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When Sopogy CEO Darren Kimura told me about his new portable power unit called SopoLite, I was intrigued. This 90-pound invention is a pint-sized version of the parabolic trough reflectors that Sopogy uses to collect solar thermal energy. From what I can tell, this is among the first instances...

First comes the nasty entry of Google's (GOOG) freebie turn-by-turn voice-activated navigation app. Then comes news that this holiday shopping season may be the first where we see GPS devices by popular makers TomTom and Garmin (GRMN) drop to the $50 price range, an area never before seen for these...

The streets of Caracas are crammed with three times as many cars as they can handle. And why not? Gas is cheaper in Venezuela than anywhere else on Earth. The consequence, of course, is nasty traffic, made only worse by potholes, police checkpoints and other impediments to smooth vehicular...

Sooner or later, politicians will realize that roads are becoming a terrible way to deal with traffic. This is top of mind, because Republican Bob McDonnell just won the Virginia governor's race in part by promising to build roads to unsnarl traffic in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where...

The $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob by search giant Google (GOOG) signals a new stage of the battle for the soul of the mobile Internet between Google and its arch-rival Apple (AAPL). The acquisition gives Google the strongest player in the fast-growing market for...

I just got back from a five-day, 2,400-mile road trip across the Midwest, the Great Plains, and the Southwest. For the most part, it was a remarkably media-free trip. My total consumption between Milwaukee and Los Angeles was one free hotel copy of USA Today, two episodes of This American Life via...

What don't you like about Monopoly? Too limited? Predictable? No one to play with? Then Google's newest brainstorm, Monopoly City Streets, to be unveiled Wednesday, Sept. 9, might pique your interest. The online game table is the entire world, the players everyone in the world who wants in, and...

If you've ever thought about how much money you'd save on your electricity bill by installing solar power, but didn't want to go through the hassle of getting an estimate, here's an easy solution to find out on your own.RoofRay has a beta program that uses Google Maps to let homeowners figure out...

I wonder what Alfred Hitchcock would make of the Borings.In 1954, the master of suspense directed Rear Window, a thoughtful thriller about a man (James Stewart) who spies on his neighbors -- from his own apartment. Aaron and Christine Boring of Pittsburgh feel that Google is spying on them, and...