Check out the website and video. There is a back-up battery and USB port that comes with the product, just in case the lights go out.

Related articles

• Solar Power for the World’s Poor (energyrefuge.com)
• LilyPad: A solar powered case for iPad with built-in HDMI and USB (9to5mac.com)
• Nokia says it tried, but solar-powered cellphones don’t work (dvice.com)
• Mobius rechargeable solar battery case for iPhone available now (evilrit.com)

The winds of change may be unpredictable, but forecasts are improving. New partnerships between energy companies and government agencies are helping to predict wind speeds far enough in advance to save energy companies billions of dollars.

Power companies, grid operators, and energy traders often pay close attention to the nightly forecasts on television news, but it isn’t easy to predict wind speeds far into the future. Even small fluctuations can make a big difference. But by improving the forecasts and predicting when the winds strengthen or change, these forecasts make the difference between a reliable power system and one that’s expensive and unpredictable.

Several U.S. agencies now have projects to improve forecasting. The Department of Energy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are each working with two private companies on a year-long Wind Forecast Improvement Project, which is focused on atmospheric conditions above ground. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is also developing new technologies by partnering with Xcel Energy. So far this partnership has saved $6 million by using the data from satellites, aircraft, weather radars, weather stations, and turbine-mounted sensors for improved forecasting.

According to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, better wind forecasting could cut U.S. energy costs by between $1.6 billion and $4.4 billion, depending on the level of production. Other nations are also looking for ways to improve forecasting. Natural Power has signed up 20 wind farms in the U.K. to produce forecasts for between 30 minutes and five days ahead.

Related articles

• NCAR wind forecasts save millions of dollars for Xcel Energy (physorg.com)
• UK national grid glides through windy challenge (guardian.co.uk)
• How is tornado measured detected or forecasted (wiki.answers.com)
• Wind farms get better forecasts (go.theregister.com)
• Extreme Forecasting To Give Wind An Edge (earthtechling.com)

Martin Reisch said Tuesday a slightly annoyed U.S. border officer let him cross into the United States from Quebec after he presented a scanned copy of his passport on his Apple iPad. Reisch was a half hour from the border when he decided to try to gain entry rather than turn back and make a two-hour trek back home to Montreal to fetch his passport.

He told the officer he was heading to the U.S. to drop off Christmas gifts for his friend’s kids. He said that true story, the scanned passport and his driver’s license helped him get through last week.

He said the officer seemed mildly annoyed when he handed him the iPad.

“I thought I’d at least give it a try,” Reisch said. “He took the iPad into the little border hut. He was in there a good five, six minutes. It seemed like an eternity. When he came back he took a good long pause before wishing me a Merry Christmas.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it only accepts a passport, an enhanced driver’s license or a Nexus pass from Canadian citizens entering at land crossings. Canadians began requiring more than a driver’s license for IDfor U.S. land border crossings in 2009. Interestingly, the man was able to re-enter Canada on his way home using the same iPad method. But he said he doubts if he could get away with that again–at least not in the near future.

Related articles

• Canadian man uses iPad to enter US (boston.com)
• Martin Reisch iPad: Traveler allowed through US border after showing picture of passport (dailymail.co.uk)
• iPad passport scan gets man across U.S. border (cbc.ca)
• Man enters US without passport – thanks to his iPad (telegraph.co.uk)

The Jawbone Up is available for the iPad, the iPod Touch (4th generation) and the iPhone (3GS, 4 and 4S), comes in many different colors and sells for about $100. Could this technology be under your tree in December?

Here’s a great chart that shows us how we are now spending more time using mobile apps than we do on our desktops or laptops:

Chart courtesy of Flurry.com

The chart comes from an analysis firm, according to Flurry, a company that breaks down mobile usage in the U.S. Notice that from June of last year to this June, both mobile app usage and computer internet usage have increased–just not at the same rate.

“For the first time ever, daily time spent in mobile apps surpasses desktop and mobile web consumption,” Flurry reports.

Flurry says most of the time we spend using the mobile apps is in gaming or social networking. These two activities alone take up about 80 percent of our time online, leaving the other 20 percent on entertainment and news. I find that very interesting, don’t you?

How does this chart square up with your own mobile usage?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Today we are learning that an international panel of experts has announced that cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer issued a statement this afternoon after reviewing details from dozens of published studies and meeting with cancer researchers for the past week.

The agency is part of the World Health Organization , and the experts reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar.

It’s a pretty substantial risk, from what we’re learning. This group classified cellphones in category 2B, in terms of cancer risks to humans. That is a category which also includes the pesticide DDT and exhaust fumes from automobiles.

How will this affect the way we use our phones? It’s too early to tell just yet. But for now, WHO will decide what steps, if any, should be taken to protect consumers.

We are a culture that is trending toward mobile communications as THE way to talk, watch, learn, read, play and listen. Mobile marketing is definitely a trend I’m watching right now, especially as the emerging generation comes of age.

According to Pew research numbers, young adults in the United States (18-29 year-olds) now use their smart phones to:

• Send a photo or video (54%)
• Access a SNS (23%)
• Watch video (20%)
• Post a photo or video online (15%)
• Purchase a product (11%)
• Make a charitable donation (11%)

One thing is for certain; Our usage of cellphones has increased dramatically since cancer research was first initiated. If these studies convince you that our mobile phones do cause cancer, how would you change your mobile habits?

It’s that way in the business world. too. Companies can create tidy org charts and draft neat process maps to describe how they work, but the unseen reality outside the visible systems may be what really dominates operations. Increasingly, experts in knowledge management are learning that easily overlooked and often invisible intangibles can dominate corporate value and performance. Numerous intangible transactions may be essential to the success of a company, including casual information sharing between trusted friends, helpful exchanges of tips and best practices between employees or between external partners and internal employees, or loyalty that is gained when people are included in decision making. The invisible linkages and hard-to-observe exchanges in a company’s internal an external ecosystems may be the real engines of value creation, regardless of what is on a process map or workstream. By not understanding the value of such intangibles, corporations can easily break key linkages and crush subtle engines of value creation.

Many companies focus on their “value chains” – a term popularized by Michael Porter in his seminal 1985 work, Competitive Advantage. The value chain describes the linear chain of events as materials and products move from sourcing through manufacturing and out to the market. It is a highly useful paradigm for manufacturing and was highly applicable to much of the economy in the era when Porter was doing his research. But since that time, the explosion of the knowledge economy has changed the way we work and create value. One of my favorite authors, Verna Allee, a revolutionary expert in knowledge management, has detailed the move from the value chain to modern ecosystems and Value Networks in her book, The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks (Burlington, MA: Elsevier Science, 2003). Verna Allee and Associates have introduced a clever, methodical tool called Value Network Analysis for analyzing and visualizing the transactions of intangibles and tangibles that affect a business.

After my training in Value Network Analysis by Verna and her associate, Oliver Schwabe, an exciting new perspective on business and human behavior opened up. I have been highly impressed with the power of Value Network Analysis and the insights that it can rapidly deliver for a company. The Value Network Analysis work that Innovationedge has done as part of larger projects for some of our clients has been a very exciting part of my work since joining Cheryl Perkins’ exciting company. We value the tool enough that we had Verna Allee speak at the 2008 CoDev conference to introduce other business leaders to the basic concepts behind Value Network Analysis. I’m very pleased to see a community emerging of people using Value Network Analysis and developing exciting tools for it.

Here are some resources that you may find helpful in further exploring this area:

• Value-Networks.com
• Hosted Value Network Tools
• A Value Network Approach (PDF) – 2002 Whitepaper by Verna Allee
• ValueNet Works™ Analysis for the Discovery of Viagra (PDF)

Part of the initial output in Value Network Analysis are maps, called “holomaps,” showing human entities as nodes and transactions of tangible or intangible items between them. There is much that can be learned from such holomaps – a topic for later discussion. For now I’ll show you two sample holomaps I created to illustrate simple ecosystems. One shows several external nodes around a manufacturer and the other shows some structure within part of a corporation. For simplicity, the maps lack all the labels explaining the transactions. (Click to enlarge.)

One interesting approach is to use the “holomaps” you get in Value Network Analysis as tools for “what if” scenarios to explore what new partners might do for your business model, or what new business models might do for your ecosystem. Using holomaps to explore innovation ecosystems is a particularly fruitful approach for those doing open innovation and wondering who should be in their external ecosystem.

We have further information on this topic that we’d be happy to share with you. It’s certainly something you should look at to understand how business really works.

Courtesy Barnes & Noble.com

If you’ve been waiting to get an e-reader upgrade (or your very first one), Barnes & Noble unveiled its newest e-reader today: a smaller, black-and-white touchscreen device called the Nook Simple Touch Reader. It is selling for $139, the same suggested retail price as Amazon’s Kindle. How do the two compare?

Both devices have built-in Wi-Fi, 6-inch display screens and are priced at $139. But the Nook is buttonless, is 1.5 inches shorter and is one ounce lighter.

Another plus for the Nook is the battery longevity. You can read for two months with the Barnes & Noble model, compared to less than four weeks with a Kindle.   Additionally, you can share your favorite books and weigh in on book reviews with the Nook Friends app. The social media component helps drive recommendations in a way that regular reviews from strangers can’t touch.

Courtesy: Amazon.com

One of the cooler aspects of the Nook is in how you turn pages. The Kindle screen appears to blink before the next page appears. Readers have reported seeing a lingering word or two from the previous page. But the Nook seems to turn pages smoothly and without the black screen.

Not to be outdone, Amazon announced a few hours later it is launching its new 3G version of its ad-supported Kindle for $164, called the Kindle 3G With Special Offers. If you can put up with an occasional advertisement popping up on your screen, you’ll get special offers and coupons for books and electronics.

The rivalry so far seems to be giving Barnes & Noble the upper hand, claiming it controls 25% of the e-book market.

Much of the video shown on the building is from past advertising campaigns, but Coke is also encouraging its Facebook Page fans to submit photos for the projection show.

Lot’s of other brand owners like BMW, Hot Wheels, Samsung and others are doing likewise, but Coke’s is the largest one yet. The project began showing May 6 and will run every night through the end of this month.

The Botox® approach to skin beauty is being enhanced with Juvederm® hyaluronic acid (HA) dermal filler formulation, a material that can be injected into the skin to fill some wrinkles. They are also dealing with the challenge of obesity with their laproscopic band, a less invasive approach to bariatric treatment. In ophthalmology, one of their most profitable segments, a host of products treat eye conditions such as glaucoma or dry eye.

Allergan’s products are well adapted for the needs of the aging baby boomer population and appear to be riding a wave of technical success well matched to a demographic wave. Many growth opportunities still exist, and with the heavy investment in innovation and research, Allergan appears poised to continue growing, something that is unusual for many large pharmaceutical companies these days.

The company began in 1950 when chemist Chemist Stanley Bly developed anti-allergy nose drops and got the help of his friend, Gavin S. Herbert Sr., who owned a pharmacy. Two years later, after listening to advice from a pharmacist about patient needs, they developed an eye drop with anti-histamine, the first such eye drop in the United State. Sales skyrocketed and Allergan became a major player in ophthalmology, which today makes up almost half of their business still.

Listening to market feedback and acting on clues and suggestions from knowledgeable people like a pharmacist allowed Allergan to quickly shift its focus and its product array in the early days to address an important unmet need. This led to eye products, not just nose drops, and the opportunity in ophthalmology that will continue to be huge for Allergan, now at nearly 50% of sales, if they keep an eye on innovation. Taking outside advice and reacting nimbly to new market opportunities is what put Allergan on the path to success. It’s the kind of thing that outside eyes and minds here at Innovationedge can help you do in your company as well.

Photo courtesy of Yanko Design

I’ve been following green concepts over the years, and I’m always excited to see trends in energy power that will eventually make it into our hands someday. Or in this case, onto our fingers!

This innovative idea is a concept from the minds of two designers, Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee. Their new finger battery could one day be good news for those of us who are continually in need of a smart phone battery boost: A prototype mobile phone with a battery you can charge with a simple twirl of your finger.

The kinetic energy generated by the twirling motion powers the charge and would allow users to energize their cells.

It does take some coordination thought. The designers say you need to twirl for 130 rotations around your finger to generate about two minutes of talk or 25 minutes of standby power.

Perhaps there will come a day when we don’t have to expend quite that amount of effort. But it does give me hope that great minds are continually thinking of ideas for clean and green energy!

Click on the video and check out this astounding innovation that I think will change the face of how our medical professionals treat soldiers, firefighters and anyone else susceptible to burns. This “Skin Gun” uses the cells of the burn victim’s own skin to regenerate growth.  The first day this video was posted on YouTube, it got over 100,000 views. And for good reason:

I’ve not played too many games on social media, but I know a lot of people who do. And this year social gaming is predicted to become a $1 Billion  industry.

That’s according to a new study from eMarketer. The group says more than 62 million Internet  users in the United States — that’s almost a third of us — will play at least one game on a social network each month this year. That’s a huge surge from last year, when only a tenth of us used social media gaming to pass the time.

Check out the article and some very interesting statistics here. One thing the study does not touch on is the increase in mobile phone apps for gamers.

Here is a terrific video I found on YouTube from JWT. It has several interesting elements I found particularly comforting, like the fact that human downtime and relationships still matter even as we become more and more attached to technology. (There’s even a mini-trend to de-tech!)

Comments are always welcomed! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

An article titled Global Media Habits 2010, by Greg Lindsay, shows us how different types of media are being consumed around the globe, from television to newspapers to cell phones.

Among the trends is this fact: Even the most poor nations consider television a necessity. Lindsay writes,

In 2010, nearly half of Indian households have TV, up from less than one-third in 2001. But in urban areas, that figure jumps to 96%. (Compare that to 7% of Indians who use the internet.) In Kenya, the TV-penetration rate rose from roughly 60% to 70% from 2005 to 2009, even as the number of households measured increased by nearly half. Even in the slums of Sao Paulo, TVs are the top seller of Brazilian retail chain Casas Bahia, despite the fact that residents tend not to have electricity or running water.

Another interesting trend is in newspaper consumption. We know that in the U.S. newspaper circulation is declining, but not so in the rest of the world where the newspaper business is booming. There are 44 percent more paid dailys in India, with Asia, Africa and Latin America not far behind.

Facebook is another big media demand in emerging markets. Facebook’s user base is 517 million people, 70% of whom live outside the U.S. Interestingly, these users follow brands just as much as American users do:

According to a DDB study of 1,642 international Facebook users, the average self-avowed fan is 31 years old and follows nine brands. Three-quarters (76%) have already pressed “like” to signal they are a fan of a brand. In return, they expect special treatment (95%) and are willing to advocate for the brand if necessary (94%).

The invention of “cyber cafés” has been instrumental in online usage in emerging markets. But while access costs are often too high for the poorest of people to afford, cell phone costs are very reasonable, especially among the up and coming generation.

Samsung’s new over-the-top refrigerator can play Pandora radio music, send tweets, check your Google calendar and more, but attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011 think it may be overkill.

Check out this video from Mashable.com on the Wi-Fi-enabled appliance:

The International CES ended yesterday and is the world’s largest consumer technology trade show featuring 2,700 vendors. The Samsung booth grabbed a lot of attention for its new fridge, but I wouldn’t say all of the publicity was negative.

I wouldn’t mind pulling up a recipe or grocery list from my favorite websites, but tweets? Most of us can do that from our mobile phones! What do you think?

The upbeat company has a huge product line that is definitely geared toward the younger crowd. With that in mind, here’s how Think Geek is marketing its invention. Enjoy:

Using “geofencing,” Sparkle allows for the identification and location of any phone and supports voice control, SMS and a very intriguing feature: the ability to detect motion and velocity. Developers say that might be used to automatically disable your text while you drive. You can read more about geotechnology here.

For Android and  iPhone owners, the new technology will someday be able to suggest deals or check-in points, and even set up location-based controls for your kids.

That’s just the start. From Location Labs’ website I found several fun apps that use geolocation technology:

• Mayor Maker – Automatically checks you into your favorite Foursquare places without actually opening Foursquare.
• Dine Out Cheap – Alerts you to a nearby dining deal.
• MobiQpons – Shows you when and where to redeem coupons as you walk by.
• Whatamap – Lets you roam a mall or other indoor shopping area to find great deals.
• Noel Group – For travelers wanting to know weather conditions and local events.

The Pew Research center found it’s only four percent, and only one percent on any given day.
Geosocial services are enabled through your smart phone’s GPS, and sometimes just by checking in you can receive a coupon, discount or a free item.  Check out the rest of the demographics and results here.

Yesterday Facebook announced it will begin allowing businesses to offer coupons. I wrote about Groupon earlier this week, and it is also announcing increased incentives to retailers.

I use these applications, but many from my generation do not yet feel comfortable using geosocial services, citing the need for privacy. How about you?