Business

For a long time, apartment hunting was quite the ordeal, and anyone seeking a new place to live had to drive around looking for yard signs, sort through cryptic classified ads, and play phone tag with landlords and property managers.Thankfully, the times are a changin'.Mobile app startup companies, online real estate heavy hitters, and even good ol' local listing firms are preparing to streamline the fragmented business of apartment advertising and hunting, hoping to make it more reliable for landlords and property managers as well as more user-friendly for prospective tenants. The goal is to transform a thriving business -- nearly 2.3 million households rent apartments, rather than own their home, in Los Angeles and Orange Counties -- into a modern, successful marketplace, making the p...

Haptics, or touch feedback technology, has changed rapidly over the course of the past few years. Now, the Bristol Interaction and Graphics group has developed technology that can create an invisible 3D haptic shape using ultrasound, which can be both seen and felt. The research paper, which has been published in the current issue of ACM Transactions on Graphics, describes how a new device sends out complex patterns of ultrasound waves. By focusing the ultrasound waves and creating air disturbances, the device creates haptic feedback in mid-air. The system also generates an invisible 3D shape. In other words, the new device is a projector that can create floating, 3D shapes, which can also be touched. The researchers believe that this new device could change the way people use 3D shapes...

Sure, Stanford's Linear Accelerator Laboratory has produced some of the most important work on particle physics, and sure, work there has earned three Nobel Prizes in Physics, but Gizmodo recently shined some light on one of the lab's most important contributions to modern scientific achievement -- it hosted the very first web site in the United States. Despite the popular legend that Al Gore invented the Internet, it was really the product of English computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The idea for what would eventually reshape the way humans communicated and interacted with each other came to Berners-Lee while he worked at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research located in France. In 1989, he proposed the idea of the web, and two years later, he'd go on to publish the ...

The solar energy takeover might be possible sooner than we think, according to a new report out of the Environment America Research and Policy Center. Even though solar panel technology is the environmentally friendly answer to more traditional energy solutions that consume limited resources and damage the environment, Americans have been slow to adopt solar energy systems. High installation costs are often blamed, along with a lack of government support. However, the new report claims that the United States "has the potential to produce more than 100 times as much electricity from solar PV and concentrating solar power (CSP) installations as the nation consumes each year." It adds that every state could use solar power to generate more electricity than residents currently consume. The ...

Coffee is the world’s second-most-traded commodity (after oil), and California growers are now making moves that could leave the continental U.S. more than just a consumer in that equation. “Though it's not a traditional region for growing coffee, California is playing an increasingly big role in the future of this beloved and lucrative crop,” NPR reports in a Nov. 12 article. Jay Ruskey, of Good Land Organics, is using some of his farmland outside Santa Barbara to experiment with growing coffee among avocado trees and passionfruit plants, making him the first grower in the lower 48 states to attempt a commercial coffee crop. The University of California Cooperative Extension helped Ruskey plant his coffee five years ago, and he and his crew are now harvesting several varieties th...

Social media platforms allow anyone and everyone to communicate and exchange ideas, opinions, and news with a broad audience -- the entire world. We are now able to communicate in ways and at speeds we never though possible. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube have helped many people launch their careers and become overnight sensations. In addition, they allow professionals to easily self-promote, network, and research professional contacts. However, not all professions are created equal. Maintaining a strong online presence and engaging in social media is a marketing must-have for many businesses. On the other hand, lawyers and legal professionals who engage in social media face several ethical challenges. Earlier this year, the American Bar Associat...

A new study of auto maintenance shops by Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook reveals that while auto repair prices may vary widely for a variety of reasons, price doesn't correlate to quality in any measurable way. “Checkbook found no relationship between the prices shops charge and the quality of their work. There are many top-quality, low-price shops,” reads the Oct. 31 report published on SFGate (part of The San Francisco Chronicle). The organization used secret shoppers to obtain more than 2,000 quotes for specific repairs from auto shops in the San Francisco area. Quotes varied quite widely from shop to shop. Replacing a water pump on a 2007 Camry XLE was priced between $410 and $1,809; replacing an alternator on a 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT ranged between $500 and $900. Non-dealer sho...

In spite of some recent security setbacks, the market for point-of-sale terminals is set to keep growing, as new payment technology becomes more integrated. This data comes from a new report released by Grand View Research, a business consulting firm. According to the report titled “Global Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminals Market Analysis Size And Segment Forecasts To 2020,” the adoption of near-field communication (NFC) and cloud technology for payments will boost the market for POS terminals. NFC is the technology that allows users with chip-enabled cards or digital wallets to pay wirelessly just by waving their phone or card near a payment terminal. According to a recent story aired on Good Morning America, 70% of card users will be upgraded to cards with chips by 2015. Both chip-embedde...

The owner of the New York Knicks is embroiled in a legal battle this month, after the National Labor Relations Board charged him with breaking federal labor laws. When he's not working with the Knicks, owner James Dolan serves as the CEO of Cablevision, a New York-based telecommunications company which is currently under scrutiny. He replaced his father as CEO in 1995 and also owns Madison Square Garden, the New York Rangers Hockey Team and the MSG Network, which airs games from both teams. The NLRB claims that Dolan threatened the company's Brooklyn technicians with withheld pay increases if they didn't vote themselves out of their union, the Communications Workers of America. Dolan is also accused of sponsoring a poll to determine whether the technicians wanted to leave the union, whic...

The street light industry has a surprising new player as of Nov. 7: German automaker BMW. The company announced it has created two prototypes for a street light that can also serve as a charging station for electric cars. These “Light and Charge” lamps use ultra-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) along with the charger, in order to provide a two-for-one energy benefit without expensive modifications to underground power lines. "Seamless charging infrastructure is essential if we want to see more electric vehicles on the road in our cities in the future," said Peter Schwarzenbauer, a BMW board member, on why BMW had taken on the development project. A pilot program will be implemented in Munich next year using existing street lights, and BMW says it hopes they will have them complete...