David Lidsky's Blog, page 4846

Crib Sheet: Simon Fuller, Creator of "Idol," Hulu Series "If I Can Dream"

Although Simon Fuller may not be a household name, his charges are. From sport (David Beckham and Andy Murray) to fashion, (Roland Mouret, FASHIONAIR, that skinny girl, married to the footballer, ooh, what's her name?) music (Pick any of the TV breakthrough artists of this decade and chances are they're part of the 19 stable) and TV, he's one of the media's canniest performers, and is probably the man behind the biggest watercooler moments of the past decade. And now If I Can Dream has...

Intel's Revamped Classmate Goes the Convertible Tablet Route

Intel announced their newest version of the education-focused budget laptop (netbook, really) called the Classmate. It's not the cheapest netbook around, but it's packing some features that definitely endear it to the education market more than your bog-standard Atom-based machine.

The Classmate line is designed mostly as a low-cost, durable, functional machine for primary schools, but the first generation's paltry storage and surprisingly mid-range price kept it from really catching on...

There's Hope Out there for Android App Developers: "Car Locator" Creator Nets $13,00 per Month

Stories about iPhone app developers quitting their day jobs after slaving away in bedrooms at night are heartwarming, but a dime a dozen at this point. Rival app stores, like Google's Android Market and Palm App Catalog, are much smaller, with smaller userbases, and have so far lacked such high-profile app stories. Not anymore.

Developer Edward Kim, whose "Car Locator" Android app has been frequently bumped to the "featured app" section in the Market, wrote a blog post outlining the profits...

Viacom Yanks The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Off Hulu

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are two of the most popular shows available at Hulu, and have even come to represent the possibilities of the service--personally speaking, I hit up Hulu most mornings specifically to catch those two shows, since I've long since abandoned cable TV. But today negotiations broke down between Hulu and Viacom, the owners of Comedy Central, and Viacom will be removing all Comedy Central content currently on Hulu--including the one-two news comedy punch. This...

TiVo Introduces Series 4 (Premiere), Has Officially Discovered the Internet

At an event in NYC today, TiVo introduced the biggest change to their lineup in years with the Series 4 DVR, to be officially called the TiVo Premiere. It's the first TiVo box to use the new, Adobe Flash-based interface, and the new UI isn't just superficial--it's needed, because the Premiere integrates Web content better than any prior TiVo. Oh, and there's also a new QWERTY slider remote, to navigate through all that online goodness. But is it enough to compete with game consoles, HTPCs...

Has Activision Just Shot "Modern Warfare" in the Head?

With the creative heads ousted and the franchise's future uncertain, is Activision destroying the most popular shooter of all time?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a controversially gory video game that achieved record sales, leading us to admire the innovation from the game's developers, Infinity Ward. But admiration--and a billion dollars in sales--wasn't enough to save the jobs of the franchise's outspoken creators.

Activision has fired the two leads at Infinity Ward, Jason West (the...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note about our Most Innovative Companies, including Intel, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alstom.

Intel: At CeBit, the German digital tradeshow, Intel unveiled its new design for a rugged classmate PC netbook intended to meet all classroom needs. Apart from its 10.1" LCD screen and 8.5 hours of battery life, the lightweight computer is battle-tested (It's designed to withstand falls from desk height) and features a scratch-resistant frame and a water-resistant keyboard--this thing...

GE to Cargo Shipping Industry: Go Fly a Kite

Google-funded startup Makani has already proven that kites have value as an energy source. Now the GE-chartered Beluga SkySails cargo vessel has shown that kites--yes, those lightweight things you fly from strings--can act as propulsion systems on ships.

The vessel, chartered by GE's Project Logistics team to carry power-generating equipment, boasts the first towing kite propulsion system for a commercial shipping vessel. The parasail-like kite attaches to the ship's bow and pulls it...

The Anatomy of a Taco

We have come to expect that most of the packaged food found in grocery stores arrives from thousands of miles away. But what about the taco from the food truck down the street? Students at the California College of the Arts URBANlab program took on the surprisingly difficult task of tracking the ingredients from a taco purchased at Juan's Taco Truck in San Francisco's Mission District.

The unsettling results: a single taco contained ingredients that traveled 64,000 miles. Some of the...

San Francisco, Boston, Portland Own the Green Economy

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The greening of American industry is in full bloom. Consider the numbers: From 1998 through 2007, the number of green U.S. jobs shot up 9.1%, while the rest of the workforce saw an increase of 3.7%. President Obama is certainly doing his part to make sure such progress continues apace: His stimulus bill dedicated $30 billion to exploring and expanding clean-energy technologies, and in January a $2.3 billion in tax credits went to companies developing new energy ideas and solutions. Here...