GLITR Monday, July 20, 2009

Your report for Monday, July 20, 2009

AnnArbor.com Web launch postponed
The launch of the online replacement of the Ann Arbor News will be delayed, AnnArbor.com LLC announced Friday. Due to what the company called "weaknesses revealed today in the site's underlying technology," the site is planned for launch Friday, July 24 instead of the originally planned Monday, July 20. The company said the first edition of its twice-weekly print newspaper will appear on schedule on Sunday, July 26, and will run every Thursday and Sunday thereafter. More.

Azure Dynamics gets two new patents
Azure Dynamics Corp., the Oak Park developer of hybrid powertrains for trucks, said Friday that it has earned two new patents for innovations for its proprietary drive trains. Azure Dynamics' broad patent portfolio now includes 21 total patents issued or pending. The two patents issued on July 14 bring the total Azure patents issued in the United States to 13. The newest additions address key value-adding components applicable to electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle drive trains. More.

NxGen Holdings completes acquisition
Saranac-based NXGen Holdings Inc. announced last week that it had acquired 100 percent of the common stock of Vapor Technologies Inc. for $600,000, or 2 cents per share, in an all stock transaction. Vapor Technologies is a Nevada corporation that uses multiple encapsulated vortexes to provide pure fuel vapors to gasoline and diesel engines to improve combustion efficiencies. More.

Wayne State prof gets grant to study large-scale outsourced computing
As today’s businesses struggle to meet their needs for large-scale information processing and storage, one Wayne State researcher is working to make outsourcing these services a more efficient, cost-effective option. Song Jiang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, recently received a $400,000 grant for the work. More.

Michigan's first clean energy store launched in Ypsilanti's Depot Town
The Clean Energy Coalition, an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit promoting clean energy technologies, has launched the Energy Outlet, an innovative new retail and educational space aimed at meeting the demands of the growing “green” and energy efficiency movements. At the Energy Outlet, consumers, contractors, and business owners can now access both information and products. More.

The Week Ahead: Lots of info ending in big Detroit event

It's yet another nicely busy summer week on your Michigan IT Calendar, the state's most comprehensive tech event calendar, at this link.

We've got a good dozen events going, culminating in a big-time entrepreneurship event at Wayne State University, FastTrac to the Future, on Saturday. It drew 500 people the last time it was offered.

Before that, we've got an Automation Alley event on human resources and a Walsh College event on business collections Tuesday, a Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing get-together Wednesday, and on Thursday, it's a Troy Chamber meeting on the "Next Steps" after the Detroit Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference, the Ann Arbor New Enterprise Forum hearing wild and wacky tales of entrepreneurial success, and TiE Detroit's monthly meeting, this time on clean tech entrepreneurship.

Oh, and don't forget Pure Visibility's "Donuts and Search Marketing" event in Ann Arbor Friday.

See you out there!

Note: For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Jeff Lasser at (248) 455-7319 or jeff.lasser@cbsradio.com

WWJ Newsradio 950 now on FM in HD
If you want to listen to WWJ Newsradio 950 in smooth static-free high fidelity -- and hey, who wouldn't? -- you can, for less than $50. The first portable HD Radio receiver is now available from Insignia for less than $50 at Best Buy stores. HD Radio is digital radio, and it offers the same advantages digital TV does over analog -- higher sound quality, much less interference, and a much smaller bandwidth footprint, allowing more channels to be piggybacked onto the same amount of electromagnetic spectrum as an old-fashioned analog signal. CBS Radio Detroit is broadcasting WWJ Newsradio 950 as a "second channel" on the digital version of 97.1 FM The Ticket, our wildly successful sports station. More.

GR firm begins installing Windspire wind generators
Grand Rapids' Bazen Electric has become a dealer and certified installer for the West Michigan area for the Windspire wind generation system from Mariah Power. Reno, Nev.-based Mariah recently began building the Windspire system at a plant in Manistee. Bazen has completed its first installation for its own use on land owned by a next-door neighbor. A standard model rated at 2.5 kilowatts is a bit less than $10,000 installed. More.

Software company gets Keweenaw economic development loan
The Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance in Houghton Friday announced it had completed a $35,000 business expansion loan to Xeratec Corp., a custom software development company providing database applications, virtualization technology, system conversions and multi-system integration for corporate and military clients across the United States. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Town on San Francisco Bay wants to photograph every car
Visitors should be prepared to have their pictures taken as they enter and leave this picturesque town of million-dollar views and homes along the San Francisco Bay. Officials want to photograph every car and use the license plate information to solve crimes in the town of 9,000. Critics see the plan as an intrusion into the rights of visitors, but proponents say it is a sensible precaution that absolutely will not cross privacy lines. "As long as you don't arrive in a stolen vehicle or go on a crime spree while you're here, your anonymity will be preserved," said Town Manager Peggy Curran. More.

Big tech earnings week will indicate economic trends
The technology sector is often talked about as if it were a unified front, an easy-to-define monolith. People say technology stocks rose or technology stocks fell. Tech helped drive a huge boom in the 1990s, and when that collapsed in 2001, tech contributed to the last recession. In reality, technology companies have about as much in common as Toyota Motor Corp., Boeing Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp. Sure, all three play a part in getting you places, but their customers are different, as are their sales cycles and the metrics used to measure their prospects. When some of the biggest technology names post earnings this week, investors shouldn't expect one clear picture to emerge. The reports, however, are a revealing proxy for the broader economy. More.

Astronauts deal with flooded toilet in orbit
The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet. One of two commodes aboard the international space station malfunctioned, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews. The pump separator apparently flooded. Mission Control advised the astronauts to hang an "out of service" sign on the toilet until it could be fixed. In the meantime, the six space station residents had to get in line to use their one good toilet. And Endeavour's seven astronauts were restricted to the shuttle bathroom. There have never been so many people -- 13 -- together in space. The toilet repair work fell to Belgian Frank De Winne, who had to don goggles, gloves and a mask. Flight director Brian Smith declined to speculate whether overuse caused the toilet trouble. More.

Concerns raised as LA looks to Google Web services
Security and privacy concerns have been raised over a multimillion-dollar proposal by Los Angeles to tap Google Inc.'s Internet-based services for government e-mail, police records and other confidential data. At issue is the security of computerized records on everything from police investigations to potholes as the nation's second-largest city considers dumping its in-house computer network for Google e-mail and office programs that are accessed over the Internet. Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, complained Thursday that the union had scant information on the plan or what it would mean for the safety of sensitive records, such as narcotics or gang investigations. More.

Stocks: Shares hold on to big gains for the week
Stocks ended little changed Friday but held onto an enormous gain for the week. Investors are looking to another flood of corporate earnings reports next week to provide more signs that the economy is healing. Earnings reports on Friday were mixed. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. became the latest banks to report big profits but also weakness in their loan portfolios. General Electric Co. beat earnings forecasts, but its revenue came up short. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 1.58 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,886.61. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 32.12 points or 0.4 percent, to 8,732.94. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 3.49 points or 1.2 percent to 290.49. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 4.74 points or 1 percent to 473.18. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) fell 1.44 points or 0.5 percent to 266.37. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) fell 3.64 points or 0.5 percent to 681.15. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) lost 0.36 points or less than 0.1 percent to 940.38. For the week the Dow was up 597.42 or 7.3 percent, the S&P was up 61.25 or 7 percent and the Nasdaq was up 130.57 or 7.4 percent.

All contents copyright 2009 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio & Eye logo trademarked and copyright 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. Written and edited by Matt Roush, Technology Editor, WWJ Newsradio 950, Detroit. GLITR may contain material from the Associated Press, CNET, News.com, MarketWatch.com or Reuters, used by permission. For coverage comments or news tips, e-mail Matt Roush at mnroush@cbs.com or call (248) 455-7380. For marketing and advertising queries, or with general questions or concerns, contact Pete Kowalski, WWJ's station manager, at prkowalski@cbs.com. To subscribe, e-mail Matt Roush or Georgeann Herbert at gherbert@cbs.com.

LEGAL NOTICE: This email may be considered an advertising or promotional message. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email from this station, please reply to this email by sending a reply email by clicking on the "reply" button at the top of this page or by sending an e-mail to Matt Roush or Georgeann Herbert. Or you can change your subscriber profile: «Reserved.Unsubscribe»

You must use this method to notify GLITR and WWJ of your opt-out request, as we cannot guarantee that other methods of notification will be effective. Please be aware that we may continue to contact you via email for administrative or informational purposes, including follow-up messages regarding contests you have entered or other transactions you have undertaken. By law, such messages are not considered to be commercial e-mail.

Note: The Great Lakes IT Report is sent in HTML format only. Please make sure you have given us permission to send you an HTML message. If you have any questions, drop an e-mail to Georgeann Herbert or Matt Roush.