The Neatest Nanotech of 2005

Welcome to VC Cafe. If you’re new around here, you may want to subscribe to our feed and get daily updates for FREE. Technology Review picks five important advances in nanotechnology and materials science in 2005 — and one policy issue that could decide the future of the entire field.
Source: Technology Review
Harvesting Energy from the [...]

NY Times: Israel hi-tech booming

According to The New York Times, Israel’s hi-tech industry has had its best year in nearly half a decade, and is heading toward a full recovery after the dot-com implosion and outbreak of the intifada in 2000, YNET reported.
Source: YNET
It seems that 2005 was the best year for Israel’s hi-tech industry since the dot-com implosion [...]

Venture Capital investments in Israel in 2005

Israel is a powerhouse of ingenuity and innovation, boasting the largest number of startups in the world per capita.The abundance of startup companies in Israel is an outgrowth of the country’s high concentration of engineers in its workforce and government encouragement of entrepreneurship. Israeli high-tech has been made famous for startup innovations such as Internet [...]

Think away the pain

Pain can be mysterious, untreatable and debilitating, and its causes can be unknown. But if you could see the pain — or, at least, your brain’s reaction to it — you might be able to master it.
Source: Wired News
A study from researchers at Stanford University and MRI technology company Omneuron suggests that’s possible, and the [...]

Microsoft’s new TV stopping patent

Microsoft’s long running request for an interactive TV patent has been granted, reports The Register. The patent, which Microsoft originally applied for in 1993, enables the company to develop and market technology that allows television viewers to pause programmes to follow on-screen hyperlinks and participate in games, chat rooms and other interactive services.
Source: PhysOrg.comThe [...]

Israeli firms behind cell phone software to aid vision impaired

Two Israeli companies are behind the technology of U.S. company Nuance Communications’ new software that enables the vision impaired to have easy access to cell phones.
Source: Haaretz
Nuance is utilizing the technologies of two firms it acquired – ART and Phonetic Systems – to substantially increase the size of on-screen content on handheld mobile devices, [...]

Rafael’s Airbag Protection for Helicopters Proves Maximum Survivability

The REAPS (Rotorcraft External Airbag Protection System) developed by RAFAEL Armament Development Authority Ltd. successfully performed in a series of tests last month as part of Phase II of the Concept and Technology Demonstration program contracted by the US Navy.
Source: RAFAEL (Armament Development Authority)
The REAPS, is a one-of-a kind external airbag system, attached under the [...]

Japan devotes billions to keeping edge in science

Japan will budget 215 billion dollars over five years to maintain its reputation as a scientific powerhouse amid fears it is losing its technological edge, officials said.
Source: Physorg
Japan’s Nobel laureates and the Japan Business Federation had launched a campaign to press the government for the funding despite a cost-cutting drive under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. [...]

Stupid Investment of the Week

Chuck Jaffe of MarketWatch discourages average investors from investing in today’s early nano fund:

“It’s not that nanotechnology is a bad business or that exchange-tradedfunds are a poor idea. It’s that the combination of the two, at this point intime, can’t deliver what investors like Roger really want, namely an intensefocus on this emerging technology.”

BOSTON (MarketWatch) [...]

Hotwiring Your Search Engine

Google a topic, and the results are based on popularity, right? Wrong. Inside the shadowy world of ‘SEOs.Source: Newsweek (By Brad Stone)
Dec. 19, 2005 issue – Three years ago, the web site of Oppedisano’s Bootery, an 81-year-old shoe store in the amiable upstate village of Honeoye Falls, N.Y., was receiving a scant 100 visitors a [...]

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      VC Café covers early stage startups, innovative technologies and venture capital news with a spotlight on Israel. Started in 2005 by Eze Vidra, VC Café has been featured on the Wall Street Journal and ranked as one of the top 100 VC blogs.