Big business has always been the center for many communities around the world. Industries make cities. Resources make entire countries. From the coal towns of West Virginia to the automakers of Detroit, companies and industries have been able to put people to work, to keep taxes flowing for the government, and to build the personality of a community through the various projects associated with the companies. Tech is different. With technology, you don’t have to center around a resource. Proximity to infrastructure has less of an effect. You don’t even really need a strong workforce in many…

With all the attention Google Glass is getting before it’s even launched, one would think it was an Apple product. It’s not, but it has the buzz level of the new Corvette Stingray. Now, it’s making news by doing something that other tech companies have avoided for a while. They’re going to have Foxconn build Glass in the United States. Foxconn is a Taiwan company that has been associated with Apple products as well as other tech giants. For Glass, they’ll be operating out of a plant in Santa Clara, California. This isn’t the first domestic move. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that certain Macs were going…

The cold war between Facebook and Twitter continued Thursday and nobody was really surprised by it. Vine, the new video app by Twitter that allows looping 6-second videos to be recorded and posted to the microblogging site, launched with the ability for users to find their Facebook friends that were also using the app. That ability lasted a few hours on Thursday before Facebook shut down API access. “It’s basically an annoyance, a hindrance on an easy way to connect with all your existing friends using the service,” wrote Mike Isaac. “It would have been a good way to jump into a new product, rather…

We’ve been very critical of Groupon and its founding CEO Andrew Mason. The enigmatic Silicon Valley guy has famously shunned Google’s $6 billion bid for his company and seen his stocks fall to levels that make the shunning itself look downright ludicrous. We were critical when the shares were falling to $15. They’re hovering over $5 today. Still, should he be fired? A year and a quarter since going public, the company is in big trouble. Mason is fighting to keep his job, but just as Larry Page turned to Eric Schmidt to lead his company through the crucial years, should Groupon do the same? Investors…

It takes more than having great ideas to make a startup work. It has become a part of Silicon Valley culture to understand that being first and blazing a trail may not be the best path to success. Some companies such as 3DFX Interactive, Napster, and Wang Laboratories began and built amazing technologies that would eventually become huge components of many of our lives, yet didn’t last to see their dreams fulfilled. Others stepped in and made it happen. Let’s take a look at their stories below. Thanks to Visually and Milwaukee Ford Dealers for pointing this infographic from Total Bankruptcy out…

The days of “focus on what you’re good at” are behind us. It’s no longer adequate for businesses to stay isolated and let technology get built around them. They want to get involved. Starbucks, for example, is in the business of coffee, but that didn’t stop them from investing $25 million in Square, a mobile payment company. Will it help them make better coffee? No. Will it potentially improve their bottom line by streamlining the way that many customers will be able to buy their coffee at 7,000 US stores? Maybe. Partnerships and agreements are not always enough, though. In the past, there would have…

Google, New York City, Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology join forces to form a school offering classes in computer coding, but it is looking to compete with online education empires offering courses in venture management and bent on building a good reputation. Twenty-two thousand feet of the Google campus in New York opens in July for this venture dubbed “CornellNYC Tech.” Intended to function like the entrepreneurial incubators of the dot com era, this new school combines entrepreneurial skills-building with science. Google’s NYC campus Envisioned…

Not too long ago, the rise of “geek chic” surprised a few and elated many. Now, being called a “geek” can be considered the new “cool,” and in a city like Manhattan, that likes to be on the cutting edge of cool – it’s never been a better time to be a tech-savvy individual. No, I’m not talking about someone who knows how to use their smart phones to tweet or can program their GPS without having to bang it against the dashboard like I so often have to do before a long drive. I’m talking about the truly well-versed in technology. According to Marketplace, a recent study named New York City…

The biggest IPO in tech history is appearing to be smaller than people thought according to a recent report from Bloomberg. With growth prospects for their advertising model raising warning flags, the company has been strict with their policy of not allowing revenue to get in the way of user experience. To the all-important long-term investors, this is terrifying. To the fast-moving investors who see Facebook as an opportunity to ride the initial wave of enthusiasm, it isn’t much better news. There is little doubt that the stocks will start at one price and shoot up in the short term. There is growing…

I recently read an article on Mashable about Blueseed, a ship funded by Pay-Pal billionaire Peter Thiel, which will house over a hundred starter companies, protecting them from the laws that restrict them. Immediately I thought of Jurassic Park and if memory serves me, things didn’t end very well for Dr. Hammond. A vast ship on the digital horizon might be the future of starter companies around the globe but what does that mean? What restrictions will these starter companies be free from that might negatively affect those off of the ship? With no restriction, what will these companies be free…