President Obama's Meeting With Tech CEOs: We Need A Steve Jobs Or Henry Ford For Green Tech

At the moment, at the writing of this post, President Obama is meeting with a few of Silicon Valley's heavyweights, Apple's iconic leader Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt. And though there are many thoughts and conjectures about what the meeting could or should be about, there is one thing that I think many missed.

Green tech. And right now even with tens of billions invested by the federal and state governments in incentives and grants and private investments, we are still a long way from getting off foreign oil and those pesky climate warming (or changing) coal.

What we need is a Steve Jobs for green tech. What we need is for President Obama to ask one of those tech visionaries to leave his current position and take up post at a new company that would revolutionize energy conservation and renewable energy production.

Imagine a healthy Steve being talked into taking reign of this new company. And it would have to be a private enterprise, perhaps with some grants from the government. That is as far as governmental involvement should be.

As a matter of fact, the Obama Administration should clear a path for this Steve Jobs led endeavor to succeed.

And how would Steve Jobs be convinced by this challenge? Better question is why would he do this?

Because Steve is Steve. The man who revolutionized computers, brought us the iPod, unleashed on the mobile market a device unlike anything they have seen before, and has once change how we work and play with the iPad.

Because it not him, who? Zuckerberg? Exactly.

And most importantly, Because Steve Jobs' ego is big enough for the challenge.

And yes, I am optimistic that Steve Jobs will beat what ailment he is offering from and has a lot of milage left to change the world again. Maybe even twice over.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

Green: Volts Arriving At Dealerships

Well, Christmas is almost upon up and the calendar is just an artificial timeline that repeats ever 12 months and 365 days.  I remember for me, Christmas came last April when I lined up at the Apple store for my iPad.  And for some, this will be the GM's Volt that is said to be arriving at dealerships.  And I'm a believer that the Volt will usher in a new era of EV and fuel efficient vehicles in the coming decade.

The Prius and the Insight has done much to help gain attention in the media and the mind set of everyone who wanted fuel efficient cars and to reduce their carbon footprint.  The arrival of the Volt will take that another step.  Able to drive between 35-40 miles before burning any petro is something that most people will be interested in.

Furthermore, Volt is coming at a time of GM's rebirth after being bailed out by the government.  Whether libertarians and conservatives find varying degrees of disgust at government intervention or not, the technology behind the Volt is going to change the dynamics of the auto industry as oil begins another march towards $100 a barrel.

Also imagine a future where individual homes are outfitted with solar panels that can power our cars as well.  The Volt is the first step in that direction.  Together with self-generating homes capable of generating homes, EV can also help out with the power grid during peak hours as well.  

Personally, I can't be more excited about this.  As far as game changers go, folks, you'll want to mark this day.  The Volt is a big deal.

More at Green Prophet.

Toyota Offers Solar-Powered Wi-Fi Access

As part of their campaign to push the 2010 Prius, Toyota "planted" giant solar flowers that what mobile warriors can only dream of: free Wi-Fi access and serve as a charging station for their mobile gears. These solar mobile access stations are modeled after the solar roof tops of the Prius that will offer additional power to the hybrid vehicle.

According to the Design Blog, the flowers will fan out across the nation after first being seen in Boston. But it really does seem to offer a different take on Wi-Fi and mobile access. With the cost of solar power dropping over years and the need for added bandwidth, it makes sense for corporations and municipals to look into these mobile stations as a mean to bring access.

I have been out and about a lot in the last three months and there are tons of places where I see these solar Wi-Fi stations can be placed. It's likely these stations will go away once the Prius campaign is over. Too bad because Toyota or others can really use this opportunity to revolutionize mobile computing.

Restaurants. Coffee shops. Malls. Office buildings. University campuses. The possibilities are just endless. More than that, if the telecoms get into this, they can offer revenue sharing with cities upon which to place these mobile Wi-Fi stations. What with the wireless bandwidth already strained, this can go a long way in alleviate the wireless pressure by switching mobile devices and smartphones to Wi-Fi when they pass within range of these solar flowers.

Yes, I've dotted "solar" through the post. It's off the grid, too.

Source: The Design Blog, Gizmodo