David Lidsky's Blog, page 4539

Pepsi Refresh Project's "Do Good For the Gulf" Campaign Takes Off

If we're lucky, the BP Gulf disaster could soon be over (at least the oil gushing part of it), but the damaged local communities will need help for a long time to come. That's where the Pepsi Refresh Project's "Do Good for the Gulf" initiative comes in. Launched as an extension to Pepsi's Refresh Project, which crowdsources grants for worthy organizations, the initiative will dole out $1.3 million in grants to projects that help the Gulf--and any projects that directly deal with the...

New York Times iPad App Sells Its Soul to Other Papers

The New York Times' offering the engine behind its own iPad app proves it thinks the future of news publishing is on tablets. The code is called the Press Engine, and it could, just possibly, turn into a powerful tool for transforming the newspaper business.

The Press Engine exists because other publishers, like the Dallas Morning News, approached the New York paper and requested access to the code it used to build its iPad and iPhone apps--so taken were they by the design. The Times' app is...

Adidas' miCoach Personal Trainer iPhone App Is a Freeware Nike+ Rival

When Nike teamed with Apple several years ago for a fitness device that measures and records your pace and distance while running, it changed the workout world. Called Nike+, the small sensor

could fit in your shoe, and sync with an iPod or iPhone to track your jogging data. It retailed for $29. Adidas has been running a distant second ever since, but is beginning to catch up with a a free miCoach app being introduced today.

In January, the German-based sports company premiered its $140

Ronald Reagan's Son Launches @Reagan E-mail Alternative to Lefty Gmail, AOL, Hotmail

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Ronald Reagan's famous challenge to the Russian leader became a rallying-cry to end the Cold War. Now, decades later, Reagan's son is taking up the torch, albeit for a more important cause: ending the left-wing's dominance of e-mail service providers. Launched recently, Michael Reagan's new e-mail service aims to whup the pants off providers such as Gmail, like the Gipper did Mondale.

"People who believe in true Reagan Conservative Values are...

Greenbiz, UL Environment Introduce Sweeping Sustainability Standard for Companies

As it stands, there is no reliable way to judge the sustainability of a company. Sustainability is, of course, a subjective thing, and one whose definition changes depending on the industry. But that hasn't stopped Greenbiz and UL Environment from teaming up to generate ULE 880, a sweeping standard that aims to define sustainability metrics for manufacturing businesses--companies that manufacture tangible goods--of all stripes.

ULE 880 has an ambitious objective: "to create a uniform...

New York Times iPad App Sells its Soul to Other Papers

The New York Times's offering the engine behind its own iPad app proves it thinks the future of news publishing is on tablets. The code is called the Press Engine, and it could, just possibly, turn into a powerful tool for transforming the newspaper business. 

The Press Engine exists because other publishers, like the Dallas Morning News, approached the New York paper and requested access to the code it used to build its iPad and iPhone apps--so taken were they by the design. The Times' app...

No Antenna Issues for Australian iPhone 4: Did U.S. Litigiousness, Media Invent It?

The iPhone 4 went on sale in many other nations on Friday, and unlike the explosion in the media in the U.S., there seems to have been remarkably little fuss around the globe about the matter. The Sydney Morning Herald grabbed the biggest chunk of the news with a piece titled "iPhone 4 fault fails to surface for Sydney fans." 

And though the first paragraph of the article hurls some nationalistic zingers -- "Maybe their mobile signal is weaker, or maybe our hands are just smaller?" -- it's...

Adidas' miCoach Personal Trainer iPhone App is a Freeware Nike+ Rival

When Nike teamed with Apple several years ago for a fitness device that measures and records your pace and distance while running, it changed the workout world. Called Nike+, the small sensor

could fit in your shoe, and sync with an iPod or iPhone to track your jogging data. It retailed for $29. Adidas has been running a distant second ever since, but is beginning to catch up with a a free miCoach app being introduced today.

In January, the German-based sports company premiered its $140

Ford Sells Volvo Car Brand to China's Geely, For $1.5 Billion

Volvo's car division was sold from the bigger Volvo home company (which also manufactures commercial vehicles, construction equipment and aerospace components, among a long list of other specialties) to Ford in 1999, with the Swedes making $6.45 billion from the deal, and sharing ownership of the Volvo marque with Ford--who were the only company allowed to use it on cars.

Back in 2008 was when the first news surfaced that Ford was interested in selling the Volvo name at the height of the...

One Laptop Per Child Finds New Partners in Sri Lanka Test Run

Virtusa adopts OLPC as a pet cause, tests and improves hardware and software.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has had its fair share of critique and controversy, but if any of that is putting a damper on the project, someone forgot to tell its founder, MIT Media' Lab's Nicholas Negroponte--now he's partnered with IT consulting group, Virtusa, which has decided to run user scenarios and tests to help improve the software and hardware behind OLPC.

Critics of the laptop plan have asked: Why put...