China is warming up to telematics, promising a hot market ahead.

Software giant Google has unveiled a visual search application for smartphones called Google Goggles. When users with the new mobile application take a picture, Google launches a search for information associated with that image, whether it is a bottle of wine at a vineyard, the façade of a restaurant in Manhattan, or a street sign in the backwoods of West Virginia. Once the search is complete, users receive a list of links on their smartphones just as they would on their computer after a conventional Google word search.

Telematics Update picks the 10 technologies with the greatest potential impact for 2010.

Despite Q2 2009 sales dropping to almost half that of the prior year period, Motorola's mobile devices segment managed to reduce its operating loss by almost 50% from Q1 2009.

Intel Capital is investing $10 million in five clean-tech investments.

The Dept of Energy has allocated more than $57 million in Recovery Act funding to advance smart-grid development, and Cisco is reportedly getting ready to cash in on the technology.

Microsoft has renewed its licence agreement to use infoUSA's premium local search content in Bing.

Parks Associates says that the US market for residential energy management (REM) has taken the first significant steps in deploying smart grid technologies and advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) on a broad scale.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has taken a major step to accelerate the development of a smart electric transmission system that could improve the efficiency and operation of the grid.

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced more than US$47 million in funding under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act for eight projects to further smart grid demonstration projects in seven states.