Three Tech Trends to Watch in 2011

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Oracle, International Business Machines, EMC, Hewlett-Packard and Honda Motor
Software giant Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) reported better-than-expected Second Quarter 2011 results with both earnings and revenues easily beating the Zacks Consensus Estimates. The results were driven by strong new software license sales (sales to new customers) and growth in Hardware Sales, boosted by the acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Third Quarter 2011 outlook was also above the Zacks Consensus Estimate, leading to a substantial rise in analysts' estimates for the third quarter and full y...

NY-Based Yext Launches League of Advertisers That Are Not Google
New York-based startup Yext is launching a feature that competes with Google's businesses listings and it's got Mapquest, Yelp and Citysearch on board. A few months ago, Google introduced photos, videos, coupons, links and other flair that businesses can add to their Google search results for $25 a month, as part of the company's effort to dominate the local advertising market. The move threatens the bread and butter of locally-focused sites like Citysearch, which is owned by IAC—especia...

Magic Software Expands Presence in Turkey with New Distributor
OR-YEHUDA, Israel, Jan. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ: MGIC), a global provider of cloud and on-premise enabled application platform and business integration solutions, today announced an agreement with Senoglu Yazilim A S, a software solutions provider, for the distribution of Magic Software's products to new customers and partners throughout Turkey. This new distributorship enables Magic Software to expand its long-term presence in Turkey with its major softw...

6 Steps to Achieving Creativity in Business, Personal Life
Related Articles 5 Ways to Become an Optimist How to Encourage Your Kid's Creativity Want to Be Happier? Keep Your Focus Does Trusting Your Instincts Make Sense? Power of Positive Thinking Is Psychology's Latest Focus Suddenly, creativity is big. While your chances of making millions as the next Andy Warhol or Taylor Swift are probably slim, you could well earn more these days by tapping into your creative powers—and, experts say, you'll be happier, too. Numerous Fortune 500 compani...

The Pain of Economic Change
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt The Pain of Economic Change Michigan is the only state in the union showing a net negative population trend in the recent Census report, and is an interesting case study of the pain of economic change. For several decades after WWII, Michigan enjoyed above average prosperity on the backs of the Big 3 auto makers and the employment model of the United Auto Workers, with lateral benefits and trickle down to construction, Tourism, retail, services and Health Care. Both...

Beijing launches car quota to counter gridlock
BEIJING - For thousands of hopeful commuters in China's capital, 2011 started with a click, not a bang. Residents hoping to snap up Beijing car license plate numbers under a new quota system aimed at easing paralyzing traffic logged onto a website that launched in the first moments of the new year. Within 10 minutes, 6,000 people had applied for new plate numbers, the Beijing Daily newspaper reported. By 5 p.m., more than 53,000 applications had been submitted online, the official Xinhua N...

Japan Airlines to revamp information technology unit+
TOKYO, Jan. 4 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japan Airlines Corp., undergoing state-backed restructuring, announced Tuesday it will revamp its information technology operations by acquiring a majority stake held by IBM Japan Ltd. in JAL Information Technology Co. JAL will buy IBM Japan's 51 percent interest in the information technology firm for an undisclosed sum in late June. The move will increase JAL's stake to 92.5 percent and will allow the airline group to reshape its information systems known to b...

Beijing launches car quota to counter gridlock
BEIJING (AP) — For thousands of hopeful commuters in China’s capital, 2011 started with a click, not a bang. Residents hoping to snap up Beijing car license plate numbers under a new quota system aimed at easing paralyzing traffic logged onto a website that launched in the first moments of the new year. Within 10 minutes, 6,000 people had applied for new plate numbers, the Beijing Daily newspaper reported. By 5 p.m., more than 53,000 applications had been submitted online, the offici...

Obama's own political maneuvering coming back to bite
As the Republicans take over the House today, one of the looming debates is over raising the Debt Limit. There are Republicans who want to get some major concessions on spending before they vote to raise the limit. However, the White House economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, is out there warning against any playing politics with the vote."The impact on The Economy would be catastrophic," Goolsbee told "This Week" on ABC. "That would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 200...

170-Calorie Pizza: What's The Point?
Would you mistake this pizza for being 170-calories a slice? We realize that people want to be healthy. We also realize that "organic" and "healthy" ingredients like vegetables and whole grains do really taste good, and when combined with cheese could make for an excellent pizza. And yet, there is something about a 170-calorie slice that is making us uncomfortable. Especially when the Post describes it as "Skinny Jeans friendly." Revd Up Pi (can 2011 be the year we stop randomly dropping vowel...

The Depression? J'accuse! - By Joshua E. Keating
The Oil and the Glory: The Weekly Wrap: Dec. 31, 2010 The Multilateralist: Morning multilateralism, Dec. 31 Is France to blame for the Great Depression? In trying to explain the Great Depression, Economists from Milton Friedman to Ben Bernanke have traditionally focused on the roles of U.S. Monetary Policy and the gold standard. According to their version, when the Federal Reserve raised Interest Rates in 1928, it triggered a massive influx of gold into the United States. Rather than monetiz...

ECB Monetization Sterilization Back On Track After Last Week's Failure
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On Fat and Inflation
The thin line on the left is the cost for under-weights, as I pointed out, they cost more on average then the over-weights. Notice that the average costs between “normal” and “overweight” is really not that big a deal. Finally, the graph clearly shows that Obesity has a real cost attached to it. The following chart puts some numbers to the graph. Again, the evidence connecting Obesity to Health Problems is clear. Notice that the average estimate from the CBO on all categ...

News will Find Me
One of the best comments I have heard about the future of news is a teenager when asked how he reads the news said "that news I need to know will find me." In other words, he does not go to any news website, nor even a news aggregator. But through his Social Media from Facebook friends, tweets he follows, etc., he will get any news that is relevant to him. This is not just the future of how news will be delivered, it's the present. Demographics trumps all and everyday people who actually pull...

EpicMix
Bob Lefsetz is a Music Industry observer, and publisher of the Lefsetz letter: ~~~ How did Apple (AAPL) become one of the most valuable companies in America? By doubling down in a Recession. Remember the dot com crash?  Everybody in tech pulled back.  Not Apple.  The Cupertino computer company invested.  And then released a product that was supposedly overpriced and undesirable.  That product?  The iPod. Remember when Apple was a joke?  You’re on a Mac?  They&

Group texting: Tech's next breakout hit?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sometimes the winner in a tech field isn't the company whose invention is the fastest or the sleekest -- or even the first. It's the company that hits the exact right point in the timing curve. Meet GroupMe. The current darling of the New York tech scene, the group-text-messaging startup created its prototype product in May during a 24-hour "hackathon" at TechCruch's Disrupt conference. Fast forward seven months: GroupMe just closed a funding round rumored ...

Beijing Residents Rush to Register New Cars to Meet China's Quota System...
A total of 53,549 applications were made on the first day of the year, more than double the number of license plates to be available each month, the Beijing News reported yesterday. The government said on Dec. 23 it would set a monthly quota of 20,000 new vehicle licenses in the Chinese capital. China surpassed the U.S. last year to become the world’s biggest car market as Tax Cuts and government subsidies aimed at spurring auto sales fueled a surge in traffic. Beijing tied with Mexico a...

Better Writers With Better Erasers
by Zoë Pollock Brian Hayes reviews A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron: Baron points out that just about every other new writing instrument has also been seen as a threat to literacy and a corrupter of youth. The eraser had a particularly bad reputation, under the Thesis that “if the technology makes error correction easy, Students will make more errors.” I have to add that my own view of the computer as a writing instrument has always been that i

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in $1.5 billion debt sale
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) opened 2011 with a $1.5 billion Debt sale on Monday, tapping markets as it customarily does early in the year to refinance maturing notes. Thomson Reuters IFR... NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) opened 2011 with a $1.5 billion Debt sale on Monday, tapping markets as it customarily does early in the year to refinance maturing notes. Thomson Reuters IFR repo...

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in $1.5 billion debt sale
NEW YORK | Mon Jan 3, 2011 4:26pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) opened 2011 with a $1.5 billion Debt sale on Monday, tapping markets as it customarily does early in the year to refinance maturing notes. Thomson Reuters IFR reported Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp came to market with $375 million in three-year floating rate notes priced at three-month LIBOR plus 33 basis points. It also offered $375 million in 1.5 percent three-year ...

How businesses deal with weather
Extreme weather like snow can have a disastrous effect on businesses. So how can technology like Cloud Computing help companies to stay on the move and manage risk? Xanthe Hinchey reports. Play Is Billy The Kid about to be pardoned? Listen Is Billy The Kid about to be pardoned? Listen Has bank-bashing gone too far? Watch What does the future hold for 3D? This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view ...

Two killed in British balloon crash
MIDSOMER NORTON, England, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Two people were killed when a hot-air balloon crashed into a bowling green in western England Saturday. Witnesses reported seeing the balloon burst into flames as it hit the ground. "A hot-air balloon crashed with two fatalities, a man and a woman," a spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said. "No other Aircraft and no one on the ground was involved in the incident." There were unconfirmed reports of a third person being killed. The Air Accidents I...

Hey! You! Get Offa My Cloud!
Despite raging Privacy concerns, Microsoft is continuing their campaign to get in ahead of competitors and lock in their grip on Cloud Computing. Cloud computing has multiple benefits, including allowing people to share and back up data safely. The biggest problem is privacy. By choosing which cloud you use, you are putting your full trust in the provider to protect your data and your privacy. Those pesky terms and conditions in many instances tell you that data is backed up and saved. What if ...

The bestest year in science ever
I'm hoping that title will apply to this coming year - but it will be hard to top 2010. Here's one reason why. Remember this ?In Iceland a Volcano erupts - embedded in a massive smoke cloud, ash and other particulate matter are flung skyward. An impressive sight if you can get close enough to view it... Maybe not - it's been over eight months since the Most Powerful Volcano in world history erupted, and lots of other things have happened since. So if you forgot that story don't feel too bad. Bes...

Apple still top mobile OS but Android gaining
Apple's iOS remains the leading platform for Smartphone users, but Google's Android holds a big lead among those that have purchased a Smartphone in the past six months according to new data from the Nielsen Company. Apple (28.6 percent), Android (25.8) and Research in Motion's BlackBerry platform (26.1) remained virtually tied in terms of overall Market Share, but 40 percent of recent acquirers chose Android compared to 27 percent for Apple and 19 percent for BlackBerry. If current trends hol...