Smart grid, smart cities, smart homes, smart roads…how do you research these mega-projects?

You build a $1 billion city in the desert. You model the fake town after a real city (Rock Hill, South Carolina in USA, population 66,000) and build it complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings—even some old buildings mixed in with new ones just like in the real city. No one will live there, but each and every house will include appliances, plumbing, and other necessities.

This built-to-order town lets researchers test new infrastructure without interfering in anyone’s everyday life…because there isn’t anyone.

It’s a research facility but it’s also an empty city, a veritable ghost town. They call this CITE project “a first-of-its kind” smart city but given its cost and mission, it may just be “a one-of-a kind.”

Thankfully it’s not taxpayer money but a private firm building this city-as-a lab, the CITE (Center for Innovation, Technology and Evaluation).

There are no doubts-- it has been quite a full year. From natural disasters to protests and ousted dictators, there was truly something for everyone on the headlines. And as for our business, well, we're about to take a look at what went on during past 12 months, with a Top 11 for 2011...

1. Farewell, Steve Jobs: The biggest story this year was certainly the untimely demise of Steve Jobs at age 56, following a 7 year struggle with cancer. During those years, Apple brought us the iPhone and the iPad. Jobs had already stepped down as Apple CEO on Aug. 24th 2011... and most of us knew the only only reason he would walk away from the company would be his ultimate demise.

One cannot understimate Jobs' effect on the industry-- his return to Apple in 1997 turned a company Jobs himself described as weeks away from bankruptcy into one of the the biggest in the world (and the biggest for a few weeks), fuelling customers' lusts for technology in the process.

2. Bye bye, Best Buy: The biggest retail headline this year was definitely Best Buy leaving the UK, closing its 11 big box stores in the country, following £62 million worth of losses last fiscal year. Not that Best Buy is completely out of Europe-- it still keeps its joint venture with Carphone Warhouse.

What's Wrong with Yahoo and Why It Matters to You...For most of us in the IT channel, Yahoo doesn't bring us money and its ups and downs mean little to our business. So why do we want you to read this, The Peanut Butter Manifesto?

Garlinghouse is a SVP at Yahoo who risked his job to publicly dissect Yahoo's ills with a knife-like accuracy. He complains Yahoo is like peanut butter, an investment spread too thin across too wide a range of opportunities. Decide who we  are, what we can do well, and f Continue reading...

Researchers at the Northwestern University claim they managed to increase both charging capacity and speed of lithium ion batteries by 10x-- potentially pointing to the future of mobile power.

Li ion batteries are not only found in most mobile devices-- from mobile phones to laptops-- but also in electric cars and even "exoskeleton" robots.

Current Li ion batteries create charge by moving lithium from one end of the battery to the other (from anode to cathode), and recharge through the sending Continue reading...