Energy

A green technology wish list for 2011

By Michael Kanellos, Editor in Chief of Greentech Media. His colleagues Shayle Kann, Shyam Mehta, MJ Shiao, Rob Day, Eric Wesoff and Brett Prior also contributed.

The green tech industry will fondly remember 2010. After enduring collapsing prices and lackluster demand in 2009, solar companies saw panel shipments grow by an astounding 93 percent to 125 percent this year. Waiting lists for the new electric cars from Nissan and General MORE

Better battery financing for Better Place won't help most EVs

Better Place is working with GE to finance purchases of batteries for its switching stations and electric car system. But since most EVs come with the batteries built in, the financing won't be a panacea for the pricey new cars.

The electric vehicle industry's major hurdle these days is the exact same piece of hardware that's supposed to power it. Batteries for electric cars can cost up to $10,000 a piece. MORE

Tony Blair's Next Act

A silent cement factory on the Northern California coast is not where you would expect to find a former British Prime Minister on a Sunday afternoon. But there was no mistaking a blue-blazered Tony Blair hopping down from a black SUV as it rolled to a stop in a cloud of dust in front of a series of construction trailers. The reason for Blair's visit to this windy stretch of MORE

Sun gambles big as outlook darkens

Bryan Cantrill and Mike Shapiro, Distinguished Engineers at Sun, dreamed up a new type of storage product and convinced executives to let them build it in relative isolation. Image: Sun

Maybe there's something about unconventional office space that gets Silicon Valley's creative juices flowing.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard worked their magic in a garage. Apple's (AAPL) Macintosh development team flew a pirate flag over the Bandley 3 building. Now Sun Microsystems MORE

Dell's comeback machine

The redesigned Dell Latitude line will offer colors, a Linux mode, and other un-Dell touches. Photo: Dell

I'm at Dell's design headquarters near Round Rock, Texas, getting a first glimpse of the company's colorful new line of business laptops that go on sale Tuesday, and I mention that the pink looks a lot better in person than online. A Dell executive is quick to tell me why. What I've seen on MORE

Rackspace breaks IPO drought

There haven't been many tech IPOs lately - only three this year, in fact. People here in Silicon Valley have certainly noticed  – this place thrives on venture capital, so in financial terms, the mood has been a little like a maternity ward going without any deliveries. Yes, entrepreneurs have still gotten rich selling out to big companies like Google and Microsoft, but without the same kind of cigar-passing glee MORE

Intel profits spike but chipmaker faces challenges

As laptops go mainstream, it's good for Intel's sales – but it also puts pressure on its profit margins. Image: Dell

Click above for a video interview with Intel CTO Justin Rattner.

Intel's overall sales and profit numbers for the second quarter beat Wall Street's expectations on Tuesday, but bargain-hunting laptop buyers rained on the chip giant's parade.

Thanks to strong global mobile PC sales, Intel (INTC) hauled in $1.6 billion in earnings MORE

AMD leaps back into the game with Puma

Watch out, Intel: Advanced Micro Devices has a laptop with turbo power.

In essence that's what the chipmaker has created in its Puma chip platform, which it plans to unveil Wednesday. On regular settings, a Puma-powered laptop conserves battery life and does a so-so job handling complex graphics. Switch to turbo and it's a powerhouse that effortlessly renders 3D games and plays HD video.

Apple's $18 billion shopping spree?

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer isn't itching to sell his online budgeting service, but a company like Microsoft would do well to buy it anyway.

No one's said much about it, but there it was, plain as day, in Apple's (AAPL) earnings call this week: Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the 'A' word.

Acquisitions.

When an analyst asked what Apple would do with more than $18 billion in cash it's sitting on, Oppenheimer MORE

Live: Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld 2008

Flash-based laptops? Suped-up iPhones? The wait is over for Apple's biggest announcements of the year.

The crowd at Macworld 2008 settles in for the Steve Jobs keynote. Photo: Jon Fortt

SAN FRANCISCO -- The keynote has begun. There's a Mac vs. PC commercial showing. PC is talking about what a bad year 2007 was, with all of Apple's announcements including the iPhone. PC says 2008, though, will be a great year. "What MORE