Battery maker Ener1, a DOE grant recipient, goes bankrupt

Electric car battery maker Ener1 filed for bankruptcy Thursday, three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

Ener1 (HEVV), which makes a variety of energy storage devices under different subsidiaries, is the parent company of EnerDel, the car battery division that received the government grant to help build a manufacturing plant in Indianapolis. Unlike bankrupt Solyndra, the advanced solar panel maker that became a lightning rod for critics of Obama's stimulus spending when it closed its factory and liquidated, Ener1 promised its business will proceed as usual.

The company said the "voluntarily initiated" bankruptcy filing won't impact any of its subsidiaries, including EnerDel.

"The restructuring will not adversely impact their employees, customers and suppliers," the company said in a press release, noting there will be no layoffs as a result of the action.

The company blamed the bankruptcy on a slower than expected demand for electric vehicles.

Making a battery to replace oil

Analysts have also said any electric car battery maker faces stiff competition from Asian firms, which are largely considered to be well ahead of the curve due to their long experience making batteries for electronics. Ener1 was thought to offer one of the best chances for an American company to compete in this field.

The company said that's still the case, and that the restructuring will allow it to reduce its debt and free up $81 million for capital spending.

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/26/technology/ener1_bankruptcy/index.htm

How Google keeps your secrets private

How does a company that collects so much information from its users keep all that data private?
Meet Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy.

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At the end of a miserable 2010 filled with privacy blunders including the disastrous Google Buzz fiasco, Google appointed Whitten to the position of privacy director. Since then, Whitten has instituted what she calls a "culture of privacy" at the company. So far it has been paying off.
Over the course of the past year, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) has released new privacy tools, put in place a multifaceted structure to ensure users' privacy, and built in fail-safes to make sure nothing falls between the cracks.
"We've made incredible progress on this over the past year," said Whitten in an interview with CNNMoney that took place last month. "We've built the car, and now we're just doing the tune-up."
As part of that tune-up, Google on Tuesday made the major announcement that it has streamlined its privacy policy. Instead of 70 policies across each of its products -- search, maps, Gmail, etc. -- Google will consolidate most of them into a single, shorter, privacy agreement. Whitten wrote in a blog post Tuesday that the move is designed to add clarity to Google's privacy stance.
Google has begun notifying its users of the changes. The company also began a massive publicity campaign this month, putting advertisements about privacy in major cities throughout the country.
The company is ramping up its privacy initiative as the Federal Trade Commission is keeping a watchful eye on the search giant. Last March, Google agreed to submit an independent privacy review to the government for the next 20 years after the company inadvertently revealed some users' e-mail contact lists to the public in its February 2010 release of the Buzz social network.

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/26/technology/google_privacy/index.htm

50 new tech tools you should know about

You may have dozens of apps on your phone and scores of websites bookmarked on your laptop, but that doesn't mean you have all the latest tech tools at your fingertips.
New mobile apps, services, social networks and other digital tools pop up so frequently that keeping up with them is a nearly impossible task. Just when you think you're up to date, something newer and hipper comes along.
But before you wave the white flag, let us help. Once again we have sorted through hundreds of new and emerging tech tools to bring you 50 of the most buzzworthy ones. (Last year's list can be found here.)
These apps and services can help you do everything from shooting better smartphone photos to cataloging your bottle-cap collection to finding the best pad Thai in your city. Not all of them are brand new, but we've probably listed some you haven't heard of. We hope you find them useful.
Which of your favorite new tech tools did we leave out? Let us know in the comments.
360 Panorama (99 cents): Want to enhance your smartphone landscape photos? Android users interested in capturing and sharing 360-degree panoramic photos should check out this app, the first true panoramic-photo app for the Android Market.
Alfred (free): It's a discovery tool for your palate! Alfred starts off with your location and asks you a few simple questions about restaurants you like to frequent. Then the magic happens and the eatery recommendations start flowing. Judging by my early experiences, this iOS app is uncanny at gauging your tastes.
App.bg (free): This Web tool allows users to easily pull up nearby Instagrams, Foursquare tips and tweets using a Google Map. It offers a somewhat crude yet effective layout, available on desktop and mobile platforms. (No mobile app yet, unfortunately.)
Autostitcher ($1.99): Another interesting piece of software for producing panoramic images on your iPhone. Does a very nice job with its stitching feature for a near seamless quality image and easy sharing with friends.
Can I Park Here ($1.99) Fewer things in life are more confusing that trying to decipher the parking signs around New York City. This new iPhone app allows users to photograph the parking sign for the area in question, then find out if they can park there and for how long. The app even has a timer that starts when the user parks and lets them know how much time they have left in that spot.
CardMunch (free): This mobile app for iOS from LinkedIn converts paper business cards into digital contacts. A new 3.0 update also offers LinkedIn integration for connecting with just one click. A must-have for conference-goers and business trippers.

Click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/25/tech/web/50-tech-tools/index.html

Super Bowl gets social-media command center

Super Bowl XLVI host city Indianapolis has concocted a new way to deal with the madness that comes with managing the world's biggest annual sporting event.
The solution? The Super Bowl's first-ever social media command center.
A team of strategists, analysts and techies will monitor the digital fan conversation via Facebook, Twitter and other platforms from a 2,800-square-foot space downtown. The station was set to open on Monday and run through Super Bowl XLVI on February 5.
The team will tweet directions to fans in search of parking, direct visitors to Indianapolis's best attractions, and stand by to provide information in case of a disaster.
"Social media is just how people interact now," said Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious, the digital marketing agency that the Super Bowl's host committee tapped to manage the communications hub. "We felt it was critical to have some horsepower behind that aspect of the Super Bowl here, versus what you might have seen from other Super Bowls."
Some 150,000 people are expected to flood into downtown Indianapolis -- where the game will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium -- over Super Bowl weekend.
Advanced search tools and analytics will help Jackson and his team identify fans in need of help by indexing key words and phrases. For example, a fan won't need to tweet, "where can I find parking?" to get help; Raidious operatives will be able to pick up on a general phrase such as "parking sucks" to offer assistance.

Click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tech/social-media/super-bowl-social-media-center/index.html

SOPA and PIPA postponed indefinitely after protests

When the entire Internet gets angry, Congress takes notice. Both the House and the Senate on Friday backed away from a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills, tossing them into limbo and throwing doubt on their future viability.
The Senate had been scheduled to hold a proceedural vote next week on whether to take up the Protect IP Act (PIPA) -- a bill that once had widespread, bipartisan support. But on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was postponing the vote "in light of recent events."

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Meanwhile, the House of Representatives said it is putting on hold its version of the bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The House will "postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said in a written statement.
The moves came after several lawmakers flipped their position on the bills in the wake of widespread online and offline protests against them.
Tech companies, who largely oppose the bills, mobilized their users this week to contact representatives and speak out against the legislation. Sites including Wikipedia and Reddit launched site blackouts on January 18, while protesters hit the streets in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) drew more than 7 million signatures for an anti-SOPA and PIPA petition that it linked on its highly trafficked homepage.
The tide turned soon after the protest, and both bills lost some of their Congressional backers.
"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns," Smith said Friday in a prepared statement. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves."

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/technology/SOPA_PIPA_postponed/index.htm

Anonymous strikes back after feds shut down piracy hub Megaupload

In one of the U.S. government's largest anti-piracy crackdowns ever, federal agents on Thursday arrested the leaders of and shut down Megaupload.com, a popular hub for illegal media downloads.
Hours later, Megaupload's fans turned the table on the feds. "Hacktivist" collective Anonymous said it set its sights on the U.S. Department of Justice and apparently knocked the agency's website offline.

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"We are having website problems, but we're not sure what it's from," a DOJ spokeswoman told CNNMoney.
The DOJ website glitches came soon after various Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous took aim at the agency.
Anonymous's favorite weapon for these attacks is what's called a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which directs a flood of traffic to a website and temporarily crashes it by overwhelming its servers. It doesn't actually involve any hacking or security breaches.
"One thing is certain: EXPECT US! #Megaupload" read one tweet from AnonOps that went out mid-afternoon.
One hour later, the same account tweeted a victory message: "Tango down! http://universalmusic.com & http://www.justice.gov// #Megaupload"
It was the largest attack ever by Anonymous, according to an Anonymous representative, with 5,635 people using a networking tool called a "low orbit ion cannon." A LOIC is software tool that aims a massive flood of traffic at a targeted side.

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/19/technology/megaupload_shutdown/index.htm

Smartphone prices slashed after CES

The holidays are over, and the slew of smartphone debuts at the Consumer Electronics Show have come and gone. It's now safe for retailers and carriers to start dropping prices on 2011 and early 2012 smartphone inventory, and that's great news for those looking for a good deal.
Since CES has ended, a number of smartphones are now available at very affordable prices. You'd be safe, nay, smart to pick up one of these options if you're looking to make the big switch from a feature phone to a smart device, or perhaps you recently bore witness to the death of your Droid in a wave of spilled beer.
If you're itching to try a Windows Phone for the first time, you're in luck. The Nokia Lumia 710 went on sale January 11 for a budget-friendly $50, and is now available for only a penny from Costco, with the purchase of a T-Mobile data plan (which can be had for as cheap as $50 a month). The 3.7-inch, more spec-ed out Lumia 800 hasn't had a U.S. launch date announced yet, and the new 4.3-inch Lumia 900 will land sometime "in the coming months," representatives said.
Motorola dropped the price of its ultra-thin 16GB Droid Razr from $300 to $200, with contract from Verizon. The cheaper price tag dumps the 16GB microSD that previously came bundled with the phone, but if you still need that extra storage, you can pick up your own microSD for around $10.


Click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/19/tech/mobile/smartphone-prices-slashed-after-ces/index.html

Why Google's new search might be illegal

There's nothing illegal about being so big that you dominate a market.
But when Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) unveiled a new feature last week called Search Plus Your World, some antitrust experts believe Google stepped over the line.

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Google's new feature risks abusing the company's dominant position in the search market to stifle competition from its rivals. That could be against the law.
"Google runs a very high risk of being found in violation of antitrust and competition laws," said Ted Henneberry, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's antitrust group. "The issue raised by Google's new announcement is how it potentially increases its dominance and furthers its discriminatory treatment of rivals."

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/18/technology/google_search/index.htm

A new breed of 4G phones emerges

The International Consumer Electronics Show, the giant gadget convention that wrapped up on Friday, has brought some frustrating news for AT&T or Sprint customers who bought a cutting-edge 4G smartphone last year.
That phone will soon be outdated.
AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel unveiled some of the first smartphones that will tap into their new, even faster fourth-generation networks.
But wait, Sprint has been talking about its 4G network since launching one in 2008 followed by its premier phone, HTC's Evo 4G, in 2010. And AT&T began adding "4G" to the names of many of its smartphones early last year.
Now, two of the largest U.S. cellular carriers are ramping up yet another 4G system. They will have LTE, or Long-term Evolution, to compete with the one Verizon Wireless launched more than a year ago.
T-Mobile USA says it has 4G, which is similar to AT&T's old 4G, but the carrier has not talked about plans for 4G LTE deployment. (Get all that?)
Since AT&T and Sprint have already exhausted their usage of 4G in marketing, it's unclear how they will explain to customers the major investments they've made to have the latest network technology.


Click to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/tech/mobile/4g-phones-ces/index.html

In the future, can you remain anonymous?

Face recognition and detection technology is becoming cheaper, faster, and much more commonplace, raising the question of whether people will be able to remain anonymous in the near future.
Digital signs and sensors that detect and recognize faces are no longer a matter of science fiction. They are real and are popping up everywhere from malls to bars to smartphones.

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So what's protecting you from Big Brother tracking your movements and invading your privacy? As of right now, technology is the only significant barrier.
Today, the technology is not quite robust enough to snap a photo of someone on the street and instantly know who they are. Computer processors aren't fast enough to scan across billions of images in real time to match an offline face to an online photograph. But that's coming soon.

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/13/technology/face_recognition/index.htm

First look at Nintendo's Wii U

Nintendo's Wii U is a next-generation gaming console that comes with a large touchscreen controller -- which changes how the games are played. CNNMoney got its hands on the highly anticipated device.
The demo took place at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At first glance, the Wii U console looks almost exactly like the original Wii.

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The difference lies in the special 9-inch-long controller, which gives the bearer -- let's call 'em the Wii God -- a bit of special power. This player can see things on the 6.2-inch touchscreen that their fellow gamers, equipped with regular controllers, see on the linked-up TV.
For example: In the "Chase Mii" demo game that CNNMoney tried, two to four players with regular controllers try to catch the player with the touchscreen.

Click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/12/technology/nintendo_wii_u/index.htm

Solar lamps replace toxic kerosene in poorest countries

When the sun goes down over large swathes of the developing world, the 1.3 billion people currently living without access to an electricity connection are plunged into darkness.
According to figures from the International Energy Agency, at least 20% of the planet's inhabitants are still without the simple luxury of a light-switch.
From the shantytowns of Sub-Saharan Africa to the sprawling slums of the Indian sub-continent, night-time brings with it a noxious ritual of candles, gas lamps and open fires.
"Fuel-powered light is dangerous, polluting, expensive and dim," says Dr Evan Mills, founder of the Lumina Project, an initiative that promotes low-carbon alternatives to fuel-based lighting in the developing world.
According to studies conducted by Mills and his colleagues at the Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California, this "dirty light" consumes 77 billion liters of fuel worldwide, costing its predominantly impoverished end-users a total of $38 billion annually.
And they don't call it dirty for nothing. If a single kerosene lantern burns for an average of four hours a day it emits over 100kg of CO2 a year, says Mills. "The combustion of fuel for lighting consequently results in 190 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to one-third the total emissions from the UK," he adds.

Click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/10/tech/innovation/solar-powered-led-lamps/index.html

iPhone celebrates fifth birthday -- How has it changed?

Gadget fans may be focused on the CES trade show this week, but there's something else notable going on today: It's the iPhone's fifth birthday.
Five years ago today, Apple unveiled the original iPhone to the world. It wasn't a tightly kept secret, shrouded in mystery and speculation like more recent Apple announcements, but it was arguably the world's most anticipated gadget launch.
Although its form factor -- a capacitive touchscreen candy bar -- hasn't dramatically changed over the years, each iteration of the iPhone has yielded important improvements. Let's take a look back at how the iPhone revolutionized what we thought a phone could be.

click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/09/tech/mobile/iphone-fifth-birthday/index.html

With Congress on break, SOPA fight continues

Members of Congress may be on vacation, but that hasn't calmed critics who say an effort to stamp out online piracy would create an unprecedented threat to free speech on the Internet.
Far from fading from memory, the Stop Online Piracy Act (along with a related Senate bill) has become a rallying point for Web freedom advocates in a debate that has pitted Hollywood and other business interests against some of the biggest titans of the technology world.
Interest in the debate spiked again this week when one of the bill's opponents suggested that online heavyweights such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter had considered a "nuclear option" -- temporarily shutting down their sites in protest -- to raise awareness about the bills, which await lawmakers when they return this month.
When contacted by CNN, none of those companies would confirm that such a drastic move had ever been considered. By Friday, the advocate whose comments had fueled the speculation appeared to back away from claims that a Web blackout was still likely to occur.
"Internet and technology companies will continue to educate policymakers and other stakeholders on the problems with the (legislation)," Markham Erickson, director of Web trade association NetCoalition, said in a statement. "An 'Internet blackout' would obviously be both drastic and unprecedented."

Click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/06/tech/web/sopa-web-piracy-act/index.html

Latest Apple iPhone to hit China on January 13

Apple on Wednesday announced that the latest version of its hot-selling iPhones will be released in China and 21 other countries on January 13.

"Customer response for our products in China has been off the charts," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a release.

"With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries making this our fastest iPhone rollout ever," he continued.

The new generational iPhone made its international debut in October of last year, shortly after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

click here to continue reading: http://news.yahoo.com/latest-apple-iphone-hit-china-january-13-101640606.html

Facebook seeks world champion hacker

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Think your programming skills are world class? Facebook wants you to prove it at its second annual Hacker Cup challenge.
"Hacking is core to how we build at Facebook," the company said in a blog post announcing this year's competition. "Whether we're building a prototype for a major product like Timeline at a Hackathon, creating a smarter search algorithm, or tearing down walls at our new headquarters, we're always hacking to find better ways to solve problems."

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Open to coders anywhere in the world, Facebook's competition pits participants against each other in five rounds of programming challenges. The first kicks off January 20 with a 72-hour qualification round. Three more online rounds will thin the field down to the final 25 competitors, who will be flown out to Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters for a final competition in March.
The winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize. Last year, nearly 12,000 programmers participated in the Hacker's Cup. Petr Mitrichev, a Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) employee from Russia, took home the top prize. (In a nicely ironic twist, Mitrichev wore his Google employee badge during the competition.)

click here to continue reading: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/04/technology/facebook_hacker_cup/index.htm

Social media resolutions for 2012

(CNN) -- 'Tis the season of fresh resolutions, still glittery with promise before time constraints, reality and your extreme laziness settle over them like a moist gray tarnish.
Looking back on 2011, we've dished up some social media advice that could very well stave off that sad day in early spring when you come across your scribbled-down "2012 GOALS," all multicolored highlighters and bubble letters, and weep softly.
So, whistles blaring, puffing with unusual optimism and pep, we, your resident netiquette drill sergeants, dispense the following tools to help you achieve your dreams in the big 1-2.

Click here to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/04/tech/social-media/2012-social-media-resolutions/index.html

4 big moves Google should make in 2012

(Mashable) -- In peeking ahead to predict what 2012 holds for Google, it's informative to look back at the eventful year it had. While one can't help but see the big product introductions -- a social network, a mobile-payment system, a music store -- it's the deletions that are much more interesting.
Google got rid of a host of unwieldy and barely used products and features in 2011. While Google regularly does "spring cleaning" to trim its vast portfolio, the projects scrapped this year were many, and most were originally intended to be major focuses of the company.
Just look at this partial list of the services killed or folded into larger projects: Buzz. Knol. Checkout. PowerMeter. Health. Wave. Even the company's well-meaning initiative to save the world from coal-fired power plants got tossed.

Click to continue reading: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/03/tech/web/four-google-moves-2012-mashable/index.html