Google responds to carbon cost claims

A recent claim from a Harvard fellow, that two Google searches release as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as that required to boil a kettle, has drawn criticism from the company's senior VP of operations, says The Independent.

Responding on the official Google blog, Urs H"olzle claimed the actual cost of a search query is just a fraction of the figure now touted across the Internet. In relative terms, the cost of 0.2g of carbon dioxide per search stated on the official Google blog is closer to one twenty-fifth of the carbon released when making a cup of tea.

It is far below the 7g which Alex Wissner-Gross, a physicist and co-founder of Enernetics, a business which sells IT companies carbon credits to help them go carbon neutral, claims is released every time a user makes one of the estimated 400 million queries the search engine receives per day.

N-trig, which makes a dual-mode pen and touch input device for computers, has raised $24 million from investors, including Aurum Ventures, Challenger, Canaan Partners, Evergreen Venture Partners and Microsoft, reports Reuters.

With this new round of funding, N-trig said it plans to continue working with leading original equipment manufacturers to create multi-touch notebooks and convertible computers for the mainstream marketplace.

"With the introduction of multi-touch in Windows 7, integrated with N-trig's DuoSense technology, our customers will have a new and natural way to interact with their PCs," said Ian LeGrow, group program manager for Windows Client at Microsoft.

Top technology companies came to Las Vegas to show off their latest innovations in consumer electronics, but despite the plethora of TVs, computers, phones, cameras and other gadgets on display, it was clear the industry is bracing for a very tough year, according to Reuters.

While there were a few bright spots at this year's subdued Consumer Electronics Show - such as low-cost mini-laptops known as netbooks - what emerged was a picture of scaled-back investment plans, more job cuts and stagnant growth with no signs of improvement.

The global economic slump hit at a time when the growth momentum of flat-screen TVs and digital cameras, which drove the sector's expansion in recent years, had already started to lose steam amid high penetration rates in developed countries.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday turned down an industry consolidation proposal filed by the nation's third-largest computer memory chipmaker, ProMOS Technologies, and Tokyo-based Elpida Memory. It cited concerns that a joint venture between the two had not endorsed the plan.

The Taipei Times reports that ProMOS and Elpida filed the proposal on Wednesday with the goal of seeking governmental bailout funds ahead of the maturity date next month for ProMOS's corporate bonds, which have a market value of $330 million.

Last month, the government also rejected a bailout plan submitted by the nation's top computer memory chipmaker, Powerchip Semiconductor, and Elpida.