Fast Company announced that it is the recipient of a 2008 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. Editor-at-Large Charles Fishman’s article “Message in a Bottle,” about the business of bottled water was recognized in the feature writing category. The Loeb Awards are the highest honors in business journalism, presented by UCLA Anderson School of Management since 1973.
This week WorkFast.TV comes a day early to accommodate July 4, Independence Day. The guest today, Timothy Ferriss, is a great advocate of getting out of the office and getting on with life. To watch the show live and join the interactive chat room go here.
American Independence Day is all about celebrating the values our country holds most dear. And it's a holiday that we usually celebrate with fireworks in remembrance of the American Revolution.
If you haven't heard of Netflix's [NASDAQ:NFLX] Roku box, here's the scoop: it's a little $100-gizmo that attaches to your TV and streams movies over an Internet connection, which can be had by way of Netflix's monthy rental plans (at least, most of them; plans under $9 a month don't qualify.) It's fanless, driveless, and utterly basic, with only a little bit of RAM to cache its movies. Already a nifty add-on to any home theater, but today, the package got a little better.
Blame it on translation error, but Casio's [TYO:6952] badly-named "Blanview" LCD technology doesn't sound all that interesting. The name belies the fact that the new LCDs have the potential to be a small breakthrough in mobile computing. They're "transmissive," meaning they can pull in exterior light to allow the pixels to be viewable, making them usable without a backlight in bright settings. Traditional LCDs need their backlights cranked all the way up to compete with sunlight, which obscures their colors and makes them appear dark.
Ebay has built an empire through the sale of second-hand items by private sellers, but as an increasing amount of retailers offer new brand name products, the online auction site finds itself in the legal crosshairs.
I participated in an somewhat-obscure Olympic sport in college: rowing. It's only on TV during the Olympics, and during that time you can't pry me away from the TV with a 30-pound crowbar. But for most people rowing is one of those novelty Olympic sports, like team handball and ping-pong. For the average Olympic viewer, watching a crew race is like watching a David Lynch movie - you'll watch the beginning just to see how weird it is, but by the end you'd really rather be watching something else.
Apple [NASDAQ:APPL] might be leading edge, but they're not stubborn. That's the implication of an article appearing in The Register today which has the temerity to suggest that Cupertino might be developing an iPhone with a slide-out keyboard to appeal to mid-level corporate users.
This morning Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT] confirmed rumors that it will be acquring Powerset, a Bay Area-based company specializing in natural language Web search. According to press materials, Redmond's strategy is to incorporate Powerset's proprietary technology into its Live Search page, which currently lags far behind search leaders Yahoo! and Google. Powerset will remain a separate company and retain its current headquarters, to smooth the transition.
