Communities Team up to Promote Clean Energy Jobs on Weatherization Day

Washington, D.C. – On Friday, October 30, National Weatherization Day, the Sierra Club is joining community partners, service providers, small businesses, union members and local officials in towns across the country to highlight the benefits of investing in the energy efficiency of our homes.

“Residential buildings are responsible for a staggering twenty percent of global warming pollution. Many families lose money on energy bills each month because their homes aren’t energy efficient,” said Sierra Club Clean Energy Solutions Representative Allison Forbes. “Weatherizing homes is one simple solution that will create thousands of good jobs, put money in the pockets of American families, and help fight global warming.”

It is estimated that retrofitting U.S. homes could reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions by up to 160 million metric tons annually by 2020.

“There is an urgent need to retrofit America’s homes and buildings for the 21st century with continued investment in low-income weatherization assistance and innovative new programs that make home energy makeovers affordable for everyone,” Forbes said. “In order to weatherize America’s homes, we need skilled workers.Investing in our homes can create thousands of good, lasting American jobs that can’t be outsourced.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a new $390 million “Retrofit Ramp-Up” program that will deploy innovative approaches to energy efficiency building retrofits, as well as a $64 million program for energy efficiency funding in cities, counties, and Indian tribes.

Several years ago, the Department of Energy designated October 30 National Weatherization Day, an opportunity to improve the public’s understanding of the benefits weatherization to low-income people and communities.  This Friday, Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Program and Blue Green Alliance partners will be hosting and participating in Weatherization Day events in cities across the country.

-In Denver, the Sierra Club will celebrate the graduation of local workers from a weatherization training program offered by the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA).

-In Charlotte, North Carolina, volunteers will canvass neighborhoods, reaching out to low-income and elderly residents with information on weatherizing homes to save on energy costs.

-In Detroit, Sierra Club will participate in a “utilities summit” for residents to learn about services available for retrofitting homes. The city, where nearly 40 percent of the population is now below the poverty level, has secured funding to upgrade roughly 4,000 homes.

For a complete list of events and tips on how to save on household energy bills, check out the link to the Sierra Club on the right of this page at the very bottom of my “Affiliates” list.

article re: EHRs and mobile computing in Healthcare

I need feedback on this topic! The below link has a summary of the usefulness of mobile computing in hospitals, and is from Motorola’s eZine. [In the interest of full disclosure: BarcodeMan's employer (BRS) is a reseller of Motorola's mobile computers, barcode scanners and RFID equipment.] –BarcodeMan
http://www.ezine.motorola.com/ezine/enterprise?title=EHR%3A+How+Technology+is+Making+%0AHealthcare+Healthier&a=413

www.thinkBRS.com

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The Droid Has Landed...Unboxed! Plus a Few Facts

So the Droid from Verizon just landed and we have an unboxing video. Despite all the hype, I have this to say to the makers of the iPhone: You’ve got nothing to worry about. Go out, have fun and get into the hands of a few more millions. As for the BlackBerry, its makers better be worried. Watch the unboxing video below the fold.

I’m not sure how you guys will feel about the Droid in a few days, but I can safely say that like so many so-called iPhone killers in the past, this isn’t one. That’s not a judgment as to the robustness or usability of the device — I need more time for that — it’s just that Verizon seriously overhyped it.

The New York Times’ Saul Hansell has the whole story on Motorola, Sanjay Jha and how the Droid came to be. It’s an interesting read, and one which reveals that the design choices (or lack there off) are courtesy of Verizon. As Hansell writes:

They found a way to fit a slide-out keyboard into a phone that was only 1.5 millimeters thicker than the iPhone. And they used a 3.7-inch touchscreen, noticeably bigger than the 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone. To take advantage of the higher resolution of that screen, Motorola, working with Google, developed new software that would support high-definition video and 3-D graphics.

Here are some facts about Droid collected by our team.

• Doesn’t appear to be full Microsoft Exchange support — includes Calendar, Mail and Contacts, but not Tasks or Notes, on which some corporate users rely.
• Placing the Droid in the optional car dock immediately opens up the “Car Dock” interface, and turn-by-turn GPS directions are available.
• Placing the Droid in the optional media dock places the Droid into an alarm clock and media player mode.
• The interface is a stock Google Android 2.0 design, so no extra home screens like some other recent devices.
• Unlike some HTC Android devices, Droid offers a standard 3.5 mm headset jack.
• Like webOS Synergy, Droid unifies contacts from Gmail, Facebook and Exchange.
• Dedicated hardware keys offer haptic feedback.
• Verizon includes a 16GB SD card with the Droid, it supports 32GB.
• Droid’s 5MP camera with flash trumps most other current phones with 720×480 (DVD Quality) recording at 24 fps
• The camera also supports Image Stabilization, real-time color effects, scene modes and location tagging.
• Droid does have an accelerometer and landscape keyboard, so it’s not necessary to slide out the QWERTY keyboard for landscape entry.
• There’s no MotoBLUR, but there is a Facebook widget.
• Back of the device is soft touch.
• The 854×480 display offers a higher resolution than the first ASUS Eee PC netbook, which was 800×480.
• Droid runs the same Snapdragon chip as the iPhone.

Motorola Droid Makes Its Debut November 6th, $200 Price Tag

Verizon had their Droid event today- and we now have a release date and price tag.  Coming to Verizon November 6th for $200.

Info, specs, and reviews of this phone had been highly available (leaked) thanks to Verizon’s and Motorola’s highly trained marketing team.  But we do know for sure when it’s coming out and for how much….I think that’s what’s most important.

Motorola Aura

“Puts!!” e “Aff” …. Acho essas foram as primeiras coisas que me passaram pela cabeça quando ví esse celular. Na boa, o que se passou pela cabeça da Motorola ao projetarem esse celular? Pqp! … podem até chamar ele de “rolex dos celulares” – como eu ví num site – mas EU chamaria de “wtf!?”.

Anyway, vamos aos detalhes do aparelho:
* Tecnologia: 2G
* Wifi: Não!
* Bluetooth: Sim – 2.0
* USB: Sim
* Câmera: 2 Megapixels
* GPS: Nem pensar!
* Dimensões: 96,9 x 47,6 x 18,6 mm
* Display: circular – 1,55 polegadas / 480 pixels de diâmetro

^ Ridículo, não? Agora você deve estar pensando “ah, mas por ser tão modesto deve ser baratinho”, sim, é baratinho, dependendo da sua situação financeira é “de grátis / na faixa / 0800, etc”. A belezura aí em cima custa US$ 2.000,00, (desbloqueado) isso mesmo, dois mil doletas! “WTPORRA!” você deve estar se perguntando agora, eu explico:

O Aura é um “celular de luxo” (óóóóhhhh!, não diga!) com alguns mimos “de luxo”, como por exemplo: LCD pequena, com 1,6 polegada, mas com 16 milhões e resolução de 300 dpi – que garante imagem em alta definição para o espaço usado. Um mecanismo de precisão permite rodar a base do aparelho em 180º mantendo a orientação do visor, corpo em aço, 700 partes independentes e a tela de safira de 62 quilates contrastam com as pobres características técnicas do telefone. Tá explicado agora o preço, ficou caro pelo material que é utilizado nele e não pela tecnologia.

Já deu pra perceber que o AURA é o tipo de celular que é mais pra “mostrar” do que pra “usar”.

PS: No Submarino ele tá “baratim”, apenas R$ 5.999,00 ^^

Is Android Lagging Behind in Sales? Not Likely

Recently the blogosphere has gone a bit crazy, excuse my lack of hyperbole about the Android platform. Was this ‘Android’ supposed to do battle with the iPhone?

Just because no operators or manufacturers have openly commented about their smart phone sales figures doesn’t mean its bad news. Looking at the number of Android powered phones out now or due in the next 2 months shows a lot of promise

• HTC Hero – some bloggers say it’s the best Android yet
• G1 – the funny one with the flip out keyboard, still only with T-Mobile
• Magic – Vodafone took this and the Android platform global
• Tattoo – coming out again to Vodafone before xmas
• Motorola DEXT – a lifesaver for Motorola – probably the phone that saves them. Reviewers go crazy about its Moto Blur interface

As well we know that Sony Ericsson have robot phones coming and the other manufacturers have been toying with this platform.

As far as smartphones go though – Nokia admitted recently they have lost some of their steam to Apple and have not being able to come up with a device that is just as iconic. Some sales figures for Q2 2009 still show Blackberry as the most popular Manufacturer.

So for Xmas will you want an Android?

What is the Motorola Droid?

If you’ve been watching any TV over the last few days (or any of the amazing Yanks-Angels series), you’ve probably been seeing the above commercial pretty often. This Motorola/Verizon commercial seems to be poking a lot of fun at what the iPhone lacks: a keyboard, a 5 megapixel camera, flash, multitasking, customization, widgets, and removable battery.

This all done in a very iPhone-like ad, the black text on white background and with chilled, fun music in the background. Though the end of the commercial says little of what their new device, the Droid, does or even looks like, other than that you should look forward to November. Well, if you don’t want to wait that long to learn about this exciting new phone, we have all the info and pix right here, and Verizon users– this one’s definitely for you.

Ok, first off, the name– Droid is short for Android, as in Google’s Android OS. This is the first Android device coming to Verizon, and boy is it awesome. The device is sleek looking with a huge 3.7 inch touchscreen and full slide out QWERTY keyboard (hence the keyboard comment in the ad), and is definitely one of the nicest looking slider phones we’ve ever seen– far better than the first Android slider phone, the T-Mobile G1.

The Motorola Droid– the phone behind the hype

Specs wise, your getting another really loaded device:

• Verizon 3G– Yes, this bad boy is coming to you lucky ones on Verizon.
• Dual microphones– For you know, making good sounding calls.
• 5 megapixel camera– With the ability to take photos in the dark using the really bright dual LED flash, and a whole lot more. You got image stabilization here as well, and the ability to take DVD quality videos!

The 5 Megapixel camera with flash on the back of the Droid

• GPS
• WiFi
• Verizon Visual Voicemail
• 3.5mm headphone jack– For using your regular headphones.

And then there’s one of the biggest features that is so big we’re can’t possibly put it on the bullet list: Android 2.0!

This is obviously a huge update to the Android platform, and looks to bring a bunch of new features to Android. We’re talking better contact integration with your Facebook and GMail (kinda like Motorola already does with their MOTOBLUR Android skin on the Cliq. Sadly, rumors are saying that Verizon and Motorola aren’t bringing MOTOBLUR to the Droid), a nicer looking interface, and my personal favorite– updated web browser with, coming next year, full Adobe Flash 10 support! While Android’s browser is already very good at displaying sites, using the same Webkit browser found on other phones like the iPhone and Palm Pre, this phone though will let you view websites that require Flash 10, like Hulu or ESPN vids (no known plans for the iPhone OS to be getting Flash anytime soon, though you can expect the Palm, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry phones to have Flash 10 on their mobile browsers next year as well). This though is still amazing.

You also get the usual Android apps: the Android market for downloading more apps, Google search with voice searching, GMail, Google Talk for IM, Google Maps with turn by turn directions and Street View, YouTube, and it even comes with other non-Google built in apps like the Amazon Mp3 store, QuickOffice for viewing Word, PowerPoint and Excel files, and Facebook.

The Droid when closed– pretty thin for a phone with a full slide out keyboard

We still don’t know an exact price or release date, but we obviously can expect it really soon (Motorola and Verizon wouldn’t hint toward November if they weren’t planning on announcing and releasing this right?). You gotta admit though, this looks like a sick phone– we told you Verizon’s got a lot of sick stuff on the way (and this and the Storm 2 aren’t the end of the new phones coming Verizon’s way, rumors are pointing to a lot more). If your looking for a new Verizon phone, you couldn’t have picked a better time to start looking.

We’ll of course keep you up to date on all the latest Droid news (you can sign up here at Verizon’s site for the latest emails as well), and all the latest Verizon phones. Though what do you think– does the Droid look to live up to all the hype it’s getting, or will it not come near the success the iPhone has had?

in your opinion