europe

Why Europe loves open source

Next week I'm headed to Argentina to work and to ski. (Mark Shuttleworth will be joining me so I'll post pictures once I have them.) In preparation, yesterday morning (6:30 AM, to be precise) I headed over to the Sport Loft to have my Tecnica Dragon boots custom fitted.

Sport Loft does an amazing job with boots. Having gone there, I'll never go anywhere else. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it. As Jeremy, who spent two hours fitting my boots, and I talked, he said something that resonated with me on a number of different levels, not the least of which being software:

In the US, everything is mass produced. We understand volume businesses. But in Europe, they really focus on a customized product.

He was talking about how most people never get their boots custom-fitted in the US, but that it's quite common in Europe. As open-source software adoption in Europe compared to the US shows, ski boots and software may have a lot in common.

Open source adoption in the US is quite strong, but it is Europe that leads the way, as Forrester recently noted. Europe recognized the economic benefits of open source well before the US did, and Europeans (or those of recent European origin) are responsible for many of the industry's most important open-source projects.… Read more

Wind power outlook weak in Europe, report says

Rising materials costs, engineering challenges, and installation snags threaten European goals to dramatically expand wind power, according to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

The European Union aims to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. But wind power won't meet a significant portion of that unless more government subsidies help companies offset increased costs, the firm warned Wednesday.

The world market for wind power will grow by 155 percent by 2012, according to a March report by the Global Wind Energy Council.

But a global backlog of turbines has sent wind park builders scrambling … Read more

HTC Touch Diamond gets a keyboard

The Touch Diamond hasn't even gone on sale in most countries and already, another new version has been announced. T-Mobile Germany launched three new MDA phones (its name for the HTC devices) and one of them is the MDA Vario IV, which is the rumored HTC Raphael. The other two are variants of the Diamond and Advantage.

This PDA-phone is largely similar to the HTC Touch Diamond but comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard like the TyTN II. According to Netherlands-based site Mobile Phone Helpdesk, the Vario IV has all the features of the Diamond but comes with 256MB … Read more

DS gets painted with a broad brush in Europe

If you want the latest choice of colors for the DS Lite, you have two options: You can get one of the rose princess versions being peddled by various celebrities, or you can go to Europe. That's where Nintendo has chosen to release its newest hues--red, green, and "Ice Blue"--reportedly scheduled for June.

Alas, there's no word on whether these pigments will reach U.S. shores, according to Slippery Brick. Still, if you're a Yank who's simply dying to get one of these paint jobs, there's always Colorware. But whatever you do, … Read more

Google gathers 3D data with Street View

Google confirmed today it's gathering 3D data along with the photographs it takes for its online Street View service, a potential boon for those of us who fantasize about flying like Superman through urban landscapes, at least virtually.

"The imaging technology includes lasers that collect 3D geometry data," the company said Thursday in a statement. However, for now at least, the 3D information is just experimental, Google said.

Savvy observers, looking at Flickr pictures of Google Street View cars gathering images in Milan, had identified the 3D laser scanners in April. At the time, Google didn't … Read more

Climate change barely bothers wealthy, polluting nations: study

The bigger a nation's wealth and carbon footprint, the less its residents care about global warming. That's according to an online survey of 46 countries on every continent by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The prosperous Dutch appeared the least worried about the prospect of future rising oceans and wild card weather, even though half of the Netherlands lies one meter below sea level. The next least concerned were people in Russia, the United States, Latvia, and Estonia.

"If you take global warming to heart, you understand that you have to sacrifice something," study … Read more

PlayTV turns PS3 into a PVR in Europe

Sony's PlayStation 3 is a multimedia powerhouse, juggling the playback demands of Blu-ray, DVD, and DivX with ease. But while on-demand content is growing in popularity, there remain a vast number of people who watch regularly scheduled, over-the-air broadcasts. So it's not surprising to see Sony enter the market with PlayTV, a new device that will let you watch and record digital TV on your PlayStation 3. It was announced for the European market last year and will sell for 80 pounds, or about $156.

Using a USB tuner, plus the included software, PlayTV will allow users to … Read more

Firefox market share nears 29 percent in Europe, down in the US, finds study

Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser is more and more popular in Europe, hitting nearly 29 percent market share in March. It's also growing in popularity in New Zealand and Australia, where it reached 31.2 percent, according to web analytics company Xiti.

In North America, however, March saw Firefox drop 1 percent. No one seems to know why.

I suspect it's just a momentary blip, however, as Firefox has seen continued growth in market share over the past few years. There was a time that its growth might have been driven by ideology. Not any more.

No, Firefox … Read more

Design as the linking force: DMI European Conference in Paris

I am in Paris, attending the DMI (Design Management Institute) annual European Conference. Executives from design-centric brands, corporate design managers, agencies, academics, and students gather to discuss the power of design not only in bridging decision-makers in organizations with the needs of consumers but also in facilitating product, service, social, and political innovation processes. The attendee list is very international and includes representatives from Renault, eBay, SK Telekom, SAP, BBC, Microsoft, and Vodafone, as well as professors/PhDs from business schools ESADE and ESSEC. I will blog more soon.