Common Paradox Tech Blog

[Germany] Several federal and regional government officials in Germany are trying to put a ban on Google Analytics, the search giant’s free software product that allows website owners and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behavior of their visitors (and much more).

According to an article in today’s Zeit Online (poor Google translation here), multiple federal and state government officials charged with guarding over national data protection are convinced that Google Analytics is against the law in Germany and are mulling imposing fines on companies who use the service to gather detailed stats based on their website visitors’ usage patterns without the explicit consent of those visitors.

Google already knows more about you than you probably care to think about. In the not too distant future, they might also know about your power usage patterns. Google’s PowerMeter utility monitoring service has finally found its first partners. First Utility in the UK, and Yello Strom, a German utility, have both signed up to deliver customer usage data to Google (provided the customer agrees).

PowerMeter will collect electricity data every half hour and gas data once a day. Customers can view the aggregated data on the PowerMeter website where it will have been used to generate some nifty graphs and tables. Participating customers will receive the service at no charge.

The hope is that PoweMeter users will be more conscious of their energy use. Yello Strom executive director, Martin Vesper, said of the service, “When people know exactly what is going on with their energy usage, they can use energy efficiently without sacrificing convenience.” Google indicated that PowerMeter is a project from Google.org, Google’s philanthropic foundation. So, would you sign up if you could?

Members in our forums are reporting improvements in battery life since updating to webOS 1.2, to the extent that some are even going from a nearly dead battery after a full day of use on webOS 1.1, to having 20-30% battery left by the end of the day.

Measuring battery life can be a fickle thing, though, what with different usage patterns, perceptions, and whether or not Venus is rising. However, using this battery life monitoring utility in the homebrew section, you can get a bit more info to see if what the situation is. (Also, be sure to check out this guide on how to optimize battery life.)

How’s 1.2’s battery life seem to you?

Have you noticed a difference in battery life since updating to 1.2?(survey)

 [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Poor battery life and iPhone are a few words that get mixed together all too often it seems. While some will say it’s fine, others will say it’s pitiful. As many of you know, battery life will fluctuate greatly between users and their individual usage patterns but TiPb wants to provide you with some simple [...]