new york

Whether people call a taxi or hail one can be a contentious matter in New York City -- because of rules set up between yellow cabs and for-hire vehicles. So, it's no surprise that a smartphone app that lets users beckon yellow cabs has been a topic of hot debate with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The commission announced Wednesday that it will vote on whether to allow such apps in a pilot program, according to the New York Times. The vote is scheduled for Thursday. Update December 13 at 10:04 a.m. PT: On … Read more

New York state has emerged as a chipmaking hot spot -- hot enough to fuel the latest speculation about Apple's plans to push for more U.S.-based manufacturing.

In a story on Tuesday, the Albany Times Union speculated that Apple may be behind a push to set up a chipmaking facility in upstate New York.

An "undisclosed company searching for a site for a chip [plant] could be a major supplier to Apple for its popular iPhone and iPad devices," Larry Rulison of the Times Union wrote.

And that undisclosed company? Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) … Read more

With its many pedestrians and subway users, New York seems like one of the greener cities in the U.S. But it still produced a gob-smacking mountain of carbon emissions in 2010.

In the vid below from graphics firm Carbon Visuals, the 54 million tons of CO2 is illustrated as a mass of spheres that tower over the city, engulfing its buildings.

Some 75 percent of the pollution came from buildings, with the bulk of the rest from transport, according to the firm, which used city data. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Justin wanted to like the modern take on The Rockettes at Friday's showing, didn't.

- Father of SMS reflects on 20th anniversary of first text.

- News Corp shuts down The Daily.

- These companies hate your guts.

- StickNFind Bluetooth stickers are the best idea you didn't think of.

- Apple trying to patent wireless charging.… Read more

Moody's cut Hewlett-Packard's rating today, topping a day marked by a rash of critical articles about the Silicon Valley giant.

Moody's Investor Services cut HP's long-term credit rating to Baa1, three levels above junk, from A3, according to Bloomberg. The rating agency said that HP's "credit profile will remain weaker than previously expected over the intermediate term," among other reasons.

This comes in the wake of an $8.8 billion writedown related to alleged fraudulent accounting at Autonomy, the software company HP acquired last year.

And HP's core businesses aren't faring … Read more

Payphones are a dying breed, which will probably make some people yearn for our simple past and others celebrate our tech-filled future.

New York City and two companies, Cisco Systems and City 24/7, announced today that they're officially commencing their plan to transform those endangered species into 32-inch touch-screen information kiosks, a.k.a. "Smart Screens," around the city, according to GigaOM.

The idea was originally introduced in April and the companies have been testing the pilot project over the last few months. Now, the Smart Screens are officially live and a handful of kiosks are … Read more

With the success of companies like Tumblr, Foursquare, and Kickstarter, New York's startup scene has gotten a lot of attention recently.

But despite the influence of those outfits and venture capitalists like Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson, the Big Apple is a backwater when it comes to the world startup scene, according to a new report from the Startup Genome project.

In the study, New York City came in as just the fifth-ranked startup ecosystem in the world, trailing Silicon Valley, Israel's Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

To come up with its rankings, the Startup Genome -- … Read more

It's hard not to love the New York Times. There's so much "there" there that it's like a lover who has so many facets you can't embrace them all at once.

And yet one of those facets is that the Times is sometimes touchy.

Indeed, it has just engineered the blocking of a Twitter account, ostensibly because it doesn't enjoy the idea of the account having an avatar that includes the Times' legendary 't' -- which is something of a trademark.

For some, this might appear to be a storm in a t-cup. … Read more