innovation

Verizon's app innovation center in San Francisco isn't just a place to drum up developer interest for the carrier; it's where you go to see what the company has cooking in terms of future capabilities and features.

I had a chance to tour the offices recently, checking out the company's RF-testing room, three labs (named after three of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and gallery of advanced devices. The innovation center is partly there to help developers with their apps, and partly there for networking events to connect developers with each other and with Verizon. … Read more

For LG, the key to mobile dominance has nothing to do with nice-looking devices, and everything to do with future-thinking ideas.

Speaking today to Korea's iNews24, LG Mobile Managing Director Kwon Bong-suk said that his company is currently in the preparation phase of developing a "thinking smartphone" that LG believes could put the company over the top and cause apparently dumb devices to lose out.

The mobile chief didn't provide too many details on how the device would act, but did say that it could, for example, adjust its built-in alarm clock based on external factors. … Read more

Ah, technology. Thanks to its ever-expanding capabilities, we can chat with monkeys, make Jell-O sing, and even share with the world the site of our latest sexual conquest.

And soon -- O, Lord, yes -- we'll be able to enjoy soft-serve beer sorbet.

Provided, of course, we live in Asia and order up a glass of Kirin that's been subjected to a little "Frozen Agitation."… Read more

Innovative Leisure is a startup with a singular purpose: Create great mobile-gaming experiences. To accomplish that mission, co-founder Seamus Blackley has assembled a crew of industry veterans who know a thing or two about developing popular titles.

The team includes the developers responsible for arcade classics like Asteroids and Centipede; Battlezone; Major Havoc; and Missile Command. In other words, some of the most popular titles in gaming history.

The coming together of the startup has been largely credited to Blackley, who also helped launch the original Xbox at Microsoft before leaving the company in 2002. So one might question whether … Read more

Journalists and engineers could come together to shape the future of news thanks to a new joint Columbia-Stanford media innovation institute funded by Cosmopolitan Editor Helen Gurley Brown.

The David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation will be an East Coast/West Coast collaboration. Housed at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City and Stanford's Engineering School in Palo Alto, Calif., the institute is thought to be a first of its kind initiative aimed at helping the foster a new era of communication between the editorial and technical sides of news organizations.

The … Read more

A group of 1,000 young people consider the world's greatest innovator to be Thomas Edison, whose crowning left the late Steve Jobs in second place.

Edison, the creator of the light bulb and phonograph, among many other inventions, earned the top title among 52 percent of those polled by Lemelson-MIT, a program that tries to honor inventors who have improved our lives and gauge peoples' perceptions about innovation.

Often lauded for his spirit of creativity, especially following his death, Jobs took second place with 24 percent citing him as the greatest innovator of all time.

The results surprised … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Wireless charging pads are available now for a selection of smartphones and small devices, but the technology--anchored by the Wireless Power Consortium's (WPC) "Qi" standard"--is about to get a lot bigger.

Here at CES 2012, Fulton Innovation--a founding member of the WPC--has been showing off its eCoupled wireless power system, which can charge a phone or device that isn't physically touching the charging surface. Fulton director Bret Lewis demonstrated the technology for me charging a phone in a cluttered purse, as well as through a thick wood tabletop. Lewis says that a recent breakthrough also allows for a charge to even be delivered to a device through certain types of metal cases.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--The Consumer Electronics Show is really about the here and now, a showcase for the sleekest, fastest, shiniest gizmos that will show up in stores in the coming months.

But a panel of corporate leaders discussed the importance of creating corporate cultures that encourage companies to displace their own gadgets--to develop the next generation of devices that can replace the ones so lavishly displayed on the show floor here. Because if a company doesn't displace its own gadgets, rivals will.

"If you don't make those investments, clearly somebody else will cannibalize your business," said John … Read more

Chip design software maker Synopsys announced today it has agreed to acquire rival Magma Design Innovations for $507 million in cash.

Synopsys will pay $7.35 a share for San Jose, Calif-based Magma, a 28 percent premium over its closing price Wednesday of $5.72.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Synopsys was founded in 1986 and competes with Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics in the sector of making software to help designers create and verify complex integrated circuits.

"The dramatic rise in complexity of today's semiconductor designs for all process nodes requires an equally dramatic increase in designer … Read more