Those of you familiar with the Nissan Leaf will know about its Carwings system, which lets you check the vehicle’s charge, turn on the AC, rate your driving efficiency against others and even read RSS feeds out loud — all over an always-on cellular data connection. In fact, the RSS functionality raised some privacy concerns when it was discovered that Carwings embeds location and other data in the URL it sends to public servers (something that can thankfully be disabled by the owner). Nissan announced today that it plans to make telemetry data from the Leaf available to third-party developers for a fee — with the owner’s consent, of course. The company already uses telemetry data for vehicle maintenance and products like Carwings, but it hopes to broaden the ecosystem with apps. Examples include smart-grid integration (supplying power to a building for a reduced parking fee) and location-based services (real-time coupons as you drive by restaurants). It’ll be interesting to see if there’s enough interest from both developers and Leaf owners for Nissan to successfully monetize this idea.

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Source: Nikkei (subscription required)

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Nissan plans to make Leaf data available to app developers

It’s no secret that Apple hangs onto your Siri data for some length of time (as other companies so with search data and the like), but it hasn’t been clear exactly how long it keeps that data sitting on its servers. Wired has now cleared that up somewhat, though, hearing from Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller that the company “may keep anonymized Siri data for up to two years.” That word follows another report from Wired yesterday that raised concerns about the issue. As Muller notes, the data is immediately deleted if a user turns Siri off at any time, and it’s anonymized from the start; neither your Apple ID or email address are stored with a data, but rather a randomly generated number that represents the user and becomes associated with the voice files. That number then gets disassociated from voice clips after six months, but Apple still hangs onto the files for another 18 months for what’s described as testing and product improvement purposes.

Update: The Financial Times has confirmed with Google that it, too, keeps your voice search data for up to two years. Google itself has previously detailed how it handles that data, including the added measures put in place when a user opts-in for personalized voice recognition; in that case, electronic keys linked to your account are generated that Google says are “designed to be accessed by machines, not people.”

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Source: Wired

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Apple confirms it keeps Siri data for up to two years (update: Google too)

Truth be told, not much has been announced on the consumer end at IDF Beijing earlier today, but Intel did tease us with upcoming refreshes of its Xeon E7, E5 and E3 families for the enterprise space. In chronological order we have the Haswell-based E3 with TDP as low as 13W, and it’s coming in mid-2013. This is followed by the “Ivy Bridge-EP” E5 in Q3 and then the “Ivy Bridge-EX” E7 series in Q4, the latter of which boasting three times the memory capacity of its predecessor, along with Intel’s Run Sure reliability feature. More details in the press release after the break if you’re into these flavors of chips.

Also mentioned at the keynote were the now-available Atom S12x9 family for storage systems, as well as a couple of upcoming 22nm 64-bit Atom SoCs codenamed “Avoton” and “Rangeley,” both of which are sampling now and are expected to launch in the second half of this year. We’ve actually already heard of the microserver-friendly Avoton from Facebook’s Open Compute Project, whereas Rangeley for network infrastructures was also detailed around the same time; so again, hit up the press release for more details.

Filed under: Misc, Intel

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Intel introduces next-gen Xeon E7, E5 and E3 families for enterprise space

For those of us obsessed with chasing the proverbial white ball, accurate stats are tough to come by — unlike the pros who have every drive, chip and putt scoped to the nearest inch. That inspired Golf Game, a system that pairs NFC with current golf tech like GPS and motion sensors to track your every duff. It uses NFC-equipped tags that pop into the end of each club and a hip-mounted “GYG” device to collect the data with a battery life of two rounds (about 8 hours) — and no need to pack a smartphone or tablet onto the course. The golfer then “tags” his club against the hip-worn device prior to taking a lunge, and every shot from a 300-yard drive to a 5-inch putt is duly noted.

After the round, all that info can tell the story of your game via an iOS, Android or web app, displaying stats like driving distance, greens in regulation and putting. You’ll also be able to create competitions among friends through the Game platform, and brag (or cry) about your play via Twitter, Facebook or email. The system’s been backed by top-ranked players Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell, and is now on Indiegogo where the creators are seeking $125K to get it off the ground. A minimum $149 pledge will get you a Game Golf device by July (estimated), though if you’re willing to pony up $500 for a limited edition autographed by the above pros, you could see it as early as May. Hit the PR or video after the break for more, or tee up one of your own at the source.

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: Game Golf (Indiegogo)

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Game Golf system caddies your tee-to-green stats, doesn’t pack your clubs (video)

Shooting the breeze using Facebook’s mobile messaging service is about to get a lot cheaper. The social network is teaming up with 18 carriers in 14 countries to provide free or heavily discounted data to its customers. That way, you’ll be able to keep talking about who said what (and to whom!) without any resulting bill shock. Networks involved include TMN in Portugal, Three in Ireland, Airtel and Reliance in India. For the full list and a terse set of remarks from The Haus of Zuckerberg, peek past the break.

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Facebook and 18 carriers to offer discounted mobile messaging data in 14 countries