Lithium

This is seriously WTF. Of course you get the usual peanuts saying "nanny state blah blah", but no, no one needs to ban these little batteries. We just need to know where they are so we can keep them away from toddlers (and the elderly). If you get 1 in yo —

Zagg Your Way to Extra Power for USB Devices —

Zagg Your Way to Extra Power for USB Devices is a post from Chris Pirillo

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The people at Zagg asked me if I wanted to take a look at the ZAGGsparq.Their claim is that it is the world’s most powerful battery backup and charger. They aren’t kidding, folks. This thing packs 2000mA hours inside of it! The 6,000 mAh Lithium Polymer Battery has enough juice in it to fully charge an iPhone four times.

The ZAGGsparq plugs into a regular old wall outlet and allows you to charge two devices by way of USB while plugged in. The cool thing, though, is that it will hold charge inside when you unplug it from the wall. You can throw it into your pocket or bag and then use it to charge any personal electronic device that requires a USB plug for connectivity. It’s small and lightweight, so it’s easy to take with you when you’re traveling or attending a conference. If you fully charge your ZAGGspark before you head out for the day, you don’t have to worry about finding an outlet to recharge your gadgets while you’re busy and on the run. Just pull out the ZAGGspark and get the go-go juice you need.

The ZAGGsparq does have UK adapters in case you’re traveling abroad. There is also a lit-up indicator on the side that will tell you exactly how much juice you have left. This thing will definitely be a part of my accessory kit from now on. I’ve done reviews on what I use when I’m moving around, and this is going to be a perfect addition to the mix.

• ZAGG ZAGGSPARQ Sparq Battery Backup and Charger (Black)

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Creative Zii D5 Bluetooth Wireless Sound Speaker Review —

Creative Zii D5 Bluetooth Wireless Sound Speaker Review is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If I want to listen to audio on my iPhone, it’s not usually a great experience. It’s not practical to walk around with my hand cupped to my ear. Unless external speakers are Bluetooth-enabled, it’s a pain in the proverbial rear to hook them up and tether it. I have to thank the folks at Creative for sending along the ZiiSound D5 Bluetooth Wireless Multimedia Speaker System for me to review.

The ZiiSound D5 is a high-quality device that can dock your device, charge it and act as a wireless speaker system. The wireless transmitter will instantly turn your iPhone, iPod or iPad into a remote control. You’ll get superior Bluetooth stereo performance with their apt-X audio codec.

I found out about this at the recent Bluetooth Sig event. I didn’t even realize there was such a thing that would look nice and work well. I can connect any Bluetooth device capable of transmitting audio to this setup. It doesn’t “only” work with my Apple portable devices.

The speaker system is touch-enabled. I can control the volume in two different places… and it has seriously rich sound. I don’t sound quite so whiny when my voice comes out through these speakers. The bass sounds excellent, which is surprising with a set of speakers such as these.

This is the reason I like to get out of the house every once in awhile. I tend to find out about some very cool new pieces of technology when I venture out to attend functions and conferences. What new things have you discovered recently?

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As more and more companies seem to be jumping on the social media bandwagon, Lithium Technologies is beefing up its services with the acquisition of a startup called Scout Labs.

The news was first reported yesterday in TechCrunch, prior to any official announcement. Chief executive and cofounder Lyle Fong confirmed the acquisition to VentureBeat today, and also said that the rumored price of between $20 and $25 million is correct.

Lithium builds customer communities for businesses like Barnes & Noble and Lenovo, but Fong said companies are increasingly interested in monitoring what customers were saying on social services like Twitter. So Emeryville, Calif.-based Lithium went looking for a social media monitoring service. It settled on Scout Labs, Fong said, because the two companies shared a philosophy that these tools shouldn’t just be used by marketing and customer service teams: “Every person in the company should be closer to the customer.”

Lithium will continue selling Scout Labs’ products, but will also be looking into ways to integrate the services.

Scout Labs raised more than $4 million from Minor Ventures, El Dorado Venture Partners, and Javelin Ventures. Lithium has raised $44 million, with a recent valuation, according to Fong, of $160 million. The company is open to more acquisitions

“There’s always something new in horizon with the social web,” Fong said. “As new technologies pop up, we’ll have to decide whether we should buy it or build it. For now, I think we have our hands full.”

Companies: Lithium Technologies, Scout Labs

People: Lyle Fong

Scout Labs Acquired By Lithium to Combine Social, Web, CRM Data — Social media measurement and tracking firm Scout Labs is set to be acquired by Lithium, a provider of social CRM and community solutions. The deal, first mentioned by Mike Arrington on TechCrunch, is confirmed and will be announced officially on Tuesday of next week. I spoke with the company's vice president of product, Margaret Francis (@margaretfrancis), tonight, and she said the companies will be working together to combine Scout Labs' social monitoring capabilities with Lithium's more community-oriented tools. In addition, the combined company, which will have approximately 140 employees, will be better resourced to serve larger customers - something Scout Labs has been straining to do with its small team.

While terms of the deal were not disclosed, TechCrunch's estimated range of $20-$25 million was said to be in the ballpark, and Francis termed the buy as "pretty much the biggest deal that has happened in the social media space," adding "as a multiple on revenue, this is pretty great." She added that Scout Labs had spoken with other potential acquirers in the first quarter of 2010, and some were taken aback at the company's relatively high valuation when compared to their revenue. "Some of their jaws dropped to the floor," she said.

As I mentioned last night, when discussing SocialPing, Scout Labs is one of a small list of enterprise quality providers of social media measurement, in the same breath as Alterian and Radian6. But the company had just short of 20 employees, and the product, while very robust, did not have enough resources behind it to serve larger customers. While Lithium, started by former Gamers.com co-founder Lyle Fong, had a smaller customer base than Scout Labs, they were better positioned for big clients, including HP and Barnes & Noble - which led to them being a lot more profitable than Scout Labs as well.

Scout Labs' offerings served to give a solid picture in aggregate of what people say about your brand, "but it is a lot cooler to tie it to your Web data and your CRM," Francis said.

The price tag for Scout Labs is nice, but not one that looks to see the company's employees taking extended vacations any time soon - and it doesn't sound like they want to, if today's call was any indication.

"Every employee is sticking around for this, and we are highly incentivized to do so," Francis said. "They knew they needed us, and it feels like that."

While there are other players, like Radian6 and Alterian, in this space, Scout Labs believes that marketers are extremely underserved in terms of applications and true business intelligence. One wrinkle that could help going forward for the new company, which will be housed in a new office on Market Street in San Francisco, is that Lithium shares a common board member with Twitter, in Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital. This could potentially help the company gain access to the valuable Twitter stream in full for data mining.

"We have been negotiating with Twitter for access to data for some time," Francis said. "We want what Google has, and we are pretty happy about the board relationships with Twitter."

More details should be made available this upcoming Tuesday. Until then, you can find Scout Labs at http://scoutlabs.com/ and Lithium at http://www.lithium.com/.

Scout Labs, a startup that lets brand owners track what’s being said about them on new and social sites, has been acquired by Lithium Technologies in a stock and cash transaction, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. We believe the purchase price is $20 million – $25 million.

We first covered Scout Labs, which was created in the Minor Ventures incubator, in late 2007 when it was still in private beta. More recently they updated their UI and improved on the product. We’ve found it to be best in class in auto-determining sentiment and giving brand managers a good real time overview of what’s being said about them.

Scout Labs has raised $4+ million from Minor Ventures, El Dorado Ventures and Javelin Venture Partners.

Lithium Technologies was founded in 2001 and focuses on a broader range of social CRM solutions. To date though their product suite has focused on retaining and communicating with existing customers. Scout Labs brings in the new dimension of seeing what the Internet in general is saying about your products and services. The company has raised $44 million in venture capital.

We expect the deal to be announced shortly.

- It's quite the environmentally-friendly device:
* Arsenic-free display glass
* BFR-free
* Mercury-free LCD display
* PVC-free
* Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure

- The display assembly comes off fairly easily, no need for a heat gun!

- The main board is secured to the back panel by T3 Torx screws. "We have never seen Apple use screws with a bit this small before."

- The logic board was made by AT&S. We haven't seen "Apple's PCB manufacturers brand their boards before."

- The markings on the A4 processor: N26CGM0T 1007 APL0398 33950084 YNL184A2 1004 K4X2G643GE.The K4X2 is a Samsung DRAM part number! This means the A4 processor is probably being manufactured by Samsung.

- The WiFi/Bluetooth card is integrated into the dock connector cable.

- Dual speakers provide mono sound. Two small sealed channels direct sound toward three audio ports carved into the bottom edge of the iPad. The audio-out jack provides stereo sound, of course.

- "Confirming our suspicions from yesterday, the battery integrates two separate 3.75V lithium polymer cells wired in parallel for such ample battery life."

- The display seems to be glued around its perimeter but can still be removed from the plastic framework.

iPad Teardown

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The Nissan Leaf electric vehicle is set to be released in a few months, with Nissan pushing it ahead of their original 2011 release date, and even ahead of the official release of the Chevy Volt in November. Some industry insiders are wondering whether Nissan has cut a few corners in order to get the Leaf to market – unlike the Tesla Roadster or the Chevy Volt, the Leaf does not have an active thermal management system for its lithium ion battery pack.

Read the rest of Will the Nissan Leaf Battery Deliver All It Promises?

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Post tags: active thermal management system, electric car, electric vehicle, green design, green transportation, Nissan Leaf, nissan leaf battery, sustainable design