tech

The California Clean Tech Open kicked off its second competition with a sunny outlook at San Francisco's City Hall Tuesday night. In October the contest will award six fledgling green businesses with start-up starter kits worth $100,000 in cash, office space and professional services. Prize sponsors include AMD, Google, Lexus and Pacific Gas & Electric.

Last year 156 seedling companies entered the open, which is backed by nonprofit Acterra; twice as many contenders are anticipated for 2007. A new green building award joins five other categories: energy efficiency; renewables; smart power; transportation; and air, water and waste. Entries … Read more

We can't say we were familiar with the first Enano mini PCs unveiled last year, but today's announcement of the second-generation e2 line shows deft marketing, if nothing else, by tying the four new models into the green tech trend sweeping pretty much everything these days.

Prices range from $1,125 to $1,825, depending on which of the four new models you choose. All come with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, and with varying degrees of memory, hard-drive space, and other features, depending on the price. None of the systems comes with one of Intel's new … Read more

Two billion people around the globe still depend on open wood fires for cooking. That method is 5 percent efficient in using energy. The smoke is unhealthy for all those who must breathe it. And in some areas it's depleting forests that can't grow fast enough.

Now the University of Nottingham is going to try to build a thermoacoustic kitchen. And that's my new word for the day. No, not "kitchen," but "thermoacoustic." Instead of using the usual wood fire, this device would generate "sound waves through the nonuniform heating of gas.&… Read more

It's all change at DaimlerChrysler. As Chrysler Group contemplates its buyout at the hands of Cerberus Capital Management, one of its signature engines is about to get a green makeover. The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8, the motivation behind some of Chrysler's most thirsty trucks and SUVs, is going hybrid thanks to the addition of two electric motors. The resultant Hemi hybrid engine will be offered in the 2008 models of the Chrysler Aspen and the Dodge Durango, making the vehicles into 2-mode hybrids similar to the 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid and the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid--both due out later … Read more

Nissan is following in the green-car footsteps of Toyota and Honda with the launch of its Altima Hybrid. Rather than developing its own hybrid system for the Altima's power train, Nissan is licensing Toyota's dual-mode Hybrid Synergy Drive system, which works in conjunction with the car's 2.5-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine. (Nissan apparently is working on its own hybrid technology, but that's not scheduled to go into production for at least a few years.)

We got a brief chance to drive the Altima Hybrid this week around the Hollister Hills in Northern California. Like many hybrids, … Read more

Clean tech venture capitalists, known as a sunny, optimistic bunch, are finding a lot to like in solar.

A survey done by legal firm Cooley Godward Kronish found that clean tech investors believe that solar has the most long-term profit potential over the next five years, followed by "energy intelligence," or smart grid technologies. After that came biofuels and wind in terms of economic attractiveness.

Initial public offerings--which have been few and far between in IT for several years--do not appear to be the most common route to cash in.

Only 10 percent of the 75 Silicon Valley … Read more

Slooh is a do-it-yourself stargazing service that puts you behind powerful telescopes in real time. With Slooh's help, you can see a disco-ball-like cluster of stars, a sunflower galaxy, Comet Lovejoy, and other wonders from an observatory atop a Canary Island mountain--all from the comfort of your chair at home.

I found the most dazzling views by following Slooh's suggested astronomical points of interest. Guided missions happen at 9:00 p.m. (Universal Time) nightly. The longer you hang out, the riper the images get. Impressed by the blood-red Trifid Nebula, 5,500 light-years away in the Sagittarius … Read more

Unplugging your phone after it's done charging could save a bundle of electricity, which is why Nokia is launching a new feature encouraging users to do just that.

The Finnish cell-phone maker announced Thursday that three of its mass-market phones--the Nokia 1200, 1208 and 1650--will alert users when the handset is done charging and suggest it be unplugged. The feature will eventually be rolled out to all of Nokia's products.

The move to be more energy-conscious is part of a larger agreement mobile phone manufacturers made in September 2006.

Biofuel. Hybrid cars. Electric cars. Hydrogen. Those are some of the bright ideas in the future of car tech. Many proponents of the hydrogen fuel cell gathered in Vancouver, Canada, recently to discuss their problems and the promises.

This video from that conference shows hydrogen cars on the road. Models from four manufacturers made a 150-mile round trip during the meeting. DaimlerChrysler predicts that by 2015 there'll be millions of hydrogen cars on the road. The company claims that's not just a lot of hot air.