GLITR Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Your report for Wednesday, September 16, 2009

UM tops $1 billion in research spending for first time
Research spending at the University of Michigan in 2008-09 exceeded $1 billion for the first time, a milestone that highlights the university's role as an economic resource benefiting the entire state. In the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression, research spending at the university rose 9.4 percent over the previous fiscal year, totaling $1.02 billion. The federal government provided 64.4 percent of the funds, and federal research spending at the UM rose 7.1 percent over 2007-08. Despite the recession, research funding from the university's industry partners rose 1 percent last fiscal year to $43.3 million. Spending of research funds provided by the state of Michigan and local Michigan authorities declined 10.6 percent to $4.6 million. More.

Renewable energy renaissance zone OK'd for St. Clair
Energy Components Group announced Tuesday that the Michigan State Administrative Board has officially approved the creation of Michigan's newest Renewable Energy Renaissance Zone for ECG's new headquarters and manufacturing plant in St. Clair. ECG is anticipating the creation of 250 new jobs and investments of over $20 million in its new facility over the next five years. The company plans to acquire and install equipment over the next few months and initiate operations in the new plant by the end of 2009. ECG specializes in precision machining, fabrication and assembly of high quality components for the alternative energy industry. More.

Detroit company offers the Web in ASL
For the deaf and hard of hearing, a sense of community can start with American Sign Language. For many, ASL is better understood than the written word. So, while the Internet has become a place for news updates via streaming videos and RSS feeds, for some in the deaf community, the Web still falls short of its full potential. Until now. OICmovies.com is filling the internet with the chatter of news and life-style stories delivered exclusively in American Sign Language. From updates on Swine Flu to the Forever Stamp, OICmovies.com is quickly gaining a following as an entertainment network for the over 2.5 million deaf Americans and an even larger deaf audience around the world. More.

Dynamic Computer adds new partner to RFID portfolio
The Farmington Hills radio frequency identification systems integrator Dynamic Computer Corp. has finalized a partnership agreement with AiRista to add Wi-Fi real-time location service products to its RFID offerings. The Premier Healthcare Alliance supplier is a single-source RFID systems integrator serving industries including health care, aerospace, defense, education, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. More.

New dashboard features in Plex Online
Auburn Hills-based Plex Systems Inc., provider of the No. 1 rated ERP software for manufacturers, today announced enhanced configurable dashboard features that increase productivity and efficiency from the shop floor to the top floor. Users create and modify intuitive dashboard displays themselves within the ERP solution, selecting relevant Plex Online business data for a real-time snapshot into the organization. Timely performance metrics give a “big picture” look into the organization. More.

Fisher/Unitech offers 800-plus jobs at Virtual Job Fair

Fisher/Unitech is holding Virtual Job Fair for Engineers that's online from right now through Nov. 30.

The fair is completely virtual, as green as it gets, and has much useful information for displaced engineers in the industrial sector to help them get their careers back on track.

Fisher/Unitech, a software reseller with 10 locations throughout the Midwest, has partnered with 6Connex to make more than 800 jobs available through its online environment.

The job fair can be accessed at http://funtech.veplatform.com.

The online job fair is a continuation of the company’s community service commitment to helping displaced designers and engineers get back on their feet. Through event partner 6Connex, the company is offering this service at no charge to neither exhibitors nor attendees who visit.

More from the Great Lakes IT Report Web site.

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

X-Rite rolls out new color management system
Kentwood-based X-Rite Inc. announced ColorChecker Passport, an all-new system for digital photographers working in a Raw workflow to quickly and easily capture accurate color, instantly enhance portraits and landscapes, and maintain color control from capture to edit. “We developed Passport for photographers in a digital workflow, those working in Raw but also JPEG shooters as an all-in-one ‘capture to edit’ solution for color control and creativity," said Iris Mangelschots, X-Rite's senior vice president of sales and marketing. More.

Brandmotion launches Web site for aftermarket telematics
Ann Arbor-based Brandmotion LLC has just launched a new Web site, www.autostrata.com, to sell automotive aftermarket telematics products. Jeff Varick, President and CEO of Brandmotion, noted that Americans spend more than 200 hours annually commuting to and from work. Also, technological advances in personal communications create an expectation that consumers connect 24 hours a day. More.

CMU opens new, high-tech education and human services building
Thousands of students, faculty and staff are settling into Central Michigan University's new Education and Human Services Building -- a facility that has opened doors for advanced educational opportunities for our students rich with innovative technologies, larger classrooms and new learning spaces. A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Sept. 18 to celebrate the opening of the 137,000-square-foot building -- which naturally stimulates learning in novel ways, said Kathy Koch, interim dean for the College of Education and Human Services. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Cablevision unveils interactive banner ads on TV
Cablevision Systems Corp. is bringing interactive banner ads to television, allowing viewers to order samples and brochures and even purchase products by clicking the remote on their TV sets. Banner ads will run at the bottom of select TV commercials, in collaboration with at least half a dozen consumer brand advertisers. When viewers click on the ad, the screen will shrink to a quarter of its size and the rest will feature product information. The ads will only let viewers order product samples, brochures and coupons when they start running in early October. By year's end, viewers will be able to save video ads, such as movie trailers, to watch later. Purchasing via their remotes will come in 2010. More.

Adobe to buy Omniture for $1.8 billion; third quarter profit slides
Adobe Systems Inc. said Tuesday it will buy Web analytic software company Omniture Inc. for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content. San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe, which makes Flash, Acrobat and Photoshop software, said it will buy Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash, a premium of 24 percent to Omniture's closing stock price Tuesday. Omniture shares jumped nearly 26 percent in extended trading. The announcement came as Adobe said it earned $136 million, or 26 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter that ended in August, down 29 percent from the same time a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Adobe earned 35 cents per share, a penny above what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting. Revenue fell 21 percent to $697.5 million, inching past analyst expectations of $686.2 million. More.

Coming soon to mobile phones: Wall Street Journal content fees
The Wall Street Journal plans to start charging as much as $2 a week to read its stories on BlackBerrys, iPhones and other mobile devices, expanding the newspaper's effort to become less dependent on its print edition. The mobile fees will be imposed in the next month or two, according to Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of the Journal's owner, News Corp. Murdoch mentioned the upcoming fees Tuesday during an investor conference in New York. More.

Facebook says it passed a key financial milestone
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday it achieved an important financial milestone, bringing in more money than it spent in the last quarter. The social networking site previously had said it didn't expect to achieve that goal until next year -- even though the company already has been valued in the billions. In a blog post on Facebook's Web site, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote that the company became "cash-flow positive" during the second quarter, which ended in June. More.

Stocks: Shares rise on retail sales, manufacturing data
Better news on retail sales and manufacturing helped send stocks higher Tuesday, as did comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the recession was probably over. Surging materials and industrial companies like Alcoa and Caterpillar pulled the Dow Jones industrial average to a gain of 57 points, its seventh climb in eight days and another high for the year. Manufacturers are expected to be among the early beneficiaries if the economy strengthens and demand picks up. Hopes for a rebound grew after the government reported that retail sales jumped in August by the biggest amount in three years. The Fed's index of manufacturing in the New York region rose to its best level since late 2007. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 10.86 points or 0.5 percent to 2,102.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 56.61 points or 0.6 percent to 9,683.41. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 2.78 points or 0.9 percent to 325.48. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 4.84 points or 0.9 percent to 536.35. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) fell 2.24 points or 0.8 percent to 282.72. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) fell 5.6 points or 0.6 percent to 944.81. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 3.29 points or 0.3 percent to 1,052.63.

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