Webware

Tendril shows off its iPhone app for monitoring home power use.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)

PALM DESERT, Calif.--At Demo 09, new conference honcho Matt Marshall led a panel where three companies showcased their new technologies to save power, and with it, they hope, the planet.

Google's Thomas Sly started by comparing buying power to what it would be like if you bought groceries without an itemized receipt--just one bill when you left the store. Google's goal is to collect and help distribute the data on power use, which, Sly says, will encourage people to consume less.

Google is currently in a test with about 100 devices that track power use, and that should grow to about 200 soon, Sly said.

The goal is to get 50 percent of households to cut 10 percent of their power. Sly said that would be as much as all the solar and wind power now produced in the U.S., or the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road.

Tendril's CEO, Adrian Tuck, showed off hardware devices that monitor and control AC power. Small devices plug in between an outlet and an appliance or lamp, and transmit power use to a home device that then puts the data on a Web service where consumers can see what they're using. The devices also control power (turning off lights, for example). Tuck showed an iPhone interface that told the user not just how much power they were using but that also let him turn on and off outlets, or change his whole house to a different power-using profile.

AMEE, "the world's energy meter," sent Vice President Robin Baker to pitch his company's goal to create the global platform for tracking energy used (and thus carbon consumed or emitted) "for everything on the planet."

The overarching theme of this panel is that these companies are all working on the same thing: collecting information about power consumption. It appears that they are also moving to shared data, so that, for example, data from Tendril devices can feed both Google and AMEE databases.

However, the picture from Washington, D.C., is not so rosy. As we reported earlier today, our power grid isn't currently set up to collect and distribute this information.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

PALM DESERT, Calif.--The Demo conference was small this year. Only 39 companies presented, down from the usual 60+ at this show. The audience was smaller, too. But there were some good companies here, and some solid business models. Senior writer Daniel Terdiman and I came up with our seven picks from this conference.

Always Innovating's Touch Book (story): Yes, it's just another Netbook. But the removable keyboard and touch-screen interface make it an attractive product, and its ARM CPU and custom Linux build earn it geek points. Might be a little too expensive to be an impulse purchase for home users, but it does improve the breed.

Daniel really liked eFormic's CO2Code (story) initiative to create a database of carbon emissions for consumer products, all indexed off the products' UPC codes. Once you know how much carbon your purchases are spewing into the atmosphere, you can buy the appropriate offsets on the site. We'd like to see this service tied into a home-based UPC scanner, or perhaps into grocery stores' loyalty programs.

Skout (story; podcast) makes a clever location-aware dating service. But there's a twist: The company is also creating software for kiosks in bars (in the real world, these are called "jukeboxes") that are aware of the Skout users nearby. This expands the local dating pools. But if you're using one of the kiosks and want to chat up a mobile user, you have to pay for the privilege--a flat rate at the moment, but we don't see why connections shouldn't be market priced. Given what this service is about, why mess around?

I really like the article discovery service Ensembli (story). As I wrote, it does not appear to be a comprehensive or reliable enough for professional use, but it's the simplest way I've seen to expose users to custom content.

Although I have reservations about the current state of the product, Avaak's Vue (story) camera system is clever, reasonably-priced, potentially very useful, and based on genuine technology (a low-power radio mesh network). And the demo did its job. A number of people here told me they were looking forward to buying the system as soon as they could.

Asurion (story) showed a contact manager for Android mobile phones. Not just a phonebook, it's an app that pulls together all your contact information from all your social networks. The Palm Pre is supposed to have a very similar feature. We liked it there, and we like it here.

Although I was initially skeptical of it, I also really liked Silverstone Solutions (story; podcast), a new kidney transplant matching service that tracks more than just one-to-one matches. It could save lives. What's not to like?

Unfortunately, we have to give the Demo booby prize to BluBuzz (story). It's location-based marketing using Bluetooth, which is, I believe, a non-starter (how many mobile users leave their Bluetooth radios on and open to incoming file transfers?). It also requires users install an app. And, sadly, the demo didn't work and it appears one of the presenters forgot his lines. Kind of a double-whammy there, but I will try to learn more about this one to see if there's value hidden under the demo.

Demo will announce its own Demo God and People's Choice awards this afternoon.

PALM DESERT, Calif.--We've all heard of the promise of single sign-on, but to date, the concept has yet to make serious inroads. It's still mainly a concept with potential.

But the idea makes sense: giving users a way to log in to all the sites they use without having to have a different set of IDs and passwords for each. Since many Web users are busy and easily distracted by everything going on in our lives, only having to remember a single ID and password would be immensely valuable.

At Demo 09 here Tuesday, a Sunnyvale, Calif., company called Jadoos presented its approach to single sign-on, albeit one that is scaled down to apply to a discrete set of Web sites. But that approach, using a sort of "remote control" to handle log-ins for a series of sites strikes me as valuable, especially for heavy social network users.

Jadoos' service--which is currently in a closed beta period--is a widget that floats above the desktop on users' computers. It looks suspiciously like an iPhone, but gives users a simple and even elegant way to log in to the many sites they use, all with that single sign-on. It works, as I surmised from the company's demo, by having users add any sites they want to their account, entering their IDs and passwords, and then allowing those users to simply click on the site's icon on the widget and choose to log in.

The widget also provides access to a range of instant message clients, and allows users to manage their contact lists without having to run another piece of software, be it something like Trillian or IM services' own clients. As an adjunct to easy sign-on to various sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and so forth, it's a nice combination and a spare approach to handling the kinds of applications that heavy Internet users keep running in many different windows at all times.

It also offers a search window, and terms entered there run Google searches that then appear in a browser window.

The Jadoos widget adds one more feature, a rating system for Web sites and businesses. This could be valuable, but feels like a little bit of overkill. This, like the ratings system unveiled at Demo on Tuesday by Purewire, will only be useful if a critical mass of people participate.

But what is not overkill is Jadoos' decision to open up its platform to outside developers. That means its widget--designed to look like an iPhone--could begin to also resemble that device in terms of the many kinds of third-party apps that sit on top of it. Again, until the apps are created, there's no way to know how interesting they'll be, but it is a promising idea.

PALM DESERT, Calif.--Six of the fifteen companies pitching at day two of the Demo 09 conference are focused on discovering content for consumers.

Ensembli gathers up info from around the Web based on what you tell it your interests are. It looks very, very easy to understand and use. It learns from your behavior what kind of stories and what sources you like, and refines what it presents to you as you use it more. It's one of the few new Web services I would recommend to my mother. See review.

Evri also helps readers find and track content in which they're interested. There's also a widget service for publishers that, like Sphere, finds relevant related content for a given story. One of the really cool things that Evri does is draw a diagram of how the concepts that Evri extracts relate to each other. Each concept then gets its own page, which the service adds to as it scours the Web and other users add content in a wiki-like manner. A browser plug-in lets you pop up an Evri connection box over any word on a page, which is pretty useful for research.

Evri creates networks of related themes and links for the topics it knows about. Click screenshot for larger view.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Xmarks is the new Foxmarks, the bookmark synchronization add-on for browsers. The service now adds site discovery to its sync service. There's also now a user-review function. This is a clever extension to this very useful product. I have serious doubts as to how it will make money for the company, but Xmarks spokespeople have assured me they have a secret plan that goes beyond just selling ads. We'll report on that when we learn more. See review.

Gazaro makes "custom sales flyers" for you. It's really a vertical search engine based around products and prices, but it puts the results into a format that looks like a newspaper circular. When prices change, it sends you a new flyer. Gazaro also rates the sales on products on a 0 to 10 scale. If I were Nextag, I'd worry. This looks simpler and more proactive.

HowSimple makes Q, a Web content viewing app (Windows only so far) that lets you set up and track search queries. But instead of giving you a list of links, Q gives you live thumbnails of the search results themselves, which update as search results change. You can also extract links from any page into a giant grid of Web page previews. For people who like to pay partial attention to a lot of things at once, it looks like a good alternate way to browse Web sites.

Sobees reminds me of Tweetdeck and of Netvibes. It takes your social feeds and the sites you like, and puts it all into one big column-separated window so you can see what's happening on the sites and networks you care about. Like a Twitter app, it lets you reply to your network, not just read it. But like Netvibes, it can also monitor sports, YouTube tags, and so on. It's a hairy Windows install, though, and I couldn't get it to work on my MacBook running XP under VMWare Fusion. A Wall Street Journal reporter on a Windows Thinkpad also gave up.

Of these tools, I expect that a month from now I'll still be using Xmarks (I'm already a Foxmarks user), and next time I plan to buy anything online I hope I remember to give Gazaro a shot. I'm going to tell my mother and father about Ensembli. The other three tools didn't grab me as must-haves.

PALM DESERT, Calif.--How can friends and family best share their experiences of things or events they did together?

A Taiwanese company called Qubes took the stage at Demo 09 Tuesday morning to offer its answer: Gagapost.

This is essentially collaborative blogging, in which multiple users can all share ownership and authorship of the blog they've created. In many ways, this is very much like a wiki, but with a simpler front end and cross-Web commenting tools that anyone can use, regardless of whether they're one of the blog's owners.

The company presented an example of co-workers who have returned from a party and who want to both share their thoughts on the event. So one would start the post, save it, and then invite their co-worker to participate. That person would then get the invitation and would be able to instantly start adding their own thoughts to the post.

In addition, the service allows commenting--and comment threads--anywhere on a post, not just at the bottom of the page. This is nice, because it makes it possible to quickly see readers' reactions right at the spot where you want to see it, rather than having to interrupt your train of thought to scroll down to the bottom. It also makes contextual commenting possible, something that has been sorely needed.

And these days, something like Gagapost wouldn't be complete without an associated iPhone application. And indeed, Gagapost has such an app, one that allows an iPhone user to start a post, take pictures on the device and share them, and also share ownership of the post with others. This then works both mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-PC.

All in all, this is a very simple concept. As with everything, it is too early to tell if users will flock to this new platform, especially with so many other well-established competitor platforms, but if people do come, this could present a nice alternative to the established blogging model.

The RSS reader Ensembli is not a product for me, says CEO Michael Wheatley. It's certainly not a product for RSS junkies like Robert Scoble. People who use RSS feeds professionally, to stay on top of news and spot emerging issues they may not have been aware of, need feed readers that show them everything that happens in the news sources they know about. (Personally, I use Netvibes as a dashboard.) What Ensembli does is track the topics you tell it you're interested in. It then watches what you click on and fetches stories based both on those implied interests and what you've said you want to see.

I've heard this concept before, but Ensembli's interface makes the difference. It's really simple, and I believe it could be a useful site for a person who's just looking to see what's new in a field they care a bit about.

Ensembli tracks RSS content by topic, not feed. The concept works.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman / CNET)

Wheatley told me the service refines its selections based on your actions. When you first start using the system the content you see is largely based on what other users have clicked on, but over time, the impact of other users' actions on what you see diminishes, and Ensembli's own pattern matching correlates what you click on to all the feeds it is monitoring to show you a better, more personal selection of stories.

I like the user interface and I like the concept. I'm a little less thrilled with the content itself so far. Initial results for some keywords I entered didn't include content sources I was expecting, and as TechCrunch notes, Ensembli is lacking a feed from Twitter.

But the target market, right now, probably doesn't care. I would be comfortable recommending this service to someone new to the RSS concept, or to anyone who just wants to monitor blogs and news sites for issues they have a passing, and not professional, interest in.

Wheatley is pitching to the Demo 09 audience tomorrow. Also at Demo 09: Evri.

PALM DESERT, Calif.--I think the most eagerly anticipated demo at Demo 09 here will be Always Innovating's Touch Book, slated for late Monday afternoon. It's yet another Netbook, granted, but it's got a cool detachable (and optional) keyboard, and a magnetic mount for sticking onto a refrigerator.

I got a quick demo video (left) with the company's CEO, Gregoire Gentil, who is French. He couldn't show me the user interface on the prototype hardware he had with him, but says it will be easy to use with big, fat American fingers (he didn't actually say that).

The product will run a Linux OS, Gentil said, and it's the first Netbook based on an ARM CPU, not the typical Atom found in most Netbooks. He says users can expect 10 to 15 hours of battery life. The product will be $299 without the keyboard, $399 with. It ships this spring, but you can preorder now.

The Always Innovating Netbook has a detachable keyboard.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)

The back of the tablet is magnetic, so you can stick it on your fridge.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)

SmartyCard, which launches at Demo 09 on Tuesday, is both compelling and disturbing. The well-crafted site, which is aimed mainly at third- to sixth-graders, is compelling because it not only engages children in fun and interesting learning activities, but it adds an element of incentive by rewarding success with points that they can use to purchase virtual or real merchandise.

That very incentive is what also makes SmartyCard disturbing.

(Credit: SmartyCard)

I'm not saying that the carrot approach--giving kids rewards for doing well--can't be appropriate and effective. But I'm somehow bothered by the idea of an automated system that puts kids through their paces, however enjoyable and educational they may be, and then dishes out rewards with Mom and Dad's money.

When my kids were that age, my wife and I spent lots of time interacting with them at the kitchen table, through reading books and doing homework, and--yes--sometimes in front of a computer. But the rewards our children received for doing well were more emotional than financial.

Sure, there was the occasional trip to the ice cream parlor to celebrate a good test score or a bit of extra effort and, yes, we occasionally bought our kids gifts as a way of congratulating them for a job well done, but there was a decidedly human touch to it, and it wasn't a quid pro quo.

Like most parents, we strived to instill a sense of pride and work ethic in our children without teaching them that every good accomplishment necessarily translates into acquiring more stuff.

That's not to say that there might not be situations in which a service like SmartyCard makes sense. If a parent feels that a bit of extra help from a Web site might be all that a kid needs to put in some extra effort, than I'm glad that SmartyCard is there to serve that family. But I'm not 100 percent comfortable with the idea of a mechanized system for rewarding achievement. At least at younger ages, it would be best if parents played the activities with their children.

Parents buy SmartyCard points that kids unlock by doing well on activities. Ten bucks buys you 5,000 points, but it takes 10,000 points for a kid to buy $10 worth of credit on iTunes. Some deals are better than others. 5,000 points will buy a month's membership on Club Penguin, but the cost of those points is still quite a bit more than the $5.95 fee a parent would pay to buy a month directly from that site.

I wish that SmartyCard could offer parents something closer to a one-to-one value, and make its money from commissions from the vendors that provide the service or sell the merchandise. General Manager Chris Carvalho said the company hopes to negotiate such deals over time. Of course, an argument can be made that the extra money parents are paying is well worth it, if the lure of SmartyCard points gets their kids to study harder

. I like the fact that kids can use SmartyCard for free with access to the educational games, but not the merchandise rewards. That opens up the activities to kids whose parents can't afford to buy points or simply prefer not to. And if the games are compelling enough, that might be all the incentive some kids need.

Besides, if they do well, you can always take them out for ice cream.

Larry talks with SmartyCard General Manager Chris Carvalho.

Listen now: Download today's podcast