Think You Can Drive a Bulldozer? Fearing Shortage of Skilled Operators, Machinery Makers Add Auto-Pilot Technologies

August 26, 2013, 9:12 p.m. ET

Think You Can Drive a Bulldozer?

Fearing Shortage of Skilled Operators, Machinery Makers Add Auto-Pilot Technologies

JAMES R. HAGERTY

As experienced bulldozer drivers retire, heavy equipment manufacturers are including technology in new models to make precise earth-moving easier. This Komatsu bulldozer has a ‘machine control’ system that uses GPS to program movements around a work site.

CARTERSVILLE, Ga.—As he closed the door, leaving me alone at the controls of a 41,000-pound bulldozer with list price of nearly $432,000, a Komatsu Ltd.6301.TO -1.16% executive shouted, “No worries!” That’s when I started sweating. Typing I can do—blindfolded, if necessary. But mechanical flair has always eluded me. I recently had to ask a neighbor to help me start a lawn mower. Even so, Komatsu assured me that technological advances would allow me to learn the basics of dozing in a couple of hours. Dozers are used to smooth ground for roads and runways or shape the contours of building sites and golf courses. They are among the trickier types of heavy machinery to operate because drivers must shave huge mounds of earth to precise contours, often while perched on hillsides or mired in mud. Unlike excavators, dozers typically are in motion as they move earth. Read more of this post

Ballmer Departure From Microsoft Was More Sudden Than Portrayed by the Company

Ballmer Departure From Microsoft Was More Sudden Than Portrayed by the Company

Published on August 25, 2013
by Kara Swisher

According to sources close to the situation, the departure of CEO Steve Ballmer from Microsoft last week was more sudden than was depicted by the company in itsannouncement that he would be retiring within the next year in a planned smooth transition. It was neither planned nor as smooth as portrayed. While the decision to go seems to have technically been Ballmer’s, interviews with dozens of people inside and outside the company, including many close to the situation, indicate that he had not aimed to leave this soon and especially after the recent restructuring of the company that he had intensely planned. Instead, sources said Ballmer’s timeline had been moved up drastically — first by him and then the nine-member board, including his longtime partner and Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates — after all agreed that it was best if he left sooner than later. Read more of this post

Why New York tech is still lagging

Why New York tech is still lagging

By Jessi Hempel, writer August 26, 2013: 5:00 AM ET

Tech is big in New York — but the alley still ain’t the valley. Here’s our annual report card.

FORTUNE — Last May when Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer paid $1.1 billion in cash to buy Tumblr, New York techies cheered. Finally! A New York startup exits for more than a billion dollars! This hasn’t happened since Doubleclick sold to Google in 2007. And it is one of the signs people look for in determining whether the tech scene is robust enough to rival Silicon Valley. Read more of this post

Tesla Market Value Rises to $20 Billion on EV Optimism

Tesla Market Value Rises to $20 Billion on EV Optimism

Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)’s market value exceeded $20 billion on investor optimism that Elon Musk can keep widening the appeal of electric-powered cars as the company’s sales increase. The stock climbed 5.7 percent to a $171.03 at 12:02 p.m. New York time after reaching an intraday record of $172.75. Shares of the Palo Alto, California-based company, which had its initial public offering just three years ago, have surged about fivefold this year.

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Facebook Market Value Tops $100 Billion Amid Mobile Push

Facebook Market Value Tops $100 Billion Amid Mobile Push

Facebook Inc. (FB)’s market value passed $100 billion amid optimism that the world’s largest social network can bolster sales from mobile advertising.

The stock increased 2.6 percent to $41.61 at 12:45 p.m. in New York. Earlier, it touched $41.94, the highest intraday price since Facebook’s first trading day on May 18, 2012. Before today, the shares had advanced 52 percent this year, compared with a 17 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Read more of this post

Behold, the biggest threat to email: Mobile chat?

Behold, the biggest threat to email: Mobile chat

BY HAMISH MCKENZIE 
ON AUGUST 26, 2013

Many tech observers have predicted the demise of email – or wished for it to come as soon as possible. That assumption is predicated on the idea that because email is almost as old as the Internet itself, it must be outmoded. Those predictions have never come to pass, even as our digital habits have shifted to mobile, which, with its smaller screens and pokier keyboards, are less email-friendly. In fact, we’re busy hungrilydevouring email on our mobile devices. Read more of this post

Taiwan’s Kinpo-Compal-CalComp unveils US$499 3D printer

Kinpo unveils US$499 3D printer

CNA

2013-08-27

A local Taiwanese electronics conglomerate Kinpo Group unveiled Monday a three-dimensional printer priced as low as US$499 to tap into what it calls a promising industry. The 3D printer dubbed the da Vinci will carry the brand name of XYZprinting, a joint venture by two Kinpo subsidiaries: Kinpo Electronics and Cal-Comp Electronics and Communications. Read more of this post

Xiaomi Pulls a Knife, Sword on Electronics Industry

08.26.2013 16:26

Closer Look: Xiaomi Pulls a Knife, Sword on Electronics Industry

Young smartphone maker is apparently preparing to unveil new gadgets, but more than that it is aiming at nothing short of supremacy in its field

By staff reporter Zhu Yishi

(Beijing) – Three-year-old smartphone maker Xiaomi Mobile Internet Co. is again in the spotlight as it draws closer to the debut of much-awaited electronic gadgets. The firm has sent out numerous letters inviting people to attend a press conference on September 5. Printed on the letters are a unique sword and knife, a clear reference to a novel that every Chinese person with the slightest interest in kung fu probably gets. He who owns the sword or the knife can rule the kingdom, or so the novel says. If anything speaks more loudly than ever of Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun’s ambition for industry supremacy, this is it. Read more of this post

From Intern to VP: Meet Baidu’s 29-Year-Old Boss of Mobile and Cloud Division of $49 Billion Company

From Intern to VP: Meet Baidu’s 29-Year-Old Boss of Mobile

By Lulu Yilun Chen – Aug 25, 2013

For Baidu, a company where the average age of its 21,000 employees is 26, promoting a 29-year-old to vice president may not seem like a big deal. Mark Zuckerberg, after all, is that age. But Li Mingyuan, who began at the company in 2004 as an intern, last month became the youngest vice president ever of China’s largest search engine. And he’s taking on no small task: head of the mobile and cloud division for a company worth $49 billion. Read more of this post

eJiajie: Location-based Housekeeping App

eJiajie: Location-based Housekeeping App

By Emma Lee on August 26, 2013

eJiajie is a location-based housekeeping app developed by the team of taxi app Dididache, which makes inroads to a new field after the government put curbs on the taxi app sector. With more than 3,000 registered housekeepers, eJiajie enables users to get quick access to housekeepers near their homes (source in Chinese). eJiajie charges 39 yuan ($6.32) for two hours, allegedly the lowest in Beijing city. A star-rating system was established for the service of each housekeeper. Housekeepers with higher ratings will get a higher service charge. eJiajie will buy insurance policies in case housekeepers accidentally broke something in clients’ homes. eJiajie charges housekeepers 300 yuan to 600 yuan of annual fee, promising to offer more than 200 orders a year. The company planned to include confinement care, elder care and babysitting to the business lineup. In addition, it also plans to train housekeepers. (source in Chinese).

China UnionPay considers direct interface for collecting payments and majority of third party payment providers would start losing their profits

China UnionPay considers direct interface for collecting payments

Staff Reporter

2013-08-27

Total online payments in China in 2014 are projected to touch 8 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion) and the billions generated in credit card transaction fees are expected to trigger an intense competition. When a purchase is made at an online shop worth 100 yuan (US$16) via credit card through Alipay on an e-commerce site like Taobao, the store has to pay 1 yuan (US$0.16) to the bank in lieu of a service fee. The distribution of that single yuan per transaction between the card issuing banks, payment processors and cleaning houses has created a battle for profits. China UnionPay wants to set up a direct interface that will allow it to collect payments itself. As a result, a majority of third party payment providers would start losing their profits, reports Shanghai’s First Financial Daily. Read more of this post