@SYN — GigaOM

@SYN

After years of economic hardship and unsettling changes to how we work, how are Americans coping? Two new surveys suggest that while Americans may be far less optimistic than they were in cheerier historical periods, they are starting to come to terms with the changes. Read More »

From breaking down barriers to the flow of information within the organization to communicating with customers, enterprise social tools are often hailed as a next-generation solution for improving the business bottom line. But how many workers are actually using them? A survey finds out. Read More »

 
 

When Staples.com surveyed workers to find out what would improve life at the office, they were probably hoping to hear answers like fancy printers or chairs, but one of the top results was a change no merchant can supply: Getting rid of the office entirely. Read More »

Tales from the trenches: MacKenzie-Childs

When we say remote work, we usually have one sense of the word in mind –distant from colleagues. But remote has another related meaning: rural. MacKenzie-Childs is remote in both senses. We spoke to the CEO about the benefits and challenges of remote, remote workers. Read More »

Adaptable to a variety of work situations, tech friendly and easy to get off the ground, are coworking spaces a solution to rural areas’ economic woes? A non-profit in central Appalachia is hoping so as it prepares to open a space this fall. Read More »

It’s hard to be against flexible work arrangements. but despite a lot of talk in support of new ways of working to help knowledge workers keep their sanity and families intact; a new survey shows many managers are merely paying lip service to the idea. Read More »

The stock market’s ongoing sell-off has many people wondering whether the wave of tech company initial public offerings will soon sputter to a stop. But some financial industry experts say the current market volatility does not necessarily mean that the IPO window is closed. Read More »

Apple is dropping Rosetta from OS X Lion, which means PowerPC-only apps won’t work on Macs running the operating system. It might surprise you how many still-useful and used apps that will leave out in the cold. Here’s a few, and some replacement suggestions. Read More »

CrunchConnect, a web-based sales presentation and web conferencing platform that’s currently in private beta, has added some new features that provide managers with systems for sharing presentations among workgroups for evaluation and training purposes, and with new tools for tracking the effectiveness of presentations. Read More »

For innovative teams — those in startups as well as those innovating within established organizations — traditional professional development, or PD, has become an anachronism. Rather than being an after-hours, formal, institutionalized proposition, successful professional development in innovative teams is holistic and always-on. Read More »

Hug Energy, which had developed an application for computer energy management, is shutting down. CEO Marcus Tallhamn made the announcement in a blog post and an email to users, citing weak investor interest. It’s a sign of how crowded the energy management space has gotten. Read More »

CumuLogic Bringing Sun Cloud Roots to Java PaaS

The growing Java PaaS market will soon need to make room for CumuLogic, an startup led by a team of Sun Microsystems veterans. The Sun connection is notable because Sun was the Java owner and development leader before its acquisition by Oracle early last year. Read More »

More Must Reads

T-Mobile’s first 4G phone with a 21 Mbps radio is the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, a variant of the current Galaxy S devices. The smartphone will ship with Android 2.2, but Samsung’s update history isn’t all that great — will it affect sales of the new … Read More »

While YouTube wasn’t a big topic of discussion during Google’s fourth quarter earnings call, CFO Patrick Pichette let slip that revenues grew at the online video site more than doubled in 2010. There’s still no word on whether or not YouTube is profitable, though. Read More »

Biofuel production nationwide has been woefully behind schedule as would-be producers struggle to just get their first commercial plants rolling. The U.S. government wants to help and on Thursday announced loan guarantee commitments totaling $571 million for Coskata, Enerkem, and a JV from Valero. Read More »

The iOS 4.3 beta, despite being covered by Apple’s NDA, is leaking signs of new hardware and software features like a sieve. The latest find is support for multi-touch gestures on the iPhone. Is the feature also a sign of a buttonless future for iOS devices? Read More »

Netflix has built a sizable streaming library, with more than 20,000 titles now available. So why is it that, when the company is spending more money than ever securing streaming content, I’m finding less and less to watch through its streaming service? Read More »

The DOE has offered a $967 million loan guarantee for the Agua Caliente Solar project, a 290 MW photovoltaic facility that will be built in Yuma County, Arizona, will be developed by NRG Energy and will use First Solar panels. Read More »

Justine Ezarik is joining the cast of Spike TV’s rebranded Game Trailers TV on Jan. 27, but don’t worry, iJustine fans — the YouTube star will still be keeping up with her independent video work, even while covering tablets and TVs for the show’s fourth season. Read More »

Samsung has acquired Liquavista, a display company that uses an electrowetting technology for color screens. The process uses electrical charges to move colored oil and can use reflective sunlight to consume less power. With refresh rates at 60 frames per second, could smartphones use these displays? Read More »

The most talked about company in cleantech in 2010, fuel cell company Bloom Energy, announced Thursday morning that it’s launching an offer for 10-year electricity contracts with no upfront payment for the Bloom Box fuel cell itself, which costs between $700,000 to $800,000. Read More »

Amazon had long been rumored to want to buy Netflix. Instead, it bought the next best thing: Lovefilm. Regarded as the European version of Netflix, Lovefilm operates a DVD-by-mail and subscription streaming business. But will Amazon go head-to-head with Netflix in the U.S.? Read More »

Launch rumors of the Nokia X7, a new Symbian smartphone, appear to be squashed as the phone will reportedly not be available on AT&T next month. Without carrier support for subsidies and marketing, the odds of Nokia gaining a foothold in the U.S. continue to decrease. Read More »

Biofuel startup Gevo has lowered its upcoming IPO to $13 to $15 per share. That’s about $100 million, or $89 million after fees, less than the $150 million it targeted in August, but close to what analysts have predicted. Read More »

Verizon is launching four LTE handsets in the first half of 2011, but one, the HTC Thunderbolt, is expected to offer simultaneous voice and data. It’s likely Verizon will keep voice and data traffic separate meaning the solution will only work in areas of LTE coverage. Read More »

Amazon Web Services, which built and popularized cloud computing with its Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service has moved up the stack from infrastructure to providing Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, its brand new Platform-as-a-Service play. With Beanstalk, Amazon hopes to outgrow the competition. Read More »

With record revenue, profits, and products sold, Apple today posted the holiday quarter results to beat all holiday quarters, at least until next year. Total revenue topped $26 billion, besting the closest quarter on record by more than $10 billion. Read More »

Bandwidth.com and Verizon Communications today signed an agreement that could make it easier from companies such as Skype and Twilio to build out cool VoIP applications and service as well as set precedent ahead of any regulatory policy on how phone companies charge for VoIP calls. Read More »

While the iPhone has received a couple Microsoft apps like Bing and Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft Office programs have been no shows — until now. Microsoft announced today it is releasing an iPhone version of OneNote, it’s note-syncing app for the iPhone. Read More »

The entertainment world just got a little bit more conglomerated: The FCC has settled on the conditions needed for it to approve the long-debated joint venture between NBC Universal and Comcast today. Those conditions signal that the FCC fully recognizes the importance of online video. … Read More »

Independent, off-deck, app stores will become the major driver of mobile app downloads by 2015, eclipsing on-deck app store. That’s the word from a new report from research firm MarketsandMarkets, which forecast the growth of the mobile app market. Read More »

iPhone owners are the most satisfied with their mobile platform, but Android owners are the most likely to stick with their handset OS for their next phone. Better Google apps may be the reason, but regardless, it’s potentially bad news for Apple and Google smartphone competitors. Read More »

The first non-Rackspace OpenStack-based cloud-storage service is in beta, but it’s just the first in what should be many products based on the open source cloud project. Internap’s XIPCloud Storage platform provides a self-service, web-based offering to complement the hosting providers existing dedicated storage offerings. … Read More »

The iPad 2 is said by some to be arriving as early as February (at least in the U.S.), and the rumor mill is working overtime. As consensus grows, we end up with a much better picture of what to expect from Apple’s next iPad. Read More »

Electric vehicle drive train system maker KLD Energy is looking to raise $10 million in debt and securities, and has closed on a little over $2 million of that round. The startup has planned to build its business via electric scooters in Asia. Read More »

EMC launched a slew of new products and a new product line that it hopes will keep it relevant in a changing IT world where cloud computing and products with a more consumer feel are changing the dynamic at both ends of the spectrum. Read More »

MG Siegler notes that few Android handsets run version 2.3, the most current version of Google’s mobile platform, but the argument is disingenuous when he says that nearly 90 percent of iPhones are current. You can’t count minor versions for one platform and not the other. Read More »

Just three days after introducing a new feature that allows users to share their mobile phone number and address with applications and third-party websites, Facebook said late last night that it is suspending the change as it works to clarify the permission process. Read More »

The argument against electric cars is that if the grid is powered by mostly coal, then so are our cars. But the long term goal is to move the grid over to clean power. However, here’s the bumpy road ahead for these transitions. Read More »

Tilera, a chip design firm that’s building a 100-core processor for hugely parallel compute problems, has raised $45 million in funding from investors that include Artis Capital Management, WestSummit Capital Management and Comerica Bank. The company has raised a total of $109 million. Read More »

Database startup Clustrix revealed the identities of four customers today, strong evidence that there’s something to its webscale SQL database beyond the $30 million investment that Clustrix has raised thus far. The customers announced are AOL, Photobox, Box.net and iOffer. Read More »

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence from the company to focus on his health, though he will continue on as CEO and still be involved in “major strategic decisions.” COO Tim Cook will run day-to-day operations in his absence. Read More »

The success of The Social Network at the Golden Globes might look like a thorn in Mark Zuckerberg’s side — but in fact it shows how the Facebook billionaire is clever enough to have used Hollywood’s fiction to his own benefit. Read More »

iPad 2 is expected to have a “retina display,” but the pixel per inch count is far less than the 330 found on iPhone 4. That means a future iPhone with 4-inch display could use a retina display while improving the experience for browsing and video. Read More »

GridPoint — the smart grid startup that’s raised lots of money and has a lot to prove — has now raised yet even more funding: a $23.6 million round according to a filing. That brings 8-year-old GridPoint’s total financing to over $240 million since its founding. Read More »

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