plug-in

Electric town car maker Think Global has been thrown a financial lifeline from battery maker Ener1 and other investors.

Last month Think CEO Richard Canny told reporters that the company was running out of working capital and had to suspend production of its small all-electric car, the Think City. The latest version with lithium ion batteries, giving it a range of about 100 miles and top speed of 65 miles per hour, was slated to go on sale in Scandinavia early this year.

On Monday, Think said that it has secured about $5.7 million in "interim financing," … Read more

As performance reasserts its prominence and features become less of the driving force behind browsers, I find myself looking at the list of inactive extensions in Firefox with jaundiced eyes. It's been months since I've added a new extension, but the ones I still have I use regularly, and several are actually new to me for this year.

Part of the problem with add-ons is that they're such a personal, subjective thing. What do you need? Why do you need it? One of my favorites is a minor, tiny thing, but it saves me so much time … Read more

In the race to deliver plug-in electric cars, European automakers have an early lead, according to Bob Kanode, the CEO of vehicle battery maker Valence Technology.

Austin, Texas-based Valence has been in the battery business since 1990. It already supplies batteries for the Segway Personal Transporter and is setting its sites on the auto market.

On Tuesday, Valence announced that French electric-bus and truck maker PVI will test Valence's lithium phosphate batteries for fleet vehicles in a deal worth $3 million.

As Valence seeks customers in the transportation field, Kanode sees Europe as far more mature than the United … Read more

Think Global, which makes the Think City electric car, is having difficulty securing money to continue operating and is seeking state aid from the Norwegian government, according to a report.

Reuters reported on Monday that Think CEO Richard Canny held a news conference where he said that the company needs up to $29 million in loan guarantees.

It plans to reduce staff by at least 50 percent and stop production with an eye toward restarting in the first quarter of next year, the report said.

The company said the global financial crisis has made it difficult to get working capital … Read more

Former Intel CEO Andy Grove has joined other Silicon Valley elites who are advocating for an industry shift into energy technology.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday, Grove said he is urging Intel to invest in battery manufacturing as a way to diversify from its core chip business.

Grove told the Journal that Intel's "strategic objective is tackling big problems and turning them into big businesses." He said Intel, with its cash resources, can invest in battery technology and manufacturing to bring down the cost of car batteries, which would drive adoption of … Read more

If you're up on your pirate lore, or perhaps have your Pirates of the Caribbean plot flow-chart handy, you'll know that sea-faring criminals are no friends of Johnny Depp-devouring monsters. As it goes on the high CGI seas, so follow the stormy waters of the Firefox add-on world. Yesterday's Pirates of the Amazon plug-in, which adds torrent links to songs and movies in the Amazon.com store, is met today by The Kraken, a plug-in that adds Amazon.com links to torrent Web sites.

The Kraken is extremely simple and there's no configuration required. When you … Read more

The world of plug-in hybrids is about to get a whole lot sexier when the production Fisker Karma debuts at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

Fisker has released early photos of the production version of the Karma, which isn't that much different from the concept revealed earlier this year at the 2008 Detroit Show.

Its mustachioed face has survived the jump to production essentially intact, although the lower grill opening has been enlarged a bit, to make it more practical for cooling we'd assume. Amber reflectors have been added to the leading edge of the wheel well and … Read more

Google has released a Mac OS X version of a plug-in that lets people use its Google Earth software as a browser plug-in.

The move means a smaller but significant crowd can rely on Web pages that employ the sophisticated aerial viewing options the software provides. But Mac fans should brace themselves for a 47MB download from the Google Earth API page.

The size is large because Google provided a universal binary file that runs on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs, a Google representative said in a forum posting about the availability of the Mac version. "There are also … Read more

Sage is a basic RSS feed and news aggregator for Firefox. Its no-nonsense approach and ease of use will appeal to all user levels.

The extension is meshed with Firefox's sidebar. It's very easy to navigate, with buttons for checking and searching feeds, and two view panels. The top panel displays each feed that you're subscribed to, and the bottom panel displays the specific feed headlines. The Options menu gives you display options, and lets you manage your feeds. Copying and pasting feed URLs to add them to our list of feeds is as easy as it … Read more