New Global Standard Takes Effect On Electric Vehicles Industry

To most Americans electric cars are as new a concept as the first combustion vehicles were to horse-and buggy-drivers in the early years of the 20th century. But to the organizations around the world that have been working to make modern electric cars a consumer reality, it has taken decades to get to this point. In fact, the electric car industry is old enough now that it has developed its own internal conflicts—the biggest of which centers on vehicle charging. Unfortunately, engineering groups and consortiums are developing different standards for a quick jolt, and if the differences are not resolved, the burgeoning electric vehicle industry may stumble.

CHADEMO MOJO: A CHAdeMO DC quick-charging plug at a station in Vacaville, Calif.

The goal, of course, is to enable electric-car owners to charge their vehicles as effortlessly as they would fill up at a gas pump. Common standards are what canon powershot g6 battery makes that possible. In the U.S. the organization tasked with developing these charging standards is the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE). In January 2010 the SAE approved the so-called J1772 standard governing slow- to moderate-speed electric car charging. Every major electric car manufacturer, and most start-up ones as SONY NP-BD1 battery well, have committed to using J1772 in their existing and future products. In 2011 more than 15,000 of these J1772-compatible stations are planned for installation in early deployment communities around the U.S.

But the J1772 standard accounts only for charging at relatively low speeds. On a 110- to 120-volt circuit it can add about eight kilometers of driving motorola p1225 battery range for every hour of charging, and on a 220- to 240-volt circuit, it can sustain between 24 and 100 kilometers of driving range for every hour of charging (depending on individual vehicle and station specifications).

To create more parity between electric and combustion engine cars, the industry has been developing CANON EOS-20D battery so-called DC fast charging—which can nearly top off an electric car's battery pack in less than half an hour. (The typical range of a fully charged car is 160 kilometers.) This type of charging requires a gas pump–size OLYMPUS LI-12B Battery station attached to an industrial power supply. Although the size and voltage make DC fast charging unsuitable for the home garage,Dell Inspiron 1720 battery it should be sufficient at commercial charging stations.

Two competing standards
A few pioneers have forged ahead with this fast charging, with Nissan and Mitsubishi taking the lead. Yet the standard they have chosen—called CHAdeMO and developed by a consortium of Japanese CANON PowerShot SD1000 battery companies—will soon face competition from another standard under development by the SAE.

The SAE expects to have its DC fast-charging standard ready within nine months, and carmakers and station manufacturers NIKON EN-EL3 battery should have equipment samples in the fall to begin their internal testing, says Peter Byk, an SAE engineering specialist. The final standard should come by the end of this year and no later than the first Dell Studio 1555 battery quarter of 2012.

It will be at least 2013 before the SAE standard starts showing up in consumer vehicles. In the meantime there will be nearly dell latitude D830 battery 700 CHAdeMO stations in Japan, 500 in the U.S. and 300 in Europe by the end of 2011. By the time the first SAE–compliant DC fast-charging–equipped cars hit the road there could be perhaps thousands of CHAdeMO stations in the U.S. alone, according HP Pavilion dv8000 ac adapter to John Gartner, a senior research analyst with Pike Research and author of an upcoming report on the state of DC fast-charging technology around the globe.

"As Nissan and Mitsubishi start selling electric cars in mass volume, they want to provide the functionality that DC fast-charging entails, so Dell latitude d610 battery the initial products to hit the North American market went with what was the closest available standard and that was CHAdeMO," Gartner says.

Nissan began selling its LEAF all-electric car last November and has plans to sell more than 200,000 of them OLYMPUS IR-500 battery a year by 2013. Mitsubishi began selling the all-electric i-MiEV in select locations around the globe last year and will start selling it on the North American market at the end of 2011. Adding DC fast-charging capability to both of those vehicles is an extra cost option at the time of purchase, and many consumers have opted for it, especially on the West Coast where CHAdeMO infrastructure will be widespread.

Given the sales targets of both companies, the potential for CHAdeMO adoption could be on the order of tens of thousands to perhaps more motorola gp340 battery than 100,000 vehicles by the time the SAE fast-charging standard is available in its first consumer electric vehicle.

Universality has its benefits
The current SAE fast-charging design calls for a hybrid combo that would be backward compatible with the J1772 standard but would also support DC fast-charging through a universal cable.

A universal charging standard has benefits in terms of cost savings and ease of engineering, and according to some, the SAE standard also has technical improvements over CHAdeMO designed to make it future-proof and safer to boot. BMW, which in 2013 will start selling their first mass-market all-electric vehicle, the i3, has been working in close collaboration with the SAE to develop the universal charging standard.

"We have a lot of problems with different standards around the world already," says Josef Krammer, team leader for charging systems at BMW. "We deliver our vehicles everywhere, and it's very difficult if we have to adapt our charging systems for each region."

According to Krammer, although CHAdeMO works, its major drawback is that it requires a second charging port in addition to the 110- to 240-volt AC port—which drives up both space and cost requirements. In addition, SAE's Byk says that CHAdeMO uses an older communication standard not expected to work well with coming smart grid technologies. Also, it is less safe because instead of relying on the physical contact with the ground to shunt short circuits, it relies on a ground fault interrupt, which monitors the line for imbalanced loads and shuts it off if it senses a surge. It is like the difference between having an alternate pipe for the sewage to drain into (physically grounded) and having a way to shut off a burst sewage pipe (ground fault interrupt).

Gaining a competitive advantage
Even so, Nissan says that CHAdeMO meets the needs of electric car drivers now and into the future. "As of today, CHAdeMO is the only proved DC quick-charging system," says Hideaki Watanabe, corporate vice president, Nissan Motor Co. "We are working with our partners to deploy CHAdeMO throughout the world, and we didn't want to take a 'wait and see' approach. We wanted to be a proactive player and deploy fast charging solutions now."

The existence of multiple standards may not actually be a big deal, says Pike Research's Gartner. "The real losers are the carmakers who are waiting to provide fast-charging support while their Japanese competitors increase market share," he adds.

What effect will it have on adoption rates?
Gartner envisions a future where both standards exist as parallel options. "Because of its penetration rates CHAdeMO won't ever become obsolete," he says. "Just because SAE says they are making a global universal standard doesn't mean the Japanese manufacturers are going to switch." As Gartner sees it, manufacturers will want to take advantage of the infrastructure that is already in place. "If there are already hundreds of stations on the ground—soon to be thousands—why wouldn't a manufacturer choose that option?" he asks.

But BMW does not think this parallel-option scenario will work. "Over the long term, I don't think that multiple standards can co-exist in one region," Krammer says. He cites the need for uniformity between all vehicles and convenient consumer access as the major reasons for this. SAE's Byk agrees, and says that the convenience of universal plug format, coupled with the majority of manufacturers adopting it in the long term will likely force the market to move away from CHAdeMO.

Regardless of whether one DC fast-charging standard wins, in the short term the controversy is sure to cause some confusion in marketplace, although Gartner does not think it will have much of an effect on adoption of electric cars. "The typical consumer still can't distinguish between hybrids and electric cars," he says. "If that basic distinction is still missing, then the DC fast-charging issue is one that means very little in terms of market adoption rates of electric cars in general."

Microsoft Announces a 30% Increase in Profit, but Windows Continue Performance Sick

Sales of Microsoft’s core Windows computer operating system continued to erode for the second consecutive quarter as consumers shifted away from PCs to tablets.

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

The Kinect game controller, which users operate by using their entire body, helped lift sales in Microsoft's entertainment division.

The software giant’s mixed financial results, reported Thursday, showed a company struggling with the OLYMPUS u DIGITAL 600 battery muted demand for computers while winning strong sales for Xbox 360 and products for business customers.

“We felt like it was a very solid close to a very solid fiscal year,” Peter Klein, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.

Microsoft reported that CANON EOS-10D battery its net income in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in June, rose 30 percent to $5.87 billion, or 69 cents a share, from $4.52 billion, or 51 cents, in the year-ago quarter.

The company said revenue climbed 8.5 percent, to $17.37 billion Motorola gp1200 Battery from $16 billion.

The net income was above the expectations of Wall Street analysts. They had expected 58 cents a share Dell xps m1330 battery and revenue of $17.25 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

The focus, however, is inevitably on Windows, Microsoft’s flagship product.

Revenue from the unit that sells the Windows operating system software fell 1 percent, to $4.74 billion. It is the second consecutive quarter that Microsoft’s Windows revenue has fallen, a trend that Microsoft executives expect to continue because of the weakness in PC sales. The division’s fortunes are Motorola gp2000 Battery closely tied to PC sales, which worldwide grew 2.6 percent in the quarter, according to IDC, the market research firm.

The shifting demand toward tablets is worrisome to Microsoft because most tablets run on Apple’s operating system or on Google’s Android software.

Tablet manufacturers have shown little interest in adopting Windows, leaving Microsoft out of what some of its executives had thought Acer Aspire 3021WLMi battery was a niche product. Sales of tablets are expected to triple to 43.6 million units in 2011 from a year earlier, according to eMarketer, a market research firm.

Microsoft attributed some of the decline in Windows revenue to a greater mix of PCs shipped to emerging motorola hnn9049a battery markets, where prices were lower. A tough economy and a 41 percent drop in the sales of netbooks also contributed.

Brendan Barnicle, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said that Microsoft was trying to make inroads in tablets with an updated version of Windows, to be available in 2012. If it turns out to be “interesting, but not game-changing,HP Pavilion dv9700 ac adapter then this deterioration will continue,” he said.

Mr. Klein said Microsoft would have more to say about its plans for tablets at its developer conference in September.

Microsoft is also struggling with getting its Windows motorola hnn9049a battery Phone 7 operating system on smartphones. Earlier this year, Nokia agreed to make phones that used Windows, but the partners have yet to introduce any devices.

In an ominous sign, Nokia said on Thursday that its smartphone sales fell 32 percent in the quarter. The decline Dell inspiron 1525 battery shows eroding demand for Nokia’s products and the difficulty Microsoft faces in competing against Apple and Google.

The company still has strengths. Revenue from its Office software, which includes Word, grew 7 percent, to $5.78 billion. The company has said that the latest version, Office 2010, is being deployed at a rate five times faster than its predecessor. An 8 percent decline in revenue from Office to consumers was offset by a 12 percent gain with business customers. Microsoft attributed the weak consumer results, as it did with HP Compaq 6710b battery its operating system, to sales in emerging markets. Revenue from servers and tools, a division that caters to corporate customers, grew 12 percent to $4.64 billion.

A particular bright spot in Microsoft’s portfolio was its entertainment products and devices like the Xbox 360 video game console and the Kinect game NIKON COOLPIX S550 battery controller, which lets users move their bodies to control characters in video games. Sales by the division grew 30 percent, to $1.49 billion.

Microsoft’s shipments of Xbox 360 Canon PowerShot SD40 charger game consoles increased 13 percent to 1.7 million, underscoring its popularity among gamers. “They are continuing their amazing momentum this year,” Mr. Klein said.

Revenue from Sony vgp-bps13a/b battery Microsoft’s online properties, like the MSN portal and Bing search engine, rose 17 percent, to $622 million. The unit posted $728 million in operating loss, continuing a streak of red ink.

Microsoft took over Yahoo’s search engine in an effort to better compete with Google. But so far, the partnership has failed to raise online advertising revenue as much as executives originally told investors. Both companies are working on the problem, Mr. Klein said, but it will not be resolved until the end of Acer Aspire 7003WSMi battery the year.

Shares of Microsoft fell less than half a percent to $26.99 in after-hours trading. In regular trading, they closed nearly flat at $27.10.

Spotify Open its music service to American

Spotify founders Martin Lorentzon, left, and Daniel Ek have fought for years to bring their music service to the U.S.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Spotify plans to launch in the U.S. on Thursday
The music-streaming service has been wildly popular in Europe
It's taken awhile for Spotify Dell Vostro 1500 battery to debut in U.S. because of concerns from record labels

The hottest music venue in Europe is set sony cyber-shot dsc-tx1 battery charger to open its doors to a select group in the United States.

Spotify, which dell inspiron 11z battery makes Internet music-streaming software, plans to launch the much-hyped U.S. version Thursday morning, after delays and years of negotiation.

At first, Spotify will only accept new members to its free Motorola pmnn4046 Battery service who receive invitations from the company, one of its sponsors or a current user.

"This is the biggest market in the world," Kenneth Parks, Spotify's content chief, said in an interview late HP Compaq Business Notebook NX6110 ac adapter Wednesday. "We haven't done a launch this large."

Google+, the new social network HP EliteBook 2530p ac adapter, also launched recently using an invite-only scheme. Spotify plans to welcome everyone for free after "several weeks," Parks said.

The Spotify Dell XPS M1210 ac adapter computer program will let people choose from any of 15 million songs to hear for free -- up to 20 hours per month, with each track listenable up to five times. For the first six months, however, people who enter during the invitation period are exempt from the monthly limit, Parks said.

After that, users can lift the restrictions by paying $5 a month or buying songs individually, like iTunes. The smartphone apps can be accessed for $10 a month, which includes unlimited streaming and the ability to save copy-protected music for listening offline.

The ability to create and share playlists with Facebook friends has formed a beehive mix-tape culture among hp nx7400 battery the more than 10 million users in Europe.

From a small office in Stockholm, HP NX6110 battery Sweden, Spotify quickly spread its tentacles across Europe. But during the past couple of years, the company has been caught in a web of bureaucracy. Record-label executives have expressed concern that Spotify's free offering devalues CANON POWERSHOT S40 battery music and doesn't drum up significant revenue.

"They wanted to be careful," Parks said. "Spotify has always had a view that the free experience was core to what Spotify was all about and key to get users to invest in the service."

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek echoed that belief at a technology conference in December, as he has in several public appearances before that and likely will again at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference next week.

"We really believe CASIO Exilim EX-S100 charger in our model," Ek said at the D: Dive into Mobile conference last year. "We would not just launch a subscription model, because we don't think that's going to work."

Now, the four major labels and SONY NP-FP50 battery Spotify have finally settled their disputes. In the time since, the record companies have given the go-ahead to competing digital music initiatives such as Rdio, MOG and, most recently, Apple's iTunes Match.

"We think there's Nikon EN-EL5 charger definitely room and appetite for a service like Spotify," Parks said. "There really is nothing like it in the market."

Internet Providers Plan Penalties for defeating Piracy

Americans who illegally download songs and movies may soon be in for a surprise: They will be warned to stop, and if they don’t, they could find their Internet access slowing to a crawl.

After years of negotiations with Hollywood and the music Dell Inspiron 1720 ac adapter industry, the nation’s top Internet providers have agreed to a systematic approach to identifying customers suspected of digital copyright infringement and then alerting them via e-mail or other means.

Under the new Canon 5d MK2 battery process, which was announced Thursday, several warnings would be issued, with progressively harsher consequences if the initial cautions were ignored.

The companies took pains to say that the agreement did not oblige Internet providers to shut down a repeat offender’s account, and that the system of alerts was meant to be “educational.” But they noted that carriers would Canon mv850i battery retain their right to cut off any user who violated their terms of service.

In bringing together the media companies and Internet carriers, the deal demonstrates how the once-clear line separating those two businesses has been blurred. Eight years ago, the Recording Industry Association Dell Inspiron Mini 1011 battery of America had to sue Verizon to try to uncover the identity of a customer who was sharing music online. This year, Comcast completed its merger with NBC, bringing an owner of digital content and a conduit for it under the same roof.

Now the Internet providers are hoping to profit as they pipe music and video of the nonpirated variety Motorola ntn7143 battery to their customers.

“The I.S.P.’s want to cooperate with Hollywood because the carriers recognize that their own growth depends in part on bundled content strategies,” said Eric Garland of BigChampagne, which tracks online media traffic. “They don’t want to be just utilities providing Internet access, but premium content distributors as well.”

The system announced on Thursday involves a series canon nb-4l charger of six warnings that an Internet provider can send to a customer whom the media companies have identified as a possible copyright infringer.

The warnings Dell Vostro 1510 battery escalate from simple e-mail notifications to, at levels 5 and 6, a set of “mitigation measures,” like reduced connection speeds or a block on Web browsing. As the alerts progress, a customer must acknowledge that he understands the notice. Customers will also have the opportunity to contest the complaint.

The effect on consumers, the companies hope, will be more of a deterrent-by-annoyance — rather than the random lightning bolt of litigation that was once the preferred method of enforcement by the recording industry association, one of the parties to the agreement.

The media companies were also represented by the Motion CANON POWERSHOT G5 battery Picture Association of America and groups acting on behalf of independent record companies and filmmakers. The Internet carriers involved in the deal include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable.

The music and movie companies, which estimate that digital piracy costs the United States economy $16 billion in lost Dell Vostro 1400 battery revenue each year, have been eager for an efficient way to deal with the problem.

As illegal downloading has become ingrained as a cultural habit, especially among young people, expensive litigation has become less effective, and the lawsuits against individuals were something of a public relations disaster wholesale motorola mts2000 battery for the music companies. The new deal, the companies say, offers plenty of chances for even the most recalcitrant pirates to reform.

“This is a sensible approach to the problem of online content theft and, importantly, one that respects the privacy and rights of our nikon coolpix 5200 battery subscribers,” Randal S. Milch, executive vice president and general counsel for Verizon, said in a statement.

The agreement has an unlikely origin: it came about as a result of an effort to crack down on child pornography that was led by Andrew M. Cuomo while he was the New York attorney general.

In 2008, Mr. Cuomo, who is now the governor, brokered a deal in which several major Internet providers agreed to block access to online sources of child pornography. Seeing this, the recording industry association approached Mr. Cuomo for help with music piracy, said Cary H. Sherman, the association’s president.

“We pointed out to him that there are overlaps between the child porn problem and piracy,” Mr. Sherman said, because all kinds Dell Inspiron 640m ac adapter of files, legal and otherwise, are traded on peer-to-peer networks.

Mr. Cuomo led the early talks between the Internet carriers and entertainment companies, and on Thursday he issued a statement praising the deal.

The agreement, he said, “provides a rational and thoughtful solution — a solution that respects the rights of copyright holders as well as I.S.P.’s and their customers — to a problem that has plagued the Internet.”

Under the agreement, the content owners will deliver evidence of illegal file-sharing to the Internet providers, which are then responsible for sending alerts and meting out penalties. The Internet providers will not disclose the identity of the offending customer to the media companies.

Many media and arts groups applauded the deal, saying that it would more effectively reduce piracy and therefore benefit the Dell Inspiron 1420 ac adapter creators of music and movies, whose fortunes have eroded over the last decade.

Others, including Public Knowledge, an Internet rights group, and the Center for Democracy and Technology expressed concerns that consumers might be punished “based on allegations that have not been tested in court.”

Many Internet music experts expressed doubt that the alert system would succeed in stamping out piracy. The new system largely aims for peer-to-peer file-sharing tools like BitTorrent. But plenty of other technologies exist for enterprising pirates motorola p1225 battery, many of which might allow them to evade easy detection.

“The challenge is that consumers will continue to do whatever they wish on the Internet, and find clever ways to not attract the attention of the content companies or I.S.P.’s,” said Mr. Garland of BigChampagne, whose company has long traced the proliferation of file-sharing. “It will never end.”

Google+ obtain a very good fame on user experience

Amy Gahran says the Google+ user interface is less potentially misleading than Facebook's.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• CNN mobile columnist Amy Gahran reviews the Google+ app on her Android phone
  
• Google+ is still very much a "beta" service with plenty of glitches, mysteries and oddities
  
• Gahran: Google+ user interface is cleaner, more intuitive, more user friendly than Facebook's

Editor's note: Amy Gahran writes about mobile tech for CNN.com. She is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and media consultant whose blog, Contentious.com, explores how people communicate in the online age.

Google on Tuesday unveiled its attempt HP Compaq BUSINESS NOTEBOOK NX9110 SERIES battery to rival Facebook, a social-networking product called Google+.

I received an invitation from a friend and have been putting this nascent service through its paces -- especially on my Android phone.

Here's my experience so far:

(Do you want a Google+ invitation? Sorry, you may have to wait.)

First, a caveat: Absolutely everything about Google+, including its mobile experience, is in a state of flux Acer Aspire 5670 Series battery. So at least some of what I write here will definitely change in the coming days and weeks.

Google+ is very much a "beta" service, sporting plenty of glitches, mysteries and oddities. Therefore it's just as well that the vast majority of people using it so far seem to be serious social media geeks.

Yes, that does make for a lot of redundant, tiresome conversations probing the arcane nuances of Google+ and comparing it to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. But it's probably best to let the geeks Dell inspiron 1526 battery kick the tires on Google+ first. Later on, when the service becomes more widely available, less-geeky users will definitely benefit from this process. So be a little patient.

There are main components to the Google+ mobile experience are the free Google+ Android app (of course), and the mobile web app Dell Vostro 1510 battery (accessible via the mobile browser on most Web-enabled phones).

To get Google+ Android app working you must first install the app, then log into Google+ via the Web to set up a link to your phone. Then you should be able to use the app. This Google+ Android app video explains how the app is supposed to Toshiba PA3534U-1BAS battery work, after you've done this setup.

I was able to easily install the Google+ app and link my account to my first-generation HTC Droid Incredible. So far this app is running fine for me -- no freezes or crashes.

However, I've noticed some other Google+ mobile users have complained of problems: the app installed CANON Digital IXUS 65 battery slowly or not at all, or it crashed, or they're having problems getting their phone linked to their Google+ account. Given the vast diversity of Android devices, versions of the Android operating system running on them, and manufacturer-specific interfaces (like HTC Sense), this isn't surprising.

But for now, Android users have the best shot of enjoying a satisfactory mobile Google+ experience. That's because, so far there are no Google+ native smartphone apps for platforms other than Android. Google NIKON COOLPIX S3 battery says the iPhone app is coming soon, and others are probably in the works.

Google+ users on non-Android phones -- or who can't or don't want to install the app -- currently can use the mobile Web app. Here, functionality varies: Android and iPhone users of the Web app enjoy substantially more functionality CANON IXY Digital L2 battery than people on BlackBerry, Nokia, or WebOS devices, at least so far.

The Android app is really important, since ArsTechnica rightly observes: "The success of Google+ will partly depend CANON Digital IXUS 900 Ti batteryon the quality of the user experience the service offers on mobile devices. Because Google isn't just a Web developer but also major mobile platform vendor through Android, the company has an opportunity to offer deep integration between its new social networking service and the popular smartphone nikon coolpix s3 battery operating system."

What I like

Mostly, I like the Google+ Android app.

I am able to use all the other core functionality of Google+ via the Android app without difficulty. For instance, I can add people to my "circles" (contact groups that I define), read my "stream" (the Google+ equivalent of a Facebook news feed, or a tweetstream), and take and upload photos. So generally, I'm pretty satisfied with the app.

If you're uploading mobile photos or video to dell inspiron 1521 ac adapter Google+ (and you can only do this via the Android app so far, which puts iPhone shutterbugs out of luck), you might want to peruse your instant upload settings. By default, Google+ uploads everything you shoot as soon as you shoot it, to a private album, from which you can selectively share photos. Personally I only want to upload images I wish to share, so I've turned this option off.

Having the Google+ app installed on my phone offers one key advantage over the computer-based browser experience of Google+: sharing links.

With the app installed and activated on my Android phone, now when I'm using any of the Web browser I have installed on my phone (even Opera Mini), when I find a page I want to share, Google+ is listed as one of the many "share page" options (along with Evernote, Gmail, Messages, etc.)

This is actually easier than sharing links to Google+ on my computer. So far as I've been able to find there's no Google+ bookmarklet or browser toolbar button that's the equivalent of share on Facebook. I use these kinds of tools all the time for other services in my Web browser. I'm sure Google+ will have one eventually, but right now HP Pavilion dv6500 ac adapter on my Android phone at least I don't have to cut-and-paste the link.

I'll like it even better when Google releases an application programming interface for Google+, so other services I like and use frequently,such as PicPlz, for posting photos selectively to several services at once, can connect to my Google+ presence.

What's not working

One of the main glitches I've noticed with mobile Google+ involves the "huddle" feature -- a prominent part app, featured on its home screen.

As far as I understand it, a "huddle" is supposed to be the Google+ alternative to group texting services. It allows self-defined groups of mobile users to convene on-the-fly private discussions -- such friends deciding where to meet at the beach, or journalists in the field coordinating coverage of a breaking news event.

I was able to use the Android app to initiate a huddle and invite several friends. However, the only person who could actually join the huddle was also using the Android app. All other invitees, who were accessing Google+ via a their Web browser (desktop or mobile), would click to accept my invitation -- but then they were inexplicably routed to the main Google mobile info page. Rather frustrating.

Theoretically, Google+ users should be able to participate in a huddle via the mobile Web (although that didn't work for my friends), and even non-users should be able to participate via SMS, though that seems sketchy.

I searched Google+ Help for Huddle info -- but as of this writing the only result that yields is how to delete your account. Since Huddle is strictly a mobile service, info about it can be found in Google Mobile Help.

This isn't exactly intuitive from the user's perspective, and I hope Google fixes that soon. Help should always be where users expect to find it. Despite how Google has organized this project, users don't perceive the Google+ Android app as a separate service from Google+.

Another glitch: I noticed that my mobile notifications usually lag. I just accessed Google+ on my laptops Web browser and saw five new notifications of interaction from other users, similar to Facebook notifications. But I'm not seeing these on my Android app. That's been happening a lot.

Like I said: Google+ is really, really beta. But so far it's sufficiently functional, interesting, and engaging for me to want to keep using it.

Even better, in my opinion the Google+ user interface -- standard and mobile -- is cleaner, more intuitive, more attractive, more user friendly, and less potentially misleading than Facebook's. Plus, it offers huge potential to connect with all the other Google services I'm already using: Google calendar, Gmail, Google docs, and more.

Will Google+ catch on?

Influential tech blogger Robert Scoble doubts that Google+ stands much chance of getting adopted by the average Facebook user, and instead will only appeal to the geekier types initially invited. He thinks that would be just great, by the way.

I disagree -- and mobile is a big part of why I disagree. Consider this combination of factors:

• The opportunity to deeply, even inherently, integrate Google+ with Android

• Google's existing array of hugely popular consumer services (mail, docs, calendar, etc.)

• Google+ doesn't think too far outside the box -- which was the downfall of Google Wave. It emulates the best functionality from existing popular social media services, but offers in many ways, I think a more user-friendly experience.

• Mobile devices are fast becoming the most common way that people access the Internet, worldwide and in the U.S.

• At least 200 million people already have Google accounts, based on estimates of active Gmail users -- but the total number of Google account holders is probably much higher

So: What would happen if Google suddenly made Google+ available to all Google account holders and Android device users?

I'll bet the folks at Facebook are pretty worried about exactly that possibility right now.