GM to invest $43M in battery plant General Motors has announced it will invest $43 million in Brownstown Township to manufacture lithium-ion battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt and other extended-range electric vehicles. GM says the facility will be the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker. The investment is expected to lead to more than 100 advanced technology jobs. The plant will be part of a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors called GM Subsystem Manufacturing LLC. The 160,000-square-foot landfill-free facility will have new machinery and equipment and special tooling. More..
WSU offers details on $5M electric vehicle grant As part of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan, the United States Department of Energy awarded Wayne State University a $5 million federal grant to provide an electric vehicle engineering education and workforce training program. A critical component of the plan is to create a pipeline of next-generation technicians and engineers who are needed by an industry transforming to electric-drive vehicles. No degree programs in electric-drive vehicles exist in the United States. More.
Gaming innovation on the way from Detroit-area company A new game development studio based in Birmingham, www.P15Studios.com, is creating what the company claims is a "new genre in entertainment." Creator Doug Kinnison explains RPTV, or Role Play TV, is reality-based TV in which gamers use video game play to determine the show storyline. "This is a game industry first," Kinnison said. "During an established window of time, we'll take the most popular game play results to drive the outcome of each live action video episode. The game will be updated every two weeks with a new map, weapons and features. A new video episode will be downloadable every two weeks to create a ten show season and will be available on the major consoles." More
Forum to focus on future of mobility in Detroit ConnecTech Detroit and ATT Host will host this forum examining the core components driving the mobile industry, which allow us to deliver a total mobile solution to today's businesses, from Health Care to Education to Automotive and Communications. Organizers say the event brings together some of the brightest and most intimately knowledgeable professionals to talk about the ways in which mobile technologies continue to evolve how how business is conducted, life is lived, and how we think, communicate and play. The forum is planned for Thursday, August 20, at The Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. More.
Free PDA and smartphone workshops this month Verizon Wireless is offering free PDA and smartphone workshops at store locations across Michigan in the weeks ahead. The classes are geared toward helping wireless phone users get the most out of their PDAs and smartphones by learning about their functions and features. Some of the topics to be covered include text messaging, Internet browsing, using email and the camera, changing ringtones, pairing Bluetooth devices and setting up the speed dial and address book synchronization functions. The free, in-store class is open to existing and potential Verizon Wireless customers. More.
Is Apple planning a September event? It's happened every September for the past few years, and it appears it's on track again: Apple is planning a keynote event rumored to take place the second week of September, according to AllThingsD's Peter Kafka.He says he has heard from "multiple music industry sources" that there will be an Apple event held sometime during the week of Sept. 7. Now, this isn't a huge surprise since Apple has held an event announcing the latest upgrade to the iPod and iTunes around this same time every year. But this year there are some interesting variables in play. More.
220,000 Wii remote chargers recalled The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Wii 4-dock battery recharge stations due to a fire hazard. These units could potentially overheat, with six cases reported already with minor burns being the only injuries so far. If you own either product then the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has setup a support page giving details of how to identify the items and what to do. More.
Microsoft: Breaking up with IE 6 hard to do It's been roughly eight years since Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6, but in many ways Microsoft is still very much tied to that aging product. Although Microsoft has released two major versions of Internet Explorer in the past couple of years, for many, the face of Internet Explorer is still IE 6 in all its tabless glory. Even with that work, though, IE 6 remains not only the most widely thought of version of Internet Explorer, but also the most widely used version of the browser, at least by a narrow margin. More.
Please note: While Matt Roush is on vacation, this is "GLITR Lite." Matt will return, along with your complete IT Report, on Monday, August 17.
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