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The future will be streamed. And streamed some more.

But for all the talk about brands building presences on Twitter, Facebook may have gained a slight lead here. I spoke on Thursday to Dan Hart, senior vice president and general manager of MTV Digital, about how the Viacom-owned entertainment brand is using the new Pages to push out more content to members’ news feeds. For the first time, brands using Fan Pages can set “status” messages, too, which MTV plans to use for news and updates.

When Facebook unveiled its redesign I predicted that we’d hear a lot more about the news feed as the new personal portal. That’s sort of what many prolific Twitter users have turned the microblogging service into, too. Our Twitter feeds, after all, deliver a whole lot more than updates about what kind of beers our friends just ordered at happy hour: Depending on what you subscribe to, you can get ski reports, links to news headlines and blog feeds, mini-recipes, and celebrity-stalking intel.

On a related note, this gives aggregation services like FriendFeed a run for their money–why join an external “all-in-one-place” service when the same content is available on Facebook? FriendFeed is better optimized for longer discussion threads, true, but you don’t hear a whole lot about marketers jumping on the feed-aggregator bandwagon. If anything, I see FriendFeed moving more toward a message-board role rather than another player in “the stream.” But that’s a tale for a different day.

Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled a few notable product revamps: “fan pages” for brands that look and act more like regular member profiles, and a redesigned home page that emphasizes a real-time version of the site’s iconic news feed. The keyword here is “streaming,” encouraging an even more extensive flow of information with a status update prompt that asks, “What’s on your mind?”

That’s basically what media companies do with Twitter accounts. And Hart said that MTV has no plans to abandon its presence on Twitter. “I don’t think it’s a zero-sum choice at all,” he said. “We’ve done really interesting things on Twitter.”

“The status update function is effectively becoming a publish function, and that publish function is text, photos, video, a variety of media,” Hart said, “and that media is experienced more as a real-time stream by a Facebook user, and the Facebook user has more control over what occurs in that stream.”

Needless to say, “What’s on your mind”–which also allows the posting of links, videos, and other content to news feeds–bears quite a bit of resemblance to Twitter’s “What are you doing?” prompt. So, especially in light of more rumors and reports about Facebook’s spurned attempt to acquire Twitter, expect comparisons between the two services as means of ultra-customized media consumption to escalate.

But Facebook’s advantage is that the revamped news feed can handle different types of content, too: it’ll have actual photos and event listings instead of TwitPic and TinyURL links. Filtering controls won’t require a third-party app like TweetDeck. On the other hand, Twitter is obviously more open-ended. The messages on it are public and accessible, rather than hidden behind a log-in wall. As useful and innovative as the Facebook news feed may be, it’s not searchable–and Twitter clearly hopes that its search feature, which it built in with the acquisition of Summize last year, will be a sort of secret sauce. (Maybe it’ll even make money with it.)

Honestly, though, with the amount of buzz about both Facebook and Twitter as the future of real-time information, I give the advantage to whichever one can make all this content less of a mess.

Will Pandora music streams display album art?

Can I stream Pandora wirelessly from my iPhone over Bluetooth?

(Credit:
Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

If I can connect my iPhone to my
car stereo and stream Pandora over 3G, why would I listen to music on commercial or satellite radio?

Yes. Any stations, artist bookmarks, and song like/dislike preferences will be identical between the Pandora Web service and the Pandora application.

Yes. Reports so far suggest that the new iPhone’s battery performance is at its worst when using its 3G connection. Streaming Pandora content over the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection should produce better battery performance than using 3G.

Pandora's intelligent recommendation engine explains song choices.

(Credit:
Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

What’s the audio quality like?

Most of the features of Pandora’s Internet radio Web service will be available on its iPhone application as well. People can create radio stations based around artists or songs, bookmark favorite artists or songs, pause and skip tracks, vote on songs, and view descriptions of why a currently playing song was included in your stream. You also have the option to purchase the currently playing song directly over the iTunes Wi-Fi store.

Will the iPhone version of the Pandora application stream music over the new 3G cellular connection?

(Credit:
Pandora)

An option key allows you to bookmark artsist or songs, or purchase the current song directly from iTunes.

Can I wake up to Pandora radio if I dock my iPhone or iPod Touch into an iPod alarm clock?

What can I do with the Pandora application for the iPhone and iPod Touch?

Yes, although some music in Pandora’s catalog is still without cover art.

Pandora's song voting system has made it to its iPhone app as well. Voting on songs helps fine-tune Pandora's personalized song recommendations. People can also pause and skip tracks.

(Credit:
Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

Yes. Because of legal restrictions, users cannot skip tracks on Pandora more than six times per hour. Fortunately, Pandora’s Music Genome Project is pretty good at coming up with song selections.

How much will iTunes charge for the Pandora application?

How will Pandora make money off a free application?

Apple publicly unveiled the Pandora Internet radio
iPhone and
iPod Touch application during the unveiling of the iTunes App store on Thursday, July 10. Tim Westergren, CEO for Pandora, was kind enough to give me a personal tour of the new application. The following is a synopsis of just about every question I had for Tim. Editors’ note: This is not an interview transcript, but a roundup of information on the Pandora iPhone application presented in a FAQ format.

Keep in mind that Pandora is a music-only service, so you’ll need to get your talk radio, sports, and traffic reports elsewhere. That said, so long as you have decent 3G reception in your area, streaming Pandora internet radio to your car stereo via your iPhone should work fine.

Yes. New iPhones can use the Pandora app to stream music over 3G or Wi-Fi. Updated first-gen iPhones can stream over Wi-Fi or Edge, and the iPod Touch will obviously only stream over its Wi-Fi connection

(Credit:
Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

Pandora’s serves its iPod Touch and iPhone audio streams as 64Kbps stereo MP3 files; however, the quality and file format may be retooled once Pandora’s tech team has some time to work with the new iPhone’s hardware.

The Pandora playback screen looks much like the standard iPod playback screen, complete with cover art.

(Credit:
Pandora)

Will Pandora stations I’ve already created using the Web service be available on the iPhone application?

Not likely, since most alarm clock docks trigger song playback from your music library. Some iPod alarm clock docks include an auxiliary input, however, so if you kept music streaming from Pandora all night (and somehow managed not to run down your battery), then it’s possible. Seems like a pain though.

The iPhone does not currently support streaming stereo audio over its built-in Bluetooth; however, third-party Bluetooth audio adapters are available that fit any minijack audio output.

Pandora may eventually consider placing short audio advertisements in its streams, but, Pandora’s first priority is to grow its user base.

You can create and save custom stations directly from the Pandora app.

It’s free.

For music lovers, the Pandora internet radio application for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a welcome addition.

Will using the Pandora iPhone application run down my battery quickly?

Does the Pandora iPhone/iPod Touch application have the same limitations on track skipping as the Web version of the Internet radio station?

The PlayStation Home Open Beta service is expected to begin in the fall, nearly a year after its expected launch date. Sony unveiled the concept of its Home service more than 12 months ago and had anticipated at the time a full launch of the service at the end of last year.

Sony, in delaying the service launch, noted it wanted to expand its closed beta program to more PS3 users. The pending Home service is targeting its virtual community of PS3 users.

“We have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today,” Kazuo Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment president, said in a statement. “Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on PlayStation Home.”

Sony Computer Entertainment announced Tuesday that it is again delaying the launch of its 3D social-networking gaming service, “Home,” for the
PlayStation 3.

“It is clear that I have a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson’s in my lifetime than the average person. In fact, it is somewhere between 20 percent to 80 percent, depending on the study and how you measure,” Brin said.

The inaugural post on Brin’s blog, too.blogspot.com, is titled “LRRK2″ after the gene that he found carries a mutation called G2019S, which, “while rare even among people with the disease, accounts, in some ethnic groups, for a substantial proportion of familial Parkinson’s,” Brin said in the blog post.

“I know early in my life something I am substantially predisposed to. I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds (e.g. there is evidence that exercise may be protective against Parkinson’s). I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me,” he said. “And, regardless of my own health, it can help my family members, as well as others.”

Google co-founder Sergey Brin launched his personal blog on Thursday with some sobering news: he carries a particular genetic mutation that means he’s much more likely than average to get Parkinson’s disease.

Brin said the knowledge gives him some power.

“I feel fortunate to be in this position. Until the fountain of youth is discovered, all of us will have some conditions in our old age, only we don’t know what they will be. I have a better guess than almost anyone else for what ills may be mine–and I have decades to prepare for it,” Brin said. And, he added, “research into LRRK2 looks intriguing (both for LRRK2 carriers and potentially for others).”

Brin’s mother and her aunt both have Parkinson’s, and recent research has uncovered a genetic link in some cases of the disease, Brin wrote. And through the services of start-up 23andMe, co-founded by his wife, Anne Wojcicki, and Linda Avey, he found that he carries the same mutation. The research is still early, though, he said. And he had an optimistic take on the news.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

Google co-founder Sergey Brin

More importantly is the relationship of online medical records to the elephant in the room: the insurance industry. Your insurance carrier likely holds more medical data about you than your doctor (whether it’s accurate is another story). I do not expect that the carriers will open up their databases to consumers, since that would enable a level of scrutiny on bills that the companies so far have been able to brush off. It’s telling that no insurance companies or HMOs are partners with Google on this project.

Unproven results

User-input data on conditions like allergies is good, but what you really want is to read in your physician's records.

You’ll also be able to push your medical data to services that analyze it for you. For example, there’s a heart attack risk calculator from the American Heart Association, and pill-taking reminder service.

I’m in favor of any product that helps patients understand health care in general and their own situation in particular, and Google Health is a great step in that direction. But due to the divisive economics of health care in our country, I can see this remedy having some nasty side effects.

The platform is somewhat open: there’s an API that developers can write to use the medical data that users open up to them. Zeiger joked with me that the “When am I going to die?” button will be added within days.

If you want to track all the drugs you’ve been prescribed (and the ones you self-prescribe), all the medical diagnoses you’ve received, all the lab results done on you, it’s a clean place to record that information. It does smart things with the data, too: if you look up drug that has a dangerous interaction with one that’s already in your profile, Google Health will alert you.

My bigger concern is that insurance carriers will begin to give financial benefits to patients and client companies if they allow data to go the other way: if patients grant carriers access to their online medical records. In the guise of keeping patients safe, that makes sense. But giving insurance companies access to detailed health profiles on all their clients also lets them mine the data, carve out small insurance groups, and selectively apply elevated rates to people who, through no fault of their own, are at greater risk of requiring insurance company payouts. I would not be surprised to see rate premiums lowered for people or groups who gave the carriers access to their data. But heed my warning on this: it’s a trap.

So what’s not to love?

But assuming they get there, once you pull in your data, you’ll be able to annotate or add to it as you wish. (But not modify it.) When you head off to another doctor or hospital, you can then give them your complete online record, saving time, money (in duplicated lab tests), and potentially your life (if there’s data in there about prior conditions, allergies, etc.). This is exactly what a medical record is supposed to do for you already, but the portability of medical data has never been very good; Google is trying to fix that.

In a word: privacy. Google VP Marissa Mayer told a crowd of reporters that the health data is stored on new super-hardened servers. That’s all well and good, but access to Google Health is via your standard Gmail/Google login, and plenty of people (like me until an hour ago) have old or weak passwords on their accounts. User security on this product is the weak link.

See also: Microsoft HealthVault.

The good

Hardly anyone, of course, actually has all their medical records at hand, nor the time or expertise to enter in everything in their file accurately. The idea with Google Health is that you get the data from your medical providers–your doctors, your pharmacy, and your lab. Google has a few relationships with diagnostic (lab) companies, some pharmacies, and a few medical centers. But at the moment, chances are that your family physician is not in the system.

Google has launched its personal health portal, Google Health. It’s a clear and straightforward hub where users can store their medical information, and look up information on conditions and medications relevant to them. See the video for the pitch from product manager Roni Zeiger, a physician who left his practice to run this project (although he still keeps his hand in, as it were, by doing urgent care medicine on weekends).

The worry

Google Health is an important initiative, if only because it shows users how completely broken medical record-keeping is right now. But this product comes with a warning label.

Yes, I sound paranoid. But I think it’s fair to say that consumers and health insurance companies have long been locked in an adversarial relationship in the U.S., and that the carriers will find a way to use the Google Health data to increase their profitability foremost. We can hold out hope that in doing so they also increase the level of patient care, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Cleaning up around the yard–a catalytic converter for gas mowers.

Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican from Missouri, opposed the regulations, which led to a study as to whether catalytic converters on lawn mowers would create enough heat to start fires, according to an Associated Press article. The EPA concluded there is no safety concern.

If you’ve ever choked on a lung-full of exhaust from a lawn mower or motor boat, you might appreciate this product idea: a catalytic converter for small motors.

Filter company MemPro Ceramics has developed what it calls the NoxFox, a “catalytic filter” designed to neutralize air pollutants from lawn mower engines.

After a number of delays, the Environmental Protection Agency last week passed more stringent regulations to curb smog-causing hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide, and other air pollutions.

Lawn-care products and boats contribute significantly to air pollution. An hour of operating a lawn mower pollutes as much as 34 hours of driving a
car, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

“It fits very nicely on the muffler of a lawn mower, leaf blower, or power washer, which are just empty metal cavities,” he said.

The company may try to sell the device as an after-market attachment to lawn mowers, rather than fitted on by mower manufacturers, but it’s unclear what the consumer demand for an add-on product is, Finley said.

The company chose to apply the technology to gas-powered small engines because that represents a clear addressable market worth about $140 million, he said.

Longer term, MemPro Ceramics intends to target coal-fired power plant generators as well as power boats, motor cycles, and agricultural equipment.

The company has an exclusive license from the University of Akron to commercialize a method for manufacturing fibers made from nanoparticles.

The rules are set to take effect in 2010 and 2011, depending on the product category, and are expected to lead to the use of catalytic converters in lawn mowers and boats for the first time, according to the EPA.

Catalytic converters aren’t the only way for manufacturers to comply with the EPA ruling. Some companies are developing fuel cells, which emit water vapor, for use on boats and forklifts.

“It’s a little like cotton. It’s a fibrous filter that a has a lot of surface area in it, which means it does a good job of exposing the catalyst to the bad gases,” Finley explained.

Update on September 12, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. PT: corrected projected market size for lawn mower air filters.

MemPro Ceramic’s NoxFox device is designed to do exactly what car catalytic converters do: greatly reduce the carbon monoxide and nitric oxide pollutants from gasoline engines. It can also eliminate unburnt fuel in gaseous form.

When fully implemented, the rules will annually reduce 600,000 tons of hydrocarbons, 130,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, 5,500 tons of particulate matter, and 1.5 million tons of carbon monoxide, according to the EPA. It will cut gasoline consumption by 190 million gallons each year.

The company plans to produce the small devices–sized a few inches by a few inches–next year and is seeking to partner with small engine manufacturers, according to John M. Finley, CEO of MemPro Ceramics.

(Credit:
MemPro Ceramics)

That ethanol is blended in with the synthetic gas, which boosts the generator’s output to 55 kilowatts.

People put trash into a chute and then the wet waste–like food slop–is separated from the rest. The cardboard, plastic, and other dry trash are crushed and pelletized.

If the TGER units work well in the harsh Baghdad conditions, he envisions the generator will be deployed in smaller camps, where the higher percentage of food waste can improve efficiency.

The U.S. Army is testing two prototype generators in Iraq that run on garbage, rather than diesel fuel.

TGER uses a variety of technologies to fuel a standard 60-kilowatt electrical generator.

Compared to an incinerator, TGER is far more efficient at converting garbage to usable energy, said Valdes, who also said it runs at 90 percent efficiency. And it significantly cuts down on the amount of garbage that needs to be trucked around.

Right now, the Army’s trash goes up in smoke by burning it. The problem with incinerators, though, is that they require a lot of energy to run and many people to operate it.

“Those convoys that carry fuel are also known as targets,” said James Valdes, scientific adviser for biotechnology at the U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command. “Officers say ‘We don’t calculate the cost of fuel in dollars, we calculate it in blood.’”

The purpose of the unit is to cut down on the amount of diesel fuel used and to cut down on the amount of garbage that camps generate, which are both security risks.

So it created a system to convert the sugar-rich wet wastes (apparently, U.S. soldiers drink a good amount of Kool-Aid) into a form of ethanol. The wet waste is treated with enzymes and then fermented into hydrous ethanol–a mix of 85 percent pure ethanol and water, Valdes explained.

Developers found that the relatively low-grade fuel from the trash over-heated the generators and maxed output at about 40 kilowatts.

A number of companies are also trying to convert municipal solid waste into ethanol using a range of processes.

“Ultimately, what we would like to do is have a clean-sheet design so that you could automate it more. So you literally put trash in one end and electricity comes out the other,” Valdes said.

Cellulosic ethanol companies convert agricultural or forestry residues into ethanol, while portable generators use similar feedstock, such as wood chips, to make electricity.

Trash, as it turns out, is an attractive feedstock. There are several commercial companies developing technologies that use wastes as fuel.

The Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (TGER, pronounced “tiger”), was co-developed with Purdue University and deployed in May at Victory Base camp in Baghdad, where it will be tested until August.

(Credit:
U.S. Army)

Those pellets are then put into a gasifier, which heats them until they turn into synthetic gas–fuel for the generator.

Valdes said the portable generator could also be used in disaster-relief situations where there is a lot of trash and the need for generators. The U.S. Navy has shown interest in the unit as well.

Starting up the contraption takes 6 hours and still requires 5 percent of the diesel the generator usually uses, or about 1 gallon per hour.

Handling garbage is a logistical challenge, too, because the Army hires contractors who need to be followed.

A waste-to-energy generator being tested by the U.S. military in Iraq.

Saving on fuel isn’t a question of conservation for the military. It’s about saving lives.

One news release warning motorists about a DUI checkpoint in the nearby town of Highland was changed to read that officials wanted to “stick our big government schnoz into your private business, check your papers, and be sure you are toeing the line.”

“I don’t think that it’s a joke to them, but they certainly want to send a message to the readers that they don’t always agree with laws being changed,” says sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers.

Also modified was a news release earlier this month with information about the law that takes effect in July that forbids people from talking on their cell phones while driving.

Someone hacked into the Web site for the San Bernardino County sheriff’s office in California and changed the wording on several news releases, forcing the agency to shut down the site last week, according to the Daily Bulletin.

A copy of the transcripts may become available shortly, according to lawyers involved in the case. But whether, and to what degree, portions of the transcript will be redacted has yet to be seen.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge may decide within a week or two whether to unseal portions of an amended shareholder complaint against Yahoo, following a conference call with the parties on Tuesday.

One of the issues, according to David Margules, a partner at Bouchard, Margules & Friedlander, and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, centers on how Yahoo responded internally when Microsoft made its bid, establishing a severance program for all full-time employees. The shareholders characterized the severance program as a de facto “poison pill” that makes a buyout of Yahoo more expensive.

Two Detroit pension funds initially filed a lawsuit against Yahoo in late February (PDF). Three months later, the shareholders amended the complaint (PDF) with information gathered during the discovery process and depositions.

Yahoo seeks to keep information gathered in the discovery process and depositions sealed, while the plaintiffs want it unsealed. A conference call was held Tuesday to discuss the redactions Yahoo made on the amended complaint.

The initial complaint centers on allegations that the Internet search pioneer stonewalled Microsoft’s unsolicited buyout bid.

Got questions about Web 2.0 and Web apps? So do I! But nonetheless I will do my best to answer your questions on the best online applications for various tasks, on privacy, infrastructure, and any other Web 2.0 topic you want to throw my way in today’s live Ask The Editors session.

Ask the Editors is a live text show. You ask, and I answer (or fake it). Tune in to connect with me and talk about the topic I spend my days covering. Or anything else, if you want: In the course of my too-long technology journalism career, I have reviewed and used more products than I can count. I have interviewed more than 1,000 start-up CEOs and evaluated their business prospects. I have perspective.

And as I’ve said before, I believe that Web-based applications are the future of software. So drop in today at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time and let’s talk about it.