SunPower Snaps Up Solar Sales From Down Under

Craig Rubens on July 25, 2008

SunPower is headed to the land of freshly minted carbon regulation, didgeridoos and wombats with its acquisition of Australian Solar Sales, announced late yesterday. Solar Sales, a solar systems integrator and distributor, has been a customer of the Silicon Valley-based maker of high efficiency solar cells for several years.

The acquisition gives SunPower access to a distribution network of 30 dealers throughout Australia. Solar Sales has been installing residential and utility-scale solar systems for 25 years, with many of their projects powering off-grid projects scattered across the outback. Solar Sales sells inverters as well as panels for off-grid power systems that mix solar and wind generation, which require different inverters.

Australia, with its expansive, sun-baked outback, could have as much as 22,000 megawatts of solar capacity by 2020, with the right incentives. But recently the Australian solar industry, which has produced startups like Ausra, has seen its prospects threatened by political fiddling of its rebates, a problem SunPower and the U.S. solar industry faces as well.

Vid-Biz: Sonic Solutions, Comcast, TV Guide

on April 30, 2008

Sonic Solutions Buys Simple Star; Sonic’s Roxio to incorporate platform that allows people to turn video clips into shows that are shareable to PCs, TVs and social networks. (VentureBeat)

Comcast iGuide Time Shifts Itself; glitch made guide listings off by two and a half hours for Bay Area channel NBC11, making programmed DVRs useless. (NBC11)

Macrovision Shareholders Approve TVGuide Buyout; the company reportedly will sell off the print and oldteevee assets, but retain the online portion. (paidContent)

Economic Slump Could be Boon for Movie Biz; families that can’t afford a vacation could turn to theaters for summertime fun. (The LA Times)

FCC Chair Under Fire; Kevin Martin may be called by Congress to defend his leadership. (The Washington Post)

Motorola and Widevine Sign Reseller Agreement; pact allows Motorola to sell, service and support Widevine’s DRM products. (release)

Fujitsu intros T8140 Tablet in Japan: lightweight and all-day battery life

on June 25, 2007

Fujitsu_t8140_tablet_pc

If you favor battery life over processor performance in your Tablet PC, Fujitsu’s new T8140 Tablet PC might be your best bet. Weighing in at just over three-pounds, you’ll get over seven hours on a standard battery and a whopping eleven hours with an extended batt. Where’s the battery savings coming in? Try the 32-GB SSD drive and a power-miser Intel 1.06 GHz ULV Core 2 Duo CPU. The 12.1-inch convertible is under 1.5 inches thin and sports a 1280 x 800 resolution, which isn’t bad for that screen size. Cost in Japan should run around $2,650; my gut tells me you’ll see this baby at an importer not long after the product launch late next month.

Six Million and one Paris Hilton Now PodCasting

Om Malik on April 5, 2005

Pop Sugar tells us that even Paris Hilton is podcasting! So that makes its six million and one podcast fans. Anyway she is going to use podcasting to promote her new movie House of Wax and will begin podcast her promotions, parties and more beginning April 29th. She not only likes to bare it all, but when she does, you find out she really is a geek who loves her Sony PSP, HipTop and Podcasting.

Podcasting is hot. But it just got hotter. Paris Hilton invites you to join her on “The Paris Hilton Podcast — Countdown to House of Wax,” beginning on April 29. Join Paris and friends as she shops, parties, poses and publicizes in the days leading up to the May 6 opening of House of Wax. “The Paris Hilton Podcast — Countdown to House of Wax” may be played back on your iPod or any portable media player.

Somehow I get a feeling that the folks behind the movie took the Pew Internet report too seriously – didn’t they know that sometimes life is not reality TV!