook, Netbook), or a tablet, will be the closest we’ll see to any kind of full-featured device.

For now, LG appears to be planning to produce this product strictly as an e-reader.  Undoubtedly, their future plans will include more advanced functions.  Stay tuned… and hang onto something, the train is moving fast.

Eureka !!!

It seems as though MSI has the right idea, and in two sizes, apparently.  The dual screen clamshell exists (or will soon).

IMHO, the dual 10-inch model is a bit large.  This model is covered here: http://bit.ly/5rctKb (Engadget).

However, the dual 7-inch version ought to be juuuuuust right.  Check out the Engadget report here: http://bit.ly/5tbpVq.

I think I’m in love.

Posted via email from Canolli’s Tavern

Hi again,

As promised, my impressions of the Posterous results in Twitter and Facebook… fan-freakin-tastic!!  In Facebook, the optional Posterous tab displays a live version of the post.  I tested it by modifying the text on the Posterous site and it updated on Facebook immediately.  That works!  A short entry, with a shortened URL to the post at Posterous, appears on Twitter.  Nice and clean.

My recent Googling and not-so-random surfing have turned up some interesting items.  Some folks are getting close to my sweet-spot.  For example, Lenovo promises a Netbook/Tablet hybrid sometime this summer.  Take a peek here: http://bit.ly/dAteaI.

Also, I feel reassured, knowing that I am not alone in my preference for an as-yet-only-imagined product with dual-screen clamshell design.  Check out another who dreams of such things here: http://bit.ly/aDYNko

The search continues…

Posted via email from Canolli’s Tavern

Hi Folks.

Glad you could drop by and check out my very first Posterous entry (on WordPress).  I decided on Posterous, out of the panoply of blog services, for two reasons: first because you create the post in email (does the word “draft” mean anything to you?) and secondly, because it’s designed to interact with most of those popular services (the panoply, remember?).

I’m most curious to see how this works with Twitter and Facebook.  My second post should contain my impressions of those results.

Well, if I’m gonna write/blog/post, I should have something to say.  Today is the day after the launch of Apple’s much anticipated tablet, the iPad.  It seems to be getting mixed reviews.  However, it would certainly appear that the reaction is more positive than negative.  The usual fanfare of an Apple product launch has set the level of anticipation quite high.  So, you might expect some disappointment once the reality settles out of the hype.

My take on it: nice first version (six models) and pricing seems quite reasonable.  I love the idea of the tablet, but feel safer with a clamshell design (ie: netbook).  Protective cases are available, as is a keyboard.  So, assuming that these accessories are also reasonably priced, one’s total purchase should be acceptable for many early adopters.

I say “first version” and “early adopters”, but these don’t entirely apply to the iPad.  It is, after all, just a modified iPhone, which is now an established (and uber-popular) product. The iPad runs on the iPhone OS.  So, it leverages (Bingo!) the existing range of iPhone apps.  Smart move guys.  It’s cute (read: Apple) and fits a nice product niche between (and overlapping) the iPhone/iPod and a netbook.  The touch screen works well and is beautifully crisp and clear (again, read: Apple).

On the downside: camera is optional, keyboard is optional, no multitasking, no Flash (are you kidding!? Hello!), no drag-n-drop file management, no standard USB (uses iPhone/iPod - USB/sync cable), no memory card slot, video out limited to VGA (via optional VGA dock), limited GPS functionality (none at all on non-cellular models).

In an nutshell, it really is a first version in its category (Apple’s first “tablet computer”).  So, not being an early adopter, but loving the category and being a big fan of Apple’s quality and design, I will wait for a future generation.  Meanwhile, I’ll be keeping my eyes on the contenders to see who hits closer to my sweet spot (really prefer the clamshell – maybe with screens in both halves – you never know).

Thanks for reading.

Posted via email from Canolli’s Tavern