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Aereo continues expansion, plans service rollout in Miami, Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth
For a company's that's mired in legal red tape, Aereo's nationwide expansion isn't showing any signs of slowing. The streaming service, which uses an antenna / DVR system to deliver local broadcast stations, will soon launch in three additional major cities -- Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX; Miami, FL -- in a rollout scheduled to complete by the end of September. Interested parties can head to Aereo's site now to get a leg up on pre-registration for the service, with rates starting at $8/mo for 20 hours of DVR storage. Take note, the first month's gratis, but after that it's the same old subscription ball-and-chain just like any other. And, hey, at least this is one way to guarantee Moonves' content kingdom and his trusty Chenbot still have a home on your flatscreen or iPad or, you know, device.
NRG's eVgo charging stations hope to catch the eyes of Texas
EV charging station announcements are almost becoming commonplace (keyword: almost), but not so much that we aren't happy to welcome one more. This week NRG Energy unveiled it's first eVgo branded "Freedom Station" at a Dallas Walgreens, and aims to pepper the map with a total of 60 such units by Labor Day. Each eVgo freedom station will pack both a quick charging 480V AC/DC converter (juicing up a Nissan Leaf to 80 percent in about 30 minutes), as well as a 240V Level 2 charger (netting 25 miles of "go" per charging hour). NRG plans to cover the Dallas / Fort Worth and Houston areas with 120 of these guys by the end of 2012. Like others before it, the eVgo network plans to follow a subscription model -- with the premiere plan ($89 a month on a three year contract) not only covering the cost of usage at eVgo charging stations, but that of electricity used at your home charging dock, too. Toss in a handful of generous EV owners rocking PlugShare, and Dallas has the makings of a low-emissions wonderland.
Oncor's 'Take a Load Off, Texas' campaign offers Dallas residents smarter thermostats
Heating and cooling costs make up half of your average home's utility bills. A smarter thermostat, then, could save you big bucks, and so we're glad to see Texas utility company Oncor rolling out EcoFactor software and compatible thermostats to subscribers. These units look straightforward enough, but connect to the interwebs to download weather reports, meaning they can anticipate heatwaves and cool spells and plan accordingly. They can also figure out just how long it takes to get your home to a certain temperature, so if you want it 74 degrees at your pad by the time you arrive from work at 5:30 this thing can figure out the last possible minute it needs to spin up the AC. That's great, and a $19.95 installation fee is similarly encouraging, but we're not so keen on the $8.99 "monitoring" fee Oncor will be charging monthly. For that kind of cash this thing should track us on Latitude figure out our schedule by itself. Update: We got a note from EcoFactor who wanted to clarify a few things, primarily that they don't actually do the thermostats, just software. Its their software that tells the otherwise absent-minded thermostats what to do, which is where the subscription fee comes from (erroneously called a "monitoring" fee by our initial source). The first six months are free, but after that you're on the hook for nine bucks every lunar cycle or so. We still think that's a bit steep, but we've certainly spent more on less worthwhile things.
iPhone coming to The Shack: Dallas and NYC this month, nationwide in 2010?
So we knew a select number of authorized resellers would start stocking iPhones soon, and thanks to a tipster, it looks like we might be getting a glimpse at a none-too-surprising recipient of the new order. As these pics from an anonymous tipster show, "big hug for your mobile life" retailer The Shack will be getting AT&T's flagship device soon, with a letter supposedly from EVP of store operations Bryan Bevin (found after the break) adding that the 3G and 3GS rollout will begin this month at some company-owned locations in the Dallas Forth Worth and New York City areas, with a nationwide rollout in 2010. Not that you necessarily needed more places to tempt you with the device, but it's always fun to have options.
