Roundup: A vintage Bill Gates rant, A123’s grid ambitions, Japanese browsers and more

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:24:30 -0700

Bill Gates reflects on crappy Windows experiences — As the beginning of a farewell series to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the Seattle PI has printed a long, stream-of-consciousness rant by Gates about the frustrations of using a piece of Windows software in 2003. “The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind,” Gates says in summation. Any ideas for retirement presents?

A123 looks to electrical grid storage market — Wildly successful (so far) battery startup A123 has signed contracts with several utilities to plug its lithium-ion batteries into the electrical grid for short-term storage needs, according to CNET. The technology is for “grid stabilization”, or meeting short-term shifts in demand, rather than storing power for long periods, a requirement for solar and wind power that has still not been satisfactorily met.

Google joins drive for ubiquitous Internet — The search giant has thrown its weight behind a national initiative that aims to put broadband web access in everyone’s hands, regardless of social status. Hopefully, it will be more successful than municipal WiFi.

Japanese browser companies invade Silicon Valley — Lunascape has established a Silicon Valley beachhead, following the example of another Japanese company, Fenrir, that recently released its Sleipnir browser to the international market. The two are intent of breaking into a browser market already jostling with offerings like Camino, Firefox, Flock, Opera and Safari.

Japan may restart solar power subsidies — The Land of the Rising Sun may finally live up to the name, with a proposal on the table to renew subsidies and provide a boost to the solar industry. Japan’s local market dried up when it cut the grants in 2006.

IPhone may set sail early on July 11th — Boy Genius speculates that the iPhone may launch hours before expected on July 11th, so that week-long camping trip iPhone addicts embark on over the July 4th weekend may end early.

Animoto offers video creation for business — Animated slideshow creator Animoto has begun offering its video creation tools for business use, on a subscription basis. The company’s last product launch was a Facebook widget we reviewed in March.

Tech jobs up, New York number one — High tech jobs are up in 51 cities, according to new statistics reported by BusinessWeek. Seattle leads in the number gained and New York in overall jobs, likely due to the banking and ad industries. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley still has the highest concentration of techies, not to mention entrepreneurs.

Halo 3 body count exceeds Earth’s population — Are you working, reading blogs, or just playing Halo 3 again? Smart money is on the third option, with Halo 3’s kill count up to 6,743,784,316, some 40 million more than Earth’s population.

More hit games, really? — Meanwhile, just to seal the free-time fate of tech geeks everywhere, Blizzard appears to be dropping hints that its next blockbuster is on the way.

The Industry Standard - Roundup: A vintage Bill Gates rant, A123’s grid ambitions, Japanese browsers and more - Comments

Roundup: A vintage Bill Gates rant, A123’s grid ambitions, Japanese browsers and more