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DAVIS, Calif.--What kind of clean tech product will thrive over the long term?

"Something that doesn't defy laws of physics, and there are plenty of those," said Rodrigo Prudencio, a partner with Nth Power LLC. The venture capital firm helped Evergreen Solar and Imperium Renewables to get off the ground.

Nobody at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference was making bold predictions about what might become the Google of green tech, but the sector is expected to continue expanding at a rapid clip.

Clean tech companies receive the third largest amount of venture capital, a staggering increase … Read more

When I use my computer, I typically find myself listening to music and podcasts, or maybe even watch some videos. And while my six-year old Altec Lansing speakers do a pretty nice job of reproducing sound, the Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System does it far better than any other computer surround sound system I've used.

Design

The Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System is well-equipped and quite attractive. It comes with four speakers (FL, FR, RL, RR), a center channel, subwoofer and a control pod that does your bidding. The subwoofer is cased in a nice black plastic, while the speakers are small, yet adequately sized to fit any space. Even better, the G51 came with extra designs that you can cut out and apply to the side of the speakers for additional customization. If you'd rather to do it yourself, you can also surf over to this page to download software and artwork. If that still doesn't work, you can always design your own and insert it into the "patent-pending mod system" on each satellite speaker. Sure, it's not the greatest of add-ons, but it does add some personal flair to an otherwise run-of-the-mill design.… Read more

Steve Jobs certainly knows how to surprise and saturate. Along with other Applephiles, I was following the live coverage of the latest Apple/iPod/iPhone news via Gizmodo, which couldn't refresh fast enough!

So much to digest, but the main points:

(1) iPhone price drop!? The 8GB iPhone's price fell markedly with this announcement to $399. (Say buh-bye to the 4GB model). Boy, I sure could have used that $200 for the past two months, but it's an inherent risk of being an early adopter. So there is a $100 premium for the phone part of the … Read more

I'm following the special "Beat Goes On" event being put on by Apple this morning in San Francisco's Moscone Center. Here are my first reactions....

Do-it-yourself ringtones for the iPhone. Great idea, but I want to be able to do it with any song in my iTunes library, not just songs I've purchased from iTunes. And only 500,000 songs are approved for this usage. And you have to pay an additional $0.99 per ringtone, in addition to buying the song. Kind of a snooze. I've seen people hack together custom ringtones from … Read more

The Samsung HT-TX75 is a well-rounded home theater solution that doesn't break the mold, by any means, but is a well-equipped device that is worth the $499 (and sometimes lower) price tag.

Before I tell you about what I liked and what I didn't, I want to point you to the following CNET Review performed by the ever-capable John Falcone. Although he reviewed the Samsung HT-X70, the head unit is roughly identical to the HT-TX75, but the speakers and a few other specs are different. For this reason, I will not be rehashing the in-depth coverage of those features that are the same as the HT-X70. In case you're wondering, the HT-X70 was given a 7.1 out of 10 by Falcone.

First Impressions

The first thing that will strike you with the HT-TX75 is the device's stylish head unit. With a sleek black finish and a host of options including a hidden USB port for easy connectivity of an iPod or other USB-capable device, XM capability, wireless speaker capability and support for DivX, the HT-TX75 will immediately strike you as a capable product.

One of my favorite features of this home theater in a box is its five-disc CD/DVD changer. Not only did I appreciate just one trip to the system, but the remote's disc skip button basically allowed me to be lazy and sit in my chair when we were ready to watch the next movie. That said, there is no easy way to know which film is next and I sometimes found myself waiting for each movie to load before I could decide if that was the intended disc.Another great feature of the device, as John pointed out in his review of the X70, is the HDMI upscaling to 720p/1080i. Usually, I'm not a fan of upscaling DVDs to 720p or 1080i because if it's not done well, the picture looks worse than if it was a simple 480p image. With that in mind, I was quite impressed with the TX75's upscaling abilities.

And while I tend to get sucked in by a good remote more than anything, the Samsung remote leaves a bit to be desired. And although my hand size is above average, the remote is still too long for anyone to hit a button on the bottom and the top without sliding it back and forth in their hand. Besides that, the buttons are in awkward positions and the range of button sizes didn't help in any way. All in all, the remote is pretty bad.… Read more

As a Mac Mini and MacBook owner, I think it's safe to say that I know my way around the Mac. My MacBook comes with me wherever I go and as for my Mac Mini? Well, the Mac Mini was an impulse buy that was designed to make my life a little more comfortable. Along with the purchase of the lowest-end Intel Core Duo Mini, I purchased a wireless keyboard and wireless mighty mouse for distant computing. Once home, I hooked it up to the HDTV in my bedroom and it has sat there ever since. Why in my … Read more

The latest testament to the geek appeal of blinking pixels are two handheld electronic musician interfaces called the Monome and the Tenori-On. Both are slated for a new release in the next few months and while they have a lot in common conceptually, there are a few key differences between the two that I'll explore here.

Even if you couldn't care less about electronic music, these products demonstrate stunning interface design (not to mention eye candy). Remember, it was an obscure music interface company named Jazz Mutant that pioneered the multi-touch screen interface long before the iPhone came to town. (Videos after the break.)… Read more

It's been nearly a year since Dave Duffield unveiled his on-demand enterprise applications company Workday, with the launch of his Workday Human Capital Management software.

And since that time, Duffield and Co. have been toiling away to build out the rest of his on-demand enterprise resource planning (ERP) vision. The PeopleSoft founder has added another piece to his project.

A beta version of Workday Financials was released Monday. The software includes core accounting features such as accounts payable, accounts receivable and financial accounting and reporting.

In the to-be-added category, the company plans to add such features as support for … Read more

As a guy who prefers silence over noise and high-quality music playback over garbage, I'm an ideal candidate for noise-canceling headphones. And while I know these headphones have been out for a while and most of the people who already own them are the only people who care about noise-canceling headphones, I couldn't resist taking a look at the Bose QuietComfort 3 noise-canceling headphones.

The Bose QuietComfort series of noise-canceling headphones were originally designed as a way to block out annoying noises. If you're a frequent flyer and you can't stand the sound of the roaring … Read more