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President Obama will make an appearance in the San Francisco Bay Area this week to meet with technology industry leaders, according to local reports.

Both the San Francisco Chronicle and CNET cousin KCBS (part of CBS Corp.) are reporting that Obama will make an appearance somewhere in the area on Thursday for meetings with "business leaders in technology and innovation," according to KCBS reporter Doug Sovern's Twitter feed. Obama outlined several proposals focusing on investment in technology and green energy during his State of the Union address in January.

The Chronicle said it's unclear whether any … Read more

Wael Ghonim, the Google product manager who helped pull together the popular demonstrations that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down as Egypt's president, is the hero of the hour. But not everywhere. For many in Silicon Valley, he's their worst nightmare.

On the record, Google's not talking about Ghonim or the question of employee activism. For his part, Ghonim told CBS's Katie Couric in an interview on Friday that his participation in the protests had no connection with his employer.

"They did not know anything about this and actually when I took the time off … Read more

A bowl is a bowl is a bowl. You put stuff into it, and then you eat out of it. Or perhaps you prep food in it and then transfer the food into another bowl. And glass bowls certainly aren't unknown to ovens; they make remarkable vessels for cooking food in. Usually however, one bowl isn't meant for all three tasks at once.

One bowl that can go from prep to oven to table is the Lekue Steam Roaster Bowl. The remarkably convenient vessel owes its versatility to a simple tab and slot arrangement along with silicone construction. … Read more

This year's Cleantech Open 2010 Business Competition winner, announced last week, is Puralytics, a company developing photochemical water purification products.

Since 2006, the Cleantech Open has offered a venue for competition among green tech start-up companies looking for funding. Winning alumni of the contest include Cool Earth Solar, Green Volts, and Micromidas.

This year's winner, Puralytics, is an Oregon-based start-up that uses natural sunlight or LED lighting as the catalysts to remove pathogens, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals from waste water. Its processes under development have applications for both industrial manufacturing facilities and small rural communities. Puralytics will receive $250,… Read more

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you should be happy with the sounds coming out of Hollywood.

One entertainment executive told me last week that other Web video companies looking for content should use Netflix as a model for how to work with the major studios. He called the company a "good partner," high praise coming from an industry in which few have anything good to say about Internet companies. This bodes well for Netflix's chances of obtaining more streaming content. When it comes to the studios' complaints about Netflix, there's also something positive to be … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--There was an uneasiness in the air this week at the stately Palace Hotel during the eighth annual Web 2.0 Summit, the sort of vibe that you couldn't see in the glossy program or in the lineup of events that included talks by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, and big-ticket investors like John Doerr and Fred Wilson. People weren't talking about it, for the most part, but you could see it. You could hear it sometimes, too, if you knew what to listen for.

"We're … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.--If you've never seen a robot climb straight up an entirely flat vertical wall, I dare you not to be impressed the first time you do.

That was my certainly experience when I watched a wall-climbing robot do its thing at SRI International here the other day. Indeed, my host, who had been with me through several product and project demonstrations over about three hours, noticed how excited I was by watching this little device go straight up the wall, and, I think, began to wonder if I was actually interested in any of the other … Read more

President Barack Obama met yesterday with two ascendant Silicon Valley powers: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google VP Marissa Mayer.

With Jobs, Obama discussed American competitiveness and education, according to Reuters.

The president's visit to the home of Mayer and husband Zachary Bogue was for a $30,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner less than two weeks before mid-term elections, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Obama had good timing for catching people on the upswing.

Jobs this week revealed sleek new MacBook Air computers and announced Apple's quarterly profit of $4.31 billion.

Mayer--who is vice president of geographic and local … Read more

All albums eventually come to an end--even super-gonzo triple live CD sets--and the time has come for this blog to end as well.

I've had a great time exploring the intersection of music and technology for the last three-plus years. And even though the music industry is going through some wrenching changes, the public's interest in music has, if anything, gotten stronger.

I was at Coachella this April along with a record sold-out crowd of more than 90,000. Some of them were there for the party, but the musical lineup made the party happen. I've seen … Read more