Rick’s Short Circuit: tech news from around the Web

Tech news today focuses on iPhone ups and downs, Android and digital washing machines, solar cop cars, the possibly emerging high-tech Michigan, and muscle-car culture.

• The Wall Street Journal presents a video of Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo talking to WSJ’s Almar Latour. Kallasvuo says the iPhone has had a big impact, showing consumers how fun and exciting communications can be. He describes the iPhone as a wake up call Nokia, but he sees lots of room for innovation. Devices are necessary but not sufficient, he says, as he positions the company to focus on services.

• In related news, the WSJ reports that AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson acknowledged that US wireless networks aren’t prepared for the unexpected surge in smart-phones use. The WSJ says, “He defended his company’s wireless network’s performance, though, which has come under fire for not being prepared for the popularity of Apple Inc.’s iPhone.”

• According to Saul Hansell, writing in the New York Times’ “Bits” blog, Google expects its Android operating system to appear in as many as 18 cell phone models by year-end, not to mention digital washing machines. The post notes that Sehat Sutardja, the chief executive of the Marvell Technology, is enthusiastic about Android, promoting the benefits of a standard, free operating system for embedded systems. As for Microsoft, Hansell writes, “Microsoft has lost its presumptive argument for being the most plausible choice. Despite a head start with Windows CE and Windows Mobile, it doesn’t have the hearts and minds of the engineers and business executives making decisions about what product to use.”

• Via CNN, WLWT.com reports that the Ohio State Highway Patrol is equipping each of its 1150 Ford Crown Victorias with a $37, 5-W solar panel to help run radio equipment and keep the battery charged.

• In other automotive technology news, Jennifer M. Granholm, Governor of Michigan, says in the Huffington Post that her state will lead the green industrial revolution. She writes, “I was proud to stand with leaders of the UAW and ten automakers as President Obama announced a truly historic, aggressive national agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Out with the old gas guzzlers of the past. Out with the old thinking of the past. Out with the old politics of the past. Out with the old rust belt…. Michigan’s Big Three automakers, the UAW, Michigan’s world class engineers—they are working together to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than ever before in this country’s history. It’s not Silicon Valley. It’s not Route 128. It’s Motown that is making a more significant impact on global climate change than any other place in America.”

• For its part, China plans to outdo Michigan and the US, looking to achieve an additional 18% fuel economy improvement by 2015, according to a report in the New York Times.

• Finally, WSJ columnist Daniel Henninger mourns the passing of muscle-car culture. He writes, “When Barack Obama announced that the government will use its fist to wave onto the highways of America cars that get 39 miles to a gallon of liquefied switch grass or something, he said, ‘Everybody wins.’ Everybody? What country has he been living in? This marks the end of the internal combustion engine as we knew it, and it is the way Americans have defined, designed, and literally driven much of the nation’s culture for as long as anyone can remember.”

Henninger proposes a playlist for President Obama’s iPod, populated with tunes including the Beach Boys’ “Shut Down” and “Little Deuce Coupe.” He leaves us with this thought: “Imagine a Brian Wilson ever thinking to write: "And she’ll have fun, fun, fun til her daddy takes her Prius away."

Update: the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles bans smiles. The Washington Post reports, “The agency would like to develop a facial-recognition system that could compare customers’ photographs over time to prevent fraud and identity theft. ‘The technology works best when the images are similar,’ said DMV spokeswoman Pam Goheen. ‘To prepare for the possibility of future security enhancements, we’re asking customers to maintain a neutral expression.’"