Main Street Power Partners With AlsoEnergy On New California Solar Project

Main Street Power, a national solar financier, is partnering with AlsoEnergy for a nearly three megawatt distributed generation solar project in California. AlsoEnergy, an energy monitoring and financial management software solutions provider, will provide the energy monitoring software for the project, which will be spread throughout the state of California.

AlsoEngery’s Web-based PowerTrack performance monitoring and financial tracking software and its PowerLobby kiosk display systems will be used by Main Street Power for the project, set to be operational by year-end.

Systems will be located at 35 sites across the state, including the San Diego Unified Schools, the University of California at Davis and Contra Costa County.

Main Street Power will also partner with locally based solar installation firms and will own and operate the installed systems.

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Farmigo: Tapping Into The Power Of The Web To Bring You Fresh Veggies

Jason Kincaid currently works as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (he has other addresses too, so don’t worry if you have a different one). ? Learn More

It’s no secret that fresh produce straight from the farm can often beat the potato skins off of its supermarket counterpart — and why farmer’s markets are becoming increasingly popular. But unless you set aside that chunk of time every weekend to pick up your veggies from local growers, you’re probably stopping by your supermarket anyway.

The solution to this has been the emergence of Community Supported Agriculture programs, where members of the community agree with farmers to purchase a certain amount of produce, and then pick that food up at local dropoff points at regular intervals. But, while they’ve been around for decades, these programs aren’t necessarily easy to find or use. If only we could use technology to make things a bit more efficient…

Today, a service called Farmigo is launching as part of the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield, and it’s looking to make these CSAs more accessible, more popular, and more efficient — disrupting the way you set about buying your produce.

The site is essentially a platform for discovering, signing up for, and sharing CSAs. You can browse local dropoff points, viewing which foods each food producer is delivering. After choosing your producer and the items you want, you sign up for a regular subscription, which allows the producer to plan ahead. You can see an example dropoff listing here (it’s for Google’s office, which three producers use as drop-off points).

Farmigo is also using a ‘tipping point’ model (as popularized by Groupon), where you need a minimum number of participants before you’re able to create a new CSA in your area (if you don’t have enough people, it isn’t worth the farmers’ while). The company believes this fact will help the service spread virally — just like Groupon, users have an incentive to get their friends to sign up.

And, aside from getting fresh food and supporting local growers, the site also says that you’ll typically save 20% to 30% off supermarket prices. Farmigo makes money by charging a 2% transaction fee for each order/subscription.

As a special offer, Farmigo says that the first 100 TechCrunch readers to create a dropoff point (and get enough friends to join so that it passes the tipping point) will get their produce free for a year. To get in ont eh deal, sign up, then put ‘TechCrunch’ in the comments section. Note that you have to create a dropoff point, not just join one.

Tony Conrad: Margins in grocers is small, how do you get scale?
A: We’re seeing 40,000 families receiving produce today. Multiplying 4x each year. Farmers are getting much more money for their goods when they sell this way… We take a transaction fee of what’s coming through the system.

Wendy Lee: I agreed with the OpenTable analogy.
Brad Garlinghouse: Very impressed by the website. Thing that gives me pause, for so many people habitual behavior is that grocery store is not as good, but pretty good. I come away thinking this is pretty cool, not convinced it’s 10x improvement.
A: Airbnb, you could have said the same thing.

Stephen Messer: CSAs are complex. If I’m signing up have to find where it is, what’s going to be where.

A: You as the user find one location, for that location you can see exactly what the pricing is and what you’re going to be getting.

Farmigo is providing an alternative food system by enabling group-buying of fresh food directly from local farms & producers, making it convenient and affordable to get local, seasonal food. A grassroots food movement has been driving the popularity of Farmer’s Markets and CSA programs (Community Supported Agriculture). Purchasing produce directly from the grower is disrupting the traditional supermarket channel by providing fresher, healthier and tastier food. Farmigo’s Internet system enhances this direct grower-to-consumer channel by adding convenience, affordability and accessibility...

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J.D. Power Report Weighs In On Smartphone Design Vs. Performance

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

Sometimes it seems like phone manufacturers are locked in a race to deliver the fastest, most feature-packed phones, but sheer power does not a great phone make. According to a recent report from J.D. Power and Associates, the specifics of a device’s design goes a long way in determining how satisfied its users are.

Users of devices with touch screens, for example, are more likely to be satisfied with their phones than users who only have physical keyboards. While I wouldn’t try to convince a dyed-in-the-wool BlackBerry aficionado of that, the scores are pretty conclusive: on a 1,000 point scale, purely touch screen devices rated the highest in satisfaction (817 points), versus devices with just a physical keyboard (782), and devices with a mix of both (785).

Physical size and weight are also key determinants of satisfaction: smartphones whose weight comes in at or under 5 ounces receive the highest satisfaction ratings, and that trend even carries over into feature phones. Satisfaction scores also peak when a smartphone is nice and skinny, with phones at or below the .45-inch level topping the charts.

Apple claims the “Highest in Customer Satisfaction” crown in the smartphone category for the sixth consecutive time, which makes sense considering their zeal for design. In fairness though, it helps that they only really ever run with one new smartphone design at a time. HTC’s second place finish, on the other hand, means the Taiwan-based company can manage to hold their myriad smartphone offerings to a strict standard of performance and design.

While useful in some respects, J.D. Power’s results don’t really break any new ground. Going by their criteria, the “ideal” smartphone would be thin, light, and powerful: in short, what every manufacturer is aiming for anyway. Research like this can almost be dangerous to manufacturers, as it paints a picture of a specific kind of phone that people will theoretically be most pleased with. Differentiation and quality are the ways to thrive in this industry, and if everyone suddenly decides to make the same kind of device, only the consumers lose.

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Bianchini Launches Mightybell To Harness The Power Of Baby Steps

Jason Kincaid currently works as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (he has other addresses too, so don’t worry if you have a different one). ? Learn More

Ning cofounder and former CEO Gina Bianchini is back, and she’s launching her latest startup: a service called Mightybell. Its promise? To help you accomplish things in small, incremental steps (and to let you show others how to do the same).

Yep, that’s a broad description, but that’s intentional — Bianchini says that the verdict is still out on exactly how people are going to use the platform, so it’s premature to say whether it’s going to be good for travel guides or workout exercises or recipes or any other number of things (it may be good for all of those, by the way).  The service is now open to the public as both a website and iOS application.

When you first arrive at Mightybell, it’ll probably be through a Facebook or Twitter update — the site encourages current users to share the guides (called Experiences) they’re currently working through. You’ll land on a splash page that outlines the purpose of the guide. These vary greatly: thus far, some people are writing out step-by-step travel guides to cities, others are using it for lifestyle guides.

A guide on ’10 Vacation Rules to Save Your Life’ currently begins with an instruction to block out three vacations in the next year; subsequent steps include defining what exactly you want to do on your vacation and picking three ideal travel companions. Other guides include ‘Feel Like A New Yorker in San Francisco’ and ‘How To Pack Your Bike Like A Team Garmin-Cervelo Pro Mechanic’. Some guides feel overly-simple, others are clearly the product of hours of work.

Once you opt into the Experience, you’ll see the first step, which will include photographs, text outlining exactly what you’re supposed to do to complete that step, and some quick tips. A section at the bottom of the page lets users who are working on the same Experience share comments and advice. There’s also a grid of ‘Fellow Travelers’, where you can see a list of these participants — mouse-over one, and you can quickly send them a Congratulations on their progress. If you’d like to keep in touch with a given user, you can become a ‘Supporter’, which is analogous to following them on Twitter.

As you view each step in an Experience, you’ll notice a large right-pointing arrow at the bottom of the screen. Click it, and you’ll move to the next step (you can jump to previous steps at will). Each time you complete a step, the site will prompt you to share your progress with friends. If it sounds straightforward, that’s because it is, but the site is very polished — everything looks clean, and the site isn’t overrun by banner ads or other irritants. The site also has a heavy emphasis on analytics — users can view slick visualizations of their progress, as well as who their Supporters are.

Which brings us to premium Experiences. Mightybell will allow Experience creators to charge for their guides, which means you can earn money on your step-by-step guide to training for a marathon or learning how to juggle or trekking through the Amazon. Mightybell takes a 25% cut of each transaction and handles the payment processing. The site also gives creators tools to refine their guides — they’ll be able to see funnel analytics detailing where people may be giving up on their Experience (perhaps step five is too hard), and they can also see which of their supporters are driving the most traffic, via sites like Twitter, to the guide (you can then send messages to these advocates to show your appreciation).

Mightybell will also be generating a small amount of revenue, at least initially, through signups: anyone can sign up and consume content on the site, but in order to create an Experience, you’ll need to pay a one-time fee of one dollar. This appears to have more to do with ensuring the site is populated with high-quality content (that $1 hurdle will fend off plenty of spammers) than with serving as a long-term business plan.

The company, which currently has nine employees, raised a $2.1 million seed round late last year led by Floodgate and First Round Capital; notably absent is Andreessen Horowitz, where Bianchini was an executive in residence for a period beginning in March 2010.

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Can Municipal Waste Power Our Cars?

One future source of green energy may be as close as the nearest dumpster thanks to companies vying to make fuel from trash. Enerkem, based in Montreal, and Fiberight, in Maryland, hope to turn municipal waste into energy in new biorefineries.

Enerkem has been around since 2000 and owns several facilities in Canada. Its pilot plant, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, turns used electricity poles into methanol, acetates, ethanol and syngas.  Future plants will use municipal waste as a feedstock.

Recyclables are sorted out of the waste and the remaining material is heated to 750 degrees Fahrenheit until it emits hydrogen-rich gas. Carbon dioxide and other impurities are removed from the gas, and a catalyst turns some of the hydrogen into methanol, which can be further processed into ethanol. The heat created during the process can be used to create electricity or boil water.

Fiberight, founded in 2007, focuses on producing cellulosic ethanol. In addition to municipal waste, the company makes energy out of materials such as road fiber and fire retardant panel board.

A future Enerkem plant, in Edmonton, Alberta, will rely on an annual 100,000 tons of the city’s municipal solid waste to produce 10 million gallons of ethanol and methanol.

Alberta’s government is supporting the plant with a $23 million grant, and Alberta Energy is pitching in $3.35 million as well. Oil giant Valero and trash experts Waste Management are both investors in the company. Enerkem hopes to open a plant in Mississippi with the help of $50 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and an $80 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Biorefineries using waste to make fuel may not make a huge dent in landfills anytime soon, but if successful, they could help reduce the amount of garbage that goes to waste.

Photo by D’Arcy Norman

Based in Canada, Enerkem is one of the world’s leading developers and producers of advanced fuels and green chemicals. As a private company, Enerkem is majority owned by institutional...

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Give Your Lady The Gift Of Glowing Power With The iNecklace

Matt is currently working as a writer for CrunchGear. Matt Burns is a family man first and attempts to be a freelance writer second. Born and raised in the heart of the automotive world, only cars eclipse his love of gadgets. He previously wrote for Engadget and EngadgetHD before moving into the party house that is CrunchGear. He learned the... ? Learn More

It’s iconic. That soft, pulsating light emanating from the button that controls life and death. Press it when it’s glowing and creativity flows. Turn it off and a little bit of your inner child dies. The iNecklace allows the wearer to capture that sense of control and wear it around the neck as a status of power. There’s nothing else like it. (this is where you, the commenter will jump to the comments and link to something identical)

The iNecklace is made by Adafruit available in the states through Gizmine. The pendent is CNC machined from aluminum and features a screw-type back plate. Inside is a pulsating LED powered by a replaceable battery. Just like the power button it’s clearly designed to replicate, the LED seems to breath as it hangs on its 18-inch sterling silver chain, creating a rather unique piece of jewelry and one that will certainly attract the geeks.

Gizmine just started taking pre-orders with shipping expected to start on September 8th.

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HP Discovers The Wonderful Power Of Scarcity, And The TouchPad Lives On

J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970 in Huntington Beach, California) is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of TechCrunch, a blog covering startups and technology news. Arrington attended Claremont McKenna College (BA Economics, 1992) and Stanford Law School (JD, 1995), and practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer at two law firms: O’Melveny & Myers and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich... ? Learn More

Hot damn, I want one of those HP TouchPad tablets. Why? Because they’re sold out!

Perception of scarcity is a fascinating human condition. It’s one of the first things we learn as children – that running towards something is usually a guarantee that you won’t get it. But act like you don’t want something, and it’ll come running to you. The creation of the perception of scarcity is a winning, if shallow, tactic in most human relationships.

And finally HP has its day. In July HP couldn’t sell a TouchPad tablet despite having distribution deals with Best Buy and other major retailers. Apple had sucked all the oxygen out of the tablet market. HP offered its inferior product at the same price as the iPad. But consumers weren’t fooled. No one wants a Dodge at a Cadillac price.

But drop that price down to $100 and let people know that they better move quick to get one of the last TouchPads and the perception of scarcity kicks in. The units fly off the shelves. And I argued that HP should keep on making them and fulfilling that demand, even at a small loss per unit:

I say to HP – KEEP MAKING TOUCHPADS, as fast as you can. See what the demand curve looks like at $200, and watch the app developers suddenly get crazy excited about WebOS again. You may have a huge hit on your hands, and a bunch of lemonade from all those lemons.

Today the company made another smart move – they’re going to do another limited run of TouchPads.

Why? Some people are saying that HP probably has volume commitments and this is cheaper than just not building and selling the units at all. The company certainly may have made volume commitments, but my guess is they could have gotten out of those contracts given how much other business they send the factories. Also, why stoke the PR fire again when the TouchPad embarrassment is almost behind you?

Nope, they’re just messing with us, and taking another hit on the scarcity bong.

It feels so good.

People want us.

They really, really want us!

The company is already hinting that the TouchPad may live again [editor's note: awesome]. But while they’re figuring that out one way or another, what better way to keep everyone excited than to create just a few more TouchPads (scarcity!) and sell them in “at least a few weeks.” Now everyone is waiting, with breath appropriately bated, for those hard to get new units. The press will try to figure out the date and location when the TouchPads go on sale. Previously unenthusiastic retailers are making anxious calls to try to lock down as many units as they can. I expect Robert Scoble will be waiting out front of Best Buy the day before, along with a few other hard core TouchPad fans.

I can sense the giddiness at HP.

Here’s another interesting data point. TouchPads are going for about $300 on ebay right now. That’s a market clearing price – people who have them need to get rid of them fairly quickly, and they seem to be doing just that at around $300. Which just happens to be about the manufacturing cost of the TouchPad.

So hell yes they’re going to keep making these things. They can dominate the mid market for tablets, the place Android was planning on settling in at after their first prime time push. After Q4 HP will announce another batch of TouchPad’s will be built, just in time for the holidays, to meet more of that pent up consumer demand. Or the PC spinoff of HP will do it. Someone will. Because selling a device at cost and then bringing in the revenue through the app store is a proven and lucrative business model.

This is the best marketing money can buy. HP finally has a hit product and people lining up to buy it. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly referred to as HP, is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA. HP is one of the world’s largest...

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TouchPad works like no other tablet. It allows users to move back and forth between apps, see related activities grouped together automatically to stay organized, answer calls and texts...

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Taboola Raises $9 Million To Power Video Recommendations Across The Web

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Facebook Turns To Stack Overflow To Power Developer Forums

Jason Kincaid currently works as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (he has other addresses too, so don’t worry if you have a different one). ? Learn More

If you’ve ever roved around Facebook’s developer forums, you may have noticed that — aside from being loaded with complaints and bug reports — they’re pretty basic. There’s nothing wrong with them per se, but they feel like a pretty generic forum install, and not a hub for developers on one of the web’s most popular web platforms.

Today, Facebook is announcing how it’s going to fix the situation: it’s abandoning its old forums, which it says are “showing their age”, and launching a custom site on Stack Overflow, the Q&A hub that’s very popular with programmers (and is loaded with helpful content). You can find the new site at facebook.stackoverflow.com.

The benefits from the swap are obvious. Stack Overflow has a robust reputation system, a more structured Q&A platform, and is generally easier to sift through.

Stack Exchange is the parent company of Stack Overflow, which is one of a network of 60+ Q&A portals. In a post discussing the news, Stack Exchange Chief of Staff Alex Miller writes that this the Facebook launch also marks the introduction of a new feature for the platform, which allows for the creation of custom mini-sites.

But facebook.SO isn’t just a sub-domain, it’s an entirely new feature set that we’ve been considering and working on for months. Ever since launching, we’ve gotten requests to start dedicated communities for niche programming topics, but we’ve always been hesitant to do so for fear of balkanizing the great community we already have. So we came up with a solution that provides the best of both worlds. We can now create a mini-site by selecting relevant tags (in this case, anything Facebook related) and grouping together just the content from those tags. When you visit a mini-site, you’ll see only the content from those tags. Not only will you be able to see only questions related to Facebook, but the reputation on the user ranking pages will also only show reputation earned on questions tagged Facebook.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It...

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Stack Exchange is a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites. StackExchange was created by the founders of StackOverflow. Stackoverflow is a community knowledge exchange for programmers.

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