innovation

Everyone in the technology industry should be sure to read this recent article in BusinessWeek that discusses current problems with the Silicon Valley business model and ideas for improvement. The article suggests that VCs and many firms are too concerned with short-term financial exit strategies rather than real investment in R&D.

Just after I read this article, I happened to meet with Symantec about a new project coming out of its internal incubator called Go Everywhere. Go Everywhere is an online workspace that actually aggregates other services from Web sites like Box.net, Google, and Zoho. In other … Read more

Though it's been slow in cell phone land over the holidays, the Federal Communications Commission has been hard at work clearing new handsets. One of the most notable additions over the last two weeks is a version of the 8-megapixel Samsung Innov8 camera phone with support for North American 3G networks. Because the FCC has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test its SAR rating, the agency's online database offers a lot of sneak peeks to those who dig. And to save you the trouble, Crave has combed through the database for … Read more

Apple is an extremely innovative company. That's the problem.

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In addition to his already pretty comprehensive list of social media marketing programs, Peter Kim, the "de facto curator of social media" as Steve Rubel calls him, has now launched a wiki. Social media power to document social media power, so to speak. Great effort, check it out:

http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/

WASHINGTON--Trends indicate that more and more commercially successful innovations are backed by federal dollars, a researcher said Monday, and politicians should do even more--even create a cabinet-level Innovation Department--to support the innovation economy if they want to kick-start the wider national economy.

"We need economic policies that pull us out of the recession but are oriented towards innovation," said Fred Block, a sociology professor from the University of California at Davis. "What we have to do as a country is figure out how to walk and chew gum at the same time."

Block co-authored a report … Read more

BMW has been among the leaders in high-tech car innovation, occasionally even jumping too far ahead of what its older customers preferred to use.

So it should be no surprise that the German carmaker wants to lure in potential customers with another cool high-tech tool.

The BMW Product Navigator, which employs Microsoft's Surface computer, lets potential customers hand-pick options, then see a computer-generated video of their future car in action.

By placing mini discs on the computer table, customers at dealerships can add features like wheels in designing their customized BMW. Users can also use Microsoft's multitouch Surface … Read more

From one-time-use syringes to fire logs made from an invasive African plant, the 2008 Tech Awards honored five innovators for creating technology solutions for problems in developing countries. CNET News reporter Kara Tsuboi attended a reception for the winners, and she joins the podcast to talk about what stood out.

That, and the headlines of the day, on Thursday's podcast.

Today's stories:

Google gives customers faster Site Search service

Windows Live tries to show its social side

Smart-grid group gains Google

OLPC giveaway offer comes to Europe

End of a snarky era: Gawker shuts down Valleywag… Read more

I was talking on Wednesday with Daniel Tunkelang, chief scientist for Endeca, about potential competition his company faces from open source (e.g., Lucene). In response, Tunkelang made an exceptionally interesting point, which I summarize here:

Open source drives innovation by making yesterday's technology a commodity, forcing proprietary vendors to innovate in order to justify their paychecks.

This got me thinking. Patents are short-term monopolies (20 years) designed to give inventors sufficient time in which to recoup their R&D costs and turn a profit. Open source turns the 20-year patent term into two years, if that. As … Read more

(Credit: Somebody Else's Phone)

If you found somebody else's phone, would you look through it? That's a rhetorical question. Of course! Your phone is your life, at least if you're under 25, and there's nothing more interesting than the "lives of others."

The advertising firm Wieden + Kennedy London translated the idea of "cellular oversharing" into a much gushed-about ad campaign for Nokia. "Somebody Else's Phone" depicts the lives of three twentysomethings through their text messages, multimedia messaging service, and pictures, and it essentially creates a new story format: … Read more