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Google announces first PowerMeter partners, we beg for more
At last, we have the first partners in Google's quest to make your personal power consumption visible on your home computer. As the thinking goes, if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. So Google wants to give consumers near real-time visibility to their consumption and usage patterns via Google's PowerMeter software and utility-supplied "smart meters." The hope here, is that those aware of their energy consumption habits will change them to save money, and in turn, the planet. The initial list of partner utilities represent millions of homes spread across cities and country-sides in the US, Canada, and India: San Diego Gas & Electric® (California) TXU Energy (Texas) JEA (Florida) Reliance Energy (India) Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin) White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri) Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada) Glasgow EPB (Kentucky) Google has also partnered with Itron to embed its PowerMeter software into Itron smart meters. While we applaud the effort, seeing energy consumption for the entire house, only, is far too macro (though a good first step). What we're waiting for is the marriage of this with home automation and monitoring solutions based on Z-Wave and ZigbBee, for example, so we can gain visibility and control down to the device level. Imagine a single software view that lets you drill all the way down to see how much energy your computer, lights, or home theater projector is consuming and then shut 'em down when not in use or to avoid vampire drain. Hey Nokia, you're working on a Home Control Center... you reading this? Google's looking for partners.
Phantom attracts "interest," delays Lapboard yet again
Apparently these guys just don't know when to quit, and rather than ditching the Lapboard in the same way the gaming service was dismissed, the seemingly bogus company is making waves (and probably little more) yet again. Although Alienware has reportedly handed over an order for the firm's yet-to-be-seen wireless gaming keyboards, we still maintain little faith in the notoriously unreliable company to actually come through, and today its, um, brave CEO announced another unsurprising delay. This time, the delay is actually being attributed to an overwhelming "demand," as Phantom claims that "major manufacturers of media center PCs and distributors" are throwing down so many orders that the company won't be able to "begin air shipments to the US" until February 2007. While you can place your order now through its online webstore (not recommended), only orders received through October 31st are "promised" in that first wave of shipments. But for those who are rightfully gun shy about handing over your credit card info to a company with such an incredibly undependable track record, you can surely count on just picking one up from "major retail locations" in Q1 of next year.
