LG's next big thing: Green lighting technology

Korea’s LG Electronics, one of the biggest names in mobile phones, digital signage and appliances, is eying another potentially huge business: the market for green lighting technology. Specifically the opportunity for light emitting diode (LED) technology.

LG has already amassed a number of official energy efficiency, quality and safety certifications for its LED lighting and plasma lighting systems in Europe, China, Japan and Korea. The company is using some of the optic technology that is at the core of its heating, ventilation and air-condition (HVAC) products as the foundation for its lighting products. It expects to reach an LED production capacity of 5 million units by 2012. Overall, LG projects the global solid state LED lighting market at $5.1 billion globally by 2015; the growth rate is approximately 30 percent annually.

Mind you, as you can see by the image, this isn’t the sort of LED you would put in your home. The LG 53-watt LED flat lighting (pictured) would be the replacement for a fluorescent panel in commercial or retail settings, with the caveat that it is supposed to use only 30 percent of the electricity needed to power the legacy lighting. LG is also touting a big outdoor flood lighting replacement, the MR16. Plus, it has some plasma lighting systems in the works.

And, it is counting on its brand name to help win share in this market. Here’s a statement from Yonghwan Kim, vice president of the LG Lighting & Solution Business Team:

“Green energy, carbon and environmental protection concepts have been widely accepted throughout the world and there is enormous opportunity for companies with core technologies and brand recognition. With long-honed expertise in energy efficient technologies, the potential for LG to make a significant environmental contribution is enormous.”

Considering the production might of LG, he just might have a point. The commercial LED market is about to get a whole lot more competitive — globally, if not here in the United States.

The President's Book of Secrets

Last July, I took a few days off from ZDNet to fly up to New York City. This was before all the TSA groping craziness, so — to the disappointment of two or three of you out there, I’m sure — there are no revealing X-rays of my junk floating around on the Internet.

My hosts were the producers of an upcoming History Channel special,The President’s Book of Secrets, which airs tomorrow night, December 1, at 9pm.

The President’s Book of Secrets takes viewers on a journey inside White House history to unveil staggering information about secrets known only to the President, from top-secret intelligence and classified events to covert codes and future technologies.

They flew me from Florida to New York City, and put me up at the historically famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the producers were filming some interviews in the Waldorf tower suites.

The trip was uneventful, except for the last few moments. We drove up 49th Street and were about to cross Park Avenue, so the cab driver could drop me at the Waldorf’s entrance further up 49th Street. Unfortunately, he couldn’t, because 49th Street was blocked.

As I crossed the street, I noticed that this wasn’t any ordinary New York City road closing. Rather than profanity-spewing dudes in hard hats, there were a lot of serious-looking men and women in dark suits, many with an ear bud in one ear and a cord extending into their suit collars.

While there can be no official mention of why that level of security was present at that location at that time, the guest list of those interviewed for tomorrow’s special may shed some light.

The President’s Book of Secrets features exclusive interviews with Washington insiders, including former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, former Vice President Dan Quayle, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and presidential daughter Susan Ford who reveal what it is like to live and work in the White House.

Additionally, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, journalists Dan Rather and Jonathan Alter and other experts (that’d be me!) share what they know about the secret world of the presidency.

Presidential communication

As many of you know, in 2007 I wrote a series of articles and then a book,Where Have All The Emails Gone? How Something as Seemingly Benign as White House Email Can Have Freaky National Security Consequences. It’s the most comprehensive analysis of White House email ever published and was described by The Intelligence Daily to be “the definitive account about the circumstances that led to the loss of administration emails.”

Since then, I’ve continued to write many of the more visible accounts of other White House-related technology incidents. I now work with the Presidential Technology Watch, a watchdog initiative of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute that helps keep the White House’s electronic communications — particularly those that are Internet-based — safe and secure.

My work in this area is why I was invited to be part of Wednesday’s show. My role in The President’s Book of Secrets is to explore the Internet and the Presidency, along with White House email, communications, and messaging technologies.

Kudos to the producers for their patience while they were filming me. I haven’t seen the program yet, but they’ve promised that even though I’ve got a face for radio, I won’t break your TV screen.

Please tune in. I’m sure it’ll be a fascinating program.

Set your TiVos. And, if you don’t happen to catch it Wednesday night, check the History Channel’s schedule for future broadcasts.

Oh, a final note. Some of you may know that the Waldorf Salad was invented at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. As such, I had to try it, as you can see below. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t all that impressed. It’s just cole slaw made with apples. Meh. The steak was quite good, though.

ViewSonic rolls out 22-inch full HD display, VPC220T all-in-one PC

In other ViewSonic news, the company is focusing on its roots a bit with the launch of a new widescreen display and all-in-one desktop, both of which sport 22-inch full HD touch screens.

Starting with the VX2258wm, the Windows 7-certified monitor is intended for almost anything from gaming to education with the following features:

• 1,920 x 1,080 resolution
• 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
• Energy Star 5.0 and EPEAT Silver certifications
• ECO feature for up to 30% in average power consumption
• DVI and VGA inputs
• Integrated speakers with SRS Premium Sound

Furthermore, this ViewSonic display is versatile when it comes to placement as it can be mounted to the wall or placed on a desktop with tilting and swiveling functions.

Then you have the VPC220T all-in-one PC, also touted as ideal for places where space is limited. Powered by an Intel dual-core 3.06 GHz processor, buyers can expect the following:

• Full HD 1080p LED-backlit display
• Windows 7 Professional
• 4GB of memory
• NVIDIA GeForce graphics
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Super-Multi DVD R/W drive
• 1.3-megapixel webcam
• Media card reader
• Stereo speakers
• Connectivity: Six USB 2.0 ports, HDMI

Both of these ViewSonic products are available now. The VX2258wm retails for $339 with a 3-year limited warranty, while the VPC220T desktop will cost $1,049 with a one-year limited warranty. However, there is the option to buy this all-in-one desktop without the touch screen, bringing the price down to $949.

Cyber Monday: Get your iGeneration gadget groove on

So we’ve had Thanksgiving (well I say we, I mean you), and suffered through Black Friday, and now Cyber Monday is upon is.

Well never fear! Hopefully before you reach the end of the month and get your bank statements through, you would have bought some sensible products, services and gadgets which will keep you ticking over through your remaining university days.

In this short post, I offer you kind people a selection of Generation Y-focused bits and bobs to buy, as well as the ones to avoid during your spending spree.

If there’s anything you are dying to buy for yourself that isn’t included on either gallery, by all means leave your suggests on each one. At the end of the day, if you want to share your great product suggestion with the community, you could be doing your fellow citizen consumer a favour.

UK police want domain seizing powers: Right or wrong?

UK law enforcement want similar abilities to the United States to be allowed to shut down domain names for sites which break the law.

The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) set up in 2005 and soon to be decommissioned and rolled into the new National Crime Agency, is seeking the new powers where Nominet, the UK domain registrar currently has “no clear obligation to ensure .uk domains are not used for criminal purposes”.

At present, these discussions are in the early stages and welcome other organisations to join in, to ensure the balance is correctly adjusted and not rushed into.

The concern is that this will result in domain names being seized and rendered inaccessble without judicial oversight and without court order, a dangerous precedent in any legal system. This scheme could also affect email address and phones, according to one report.

Controversy is spinning in the United States with the Department of Homeland Security shutting down domain names and websites in great quantity which infringe copyright or sell counterfeit goods.

A concern of mine is that, without legal oversight this could lead toyoung entrepreneurs using the webspace being cut off because of other reasons; either naivety of starting out in ‘the wrong kind of business’ or unbeknown tax evasion.

As simple enough as it may sound to many of the older generation, in the UK it is widely said that “students don’t pay tax”, when indeed we do. Even though I am a student, I earn over the personal allowance of nearly £6,500 set out by HM Revenue and Customs, unlike many of my student colleagues and friends, thus am required to pay tax.

If something is not given legal oversight, this sets a trend of further eroding civil liberties. Some fraud cases now are tried without jury, under the premise that it costs too much in legal and court costs and the jury on the most part do not have the financial understanding to make a sound judgement.

Anti-social behaviour orders, another example of jury-without-trial is subjective justice handed out by police which can be open to abuse. In one case, an ASBO was given to a 16 year old preventing him from going to school.

Facebook adds better security: tracks the location of your logins

Every time you login to Facebook, they try to estimate where you logged in, from using your IP address. In my case, the router is in Walnut Creek, Ca., but it’s not too far away from where I am right now (San Francisco).

When I logged into Facebook this morning, I was greeted with this message, asking me to add my computer to the “trusted devices” list:

The best feature of this update is that you can get notified by SMS or email if a new computer or mobile device logs into your account.

But the real question is, when someone else accesses your Facebook account, will you have enough time to login and change your password? Facebook should not let any devices login to your account unless you verify them.

I’m really glad they’ve added this feature though; it’s a big step in their privacy efforts, and makes the web more secure in general.

Google exec: 60% of businesses could dump Windows for Chrome OS

Google continues to send the world mixed messages about Chrome OS.

Depending on who you ask about Chrome OS at Google or among Google analysts, you could hear any one of the following messages:

• Chrome OS will be released in December
• Chrome OS has been delayed until 2011
• Chrome OS will be killed before it comes to market
• Chrome OS and Android will merge into one platform

The latest information comes from a New York Times report that cites its source as Linus Upson, Chrome chief and Google vice president of engineering. The new report says Google recently deployed new systems loaded with Chrome OS to internal Google employees, including Sergey Brin. The Google co-founder reluctantly made the exchange.

However, the kicker in the Times story was this: “Mr. Upson says that 60 percent of businesses could immediately replace their Windows machines with computers running Chrome OS. He also says he hopes it will put corporate systems administrators out of work because software updates will be made automatically over the Web.”

Keep in mind that the Times is paraphrasing Upson here and not quoting him directly, but this is an extremely ambitious goal that is being attributed to Google’s head honcho of Chrome OS. It’s also a loaded statement and it’s worth trying to unpack it.

The Chrome OS is aimed at computers that are essentially just Web browsers and don’t store any of their data locally but keep it all in the cloud — especially Google’s cloud. So, Upson’s statement is assuming that most companies won’t just be using Chrome OS but will also being using Google Apps (or a competitor such as Zoho) for handling all business email and documents.

The other part of Upson’s statement is that because the Chrome OS will automatically handle all software updates behind the scenes without user intervention that it will “put corporate systems administrators out of work.” It’s interesting to hear Google make a brazen statement like this, since this has previously been suspected to be one of their motives but has never been stated openly. The public revelation aside, systems administrators do a lot more than just push software updates so this statement is pretty inflammatory from that perspective.

Since Chrome OS is primarily aimed at netbooks, it’s laughable to think of 60% of businesses deploying netbooks to their employees. As arecent TechRepublic poll showed, the vast majority of businesses still give their employees desktops and not laptops. And, of the corporate employees that get laptops, an even smaller percentage get netbooks.

The other problem with Chrome OS aiming at netbooks is that the netbook market is under attack from smartphones and tablets. Upson said, “We are starting with laptops and we will expand in both directions.” In other words, Chrome OS will scale down to tablets and scale up to desktops.

So, at least for the moment, it looks like Chrome OS is back on for Google. I don’t think it’s time for systems administrators to start shaking in their boots just yet.

What Apache Wave means and does not mean

The idea that the failed Google Waveproject is going into the Apache Incubator in the form of a proposalsounds like good news.

How big a piece of news it is depends on you.

For those who don’t recall, Google Wave was a real-time collaboration project announced in 2009.

The idea was to merge key features of e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. Formally released in May, it was suspended in August.

Google ran Wave up the flagpole and not enough people saluted.

The Apache proposal, initially edited by Google employees, claims an active community with nine discussions currently open and over 5,500 messages. But all that has to be off Google Groups by January 13.

The idea of moving to Apache has been under active discussion since aGoogle Wave summit meeting November 12 in San Francisco. At that time project manager Don Peterson blogged about progress in creating “Wave in a Box,” a complete implementation of the protocol. The full proposal came together over 10 days.

Among the active participants in the current discussion is Google directorDavid Wang, “the man who hacked the iPhone,” who suggested a stable build be developed as part of the move to Apache.CORRECTION: The Apache folks note I got my Wang wrong. The right Wang is based in Australia.

Another active participant in the discussions has been Torben Weis, who teaches computer architecture at a university in Essen, Germany. He has been working on HTTP transport issues regarding the proposed Federation Protocol.

The point is that while this appears to be an active and viable project right now, its future depends on gaining support from more talented programmers within the Apache framework, rather than directly at Google.

Google is waving bye-bye, and the question is whether Apache can breathe life into it.

Can that happen? Certainly. Will it happen? It’s not guaranteed.

Clip, Blog, Analyze, Make Money: Curate.Us Says Every Day is Black Friday

Black Friday is many things to many people.

It is the official start of the gift-giving panic attacks.

It is the day we shop for things that we really hope don’t suck.

It is also when retailers either take wheelbarrows of money to the bank, or their insides explode from stress ulcers because revenues are down, thus signifying the end of ChristmaHaunaKwanzaa and the world forever.

For online affiliates, like bloggers who use Amazon Associates, it can also be a day of disappointment and stress - or quick and easy profit.

One very enterprising startup has come up with a unique teaser that engages users with the seductive offer of making affiliate profits easier to come by. Content sharing clip site Curate.Us made sweet sweet love to affiliate eyes when they blogged that as of this week, Black Friday is now every day of the year.

Let me start by explaining what Curate.Us is, and you will see a rare moment of me singing sweet glittery rainbow butterfly praise for a startup. This is worth the price of admission alone, which to you is the cost of free, so sit tight and enjoy the precious moment. Soak it up. It will not last.

Curate.Us (formerly Clip.ly) is really neat: it’s a free clipping service where anyone (an account is not needed) can make a screencap or text quote clip that embeds into a blog post. It hosts the image and does all the work for formatting and linking, in addition to providing a customizable interface where users can resize, reformat and customize the clip.

Visit a site, make a clip (there’s a bookmarklet for Firefox, Safari and Chrome, with an accelerator for Explorer), and done. Once a clip is made, one click allows sharing on Twitter, Facebook and a few others - for those who visit Curate.Us while logged in.

Then Curate.Us gets down and nerdy, and keeps a history of the site’s clips form other people (thus recording website changes; clips are never deleted), and offers open access to analytics on clips.

It’s a one-stop shop, sort of like a web curator’s Tumblr - but for your own blog, with source linking built in. There is a WordPress plugin. Everything is automatic, including keeping content within copyright laws - and if a user pulls over 100 words into a quote, they get a gentle reminder about Fair Use.

But what in the stuck-in-the-chimney hell is this Black Friday business about?

Curate.Us is new and hiring devs, but the little elves currently in the shop made it so users can clip a product page, add their own affiliate code (such as Amazon, Think Geek, or any Commission Junction affiliate), post the clip and own the commissions. A shortlink is also generated. When someone clicks “Share the Link” they also copy over your affiliate code.

For those who warm themselves with seriously spiked eggnog, data analytics, conversion point information - and affiliate sales made easier - this is a toasty tool.

Talk back in the comments and tell me what you think: will you use Curate.Us for generating affiliate revenue? Or just let us know what to put in the eggnog this year here at the Tech Broiler: readers, we depend on you.