Google Invests $80 Million On Solar Panels

Posted: 16 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST Google is to invest $80 million into solar-powered plants in a bid to secure power for its data centers in the future. The plan is to build six new solar farms in the American Southwest, possibly in the desert regions of Arizona and Southern California. Google, who are working along with investment firm KKR on this project, say that once the facilities are completed, they will generate 106MW of electricity at their peak. That is enough power to serve 17,000 US homes. It is hoped these plants will be online by early 2014. “These investments are all part of our drive toward a clean energy future — where renewable energy is abundant, accessible and affordable,” wrote Google head of corporate finance Kojo Ako-Asare. “By continuing to invest in renewable energy projects, purchasing clean energy for our operations and working with our utility partners to create new options for ourselves and for other companies interest in buying renewable energy, we’re working hard to make that future a reality.” Google has been investing heavily in renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power. So far the company says it has more than $1 billion worth of investments in this area. The company has revealed that it is also working with US utility provider Duke Electricity on a project that gives incentives for firms  that use alternative energy sources, as well as planning for a $600 million data center expansion. It has been reported that Facebook too is pushing for greener energy sources. It has announced a plan to build a solely wind powered facility in Iowa. [Image via Google Blogspot] SOURCE: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/15/google_pledges_80_mil_for_solar_power_push/ The post Google Invests $80 Million On Solar Panels appeared first on TechBeat.

Xbox One Could Last 10 Years Posted: 16 Nov 2013 04:00 AM PST With the PlayStation 4 releasing imminent, excitement about the future of next-generation gaming is clearly in the air. While the Xbox One doesn’t officially release until November 22, 2013, that doesn’t stop it from making news today. Craig Flannagan is the director of marketing for Xbox Canada, and he recently had some very good news for Xbox fans. Just How Long Will The Xbox  One Last? Here’s a direct quote from Flannigan as he was speaking to GamesIndustry about the superiority of the Xbox One: “Xbox One is going to start ahead, in terms of the experience we can deliver. And because we’re built for the future, we’re going to stay ahead. I think there is not a better experience you can buy this holiday, and there will not be a time this generation where there’s a better experience you can buy than Xbox One…And it’s probably going to be a pretty long generation. We’re probably here for a while because we’re built for the future. This is a console that will last you, conservatively a decade, if I had to put a bet down today.” Wow – a console that won’t simply just last for a decade, but one that will still be relevant as well! If the Xbox One delivers on both of these fronts, it will be a game changer indeed. (Pun intended) However, starting out, the Xbox One may be a little bit behind. This is due to the fact that it is simply unusable out of the boxwithout a day one update. For various reasons it won’t be able to launch any applications or play any games without first being connected to the internet for the required update. Once the update is completed, however, Sony may need to watch their backs. The initial price of the Xbox One ($499.99) might not seem so high compared to the longevity of the console. What are your thoughts? Will you be getting a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One? [Image via vgchartz] SOURCE: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/08/xbox-one-to-last-conservatively-a-decade-says-microsoft The post Xbox One Could Last 10 Years appeared first on TechBeat.

Messaging App, Line Creates $100M Per Quarter But No IPO Posted: 16 Nov 2013 03:00 AM PST Line is a messaging app that has grown in Japan over the past two and a half years and the company is now bringing in nearly $100 million in revenue per quarter.   The app said it brought in 9.9 billion yen ($99.9 million) in net sales for the third fiscal quarter this year. Overall revenues, which includes the development fees paid to app stores and developers, has more than doubled in the past six months to 15.6 billion yen ($157.6 million). There have been reports in local newspapers about an impending IPO next year but the company remains quiet on the subject. Sources closely connected with the company say that they are considering an offering in mid-2014. “Of course you’re going to ask questions about an IPO…It’s a strategy we’re thinking about, especially looking at services like Twitter. But at the current moment, we don’t believe that it’s something that we have to do right away. We currently have enough cash and we don’t have a pressing need to do an IPO.” said Jun Masuda, who was a chief strategy and marketing officer for Line’s original parent NHN Japan before transferring over to become a full-time executive on the app. Line has seen a surprising rise for a skunkworks project that came out of NHN. (the company behind South Korea’s search portal Naver). Shortly after the shocking 2011 earthquake that crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Line was created.  The app now has accumulated 280 million registered users worldwide. Interesting to note, the company has never publicly shared figures on the amount of monthly active users.  Overall, however, the app has completely saturated the Japanese market, with 49 million registered users. Line is also gathering momentum in the gaming field, with 39 published titles and deals in the pipeline to bring more third-party games from abroad over into the Japanese market. But, before turning into a games platform, Line business model was to aggressively push stickers and sponsored accounts to create revenue.  Now though, the key part of Line’s massive revenue growth is in gaming. The games section of Line’s business now makes up 60 percent of their revenue. This is then followed by stickers, which make up another 20 percent of the app’s income. The finally there are merchandising and sponsored accounts.  Their game focused strategy closely resembles what Kakao did in their build up to domination of Google Play’s charts. Kakao currently publishes 10 out of 10 of the top grossing titles on Google’s Play chart in the country, according to App Annie. So what is next for the company?  It is considering building a type of e-commerce service to handle both business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer transactions. That could create competition for giants like Rakuten and many other small e-commerce startups based out of Japan.  After saturating the market in Japan, their next growth markets are in countries such as Thailand and Taiwan. Further down the line, they will be geared towards Latin American markets like Mexico and Brazil for future growth. [Image via gizmolead] SOURCE: http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/10/messaging-app-line/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 The post Messaging App, Line Creates $100M Per Quarter But No IPO appeared first on TechBeat.