Archive for January, 2010

Apple hyped over iPad; question is, are others?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Apple Inc. is in the process of spilling the beans on what the online buzz would have us believe is the greatest tablet since the ones Moses brought down from the mountain: the new Apple iPad. If you want to get your inner Apple fanboy fix, below are some of the places online you can find the buzz on iPad in full swing:

Engadget is blogging live from the release event in San Francisco, assuming you can keep the site open long enough to get an update.

Gizmodo seems to be able to keep its site up longer, but maybe that is because its updates seem to be less frequent.

Even the venerable news source CNN is reporting live from the iPad uber-hype, through a live blog on its CNN Money site. CNN may have the best summation in its live coverage so far: “This is nothing we haven’t seen before on computers. I guess you have to have the device in hand to be impressed.”

And of course, Twitter is all, well, atwitter about the iPad, where you can read some of the funniest comments out there by following the hashtags #iPad, #AppleLive and our favorite: #Namefail.

According to a release just sent out by Irish bookies Paddy Power (real name, no joke), the odds have been set for how many iPads Apple will sell in 2010. Best odds are 5-to-2 for between 3 million and 4 million. Over 6 million is right behind it at 3-to-1 odds. The longshot is less then 1 million at 8-to-1.

Let us know what you think of the latest “revolutionary” technology from Steve Jobs and the folks in Cupertino.

Masshightech.com: Website revamped, coverage broadened

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

mht_websiteVisit the Mass High Tech website and you may notice a few minor changes to the homepage — a second navigation bar, a highlighted topics coverage box and an abbreviated section highlighting our print edition.

MassHighTech.com has kept its bones but added a face lift to help visitors navigate the broad coverage we include on our website. The homepage redesign complements Mass High Tech’s shift from weekly to bi-weekly themed print issues — a change implemented last fall.

The second navigation bar running across the website’s width in blue allows visitors to see the topics we cover most often through daily web briefs and reported stories, such as People, Education and Training, Finance, Internet, Life Sciences, Software, Energy, Envirotech, Robotics, Defense and Hardware. See the full list of news categories.

Each day, we feature one or more articles, either as breaking news or in-depth reported news, in the top center spot of MassHighTech.com. It’s one more step in our ongoing work to keep readers up to date on the news that breaks every day in the New England innovation economy.

“Inside Masshightech.com”, the box below our featured daily article, highlights topics often covered in our print issue themes — Meetings & Conferences, Real Estate, Education and Training, Cleantech, Life Sciences, Law and Finance. Here, you’ll find some daily news that falls into these categories, but you’ll also be treated to the more indepth articles our reporters track on a biweekly basis, at least.

If you’re a print subscriber, or like to read our biweekly issues online, you still have that option. The “From the Print Edition” section displays the cover image of the issue and a taste of a few articles. A click on the image or “More stories from the print edition” will give you the full table of contents for the issue.

Other recent initiatives MassHighTech.com has taken on include a digital edition, designed to deliver the print edition every other week sans paper; an improved calendar of community events; and links to our Signature Programs — Women to Watch, High Tech All Stars, Tech Citizenship and Tech Forums.

The aim of our revamped homepage is to show you, and any newbies to the site, what type of news we cover. So, please, take a look around and let us know if we’ve done our job. We appreciate any feedback.

Bill Gates is better than you at Twitter

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

By Jim Connolly

Jim ConnollySo, want to know how to gain 10,000 followers per hour on Twitter? Just post six tweets in that time, and be named Bill Gates.

Yes, Mr. Microsoft has found a home on Twitter, and it’s not even one of those email scams where some friend tells you to just send an email to Microsoft and they will send you ten bucks. But money does matter in a Gatesian tweetosphere. He’s using Twitter to promote his new website, The Gates Notes, and the various charities and social initiatives that he and his foundation support, including an effort to get aid to Haiti.

Gates’s early posts include exchanges with celebrity maker Ryan Seacrest. Roughly 24 hours after his first post Bill had more than 236,000 followers.

Want to know who he’s following himself? If you have to ask, you probably don’t belong to that select array of 40 people and groups. Well, there’s Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical and Seacrest. Don’t forget President Obama, Queen Rania of Jordan and George Stephanopoulos. Then there are a dozen or so charitable organization and a half dozen Microsoft initiatives (including Bing. Guess he’s not following anything from Google). On the news side, he’s tracking the Economist, the New York Times, Time and others. No MHT? Dang!

“I” tops list of words on Spreadshirt t-shirts

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Boston-based Spreadshirt has released its list of words most frequently printed on its customizable t-shirts for 2009.”I” leads the pack, likely due to people making I-♥-whatever t-shirts. “You” comes in at No. 2, weirdly enough, but there’s no info on whether or not the pronoun in paired with swears or general insults or what. “Obama” comes in at No. 3 in a year when all kinds of people have had all kinds of things to say about the president, and evidently a lot of them are being committed to t-shirt.

The rest of the word category gets free-associative after that: “Coach,” “birthday,” “ever,” the F-bomb.

Obama heads up the list of names, followed by Chuck (for seemingly endless Internet meme Norris), Chris (for Washington Redskins tight end/blogger Cooley and at No. 9, “Rex,” which, depressingly, I can only presume refers to Jets coach Rex Ryan.

Sustainable energy panel breaks out at Winter Classic

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

By Patrick H. Brown

So, you’ve probably heard that old phrase “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” That joke usually accurately describes the knockdown, drag-out viciousness of old time NHL events. However, for guests at a Jan. 5th green-energy happening, a fascinating sustainable energy discussion broke out at a hockey event.

Hosted at the exclusive and lavishly appointed EMC Club, high up in Fenway Park, the event was, at first glance, a tad odd. After all, why would the National Hockey League sponsor a panel discussion titled: “Sustainable Success: A Discussion on Business and the Environment”? The answer was actually delivered as directly and potently as a slapshot into a goal by a group of scientists, corporate and organizational leaders, professors, and athletes.

The panel was, to say the least, impressive. The speakers included Professor John Sterman, of the MIT Sloan School of Management, or Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Joining those two gentlemen were Kathrin Winkler, chief sustainability officer at EMC Corp, Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, and Mike Richter, the legendary goalie who helped the U.S. team win silver in the 2002 Olympics and who lead the New York Rangers to a Stanley Cup victory in 1994. Moderating the whole show was the witty New York Times columnist, David Brooks. Of course, where would an NHL event hosted at the Winter Classic venue be without the commissioner of the entire NHL, Gary Bettman played host. (more…)

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