Brad Spirrison: Two Chicago companies were named the state's most innovative entrepreneurs: Harrison Custom Harmonicas and CallPod Inc. The Innovate Illinois entrepreneurial winners announced Wednesday each received $40,000 in cash from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
SAN FRANCISCO---- Yahoo Inc. shares shot up 11 percent Tuesday as investors took the resignation of CEO Jerry Yang to mean Microsoft Corp. is more likely to make another bid for the ailing Internet company.
Brad Spirrison: Less than two years after selling his 700-employee technology consulting firm Greenbrier & Russel to Fujitsu, Eric Wasowicz began shopping for a new deal. The 51-year-old River Grove native became overstocked with e-commerce ideas while instructing entrepreneurship students at alma mater Northern Illinois University. Working with the owner of national discount retailer the Bazaar, Wasowicz earlier this month opened up the virtual doors to UWantSavings.com.
Despite the dizzying array of new tech gadgets on the market, many break down frequently and are still maddeningly difficult to use, a new survey suggests. Nearly half of technology users need help from friends or professionals to set up a new electronic device or explain how to use it, according to a study released Sunday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Sandra Guy: James Edwards wanted a promotion at his telemarketing job, so when he saw a sign for a computer-training program, he jotted down the number and ended up getting hired as a part-time computer instructor. Edwards, 38, joined the program at the Chicago Commons Employment Training Center at the West Humboldt Education and Training Center at 3441 W. Chicago.
Andy Ihnatko: In the last few months the iPhone App Store has been in business and it has been possible to install all kinds of apps that Apple never considered or doesn't care about, I've discovered two that are total game-changers: AirShare and Stanza. And when I tell you that each one of these has transformed and elevated my iPhone experience, I'm squeezing my eyes shut and preparing for the onslaught of sarcastic (but entirely correct) comments to follow.
This isn't your grandfather's fireside chat. President-elect Barack Obama plans to tape a weekly address not just for radio listeners, as presidents have for years, but for YouTube Internet viewers, too. Well, what else would you expect from a president born at the tail end of the baby boom?
Chicago’s Bozo returns to television Wednesday, and if you can see him, that’s the digital age equivalent of a pie in your face.
Sandra Guy: A Chicago economist who foresaw the market-driven advantages of the Internet and who is among President-elect Barack Obama's brain trust is expected to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Austan Goolsbee, 39, is a University of Chicago Booth Business School professor and political newbie who describes himself as a research academic and a Jon Stewart Democrat.
Fans of Oprah Winfrey can find their hero's favorites lines at Oprah's new online store. The site, www.theOprahstore.com, launched this weekend, features most of the products that can be found at Oprah's brick-and-mortar store at 37 N. Carpenter, across from Harpo Studios.
Brad Spirrison: There has never been a better time to be a community organizer. While bringing together like-minded professionals may not catapult you to the highest office in the land, hosting or attending a "Meetup" could bring change to your career.
In the last few months the iPhone App Store has been in business and it has been possible to install all kinds of apps that Apple never considered or doesn't care about, I've discovered two that are total game-changers: AirShare and Stanza. And when I tell you that each one of these has transformed and elevated my iPhone experience, I'm squeezing my eyes shut and preparing for the onslaught of sarcastic (but entirely correct) comments to follow.
Andy Ihnatko: So many new notebooks are released every year with such subtle variations from one make to the other that it's hard to devote a whole column to each new iteration. Apple's notebooks are exceptions. Every time they retool their MacBook and MacBook Pro, it's like a new concept car being unveiled at the auto show.
Given the historic election we've all just experienced, it's hard to remember back to last week, let alone June 2007, when Barack Obama was a true underdog, polling way behind front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's when a 32-year-old ad executive came up with an idea for a new Web video.
Sandra Guy: One wouldn't expect the co-founder of one of Chicago's few female-owned investment-management firms to have a children's book, cartoons and interactive, on-line educational games in her portfolio. But for Stacey Riddell, president of PEAK6 Asset Management, her new book, Melody & Correl, is one of her prized holdings. For Riddell, it's her way of giving back and teaching children about a cause near and dear to her.
Andy Ihnatko: I've been looking at Microsoft's commercials for the past few months and I wonder if the company isn't going through some sort of personal crisis. Does Microsoft have a clergyperson or close friend they could sort of talk things out with? First, Microsoft did those commercials with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.
Motorola, whose falling market share of cell phones has pushed it to No. 4 in the worldwide market, has more bad news to share, according to analysts and regulatory filings. The Schaumburg-based cell phone maker, which reported 66,000 employees at the start of the year, reported that another 4,800 jobs had been cut in the first nine months of 2008.
NEW YORK---- The city wants to make sure rats have no place to hide, at least online.
Chicago motorists caught yakking on cell phones while driving -- and committing no other violation -- will soon be able to hang onto their driver's licenses and avoid the Traffic Court headache.
AC/DC’s old-school philosophy doesn’t stop with its bludgeoning, blues-based rock ’n’ roll. Bucking trends since 1973, the Australian quintet remains a rare holdout in the digital marketplace by refusing to sell any of its music online.
Motorola is reportedly preparing a new round of layoffs and changing its cell-phone software platform to Google Inc.'s Android operating system for its mid-tier and multimedia phones, according to unnamed sources in Wednesday's editions of the Wall Street Journal.
SHANGHAI, China -- An anti-piracy tactic by Microsoft Corp. that turns computer users' screens black has set off a wave of indignation among Chinese consumers.
Brad Spirrison: A worldwide Web of financial derivatives has railroaded our economy. Can we expect any kind of technological breakthrough for the effort? "The dot-com phenomenon was around technological innovation," Citadel Investment Group CEO Kenneth Griffin explained to me last week. "This financial calamity is about greed and fear. We are unwinding out of that now."
NEW YORK---- Barnes & Noble is playing the social network game.
Sandra Guy: Companies are getting comfortable announcing news in virtual worlds, pushing their messages onto iPhones and asking for feedback to the CEOs' blogs. Why? It's tougher than ever to get a meaningful message across as people are bombarded with e-mail, Facebook and MySpace messages, YouTube videos and text messages.
SAN FRANCISCO---- Samsung Electronics Co. is equipping Blu-ray DVD players so they can retrieve movies and TV shows from Netflix Inc.'s Internet streaming service, accelerating Netflix's push to develop more delivery methods beyond the mail.
Sandra Guy: Online sales this holiday season will suffer like those of most other retailers due to shoppers' economic anxieties, growing at the slowest rate in the eight years that Forrester Research has been keeping tabs on e-commerce.