18 posts tagged “innovation”

Vor wenigen Jahren wäre das eine 1. April-Meldung gewesen. Auch heute musste ich sie zweimal lesen. Die deutsche Solarworld will Opel übernehmen und daraus einen grünen Autokonzern machen...

Umbau zum grünen Automobilkonzern

Die SolarWorld AG plant dem US-amerikanischen Automobilkonzern General Motors (GM) das Angebot zu unterbreiten, die vier deutschen Werke und das Entwicklungszentrum in Rüsselsheim der Adam Opel GmbH zu übernehmen. Dafür kann die SolarWorld AG Opel Barmittel in Höhe von 250 Mio. Euro und Banklinien von 750 Mio. Euro vorbehaltlich einer Bundesbürgschaft bereitstellen. Der bisher ausschließlich in der Solartechnologie aktive Konzern würde damit Opel zum ersten 'grünen' europäischen Autokonzern weiterentwickeln.

http://newsticker.welt.de/index.php?channel=fin&module=smarthouse&id=812699

Wow. Ein PR-Gag der Solarbranche oder ernstgemeintes Uebernahmeangebot ?

Mehr zum Thema und anderen Aktien in einigen Wochen in meinem TFTF-Blog ((momentan im Hiatus :) )).

Scheibenwischer ? Nass. Trocken. Zu trockene Materie :) ? Könnte trotzdem ein sehr interessanter Film werden...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/flashofgenius/large.html

Besonders weil die grossen  "Detroit 3" ((Chrysler, GM und Ford)) mittlerweile kurz vor dem Abgrund oder der Notfusion stehen.

Time to go to school and grow up...

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/23/happy-7th-birthday-ipod/

..become Netbook or eBook one day.

At least that's the education I hope for.

Interesting story how Apple used a expired patent ((filed by an inventor in 1979)) to shoot down Burst.com's patent claims:

...documents filed by Apple in a court case show the US firm acknowledges him as the father of the iPod.

The computer giant even flew Mr Kramer to its Californian headquarters to give evidence in its defence during a legal wrangle with another firm, Burst.com, which  claimed it held patents to technology in the iPod and deserved a cut of Apple’s ?89billion profits.

Two years ago, Mr Kramer told this newspaper how he had invented and built the device in 1979 – when he was just 23.

His invention, called the IXI, stored only 3.5 minutes of music on to a chip – but Mr Kramer rightly believed its capacity would improve.

His sketches at the time showed a credit-card-sized player with a rectangular screen and a central menu button to scroll through a selection of music tracks – very similar to the iPod.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1053152/Apple-admit-Briton-DID-invent-iPod-hes-getting-money.html?ITO=1490

Gedächtnisprobleme beim VBS-Kader ? Da gibt es kostengünstige elektronische Simulatoren. Hat das noch Platz im Rüstungsprogramm 08 ?

http://www.braintraining.com.au/

((Hoffnungsloser Optimismus startet hier))

A propos Brain Training. Dann könnte man gleich die Reorganisation der sieben Departemente mit einem neuen Bildungs-/Forschungs-/Innovationsdepartement an die Hand nehmen, dieser Artikel zum Thema ist schon über zwei Jahre alt...

http://www.nzz.ch/2006/03/14/il/newzzEKS82KR3-12.html

((Hoffungsloser Optimismus hier beendet))

Da müsste vorher wohl noch Herr BR Couchepin zurücktreten - einige Jahre. Motionen und Papiere später wird das Thema vielleicht wieder aufgegriffen.

I wonder when more "Zink-enabled" printing products will hit the market...

http://www.zink.com/

http://www.zink.com/how-ZINK-works

(( Zink looks like a spin-off of Polaroid so it makes sense that the first partner products carry this brand name... ))

Isn't this old news ((future studies or hogwash or whatever you call it depending on which camp you're in :)) reformulated ?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/17/kurzweil-predicts-that-machines-will-match-man-by-2029-bring/

More details from the BBC including other names and challenges presented...

CHALLENGES FACING HUMANITY

Make solar energy affordable

Provide energy from fusion

Develop carbon sequestration

Manage the nitrogen cycle

Provide access to clean water

Reverse engineer the brain

Prevent nuclear terror

Secure cyberspace

Enhance virtual reality

Improve urban infrastructure

Advance health informatics

Engineer better medicines

Advance personalised learning

Explore natural frontiers

Reminded me of the technological singularity concept once again ((although Kurzweil's definition is slightly different as Wikipedia points out))

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

We will see. Gut Ding will Weile haben, Herr Kurzweil :)

Crazy yet eye-opening ideas. I especially liked the first one...

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/multimedia/2007/12/YE_10_geoengineering

Let's hope the Swiss Innovation Park comes to fruition, so we can add some more ideas...

http://www.nzz.com/nachrichten/schweiz/aktuell/militaerflugplatz_duebendorf_soll_innovationspark_werden_1.555159.html

((German link))

I really wonder why Microsoft couldn't solve their Xbox quality problems earlier ((and why they ever introduced the Zune - too little too late against the iPod family)). If they did, they could win the war against the PS3 easily after all of Sony's recent missteps. Here comes my simple, 3-step plan for the XBox:

((The 3 steps would have been possible with no additional expenses/costs if the build quality was as high as Nintendo's products))

1. Elite should be a real Elite. Introduce the XBox Elite ((back when it was introduced)) with an HD-DVD drive - while making clear this option is for movies only and not for games. This would be the model to compete with the higher-end PS3.

2. Tweak options/price. Introduce all three XBox models with Wi-Fi from the beginning and drop the entry Core/Arcade price to $ 249 to compete with the Wii head-on ((by Christmas 2007)).

3. Mobile. Introduce a mobile XBox ((leveraging the strong Xbox brand)) instead of the Zune in 2006/2007 - competing with PSP, NDS instead of the iPod.

MS introduced a few good options for Christmas '07 ((eg. the family pack with two games for $ 349 and the new Arcade model replacing the Core model)), but not bold enough in my view given the company's resources.

PS: I don't think somebody from MS ever reads this, but it is sure fun to write it. After all, I predicted Nintendo's comeback back in 2004 and 2005 when nobody gave them much credit any more...

So long, Palm Treo, Blackberry and other friends...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=370296

2008 will be the most exciting year of the Mobile Mac Platform. ((And you haven't even seen the upcoming Apple ultra-portables yet...))