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Small wind: Mariah Power lands cash for spire-shaped turbine

Mariah Power said on Wednesday that it has raised additional funding to bring its small wind turbine to market.

The company said it has secured $500,000 in funding from venture capital firm Big Sky Partners. As part of the investment, Michael Schwab of Big Sky Partners will join Mariah Power's board.

Mariah Power, based in Reno, Nev., makes a ground-mounted vertical-axis wind turbine that is designed for people's homes or businesses. It's expected to be available later this month for about $4,000.

Company Mike Hess told Greentech Media that its forthcoming spire-shaped Windspire turbine can … Read more

MobiBlu Cube3 gets US price and release date

We haven't been having much luck with MobiBlu MP3 players recently, but the company's brightest star, their Cube series, will be seeing a refresh on May 1st. The MobiBlu Cube3 will be offered in a 2GB capacity priced at $99, and includes a music player, photo viewer, voice recorder, video player, FM radio, and radio recorder. Looking at the text on the MobiBlu USA Web site, it's not apparent how the Cube3 will differ from the Cube2, but we're hoping the Cube3 will be small enough to inhale.

The Cube3's music player is compatible with … Read more

Don't get screwed by Microsoft Office Live Small Business

In todays' New York Times, David Pogue reviewed an updated version of Microsoft's Office Live Small Business, a suite of online services for making Web sites (I'm simplifying a bit).

He failed to point out an important defensive computing aspect of any Web site, divorcing it from the domain name registration. In addition, trusting Microsoft to handle domain registration is not your best option. To fully understand this, some background is required.

A domain name, such as CNET.com or JavaTester.org is a unique name on the Internet, one that is used for both e-mail and a … Read more

Microsoft makes changes to Office Live

Microsoft is making a series of changes to its Office Live Small Business service, offering some previously paid-for services free, while adding a new charge for domain name registration after the first year.

Domain name registration will continue to be free for the first year. But each subsequent year Microsoft will charge $14.95, though it will add the ability for so-called private registration, where customers can keep their personal information out of the public Whois database. Microsoft said that those who have already signed up for Office Live will continue to have their domain name registered for free "… Read more

Small wind: Marquiss Wind Power gets funding for 'Ducted Wind Turbine'

Marquiss Wind Power said on Friday that it has raised $1.3 million in series A funding to commercialize a rooftop wind turbine aimed at businesses.

Velocity Venture Capital led the funding and was joined by Strategis Early Ventures.

The company's Aeropoint wind turbines don't look like traditional wind turbines. They are 19 feet tall and have a square frame that holds a star-shaped fan inside.

This "Ducted Wind Turbine" is designed specifically for rooftops of commercial buildings. To take advantage of gusts and variable wind flows, the structure pivots to face the greatest amount of … Read more

RCA Small Wonder line gets four new models

RCA is updating the Small Wonder line with four new YouTube-ready digital camcorders. All of the cameras ship with easy-to-use software that allows users to edit, upload, and share their clips via Box.net or YouTube. Aimed at those consumers who want a tapeless, hassle-free way to capture video on the fly, RCA is offering four different models including one top-of-the-line camcorder that shoots in 720p. All Small Wonder camcorders allow for memory expansion--some via SD, others through a microSD slot. As you can see from the picture, the EZ205 has a flip-out screen, but the press material we were … Read more

Tech 'solutions' your small biz can't use

Highly touted technologies that promise save time and boost profits often don't work for small businesses. One business owner, Gene Marks, still believes the sales pitches but, more often than not, comes away disappointed. He shares his list of the top-10 solutions that don't work for small business.

Read the full story on Businessweek.com: "Tech 'solutions' your small biz can't use"

Netbooks: Almost a do-it-all small-business suite

Per my previous rant on Web start-ups that lack a Big Idea, here's one I appreciate, since it's trying to solve a real problem: NetBooks. This company has built a Web-based suite of interconnected apps designed to run a small business.

It's a noble effort, because the small-business market is murder. It's not that there's a lack of customers, it's just that they are so hard to reach and so different from each other. Building a universal small-biz app is a tricky balancing act.

It looks to me like NetBooks might eventually pull it … Read more

Geeking out: Gorgeous digital edition magazines

Who says magazines are dead? Not Fortune Small Business Magazine, Hearst Magazines, or Red Herring. And certainly not Olive Software, the Santa Clara, Calif., company responsible for creating the interactive digital twins of their print issues.

Like the best discoveries, I stepped into Olive Software's work by accident, while flipping through the digital leaves of Fortune Small Business Magazine. As a champion of downloadable and Web apps for consumers, I wouldn't normally seek out this kind of story, but the experience was too gratifying not to share. After all, would I hold back from you?

Click once and the magazine blooms in its self-contained online reader. Click again, this time on the right arrow, and the cover unfurls to reveal a faithful representation of the magazine's glossy, full-page interior, down to the shadowed hollow where the pages meet the binding. Flip through to read articles horizontally across multiple pages, each one adhering to the original layout, rather than dive-bombing into a vertical scroll that makes do with the Web's predilection for linear storytelling.… Read more