demand

Energy efficiency company EnerNoc said today it has acquired privately held Global Energy Partners, a move that gives EnerNoc a bigger national presence.

Boston-based EnerNoc provides demand-response and energy management services to commercial and industrial businesses.

Companies get paid a monthly fee for being ready to turn down energy consumption during peak times. Utilities contract with EnerNoc when they need to lower demand, an approach that is typically more cost effective than turning on more power generators.

Global Energy Partners is in the same businesses as EnerNoc but it has or continues to work with utilities in the western U.… Read more

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Today is Cyber Monday, which is mostly a marketing scam in IMHO. Regardless, you will find it worthwhile to check out CNET's gift suggestions

Angry Birds' Christmas Edition is coming soon

Meanwhile, Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 is not coming soon

Richard Branson is said to be launching an iPad magazine to compete with Rupert Murdoch's rumored iPad magazine. Branson's version will simply be called Project

A village in India has banned unmarried women from using cell phones

Lady Gaga and the Twitterati have gone silent on social networks … Read more

EnerNoc, an efficiency software company, today introduced its line of business software geared toward helping companies better control their spending on energy.

The Boston-based company is well-established in the area of demand response; utilities contract with EnerNoc to manage contracts with corporations which agree to dial down energy use during peak times.

Utilities are increasingly tapping demand-response resources as they plan for future power capacity needs. Instead of turning on an auxiliary power plant during a time of high demand, such as a hot summer afternoon, hundreds or thousands of businesses or consumers will agree to scale back electricity consumption. … Read more

Microsoft wants to let PC gamers know it's still serious about delivering game software and is putting that idea to the test with a new system that places fewer roadblocks in the way of getting gamers connected to digital game downloads.

Today, the company is announcing a new online store that will let gamers buy digital copies of games--old and new--from just their browser. The site, which opens up on November 15th retains the Games for Windows Marketplace moniker, but is an online version of the store that's long been available through the company's Games For Windows … Read more

Nissan and Original Wraps today launched Nissan Graphics for the Cube, and soon for the Juke, Frontier, and other models.

The decorative wraps come in graphics for side, front, and hood. The decorations are all printed on automotive-grade 3M Scotchprint On-Demand vinyl and are fade-resistant.

The catalog features stars, stripes, polka dots, and flowers, so the images should appeal to tastes ranging from subtle to bold.

Prices range from $100 to $300 with installation.

Video-content provider MobiTV is expanding beyond its familiar mobile market to reach the living room and office.

The company, which offers live and on-demand TV shows for mobile phones, is branching out into Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, and personal computers. The goal is to offer a TV-anywhere type of service in which subscribers can catch live news and sports as well as on-demand TV shows no matter where they are.

Beyond providing TV on different devices, the new service will sync and converge content. So baseball fans could watch a game on their smartphones, pause it, and then pick up … Read more

Energy company Constellation Energy is making efficiency a bigger part of its power mix.

The company, which operates power plants and distributes gas and electricity, said on Friday it has acquired privately held CPower, which makes demand-response software for businesses.

Demand response is used by grid operators to cut back on power during peak times, such as very hot days when the air conditioning load stretches the power-generating capacity. During this summer's heat waves, a number of regions called on demand-response systems, both with consumers and businesses, to meet peak-time demand.

By buying CPower for an undisclosed sum, Constellation … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

Consumer advocates are up in arms over a recent ruling by a federal court of appeals in Seattle. The decision, Vernor v. Autodesk (PDF), held that the terms of an end-user licensing agreement, or EULA, can change the sale of commercial software into a mere license, in this case a license that prohibits users from reselling their copy of the software.

The case involved an eBay seller named Timothy Vernor. Vernor bought several outdated copies of Autodesk's AutoCAD program from a business that had originally purchased the … Read more

Slacker Radio first launched in 2007 as an intuitive online music player that let you stream a variety of preprogrammed and custom-made radio stations based on your favorite artists and songs. Since then, the service has added a continuous array of new features, from its own short-lived devices to apps for your Blackberry and iPhone to Twitter feed functionality. Tonight at an event in New York, Slacker, Inc. will show off its latest offering: Premium Radio.

Slacker Premium Radio will offer all the features of Radio Plus--no ads, no skip limits, mobile station caching--with the added benefit of on-demand functionality. … Read more