Farmington
Hills VC wins UK government money for new fund Ford
Motor Co. and three renewable energy companies formally kicked off the
next life of Ford's idled Wixom Vehicle Assembly Plant Thursday afternoon.
If all goes as planned, the rechristened
Ford Renewable Energy Park will be the largest renewable energy manufacturing
plant in the United States, with upwards of 4,000 green jobs building
solar panels and energy storage systems. More.
More
good news for QuatRx Pharmaceuticals Ann Arbor-based QuatRx Pharmaceuticals
Co., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, today announced positive
results from the second of two patient groups in the second Phase 3
study for Ophena, the company's investigational compound in development
for the treatment of postmenopausal vulvovaginal atrophy. This study,
together with the recent completion of a long-term safety study for
Ophena, marks the end of the company's Phase 3 testing of Ophena and
positions QuatRx to file a New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration in early 2010. More.
Partnership
aims to bring new IT jobs to Michigan Michigan Department of
Information Technology Director Ken Theis Thursday announced a new initiative
to develop, attract and retain IT jobs and investments in Michigan.
The New Economy Partnerships collaboration brings together MDIT, the
Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth and the Michigan
Economic Development Corporation to make Michigan a destination for
growing information, communications and technology firms and services.
More.
MetroPCS
expands into Kalamazoo, Battle Creek Residents of Kalamazoo and
Battle Creek now have a new alternative to traditional wireless service
plans. Dallas-based MetroPCS Communications Inc., the nation's leading
provider of unlimited, flat-rate, no signed contract wireless communications
service, announces the expansion of its Michigan service into Kalamazoo
and Battle Creek, as well as surrounding communities. More.
US
Signal expands network in Michigan, Indiana
Grand Rapids-based US Signal, a provider of data bandwidth capacity
in the Midwest, Thursday announced that it is expanding its long-haul
fiber network points of presence in Midland, Three Rivers and Lafayette,
Ind. More.
Ann Arbor's SRT Solutions adds software code library
The
Ann Arbor software development shop SRT Solutions announced the addition
of Elevate, a software code library, to CodePlex.
Elevate, SRT Solution’s first complete library
of code, offers the software community building blocks for applications
through data structures and numerical sequences that create patterns
for others to use.
“When developers write software, we use a
lot of different libraries of existing code to expedite the process,”
said SRT's Bill Wagner. “Elevate is a way that SRT Solutions can
contribute to the developer community and it also provides the tools
we need to work more efficiently on our own client projects.”
SRT Solutions is using Elevate’s code library
with its clients now, including a major automotive manufacturer and
a leading research university.
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Kalamazoo
pharma firm offers offshored clinical trials Kalamazoo-based Global Pharmaceutical
Services Inc., a provider of research and development support to the
worldwide pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry announces a new
clinical development bridge to India. GPSI has entered into an exclusive
partnership with Abridge Clinical Research Pvt. Ltd, a research and
development company located in Mumbai, India. More.
Online
Tech simplifies Software-as-a-Service monitoring
The majority of user frustrations with Software-as-a-Service
and E-commerce applications aren't caused by hosting infrastructure
failures, such as power or Internet connectivity. Rather, most user
problems are rooted in application and server performance problems --
and according to Ann Arbor-based Online Tech, they can be monitored
and addressed before they impact the user experience. To
overcome this issue, Online Tech introduced OTMonitor, a multi-probe
monitoring service for colocation servers and dedicated servers available
at all of its data centers. More.
Presidential
school address spikes network traffic For the second time in 2009,
an event featuring the President of the United States caused a spike
in network traffic in Michigan and around the country. President Barack
Obama's school-time address from Wakefield High School in Virginia on
Tuesday, Sept. 8 was streamed live from the White House Web site to
schools and locations around the country and broadcast on ESPN and other
television outlets. During the time period of the president's address,
traffic from Merit's network to the Internet2 Network router in Washington
D.C. climbed to over 8 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) of traffic -- twice
the normal volume. More.
THE WORLD
IN TECH
Motorola,
in need of a hit, shows off Android phone Struggling
phone maker Motorola unveiled its first device using Google's Android
system Thursday, banking on it to power features that will attract consumers
looking to use their phones to connect with friends, family and colleagues.
The Cliq comes with a touch screen and a standard, "QWERTY"
keyboard that slides out from its side. Software on it will let users
aggregate contact information from various social networks and e-mail
accounts. Small application "widgets" will show such information
as your friends' Facebook status updates on the home screen. The new
device also sports a five-megapixel camera, allowing for sharper images
than most other phones, including Apple Inc.'s iPhone and its three-megapixel
resolution. More.
Top
U.S. copyright cop opposes Google book deal The
nation's top copyright official has joined the mounting opposition to
a class-action settlement that would give Google Inc. the digital rights
to millions of out-of-print books. Her objections cast further doubt
on whether the agreement will be allowed by a federal court, even as
Google offered a concession Thursday aimed at smoothing the way for
approval. Parts of the settlement are "fundamentally at odds with
the law," Marybeth Peters, head of the U.S. Copyright Office, testified
in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday that was webcast. She
also expressed concerns that the settlement would undermine Congress'
ability to govern copyrights and could have "serious international
implications" for books published outside the United States. More.
Tech
giants offer ideas on charging readers online Some of the world's biggest
technology companies say they can help publishers successfully charge
readers for news online. If only that were the hard part. IBM Corp.,
Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and even Google Inc. -- a company some
newspapers blame for helping to dig their financial hole -- responded
to a request by the Newspaper Association of America for proposals on
ways to easily, unobtrusively charge for news on the Web. But while
building the infrastructure for charging readers is one part of the
equation, the new proposals underscore what may be the more intractable
issue: getting publishers to make the leap and stop giving news out
for free on the Web. More.
Facebook
to let users 'tag' friends in posts Facebook
will soon let users "tag" their friends in their posts, similar
to how they already can with photos. Product manager Andrew Huang said
the status tags -- coming over the next several weeks -- are "all
about engagement." He said Facebook wants to let users reference
their real-world connections in their status posts. For example, if
a status update mentions having lunch with a friend, the user can tag
the post with that friend's name. That'll make it easier for someone
to pull up all status posts mentioning that particular friend, regardless
of who made the posts. More.
Stocks:
Shares extend gain to five days based on jobs report Investors poured money
into stocks for a fifth day after a drop in weekly unemployment claims
and an upbeat forecast from Procter & Gamble raised hopes for the
economy. The gains have come even as analysts say the market is overdue
for a retreat. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 54.3 percent
since hitting a 12-year low in March, though it's still down 33.3 percent
from its peak in October 2007. The latest push higher followed the Labor
Department's report that jobless claims fell more than expected to 550,000
last week. Bond prices surged after a $12 billion auction of 30-year
Treasury notes drew strong demand. That pushed Treasury yields lower
and made investors look for investments with better returns. Meanwhile,
a government report found that U.S. crude inventories fell more than
expected last week. That stirred hopes that a strengthening economy
is increasing its appetite for resources and lifted energy stocks. More.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)
rose 23.63 points or 1.2 percent to 2,084.02. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average ($INDU)
rose 80.26 points or 0.8 percent to 9,627.48. The Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index ($SOX)
rose 5.69 points or 1.8 percent to 325.82. The Morgan Stanley High Tech
35 Index (MSH)
rose 8.74 points or 1.7 percent to 529.88. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical
Index (DRG)
rose 1.29 points or 0.5 percent to 283.73. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index
(BTK)
fell 1.45 points or 0.2 percent to 935.16. Finally, the Standard & Poor's
500 (SPX)
rose 10.77 points or 1 percent to 1,044.14.
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
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Print Story
Ford
Motor Co. and three renewable energy companies formally kicked off the
next life of Ford's idled Wixom Vehicle Assembly Plant Thursday afternoon.
If all goes as planned, the rechristened
Ford Renewable Energy Park will be the largest renewable energy manufacturing
plant in the United States, with upwards of 4,000 green jobs building
solar panels and energy storage systems. 
Ann Arbor's SRT Solutions adds software code library
Struggling
phone maker Motorola unveiled its first device using Google's Android
system Thursday, banking on it to power features that will attract consumers
looking to use their phones to connect with friends, family and colleagues.
The Cliq comes with a touch screen and a standard, "QWERTY"
keyboard that slides out from its side. Software on it will let users
aggregate contact information from various social networks and e-mail
accounts. Small application "widgets" will show such information
as your friends' Facebook status updates on the home screen. The new
device also sports a five-megapixel camera, allowing for sharper images
than most other phones, including Apple Inc.'s iPhone and its three-megapixel
resolution. 
