Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Google has just released a new tool that will help webmasters speed up their page load time.

Google’s new Page Speed Service takes many of the optimizations outlined in the company’s Page Speed Online API and applies it to sites automatically.

It’s a turnkey online service that automatically takes care of the optimizations by rewriting pages and delivering them to users using Google’s servers.

The tool works by having users point the CNAME for their URL at Google’s own servers. From there, Google can do the optimizations and rewrite pages as needed.

On the Google Code blog, Google says that it has seen speed improvements from 25% to 60% on some sites. Google has a gallery and a comparison test that users can try themselves.

Right now, the tool is only available to a limited set of webmasters, but you can request access by filling out this form. Google says that pricing will be competitive.

It’s rare that Google rolls out plans for a pay service, but this is a case where we think it makes sense. Would you be interested in using Google’s services to automatically optimize your website page load?

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – Flight simulation is about to take an impressive step toward more realistic flight with the introduction of actual air traffic controllers.

Pilots have long used simulators to provide a wide range of training scenarios, from basic navigation to complex system failures. But however lifelike the simulations have been, they’ve always lacked the added realism — and cognitive workload — of interacting with air traffic control.

Pilotedge, a New Jersey company, is here at the big Airventure aviation show demonstrating a new service that brings real, live air traffic controllers to flight simulators across the country.

The company will have several active and retired controllers connected to its network, and they’ll provide the same level of interaction that pilots experience flying in controlled airspace. The system currently is limited to simulated flights in California airspace, but the pilot can be sitting at a simulator anywhere in the country.

Pilotedge founder Keith Smith says he initially built the system to help pilots better learn how to talk with and interact with air traffic controllers.

“I wanted to help people get better on the radio” he says. “But it turns out situational awareness is getting much better.”

Smith had used some of the free air traffic control options people in the flight sim community use, but he found they weren’t reliable and lacked the level of effective training that could be offered.

A wide range of pilots have tried the Pilotedge system. Smith says the simple act of communicating with a controller is a valuable skill to practice if you’re a pilot without a lot of flight time spent with air traffic control.

But seasoned pros have been impressed with the ability to test their situational awareness. Radio calls may be old hat for them, but bringing an air traffic controller into the simulator can make for a much more realistic — and challenging — training experience.

“When was the last time you got an ad hoc hold in the sim,” Smith says, referring to a procedure a pilot may be given when when waiting to land. “It can push experienced pilots over the edge.”

The air traffic controllers can work from home and will operate on actual frequencies used in California airspace. A pilot simulating a flight over the Los Angeles basin can expect to talk to several different controllers, beginning with the clearance delivery on the ground, through the tower and en route controllers. And just like the real world, the pilot will be handed off to several different controllers during the flight as they switch frequencies.

The system is aimed at the flight training marketplace but will be available to home users as well. The retail rate for home users is just $19 per month for unlimited use. Smith says flight schools will pay an hourly rate that will simply be added to the rate the pilot is paying to use the simulator.

Pilotedge is working with Precision Flight Controls, a company that sells many Federal Aviation Administration-approved simulators to flight schools nationwide. But Smith is in discussions to develop versions of his system for companies such as CAE and Flight Safety that operate the simulators used by the airlines and other large aircraft operators.

Photos: Jason Paur/Wired.com

Just under the wire, L. Frank Baum’s heirs have no copyright protection on The Wizard of Oz. As a result, there are Broadway musicals, concordances, prequels, sequels and more. All of which creates a rich, emotional universe (and makes the copyrighted movie even more valuable).

Most of us remember the mythology stories they taught us in school (Zeus and Thor and the rest of the comic-like heroes.) Myths allow us to project ourselves into their stories, to imagine interactions that never took place, to take what’s important to us and live it out through the myth.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of entertainment mythological brands. James Bond and Barbie, for example.

But it goes far behond that.

There’s clearly a Google mythology and a Starbucks one was well. We feel differently about brands like these than we do about, say Maxwell House or Random House.

Why do Santa and Ronald McDonald have a mythology but not Dave at Wendy’s or the Burger King?

Let’s try the Wikipedia: Myths are narratives about divine or heroic beings, arranged in a coherent system, passed down traditionally, and linked to the spiritual or religious life of a community, endorsed by rulers or priests.

So, if I were trying to invent a mythic brand, I’d want to be sure that there was a story, not just a product or a pile of facts. That story would promise (and deliver) an heroic outcome. And there needs to be growth and mystery as well, so the user can fill in her own blanks. Endorsement by a respected ruler or priest helps as well.

The key word, I think, is spiritual. Mythological brands make a spiritual connection with the user, delivering something that we can’t find on our own… or, at the very least, giving us a slate we can use to write our own spirituality on.

People use a Dell. They are an Apple.

This can happen accidentally, but it often occurs on purpose. A brand can be deliberately mythological, created to intentionally deliver the benefits of myth. Casinos in Las Vegas have been trying to do this for decades (and usually failing). But talk to a Vegas cab driver about Steve Wynn and you can see that it’s been done at least once.

There’s a mythology about Digg and about Wikipedia, but not about about.com. The mysterious nature of rankings and scores and community ensures that, combined with the fact that the first two have public figures at the helm… heroes.

It’s easy to confuse publicity with mythology, but it doesn’t work that way… there’s no Zune mythology, for example. It’s also easy to assume that mythology will guarantee financial success, but it didn’t work for General Magic, a company which successfully leveraged the heroic reputations of its founders, created a very hot IPO but failed to match the needs of the larger market.

It did, on the other hand, work for Andersen’s, an ice cream stand in Buffalo (!?) that has a line every single day, even in January.

Hard to explain, difficult to bottle, probably worth the effort to pursue.

The next generation iPhone might be thinner than iPhone 4, according to leaked case designs unearthed by 9to5Mac. Furthermore, case mold schematics leaked yesterday point to an iPhone with a larger screen as well as a bigger home button.

These rumors fall in line with many earlier rumors which claim the next iPhone will be thinner, but they also contradict other reports which claim that iPhone 5 (if that’s its name) will be quite similar to the iPhone 4.

The “thin iPhone” rumors point to a curved back design for the device, which seems somewhat unlikely, given that Apple has switched from such a design to a rectangular, flat back in iPhone 4.

What do you think? Are you ready to believe the mounting evidence in favor of a thinner iPhone, or do you think the next iPhone won’t be a radical departure from iPhone 4? Share your opinions in the comments!

via 9to5Mac

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — The Elektra One from PC-Aero is making its North American debut here at Airventure. The sleek electric single-seater is a prototype of the airplane designer Calin Gologan hopes will go into production next year. But Gologan’s main goal isn’t production, it’s developing a truly “modern” airplane. He believes that starts with energy autonomy.

Gologan’s goal in developing a modern airplane is to move beyond how an airplane might look modern yet still use the same decades-old propulsion system. Those old engines come with the same high operating costs that have been around for decades as well. Gologan thinks electric power can change the definition of a modern airplane — and look good, too.

“In my mind a modern aircraft is using less energy, alternative energy and having low noise,” he says. “But an aircraft must also have a nice form and be attractive, aircraft in this class are also sold by emotion.”

The Elektra One had its first flight in the spring, and flight testing will continue through the end of the year. Gologan says PC-Aero has made several changes, including cooling for the motor and controller and improvements to the structure of the airplane. The production model will be lighter, improving performance. Like all things electric, battery improvements allow better performance.

PC-Aero has big plans later this summer when it will attempt a record-setting flight. Sometime in late August or September, Gologan says, the Elektra One will fly from its base in Augsberg, Germany, to Berlin. The flight will cover more than 300 miles at speeds around 90 mph.

PC-Aero is testing extending the range by installing solar panels on the wings and fuselage. The motor can produce 16 kilowatts (21.5 horsepower) for take-off and 14 kW (18.7 hp) for continuous use. Cruising requires just 6 kW (8 hp), says test pilot Norbert Lorenzen.

“It flies very easy, much more like a glider,” he says.

The efficient, glider-like design means power needs are minimal. Gologan says up to 15 percent of the power needed during cruise could be supplied by a wing covered in solar panels. But the real goal of energy autonomous flight is the hangar PC-Aero has in mind for the Elektra One.

By covering the roof of a small hangar with solar panels, the Elektra One could fly as long as 300 hours annually using the sunshine available in Augsberg. By developing a complete power package for the airplane, Gologan believes pilots can achieve energy independence. It would be revolutionary, he says.

“We are in the fourth revolution,” he says. “The first was the agriculture, then the industrial and information revolutions. Now we are in the energy revolution.”

Gologan says a key part of the revolution is goes beyond embracing alternative energy to producing it for ourselves.

Solar panels will charge the airplane’s 26 kilowatt-hour battery, which weighs 100 kilograms (220 pounds). The composite airplane weighs 100 kilos empty, leaving another 100 kilos for the pilot and anything he or she might want to carry along on a flight.

Gologan already is developing the next model, which will feature an extended wingspan. The added room will allow for additional solar panels, providing as much as 50 percent of the power needed for flight. Longer wings also will facilitate soaring, using thermals like a traditional sailplane — thermals being an indirect type of solar energy for flying the airplane.

A two-seater also is on the drawing board, and Gologan even mentions four- and six-seaters, though he concedes those are further down the road.

The price for Elektra One with a solar hangar is expected to come in under $150,000 (100,000 Euros). It’s not cheap for a single-seat airplane, but given there are virtually no additional costs incurred for up to 300 hours of flying annually, the sticker shock isn’t quite so great.

Photos: Jason Paur/Wired.com. Video: PC-Aero

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – The iPad has been a huge hit with pilots who use it for everything from flight planning to navigation. Now synthetic vision can be added to the list of capabilities available to pilots using the device in the cockpit.

Synthetic vision has been around for a few years, using glass panel cockpit displays costing tens of thousands of dollars. The technology renders a three-dimensional digital representation of what a pilot sees out the window. It looks similar to a flight simulator. Everything from mountains to buildings can be shown, providing pilots with a picture of their surroundings at night or when flying in the clouds.

Now the technology is available in a 99-cent app (with additional subscription fees).

WingX Pro7 from Hilton Software has been a best selling navigation app on the iPad, providing aeronautical charts, weather and terrain capabilities. Today the company announced it has added synthetic vision.

The top image shows the map view of an airplane flying over the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The lower image shows the synthetic vision showing the coastline, runways and mountains off to the right. An video of the synthetic vision appears below.

WingX Pro7 developer Hilton Goldstein admits his app is not to be used as a primary navigation tool. The FAA requires much more testing of primary navigation hardware and software used in airplanes, and that adds to the cost of more expensive systems. But used as a backup tool for pilots who may or may not already have synthetic vision capabilities, the iPad app provides a tremendous amount of information for a small investment.

A subscription for the maps and terrain database costs $99 annually, and the synthetic vision subscription is an additional $99 per year.

Hilton Software also is partnering with Levil Technologies to offer an attitude and heading reference system that, when connected to WingX Pro7, turns the iPad into an artificial horizon-type device that displays pitch and bank. The tiny AHRS unit is the size of a business card and about one inch thick. It transmits wirelessly to the iPad and provides more backup capability in the event of an instrument failure.

Image/Video: Hilton Software/BA3

The Web Development Series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace’s hosting solutions here.

Taking on a large project can be both exciting and intimidating, particularly if you’re a solo developer. Big builds can be a lot of fun and serve as great learning experiences. At the same time, you have to keep the project moving forward, or risk missed deadlines and burnout.

Below are some tips to help you stay organized and productive, whether you’re working individually or as a team.

---

1. Make Your Contract Rock-Solid

---

When dealing with clients, issues like scope creep, late payments and deadlines are always a concern. And what may seem obvious to you may not be clear to your client. To avoid hurt feelings, delays and financial troubles, your first priority should be establishing a thorough, firm, but fair written contract.

A good contract protects both you and your client. In addition to general terms and conditions, your contract should contain specifics about the project: payment schedules, due dates, deadlines (and consequences for missing those deadlines), cancellation policies, guidelines regarding intellectual property and project scope. You can find many sample contracts on the web, but there’s no substitute for consulting with an attorney. When dealing with the safety of your business and your livelihood, the expense is justifiable, and should be calculated in your business overhead.

---

2. Have a Well-defined Road Map

---

One of the required supplements to your contract should always be a project road map. It should outline all of the project features as thoroughly as possible, and establish the general plan for project progression, from research all the way through deployment.

To start, write out all of the features in outline format. It helps to break them down into groups, such as “Account Administration Features” and “Inventory Control Features,” for example. Keep refining the outline until you’ve defined exactly what is expected and what needs to be developed.

Next, break the project down into different phases, such as research, design, development, testing and deployment. For each phase, state its goals clearly, and define where the project should be when the phase is completed. Have your client sign off on the phases, and include this document with your contract. You may want to make a second copy of this road map to include more technical details, such as technologies to employ and methods to implement each feature — but don’t change the scope unless your client signs off on the changes.

---

3. Establish a Style Guide

---

Whether you’re working alone or with a team, taking the time to establish a style guide for your project will help you maintain consistency throughout. Furthermore, when the project needs updating six months from now, you’ll be glad you made the effort.

There are two types of style guides you should consider: a visual guide and a coding guide. Keep in mind that either or both may apply to the project. The visual style guide should contain information regarding fonts, colors, branding and any other notes on visual appearance. You should also include a few examples of common elements, such as headers, forms, body content, sidebars and menus. While you may never need to go into such detail, the Skype Brand Book is a great example. The guide provides a great presentation to your client, a tool to help them understand how the project will ultimately look and feel. Review the established style with the client (mood boards are great for this purpose), and have them sign off on the look. Refer back to the visual style guide often during your own work to make sure you’re adhering to the set guidelines.

A programming style guide needn’t be project-specific (unless you’re working with a new team that has already established a style different from your own). It may be as simple as following an existing style guide, such as the Zend style guide. You don’t need to start from scratch here, but you need to be consistent. Having a clear set of guidelines will help any developers who may come on board later.

---

4. Take Time to Research, Plan and Test

---

When developing a new project, particularly one that’s interesting and exciting, people have the temptation to dive right in and get to work. An initial lack of proper research and planning can have detrimental effects, especially for larger projects. Take the proper initial steps and spend time researching, diagramming, reading through source code and organizing your thoughts. It will end up saving you time and money down the road.

The same applies to testing your code. It will spare you the tedious and often embarrassing problems of code rewrites, because the only thing worse than having your code fail during a demo is having it fail in production. Testing code and debugging shouldn’t be afterthoughts, so work both into your project estimate and timeline. There are a lot of automated testing suites out there today — everything from PHP and JavaScript to Ruby and Python, and countless other languages. It’s a good idea to learn at least one for each language you plan to use. Don’t forget to have real users navigate your software too. You and your client should both spend time actually using the site you’ve developed before going live.

---

5. Document As You Go

---

If you’re like most developers, you cringe at the thought of writing documentation. Taking the time to document something, especially when it seems clear at the time of creation, feels like a waste of valuable time. However, years from now those thousands of lines of source code may not make nearly as much sense.

Furthermore, programming styles and skill evolve over time, which can make old code hard to dive back into. So take time to document your code as you go. Make it as intuitive as possible by using descriptive names and logical progression. As a good rule of thumb, you should never need to document what something does, but make notes in your code that explain a feature’s purpose and function. Also note any dependencies that it either relies on or creates. Stopping at the end of each new feature and taking the time to draft some end-user documentation is a good idea as well. This will make it much easier to train your client on the software, and will also serve as a good way to catch any usability issues or features that were accidentally omitted.

---

6. Use Version Control

---

This should almost go without saying, but many solo developers don’t use version control for their projects. For a large project, this simply isn’t an option. A good VCS (whether you choose SVN, Git, Mercurial or some other system) virtually eliminates the possibility of accidentally deleting or overwriting code.

In addition to providing an invaluable safety net, commit logs also help you track your progress. And the ability to branch, fork, and merge your code gives you the flexibility to experiment with different methods of feature implementation. You can also refine and fine-tune your software’s performance without the risk of breaking existing code. Finally, it simplifies remote backup and deployment to testing and production environments. These days, version control should be considered an essential part of your development, particularly if you collaborate with other individuals.

---

7. Take Thorough Meeting Notes

---

Whether you prefer to use a laptop or a spiral-bound notebook, take notes when you meet with your client and other collaborators. Otherwise, you may not retain that minor detail discussed during the meeting as effectively. Good note-taking demonstrates to your clients that you’re attentive, interested and dedicated to providing them with good service. It ensures you don’t forget the little details, and it also saves you the embarrassment of having to go back to the client for clarification. It sounds simple, but one minor modification that went forgotten or overlooked could mean major changes in code or functionality. Save yourself the headache, stress and humiliation and learn to write everything down.

---

8. Organize Your Assets

---

As with thorough note-taking, keeping assets organized is another important step toward streamlining your project work flow. You may even consider a separate version control repository for project assets that don’t belong in the finished code base. Your client will likely send you a lot of files, content, artwork and emails containing feedback and requests for modifications and new features. Often, they’ll send more than one version of those files or requests.

Think about putting these assets into version control or some well-defined project management software. It can go a long way toward helping you keep information organized. Sending the wrong file or hunting through hundreds of emails not only slows you down and introduces the likelihood of errors, it makes you look unprofessional.

---

9. Put Due Dates in Writing

---

Due dates may often be established when outlining the project and its contract, but if this isn’t something you’re already doing, or if your current system isn’t working as well as you would like, it’s definitely worth the attention. Large projects tend to have a lot of dependencies, and missing one deadline can often put an entire project behind schedule. Mark due dates on your calendar and discipline yourself to stick to them.

Due dates aren’t just for you, either. It’s not at all unreasonable to give your client due dates for various deliverables, such as content and branding, and to set fixed periods of time for reviewing and approving assets. Clearly define due dates for all parties, and furthermore, address the consequences of unmet deadlines. As with negotiating a contract and drafting the project outline, always try to be fair, but don’t be afraid to be firm. Your client will respect you for it, and your reputation and career depend on it.

Images courtesy of Flickr, ZedZAP .. gone camping, justonlysteve

Nate Elliott is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where he helps interactive marketers around the world develop the strategies and tactics that make them successful, and then helps them measure the results. You can follow him on Twitter at @nate_elliott.

Last year, American consumers posted more than a billion opinions about products and services online, according to data collected by my company. With peer influence playing such a prominent role in consumers’ purchase decisions, it’s no surprise many interactive marketers are tapping into that influence via viral marketing programs and influencer outreach.

However, the vast majority of marketers ignore the staggering volume of social data all this influence creates. And those who do study social data typically use it for the wrong reason: to measure the brand impact of their marketing campaigns.

---

Social Data Is Often Based On Small Sample Sizes

---

With so many opinions posted online, you might assume it would be easy to find a reliable sample of data to analyze for brand impact. But even popular consumer brands often find it difficult to collect usable social data.

For instance, I recently reviewed a listening report for a global sporting goods brand — one that sponsors leading teams and athletes around the world and has strong brand awareness. I was surprised to see that the brand was mentioned in social media only a few hundred times each week in the U.S., and less than 100 times each week in other key markets around the world.

To make matters worse, the low quality of many social sentiment analysis tools reduces sample sizes further. When listening tools can’t decide whether comments are positive or negative, they’re usually labeled as having “no sentiment.” Three-quarters of the mentions for this brand were tagged as such, leaving less than two-dozen weekly usable posts in some markets.

If you asked your market insights team or your survey provider to analyze 25 consumer survey responses, they’d tell you it’s impossible to find statistical significance in such a small sample. The same standards must be applied to social data as well.

---

Social Creators Aren’t Necessarily Representative of Your Audience

---

Although most online users today engage with social media, that doesn’t mean the consumers who post social content offer a representative sample. In fact, 20-year-olds are twice as likely as 40-year-olds to be what my company calls “conversationalists” — people who post status updates on Facebook or Twitter. And they’re three times as likely to be what we call “creators” — people who post blogs or videos online.

If you’re marketing a product targeted primarily to younger consumers, you might find that the people posting in social media look something like your audience. But for many marketers, that’s simply not the case.

---

Social Data Usually Measures Extremes

---

Ever notice that most online reviews are either very positive or very negative? It’s not your imagination. Our data shows that most social influence posts are extreme in nature – and it happens for two reasons.

First, consumers are simply more motivated to post opinions online if those opinions are strong. If I don’t have a strong opinion, I probably won’t take the time. That’s why nearly three-quarters of customer ratings on Amazon’s ten best-selling books are either 1′s or 5′s, and why very few reviews fall in between those extremes.

Second, so many posts about products and services are driven by individual experiences that they’re bound to be polarized in nature. If I waited in line at the bank for 20 minutes, I may fill the time telling Twitter that I hate my bank. Conversely if I get a free upgrade on my flight, I might post about how much I love my airline. Perhaps these are useful customer service data points (and they definitely influence other consumers), but they’re not a reliable gauge of overall sentiment towards your brand or campaign.

---

Valuable Ways for Marketers To Use Social Data

---

So if you shouldn’t use social data to measure brand impact, what is it good for?

Lots of things. Whether you or your company works directly with social media or not, you should be using social data right now to:

• Develop your messaging. If you want to create messages that resonate with your audience, you need to know what it cares about. For instance, companies are using private listening communities to craft their marketing messages. And increasingly, companies are using data from public social media as an additional marketing guide.
• Source your creative. We know that consumers trust what they hear from other consumers more than any other source of information. So why not use listening platforms to identify positive social content that can be included in campaign creative? I’ve even seen UK bank First Direct use social sentiment data in an outdoor advertising campaign.
• Improve your media plan. You probably already have a few staples in your online media plan — the sites and networks that consistently perform for you. But social data can help you find new sites to add to your buy. For instance, when Microsoft found that people were talking about its computers in forums dedicated to fishing and cars, it quickly added those sites to its plan.
• Identify your key influencers. According to our studies, consumers in the U.S. create more than 500 billion peer-to-peer impressions about brands and products per year. Social data can help you identify (and then reach out to) the most vocal and influential of those consumers, either individually or by finding the forums in which your brand will have the most influence.
• React to your consumers. You can’t fuel a positive conversation about your products (or get involved in a negative one) unless you find those conversations first. Listening platforms can help you quickly find both the good and the bad so you’re in a position to react.

The key here is to successfully build social data into marketing programs – and not to use it, like most companies, as a tool to measure those programs.

Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author’s company.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Yakobchuk

In 1962, drummer Pete Best (right) was on the receiving end of one of history’s cruelest firings. His bandmates had just won a recording contract, but decided he wasn’t quite talented enough to stay in the band. They intended to replace him with a friend from a rival group: Richard Starkey (left), also known as Ringo Starr.

Best, beloved by the Beatles’ earliest fans, had to watch from the sidelines as his former bandmates and Starr became the biggest group on the planet. Now, thanks to a Facebook campaign, he is getting a little compensation from the city where it all started.

A group on the social network calling itself “Name a Street After Pete” aimed to persuade Liverpool City Council to honor Best; it gained more than 10,000 supporters. The council was persuaded, and announced Wednesday that Best would get not one but two street names in a new housing development — one for himself, and one for the Casbah, a club started by his late mother Mona, where the Beatles played some of their earliest gigs.

“We only name a street after a living person if it is an exceptional case,” councilor Malcolm Kennedy told the website Click Liverpool. “Pete Best is certainly one of those exceptional individuals — he has made a significant contribution to the musical heritage of our city, and he is a worthy recipient.”

The BBC spoke to a proud and humbled Best; you can see that interview here. A decade ago, Best received a quiet payout of up to £4 million for his part in the Beatles Anthology project, which features several tracks with his drumming. Getting a street named after you is a pretty big deal in a historic city like Liverpool, however, and we think the 69-year-old Best much prefers the recognition to the cash. Money, as his former bandmates once observed, can’t buy you love.

“Zero-emissions” is a tricky phrase. Electric vehicles produce zero emissions at the tailpipe, but more often than not there are emissions at the power plant. The only way to have a truly zero-emissions EV is to get your power from a renewable source like the sun.

SolarCity is making it a whole lot easier to do that. The California company has started offering solar EV chargers to customers in 11 states and Washington, D.C., allowing people to drive their cars purely on sunshine.

“It allows for the carbon-free lifestyle. You can go EV and PV and drive on sunshine power,” Ben Tarbell, vp of products, told us. “There are a lot of environmental and economic benefits for our customers.”

The company, fresh off a $280 million investment from Google, makes it easy for people to embrace solar power by leasing them complete photovoltaic packages. It’s been dabbling in solar chargers for awhile, and it installed solar EV charging stations along highway 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2009.

But the arrival of the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt, not to mention the plethora of EVs and plug-in hybrids automakers promise to deliver by 2015, makes it time to go all-in, Tarbell said.

“There are a significant number of mainstream electric vehicles available, and our customers are asking for this,” he said. “The market is catching up. We’re seeing an uptick in demand for this.”

The Level 2 (240 volt) ClipperCreek charger costs $1,500 installed. The photovoltaic cells needed to keep the juice flowing will set you back $50 a month. By SolarCity’s math, the average urban driver spends about $230 a month on gasoline (at an average of $3.65 a gallon). Plugging into the grid cuts that to $107 a month, and a SolarCity rig brings it to $54.

Of course, SolarCity is happy to set you up with solar power for the entire house. The cost varies with your energy needs, but a typical home in the San Francisco Bay Area will pay $60 to $200 a month for a 20-year lease, the company says.

The solar chargers are available now in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington D.C.

Photo of a Chevrolet Volt plugged in: General Motors