Business currents

Explaining Israel's high-tech success: Another view

KIBBUTZ YIRON, Israel--"Znnnnnnnnng!"

The mechanical whine overhead forced every picker in the apple orchard to crane their heads toward its source. I didn't know it at the time, but we were watching Israel's high-tech future play out a couple of thousand feet above us.

A reconnaissance drone not much larger than your garden variety model airplane, a television camera strapped to its underside, was creeping through the sky to photograph military installations in Lebanon.

That was 26 years ago.

The "mazlat," as it was known in Hebrew, was a joint project between a … Read more

Google this: Why CEOs won't speak their minds

Earlier Thursday, Richard Whitt, Google's telecom and media counsel in Washington, posted a note on the company's official blog urging people to put pressure on the FCC to open up the unused "white spaces" radio spectrum.

The Federal Communications Commission is going to vote on rules governing these airwaves at its November 4 meeting. This is going to be quite a big deal. Commission Chairman Kevin Martin supports the idea, but it faces opposition from broadcasters, who are pushing for a delay. Mike Masnick of TechDiret summarizes the history here.

"Basically, the FCC handed out … Read more

So, what happened to that funding freeze?

With financial markets melting down amid predictions of a deep recession around the world, the conventional wisdom is that funding for tech start-ups is in a deep freeze.

But sometimes the conventional wisdom overstates the reality. The economy's in an awful rut but some tech start-ups are still raising money. Just in the last couple of weeks, there's been a rush of funding announcements hitting the transom. Of course, that news has been overshadowed because of the obvious attention being paid to the market's volatility. But consider the following:

•  Mail.com Media got $35 million in … Read more

Battling for smartphone developers' hearts and minds

The battle for the hearts and minds of smartphone developers is on.

Earlier Wednesday, Google unveiled its Android Market which will allow anyone buying T-Mobile's G1 to download apps for the smartphone. Here's what Google had to say:

"If you're a developer, you will be able to register and upload your applications starting next Monday, 2008-10-27, when we've wrapped up a few final details. In order to make sure that each developer is authenticated and responsible for their apps, you will need to register and pay a one time $25 application fee. Once registered, your … Read more

Gates Foundation hands out prizes for health ideas

If you've got a good idea to improve global health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is ready to pony up serious money to see it through to completion.

The foundation announced Wednesday that it has chosen 104 scientists from 22 nations across five continents to receive $100,000 each. This is the first round in what will become a regular practice as the foundation seeks to develop what it calls transformational ideas that will help revolutionize health care.

"We have a few examples of ideas which will turn conventional wisdom on its head and seek an alternative … Read more

A tale of two tech companies: Apple & Yahoo

Another quarter and another round of anxiousness, this time exacerbated by the uncertainty in the credit markets. So let me cut to the chase since we're talking about two of Silicon Valley's bellwether companies. The news isn't as bad as it seemed at first blush for Apple. I'm not quite sure I can say the same about Yahoo.

First, Apple.

Given the economic headwinds, this was a blowaway quarter. Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones, ringing up about $4.6 billion in sales. Measured by revenues, Apple thus became the third biggest mobile phone supplier in … Read more

One paw up: A mixed report in bid to end Net traffic of protected species

One small step for animals, one giant step for animal kind?

Maybe.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is celebrating a decision by eBay to issue a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by January 1, 2009.

Coincidentally or not, eBay issued its report Monday, one day before the IFAW issued its report detailing the illegal trade in endangered species over the Internet. Nichola Sharpe, a spokeswoman for eBay, said the company had just seen a copy of the report and did not have immediate comment. But she added that eBay planned to implement a variety … Read more

Don't you think Sun would love a do-over on StorageTek?

In June 2005, long before most people ever heard of subprime, LIBOR, or credit default swaps, Sun Microsystems thought it was a grand idea to buy StorageTek for the princely sum of $4.1 billion. At the time, the thinking at Sun was to become more of a one-stop shop for its corporate clientele. On paper, at least, it sounded like a plausible idea.

But that was a veritable eternity ago. With the market's sudden meltdown in the last month, corporate spending--at least on Sun's products and service--has been hit especially hard. So it was that Sun warned this afternoon of a wider loss on lower revenue. … Read more

Will earthlings follow Star Trek Scotty's lead?

You remember the scene from Star Trek IV where Scotty tries to communicate with a Macintosh computer by speaking purposefully into the mouse? What do you want from a guy from the 23rd century?

Hopefully, we won't have to wait another couple of hundred years until the technology world invents a better interface between computers and human beings than the standard mouse and keyboard. We'll get a good idea of the progress this week in Monterey, Calif., where a conclave of computer scientists will be comparing notes at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.

The … Read more