David Lidsky's Blog, page 4661

Most Creative People in Business 2010: #4 Shiro Nakamura

You can interpret Shiro Nakamura's nickname, "Fingers," any number of ways. The Nissan design chief is a famously hands-on creative. A music lover, he plays the cello. He grasps at myriad inspirations, leading a team outside Tokyo that has recently produced concept cars inspired by shoes, video games, and bumblebees.

Most Creative People in Business 2010: #3 Elizabeth Warren

By calling the likes of Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit on the carpet, jawboning with Jon Stewart, and pushing to create a consumer financial protection agency, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, 60, has taken what could have been a paper-pushing position as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel on the bank bailout to the forefront of the public conversation over financial reform.

Most Creative People in Business 2010: #2 Eddy Cue

Steve Jobs may own the limelight, but Eddy Cue, 46, holds the key to the Apple kingdom. Cue runs arguably the most disruptive 21st-century Web businesses: iTunes and the App Store, the latter of which is poised to create a $4 billion app economy by 2012.

Geoff Vuleta's Fahrenheit 212 Is Scorching the Consultancy Business

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Photograph by Mike McGregor

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Courtest Laurent-Perrier

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Big idea: To create a new kind of consultancy, helping big companies innovate by melding the best of Ideo and McKinsey. "Having an idea without knowing how it makes money is as valueless as knowing where growth lies without the idea," says Geoff Vuleta, 48, critiquing the stereotypical design firm and the classic management consultant. The New Zealander and former ad man develops large-scale growth initiatives for major firms seeking $100...

iFive: Google, Top Kill, Apple, and the Pirates of Tinseltown

While you were sleeping, innovation was doing great things--including delivering your BBC iPlayer-read iPad a day early if you live in Europe. Hurrah!

1. Open memo to Hollywood studios. If you're going to kvetch about piracy, then don't do it yourselves. Peter Serafinowicz, as far as we're concerned, doesn't complain, so he's exempt--but maybe that's because he makes us laugh.

2. Apple's WWDC event next month may well have a Blue Scream of Death: the theory is that Steve Ballmer will be...

Barnes & Noble's iPad App Joins Fight for Tablet Ebook Supremacy

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When the iPad was first released, much hay was made of the fact that the iBookstore could not compete with Amazon's Kindle store in selection (60,000 titles vs. 450,000 at launch) or popularity (Kindle still has 80% of the ebook market). But now we're starting to realize that ebooks are not going to be like music. You're not picking an all-in-one walled garden of device and service: you pick your service and device separately.

That's what the new Barnes & Noble app for the iPad tells us. Now...

Google Location History Traces Your Steps, Knows Where You've Been

Google expanded Latitude yesterday to include Location History, a new view that essentially traces your steps via your smartphone. Where was that cool path through the park you found a few weeks ago? Latitude knows.

The new History Dashboard remembers everywhere you've been, and actually
uses that information to provide even more information. So it'll tell you not just where you've been, but provide information on that subject--want to know the history of that path? Sights along it? Other...

Bitbop Preempts Hulu, Offers Subscription Mobile App With Lots of TV Partners

Seeing as how Hulu is taking forever to bring its catalog of streaming video to mobile devices (either in its current ad-supported format or in some future subscription model), the door is still open for competitors to come in and claim that space. Bitbop, an app from Fox Mobile, looks like it could take advantage.

Bitbop, though it's origins lie in Fox Mobile, has the support of heavyweights like NBC Universal, The Food Network, CBS, MTV, A&E, TLC, and USA (no word on BBQ or WTF). The app...

Microsoft's and Apple's Product Lines Compared: This Is Why Apple Wins

Microsoft has, for the first time, been beaten in market cap by Apple. At the close of the market today, Apple sat at $222.12 billion, a gain of 1.8%, while Microsoft went down 1% to $219.18 billion. That makes Apple, according to market cap, the most valuable tech company in the world. Yet compared to Microsoft, Apple has both less cash on hand ($23 billion vs. $35.7 billion) and less revenue ($42.9 billion vs. $58.4 billion). So the fact that the market has valued Apple higher is big news...

Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics: Nokia Keeps Its Top Spot, Toshiba's Rank Drops

Greenpeace has released its quarterly edition of their Guide to Greener Electronics, with some dramatic shifts in their ratings of electronics manufacturers. The guide keeps Nokia in the top spot, and Nintendo remains in last place.

Greenpeace has released its quarterly edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics, with some dramatic shifts in their ratings of electronics manufacturers. The guide keeps Nokia in the top spot, and Nintendo remains in last place. But plenty of companies get...