iControl, a Palo Alto-based startup, has unveiled ConnectedLife Energy Management, a proposal for a home security system that doubles as a way to automate home energy consumption management. The idea is to get broadband companies and other providers to either offer a standalone energy service, or one that’s combined with interactive home security products.

That’s actually two separate offerings, but here’s the basic concept. ConnectedLife Energy Management would monitor energy usage in real-time. The system wirelessly communicates with two-way smart meters, as well as appliances, lights, and other compatible devices. A touch screen, widget-based control panel would control HVAC and lighting, and would let homeowners monitor energy usage with real-time displays of kilowatt consumption and dollars spent.

Going further, the system tracks and compares daily, weekly, and monthly trends to preset goals for energy use and carbon footprint reduction. It also automates home tools, such as smart thermostats that minimize the use of high-energy consuming devices like HVAC systems. Finally, it could let homeowners control thermostats from the Web, an iPhone, or other mobile devices.

Granted, this is all a little too complex to package as something you could order from Amazon. For now, it’s all on the drawing board until broadband providers or utility companies step up.

A 19-year-old New York man who was arrested for armed robbery has been exonerated thanks to a status update he posted on social networking site Facebook.

Rodney Bradford was arrested and held for 12 days in connection with an October 17 armed robbery of two people in the Brooklyn housing project where he lives, prosecutors said.

But he insisted he was in Manhattan at the time of the crime — a claim he backed up by an update he made to his Facebook page from a computer in his father’s Manhattan building, prosecutors said.

A spokesman at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office acknowledged that Facebook played a role in the dismissal of charges.

We’ve got our first look at Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West’s Run This Town video, and wow, it’s a masterpiece. Not that I’d have expected anything less from this power trio, but this is a great video – many artists have stopped making great videos, since MTV pretty much stopped playing them long ago.Read the full story… »

The Chicago Air and Water Show 2009 is being held on Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16. This is the largest free air and water show in America and has now been going on since 1959, but on a much smaller scale. This year is set to be a great event, which you can see from the performer’s itinerary below.Read the full story… »

I hopped off the plane at LAX
with a dream and my cardigan
welcome to the land of fame and sex,
am I gonna fit in?
Read the full story… »

Need a primer to get ready for the year’s final major? ESPN’s crack research staff pulled together these nuggets to help every golf fan get ready for the 91st PGA Championship. Read the full story… »

For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web Read the full story… »

It was back in 2002 when Fujio Cho, then-President of Toyota Motor Corp., set the company’s goal of achieving a 15 percent share of the global automotive market sometime after 2010. Seven years ago, it didn’t seem much of a stretch as the automaker had already captured 10.7 percent, and the seemingly-unstoppable company was rapidly growing. Read the full story… »

Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson gave birth to her first child, a son, on Monday night, Showbiz411.com is reporting.
E! Online and PEOPLE have both confirmed the news. Read the full story… »

We’re not sure what to make of this, but we were just invited to a joint Microsoft / Nokia teleconference during which the two companies will announce an “alliance.” Yeah, there are some pretty wild possibilities there — Nokia going WinMo? Redmond going Symbian? The creation of MaeWinMo? — but considering the featured speakers are Stephen Elop, president of Read the full story… »