With the world going greener every day, Microsoft has joined the blossoming of verdurous growth by preparing a new website, Hohm. The website, slated to be launched next week during an energy conference, essentially monitors a home’s energy consumption. According to the website, “with Microsoft Hohm you can better understand your home energy usage, get recommendations to conserve energy and start saving.” By teaming with four of the major energy suppliers on the West coast, Hohm will calibrate a home’s total consumption of energy. Hohm can also accurately estimate a home’s energy usage even for those who are not on the grid of the four energy providers listed above. A sophisticated series of esoteric mathematical formulas is the engine that powers Hohm’s calculations, determining how much energy your refrigerator is using and how much it costs to keep your home at 69 degrees all day long.

Beyond the mere monitoring of energy usage, which alone is an eye-opening energy-saver, Hohm will also make recommendations on how to cut back on energy costs. As energy costs rise, environmental concerns heighten, and legislation on conservation are discussed, consumers would do well to curb their energy appetites where they can. Hohm will show them how to do it. Beyond merelty turning off unnecessary lights, Hohm can suggest the cost-saving alternative of buying an energy-efficient washing machine or changing out an old central air unit. Perhaps some consumers may go even greener by purchasing a solar water heating system or an electricity-generating windmill.

How much money will it save? Troy Batterberry who is managing the development and launch of the new program, estimates that consumers will save as much as 10%. A 10% nationwide energy reduction is an impressive statistic, all things considered. But, as Batterberry explains, the website is about more than just consumers saving pennies. In a Reuters interview, Batterberry spoke of Hohm being a tool that will prevent the building of new power plants, saving money for individuals, industries, and the government.

Although it already sounds very impressive, Hohm is only in its infantile stages, claim Microsoft representatives. They have big plans for the future. Soon water consumption will be monitored, along with natural gas, propane, and heating oil. Microsoft’s Hohm may also begin to roll out its own line of smart thermostats, energy-efficient plugs, and other energy-saving hardware devices. Hohm may be home to a whole new industry niche for Microsoft as they develop advanced information, real-time statistics, and a host of other services.

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In the wee hours of Friday morning, Apple posted a press release stating that the new version of their trademarked browser, Safari, was downloaded eleven million times in just three days. According to the glowing report, Safari 4 is better than you and you and you—Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome to be specific. Why? Speed. Plain and simple, Safari boasts more boost than any browser on the market, due to a juiced-up Java engine, and a few other tweaks.

Although Safari’s speed advantage over its browser-cousins is arguable, the download numbers are not. A demographic snapshot of the users who downloaded the new software reveals an astonishing fact. More than half (six million plus) of the downloads was the Windows version of the browser. Why Windows users are downloading Apple’s software is not entirely clear. However, three interesting points suggest the reason for Apple’s successful Safari 4 launch.

First and foremost, Apple did a pretty successful job of marketing the browser—marketing its speed that is. Anyone wants a faster browser, and so the promise of lighting-fast Java loads, better offline capabilities, swifter downloads, and some cool features—the urge to download is irresistible. Although some of their speed claims may be dubious, their marketing was successful—as usual. One way that they bumped up the publicity was using the World Wide Developer Conference as a launch platform. Apparently, the few well-placed comments were not lost amidst the iPhone 3G gawking, and drove additional traffic to the site for a quick Safari look-see.

Second, Safari is free. Of course, a free browser is no big deal. Free browser downloads can be had from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, too. However, Apple’s customary price tag is a bit higher than market median. Thus, getting a free piece of the Apple brand is kind of nice (or intriguing), primarily for Windows users.

The final and most fascinating factoid of Safari’s 11-million-download-free-for-all is that many of the downloads were ‘compulsory.’ In other words, even if the users don’t want it, won’t use it, and couldn’t care less, they downloaded it anyway. In the words of one cynical user, “Apple basically pushed it out to everyone it possibly could, whether they wanted it or not.” Thus, with a few groggy early-morning clicks, some users may have joined the eleven-million crowd without even realizing it, thanks to Apple’s easy updating. While no one knows exactly how many auto-updates were part of the eleven million, this probably contributes a significant portion to the large number of downloads.

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HP took a generous slice of humble pie on Thursday when they issued a voluntary recall of the Lithium-ion batteries installed in their notebook PCs. Affected machines include nine of the Pavilion series, nine in the Presario series, the G6000, G7000 and Compaq 6720s. The official list of affected units appears on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

The problem with the notebooks was the battery, which is susceptible to overheating. According to the official report, “the recalled lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers.” Thankfully, no injuries have resulted from the overheating batteries, but HP does have complaints of at least two batteries that have overheated and ruptured. The batteries pose a serious fire hazard.

The number of affected units is approximately 70,000 throughout the United States and Canada. Those who have units that are part of the recall should immediately remove the battery. The computer may still be used, but only while plugged in without the battery. HP will provide a free battery replacement for any faulty batteries.  

Last year, HP experienced a similar incident when they installed Sony-manufactured batteries that were also subject to overheating. That recall affected 32,000 batteries. In 2006, a massive recall of Sony batteries affected Dell, HP, and Apple computers. 

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Oh no. Another Microsoft vs. Apple ad? Not again. This time, Microsoft released a new ad, along with a new program that takes a huge swipe at Apple and their iTunes store. Does Microsoft’s jab work?

The ad goes something like this. The cool guy, Wes Moss, shares a factoid at the beginning of the ad: at a buck a song, it would cost $30,000, to fill the iPod with songs. His point? Most people, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs notwithstanding, would run out of money before they ever run out of space on their iPod.

Does he have a point?  Well, read on.

His point is not that the iPod is a piece of junk with way too much storage capability. His point is, you need to subscribe to Zune Pass, because apparently, you can pay only $15 and get all the songs and downloads you want. Forever. All of them. Unlimited.

Does he have a point this time? If only it were that simple, all the iPod users would quickly rush over to Zune Pass and download the thousands of unlimited songs that they need to fill their iPods, and spend less than 30 grand.

Unfortunately, Zune Pass isn’t the promised land of unlimited downloads, as Wes makes it out to be. In case you didn’t catch it in the video, they pull a nifty SFX stunt on the unwary awe-struck viewer. It happens right when he reaches his powerful sell line: “Unlimited music downloads for 14.99 a month. One costs a lot and one costs a little.” During this dramatic announcement, the screen displays corresponding text. First it displays “Zune Pass. Unlimited Music.” Then, it displays “$14.99 a month.” along with the fine print: “Keep 10 songs.”  “Keep 10 songs” is the rub—the fine print as it were—   and it appears on the screen for .03 seconds.

With all the bad news only taking up .03 seconds, Zune Pass will probably get a lot of initial customers. But it will also get a lot of disgruntled customers. In the end, the $15 dollars gets you 10 songs. And, imagine that, the real price comes out to $1.50 per song! Suddenly 30k doesn’t seem so bad when compared with 45k!

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