Free Photoshop, no way

People in publishing are plagued with a particular dilemma. Adobe’s design software — Flash, Illustrator, In Design, Dreamweaver and Photoshop — is the best out there, but it comes with a four-figure license fee.
Today, Adobe threw us a bone. The company released a free, Web-based photo editing platform called Photoshop Express to compete with other [...]

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Gadget junkies, your HD-DVD player is junk

With “The Consumer” Long Island’s likely mascot, it’s fair to say many local residents bought an HD-DVD player not knowing if it would win or lose its battle with rival high-definition DVD format Blue-ray.
It lost. And now you have a useless device.
Thankfully, top tech blog Gizmodo has a few suggestions on what you can do [...]

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A look at the Audiovox booth

Hauppauge-based Audiovox Corp. is down in Las Vegas for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, and though its devices aren’t as breathtaking as some of the other companies’ wares — like both Sony and Samsung’s super-thin LCD screens — thare are some pretty cool tech toys coming from Long Island.
Audiovox, which owns the RCA brand is [...]

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Nice, but not that nice

The renovation of Nassau County’s historic Mineola courthouse may have been a bit too overzealous, considering the project is funded by taxpayers.
According to a brief on WNBC.com, lawmakers are upset about 19 new, 32-inch liquid crystal display televisions installed in the legislators’ offices, each costing $1,000.
And it seems even Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi was [...]

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A use for those old appliances

Before you toss that old 8-track player, consider this: That outdated appliance could fetch you a few extra bucks. Or not, since 8-tracks aren’t that old … but a Mixmaster?
APWagner.com, an appliance repair tips Web site, launched a contest to find the oldest working, or non-working, appliance, in either the United State or Canada.
The winner [...]

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Nolan’s a fan of GPS

By installing global-positioning systems in government vehicles, municipalities can not only keep an eye on their employees, they can cut down on gas charges too.
Ask Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan. His staunch support of the measure is being featured in an Associated Press story, which is making the rounds in new organizations across the country, about [...]

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One crazy controller hits Tiger Direct

Video games aren’t kids stuff anymore. From free online games, which have become the refuge of the corporate time waster, and Nintendo’s interactive Wii console, a holy grail of sorts for adults looking to interact with their pristine LCD or plasma high-definition television sets, video games are ageless, and the technology is only getting more [...]

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Research Frontiers gets smart in Tokyo

Woodbury-based Research Frontiers has taken its show on the road. The maker of smart-glass technology, which allows people to electronically change the amount of light or heat that a window lets through, was showcased on Japanese bus maker Hino Motors‘ concept motorcoach at the Tokyo Motor Show.
The news was actually picked up by top technology [...]

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Are you a video game trickster?

Machinima, the process of making movies out of your video games, is gaining popularity as an art form and Bethpage-based Cablevision is out to help those sore-thumbed artists.
The company’s video-on-demand channel Lifeskool is holding a contest to find the best machinima of an in-game trick.
The prize is $1,000 and a trip to New York.
From [...]

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Precision only a robot could have

If you’re planning on having surgery at Stony Brook Hospital, chances are a robot will do the cutting.
The Suffolk hospital last week unveiled the da Vinci SHD Surgical System, a robot that has greater accuracy and can assure smaller incisions, making recovery time shorter. According to a Daily News story, Stony Brook becomes the first [...]

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Turn down the Wi-Fi

The Federal Communications Commission has turned down a request from a California company hoping to use an unused radio spectrum to offer free Internet service through much of the United States.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based M2Z Networks said it wanted to build the wireless network out within 10 years. Some elected officials supported the plan to [...]

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Hey, Lead Zepplinn … you’re fined

Recording artists, worry not … governor steam cleaner is on your side.
Eliot Spitzer announced today he has signed the Truth in Music Advertising Law, legislation that protects musical groups from being victimized by impersonators.
The order, which amends the state’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, prohibits people from copying bands by invoking similar names and distributing [...]

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E-ZPass will sell out cheaters

Freeway tolls-on-credit provider E-ZPass won’t turn a blind eye to adultery, rather, the service will turn you in the first chance it gets.
According to an Associated Press story, which I was directed to by our sister blog in Virginia, E-ZPass will provide toll information on a client if a court case requests it. That includes [...]

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No Segways on the sidewalk

Two-wheeled wonder scooters have changed mall patrols forever, but do we really want these Segways clogging up our sidewalks? It’s bad enough when a stranger steps on your foot.
Environmental organizations the Adirondack Council, American Lung Association of New York State, Citizens Campaign for the Environment and the New York Public Interest Research Group all [...]

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Audiovox releases new XM receiver

Audiovox Corp. has had to release some new satellite radio receivers since the Federal Communications Commission’s crack-down on a few of its tuners.
The latest is its CommanderMT, an new unit that you can install in any vehicle that has a radio tuner. The CommanderMT looks like another car radio, but unlike the old receivers, which [...]

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The Associated Press used me

The Associated Press this weekend used my name to make a point I completely disagree with.
A few weeks ago, Deborah Yao, a writer for the esteemed news service, contacted me about my FiOS experience. She had read my The FiOS Affair blog series and she was interested in what happened during Verizon’s installation of its [...]

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Back for seconds

For a London-based facility, one upright magnetic resonance imaging machine is just not enough.
Melville-based upright MRI maker Fonar Corp. today trumpeted London Upright MRI’s second purchase of a Fonar machine.
That makes eight Fonar stand-up machines sold and shipped to Europe.
From the statement:

Mr. St. John Brown, Managing Director of the London Upright [...]

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LI iPhoners, sound off

Did anyone out there pick up Apple’s new iPhone over the weekend? If so, we’d love some early reviews, as it seems Apple forgot to mail the LI Biz Blog one for reviewing purposes.
Is the phone/ipod/PDS, as Apple suggests, indeed better than sliced bread?
Has anyone out there had trouble activating the phone through AT&T?
It seems [...]

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Visions of robo-cops

There’s something about high technology mixing with law enforcement that invokes images of 1984, Big Brother, movies like Minority Report and, of course, RoboCop. But the reality is, tech is changing how all of us work, including law enforcement.
On Long Island the Long Beach Police Department is making a major tech push. The officers began [...]

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Is it Mac or PC for LI’s bizpeople?

Readers of LI Biz Blog are most likely members of the business community, and most likely plugged into all sorts of technology. But what kinds?
Let’s inventory the tech we hold dear.
First, is it Mac or PC?
And Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile?
Vista or XP?
Blackberries?
iPod or Zune?
Firefox or Explorer?
Plasma, LCD or DLP?
Gateway or Dell?
Write a brief rundown [...]

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Got an old iPod?

Rather than throwing out those vintage non-color, non-photo, non-video iPods, a Selden retail company wants you to recycle the devices.
The Gadget Locker.com said it launched a “green” initiative that will pay anyone who sends their iPod to the company for recycling $20 in store credit.
The online retailer, which also runs a shop in Selden and [...]

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Remember Bill Nuti?

Do you remember Bill Nuti, the former chief executive of Holtsville-based Symbol Technologies? (I guess I should have asked if you remember Symbol, since the bar code giant is now owned and run as a division of Motorola.)
Nuti skipped town before Motorola sunk its teeth into Symbol to run another electronics giant, Dayton, Ohio-based NCR [...]

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Hey, we’re talking here

The newest edition of LI Bizcast, the official podcast of Long Island Business News, is live with an inside look at this week’s top business stories.
First, reporter Dawn Wotapka Hardesty makes her last appearance on LI Bizcast with a report on how downtown Bay Shore is cleaning up, and growing.
And, yes, she’s leaving, but we’ll [...]

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Stop, it’s the police-on-wheels

Rent-a-cops may have made a real impression on the real cops.
The Long Beach Police department said it will put a few of its finest on Segways, the self balancing, two-wheeled scooters-of-the-future you’ve seen so many times in Long Island malls.
The department will use the devices on the boardwalk.
From the 1010 Wins story:

Long Beach police will [...]

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A la carte cable, good or bad

If you’re like me, there are maybe 50 out of the hundreds of channels offered by your cable provider that you watch regularly, maybe 30 you stumble on once a month and at least 100 you’ve never tuned to in your life.
So why not a la carte pricing?
According to a Reuters story, the chairman of [...]

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Comverse blocks a director shot

Oliver Press Partners, a shareholder in New York-based Comverse Technology, in mid-April filed a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a special meeting to elect Comverse directors.
Comverse has not held a shareholder meeting since June 16, 2005. That may be because ongoing fraud investigations and a stock market delisting made it tough to [...]

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The VAR Guy believes in CA

It’s no doubt been a bumpy road for CA Inc., the tech firm formerly known as Computer Associates, fraud capital of Islandia, but the company may have finally hit some pavement. At least, that’s the opinion of one tech blogger.
The VAR Guy, Joe Panettieri, says CA is transformed, and he gives a few reasons why.
From [...]

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Audiovox to release new batch for XM

Audiovox has had a topsy-turvy relationship with satellite radio provider XM. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission shelved a few of the company’s receivers because they failed to meet electronic emission standards.
But the Hauppauge-based electronics maker has returned with a new set of receivers.
According to a post on Engadget, which first found out about the [...]

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LIPA scores tech award

It’s easy to bellyache over electric rates, but in the eyes of a few energy industry experts, the Long Island Power Authority is ahead of the curve when it comes to technology.
The Houston-based Peak Load Management Alliance presented a 2006 Demand Response Award to our local power authority in the Innovative Application of Technology [...]

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CA World 2007, in case you missed it

Local tech and software firm CA Inc. held its big event, CA World 2007, this weekend at Las Vegas and the company’s current captain pointed to a sort-of IT yoga as the way of the future.
CA chief executive John Swainson in his keynote said corporate information technology systems need to tighten up governance and security, [...]

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