The growing relationship between Sharp and Apple that was revealed last week put to bed conjecture whether Apple’s next leap might be into television.  It is.  And that leaves an open question:

Has Apple gone mad?

The profit margin on TV’s is razor thin at best. In 2007 the average screen sold for $982; this year it’s $545 and, in many cases, TVs are a loss leader for electronics retailers (you make money on the cables, you know).  Apple has always been about margin and their phones, computers and tablets have had a much higher profit then just about anyone …

By Lou Covey
Editorial Director, Footwasher Media

Is learning from the past the key to the future, as philosopher Georges Santayana believed?  A former Lockheed-Martin CEO thinks so.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Norm Augustine, an IEEE Fellow who served as Lockheed-Martin’s CEO  from 1996 to 1997, said that the problem with US education is not a lack of focus on science and engineering, or even economics, but on history and communication skills.

Taking aim at STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education is a well-worn road for industry executives and gets fairly big headlines.

Earlier this …

By Lou Covey
Editorial Director for Footwasher Media

The web is awash with reviews of the Kindle Fire, many positive (some scathingly negative), and the comparisons to the iPad are just as plentiful.  The question that keeps coming up, however, is the Fire a game changer in the tablet war?  Probably not for Apple, but probably in the Android world and definitely in the remains of RIM’s empire.

In the iPad comparison, the Fire is the inexpensive, entry-level tablet for noobs.  At $199  it is better than half the price of the iPad, which means people who want …

New Tech Press Managing Editor Joe Basques interviews Jean Labrosse on the RTOS company’s new relationship with Newark/Element14, and Micrium’s climbing status among engineers, according to the UBM/EETimes Embedded Market Survey.

Sponsored by Element14.…

By Lou Covey
Editorial Director, Footwasher Media

The recent collapse of a few high-profile solar energy companies, like Solyndra and Beacon Power, has caused even the most ardent fans of alternative energy to ask, “Can this industry survive?”  The answer is a resounding, yes and no.  It all depends on what government on all levels does.

Current public impressions of the health of any industry are colored by recent history.  The financial failings of companies and industries considered “to big to fail” are what most people think of when hearing news about solar.  But unlike the auto industry, with …