Geek Gestalt

SAN JOSE, Calif.--eBay knows that half of all Christmas shoppers miss its December 16 shipping deadline for getting presents under the tree in time, and it wants to help the stragglers.

The e-commerce giant's idea is to make it easy for shoppers to find the item they're looking for--say, a Nintendo Wii--that's for sale and in stock at a store near them and to select and pay for it in advance through a mobile app.

The technology has been rolled into the latest version of eBay's RedLaser mobile app, which allows users to search for … Read more

NASA indicated on Tuesday that it plans on moving forward with its deep space exploration goals by announcing plans for a 2014 unmanned flight test of its Orion spacecraft.

In a release, the U.S. space agency said that it would add the new flight test to its existing contract to build the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle (MPCV) with Lockheed Martin Space Systems. NASA said it expects to conduct the new test in early 2014.

According to NASA, the flight test will "fly two orbits to a high-apogee, with a high-energy re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. Orion will make … Read more

Microsoft has named Yusuf Mehdi as head of marketing for its Xbox and video games business.

According to GeekWire, Microsoft is shifting Mehdi, who it said had the longest tenure in the company's online services division, to the Xbox unit. There, he will report to president of interactive entertainment business Don Mattrick.

During his time in Microsoft's Online Services Division, Mehdi led the marketing rollout for Bing and was also the leader of an 1,800-person engineering team that developed and launched the company's foray into search and online advertising. And some had seen him as the … Read more

It's been only two weeks since taking paying passengers skyward for the first time, but Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has already had its first mechanical glitch.

According to published reports, Boeing and All Nippon Airways--the Dreamliner's launch customer--are investigating a landing-gear deployment problem that hit ANA's first 787 on Sunday. The pilots of the next-generation plane had to "deploy the landing gear using a manual backup system," Reuters reported, "after an indicator lamp suggested the wheels were not properly down."

No passengers were injured, and the plane is said to have already been … Read more

The era of American commercial airliners flying on biofuels is here.

A Continental Airlines Boeing 737-800 from Houston yesterday became the first U.S. plane to fly passengers while using an algae-based biofuel. According to an article originally published in the Houston Chronicle, the Continental flight carried 154 customers while using the fuel blend, which was developed by South San Francisco, Calif.-based Solazyme.

"United Continental Holdings, the airline's parent company, estimated that the biofuel blend on the Chicago-bound flight reduced carbon dioxide emissions by an amount equal to what would come from the exhaust of a car … Read more

Are record labels ready to help rock bands stay at the forefront of fans' minds in the age of social media overload? Wayne Coyne, the lead singer of the Flaming Lips, isn't so sure.

There's no doubt that the group plays inside the traditional label system: it has been signed to Warner Bros. Records since the '90s. But Coyne thinks that tech-savvy musicians may well be better able to attract fans to their brand-new work than the record companies. And while he expects that labels like Warner may well set the tone for innovative artist promotion in the … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--For people like Sarah Reinertsen, one of the many downsides of having a prosthetic leg is that there's never been a fashionable way to dress it up.

But for Reinertsen, a record-setting triathlete, and others including a growing number of combat veterans, a startup called Bespoke Innovations is forever changing the way they feel about themselves and how the world looks at them.

Bespoke was founded by industrial designer Scott Summit and orthopedist Kenneth Trauner. The company's initial products are what are known as fairings--3D printed prosthetic leg covers that are each one-of-a-kind and designed for and … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--You may not know CAD, but if you've got a computer, you can now start creating 3D models.

That's the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company's existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.

Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--If you work in Silicon Valley and have a big meeting in a flyover state with a potential partner, the extent of your wardrobe may well be challenged.

For Bryan Hynecek, the director of design and "what's next" at case maker Speck, that was the situation he faced recently as he readied to jet off to a meeting with a giant national retailer. He'd spent hours preparing, but now, he had just one question.

"So we really have to wear a suit tomorrow?" Hynecek asked.

"You don't have to,&… Read more