Sarah Evelyn Harvey

Think twice before you throw out those leftovers—or maybe even take a picture. Globally, one-third of all food is wasted—1.3 billion tons of food in total. The U.S. alone trashes 40 percent of what it could consume, and much of this comes from the food service industry itself (which loses between $8 and $20 billion through food waste every year). Luckily, Andrew Shackman and his 10-year-old company, LeanPath, has found a way to change the way food service industry thinks about waste.

Are MOOCs all they’re cracked up to be? Over the past few years, the merits of massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been fiercely debated; some argue that they will radically expand and democratize higher education, while others say the hype is overrated. Unfortunately, early results have been disappointing, the New York Times reports. A study released this month by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education found that only about half of those who registered ever viewed a lecture, with only about 4 percent completing a course.

In last week’s New York Times, Daniel Yergin gave readers three possible energy landscapes for 2030: a climate-friendly redesign, a renewable ideal, and a troubled, coal-reliant outlook. He admits that the rapidly changing energy industry makes it nearly impossible to predict our energy future. But scenarios “help to identify what seems to be predetermined,” he says, while also highlighting driving forces and big uncertainties. Which future would you like to see? And how do we harness the innovative thinking necessary to get there?

The Labor Department has estimated that there will be 1.4 million job openings for computer-related occupations this decade. On the heels of less-than-stellar jobs numbers, this should be welcome news to millennials planning their career paths. But, as Catherine Rampell wrote in this week’s New York Times Magazine, few young women are choosing the computer science field, despite its potential for high incomes and flexibility. Why is this? Rampell suggests that computer science has a “public-image problem,” and there aren’t enough narratives of successful women in the field.

Airbnb hosts in New York are fighting back against policymakers who are trying to rein in the sharing economy. Last week the New York Attorney General subpoenaed the records of all New York Airbnb hosts, and the community is not happy. Recently Airbnb has been working with officials to clarify complicated rental regulations. But now they are “fighting the subpoena with all we’ve got,” wrote Global Head of Community Douglas Atkin in an email sent to New Yorkers on Monday.

In a setback for the sharing economy, the Office of the New York Attorney General has issued a subpoena demanding data about all Airbnb hosts in New York, The Wall Street Journal reports. Airbnb announced in a blog post that they are fighting this “unreasonably broad” demand from the Attorney General. The company recently made a commitment to clarify short-term rental laws, work with city leaders to ensure that the Airbnb hosts pay applicable taxes, and weed out the few “bad actors” among their community.

When Randy Engler and his wife started renting out their two homes using Airbnb, they soon realized it was hard to provide a high level of hospitality to their guests, especially while away. Engler, who has a background in Internet companies and an enthusiasm for the sharing economy, saw an opportunity: build an online service that takes care of cleaning, key exchange, and other rental logistics. The company he created, Proprly, supports rental markets for Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO in NYC and Brooklyn.

A New York City Airbnb host has won an appeal with the New York City Environmental Control Board after being fined for renting out a room in his apartment, Airbnb reported on its Public Policy Blog. The Board reversed Nigel Warren’s $2,400 fine, delivering a major victory for Airbnb and the entire sharing economy. Airbnb is “a global community marketplace that connects travelers seeking authentic, high-quality accommodations with hosts who offer unique places to stay.” Unfortunately, many cities do not allow these temporary rentals. But Warren and Airbnb were able to successfully argue that as long as a permanent occupant is present during the stay, it does not violate New York law.

“It took the U.S. and Europe 150 years to go through the Industrial Revolution. Now, you can go through your own personal industrial revolution in 90 days.” At least that’s what TechShop CEO Mark Hatch told Yahoo! Small Business writer Adrienne Burke (also a regular contributor to Techonomy). TechShop is a membership-based DIY workshop with six locations around the country, each with about $1 million worth of advanced machinery and software. Members pay just $125 dollars for monthly access to a plethora of design, prototyping, and manufacturing tools.

We have seen a glorified yet apprehensive vision of the future in literature and film for years, from Jules Verne to “The Jetsons.” These fictional portrayals of the future suggest that while new inventions and computers will make our lives easier, there are risks involved—especially as computers become more and more humanlike. Today this fiction is almost a reality. “Rise of the Machines,” a documentary that aired last week on CNBC, explores the risks and rewards of the very real Internet of Things, where machines speak to each other and us to solve problems and make our world smarter.

Kathy Cheng is used to walkable cities. She grew up near New York and went to college in Cambridge, Mass. Now she finds herself driving in the Motor City, as a Venture for America (VFA) fellow working at a startup in downtown Detroit. Cheng talked to Techonomy about the VFA program, adapting to Detroit, and helping the city thrive.

When Chelsea Koglmeier left Cincinnati after high school, she never thought she would return to live in her home city. But barely a year after college graduation, she’s back, working for a company that makes a mobile app for planning road trips. Koglmeier is a fellow at Venture for America, a program that places bright college grads at startups in struggling cities. Techonomy spoke with Koglmeier about creating social impact, diving into startup culture, and seeing her home city in a new light.

In recent years many educators have endorsed the benefits of video games in learning, both for younger students and at the university level. But now brain scientists have discovered that a multitasking video game can also improve the short-term and long-term focus of older adults, The New York Times reports. The study found that some people as old as 80 even showed neurological patterns of 20-year-olds after playing the game, which involved swerving around cars while simultaneously picking out road signs.

There’s a new kind of journalism coming from the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The Mídia Ninja is a collective of volunteer citizen journalists who are using smartphones and cameras to record and live-stream street protests in Brazil. And as its influence grows, the ninja is setting the agenda for political discontent, The Guardian reports. The Mídia Ninja has used social media to break news stories on police infiltrations, wrongful arrests, and more. In the past few months it has grown to a group of 2,000 collaborators in 100 cities, and it is beating the mainstream media to important stories.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution promising to make their cities more shareable, CollaborativeConsumption.com reports. The Shareable Cities Resolution states that mayors resolve to encourage a better understanding of the sharing economy and create local task forces to review and address regulations that may hinder participation.

What will happen when hackers break into the “Internet of Things”? A growing number of Internet-connected home devices are hitting the market, but two security researchers are warning consumers of potential security breaches, according to MIT Technology Review. These new remotely-managed devices offer convenience and potential energy savings—but are they worth it?

Detroit may be known for its automobile manufacturing, but lately it has seen a burgeoning class of small manufacturers and makers of watches, bicycles, jeans, and other goods. This is happening “just as the country experiences increasing consumption of domestically produced goods,” Crain's Detroit reports. In Detroit, the urban manufacturing resurgence has been guided by organizations like the Detroit Creative Corridor Center, which has expanded its mission beyond creative-industry entrepreneurs.

In the ongoing patent dispute between Samsung and Apple, the White House has finally put its foot down. It squashed a verdict handed down by a U.S. trade court that would have banned the import of some older Apple smartphones and tablets, a ruling that was likely to hurt the U.S. economy, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said. The White House joins the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in arguing that such standard-essential patent cases should rarely lead to a product ban on US territory.

More graduates from Harvard Business School are going into technology, preliminary career data published by the school shows. Technology companies hired 18 percent of MBA graduates from the class of 2013, up from 7 percent in 2008 and 12 percent in 2012. Financial service companies hired only 27 percent of the graduating class, down from 45 percent in 2008 and 35 percent in 2012.

Blerds unite! Blerdeology, a social enterprise to support and engage the black startup and STEM community, is rallying blerds (black nerds) across the country with its “Blerd’s Night Out Tour.” Blerdology is the first organization to produce hackathons specifically targeting African-Americans, and these summer networking events aim to showcase rising black innovators and engage minority startup ecosystems.

Kids today would rather be mayor than president, Thomas L. Friedman writes in a recent column. “The country looks so much better from the bottom up—from its major metropolitan areas—than from the top down,” he writes, pointing to the partisanship and inefficiencies in federal and state legislatures. Cities, therefore, are the laboratories and engines of our economy—a conclusion reached in a new book by Brookings Institution scholars Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley called “The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy.”

Who needs a computer mouse when you have your hands? The much-anticipated Leap Motion, which brings gesture control to Mac and Windows computers, started shipping this week, ABC News Reports. Much like Kinect for Xbox, Leap Motion (sold for $79.99) enables users to control their computer screens using waves, pokes, reaches, and grabs. After plugging in the small motion-sensing box, users need to download or buy specific apps from Leap’s Airspace Store. Many of the 75 apps currently available are games like Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope. And, although reviewers say the navigation technology is mostly precise, there are still some bugs that need to be worked out.

Technology is not necessarily helping students become better writers, a new study has found. Although technology in the classroom has made students better collaborators, a Pew Research Center study has found that teachers are worried about students using informal texting language and improper citations, the Washington Post reports. While tools like tablets, Google Docs, and blogs have allowed students to more easily work together, nearly 70 percent of teachers think digital tools also make students more likely to “take shortcuts and put less effort into their writing.”

Maybe Millennials aren't as selfish as people think. Some college grads are turning down high salaries in finance and consulting for entry level positions at startups in cities like Detroit, New Orleans, and Baltimore—where they can have an impact on the community while also learning important entrepreneurial skills. They are doing so with the help of Venture for America, a nonprofit that matches highly talented graduates with startup businesses in cities that need an economic boost, The New York Times reports. Founder Andrew Yang says that the program aims to improve talent allocation among bright college graduates. “Promising growth companies, companies that are five years old or less, are the consistent engine of job creation in this country,” he told Techonomy in an interview last fall.

Wearable technology is becoming this season’s fashion must-have. Products like Jawbone and FitBit collect data on calorie expenditures and sleep habits, Under Armour’s Armour 39 tracks athletic training and even claims to measure willpower, and this year’s CeBIT show featured a shirt that could measure heart rate and other biometric signals. The future of wearable technology is “all about creating the superhuman,” said designer and professor of fashion technology Dr. Sabine Seymour in a recent interview with SmartPlanet. Now, what about the superbaby? A New York startup called Pixie Scientific has developed a diaper that can detect possible urinary tract infections, kidney dysfunctions, and dehydration, The New York Times reports.

Software and tablets are allowing baseball players to better prepare for games than ever before, The New York Times reports. About 150 major league players and coaches are paying $700 per season for a subscription to Pitch Review software created by Bloomberg Sports. The program is especially popular among pitchers and catchers, as it aggregates a statistical database and video of every pitch thrown. Each user can have an individualized experience, analyzing their own pitching and hitting or that of opponents and teammates. In the past, players relied on desktop computers in stadiums for such video resources, but this program allows them to watch on the road or in the locker room.

Instagram hasn’t quite figured out how to monetize mobile photo sharing—and the company is currently facing scrutiny about whether Facebook’s acquisition was in the best interest of Instagram investors. But hordes of users have turned Instagram into a profitable business opportunity, building new services on top of the existing platform.

Reporting a crime or life-threatening situation could just be a text message away. Text messages are silent and quick, and are now poised to widen 911 accessibility to millions of Americans with disabilities. Text-to-911 services have been tested in Iowa, North Carolina, and Vermont, saving lives, preventing suicides, and stopping domestic abuse.

The next victims of global warming are America’s skiers and snowboarders. Scientists say that climate change means the nation’s ski centers will eventually vanish, the New York Times reported today. After last winter’s record-breaking warmth, the long-term outlook for winter sporting is bleak.

What can we expect from cloud computing in 2013? Joe McKendrick at Forbes has aggregated a list of analysts’ predictions, including more hosted private clouds, a greater integration of cloud and mobile, and the personal cloud replacing the PC as the location where individuals keep and manage their personal content.

Just in time for the holiday season, Square has launched a new service that lets anyone receive gift cards that can be used at one of the more than 200,000 businesses in Square’s mobile payments system.

Good news for U.S. manufacturing: Apple is bringing some of its computer manufacturing back to the United States, Timothy Cook announced on Thursday. The company plans to spend $100 million in 2013 on producing one of its existing Mac lines in America. Apple is often criticized for outsourcing almost all of its factory work to Asia in the late 1990s.

As we approach a future of electronic, connected, and networked automobiles, will Detroit’s auto industry also evolve? Cars are relying more heavily on electronics (the market for electronic systems is expected to grow from $170 billion in 2011 to $263 billion in 2016), and R&D is adapting appropriately, SmartPlanet reports. The “connected car” of the future will feature entertainment and web connectivity, fuel economy features, and vehicle safety and efficiency improvements—including, for instance, the capability for cars to respond to changes in the environment and act automatically to protect their occupants.

Two Swiss inventors have developed the first solar-powered plane capable of flying at night. The Solar Impulse has already flown multiple overnight flights, including one 72-hour intercontinental journey, and by 2015 they hope to fly around the world in 20 days and 20 nights. The plane’s carbon fiber frame is super lightweight, and 12,000 solar cells make up the surface of its extra-long wings. The engines use almost all of the solar energy captured, with excess energy stored in batteries. One hitch that makes it unlikely that the plane will be used for commercial flights anywhere in the near future: its optimal speed is only 30 mph.

Staples has announced a new service called “Staples Easy 3D” that will allow European customers to upload designs to the Staples website, and then pick up the printed objects at a local store or have them shipped. This is the first time that 3D printing is being offered to the mass market from a chain retailer.

In the month since Superstorm Sandy left millions in the dark, solar power has become an essential part of relief efforts, especially in ravaged areas of Brooklyn and Queens, New York. For instance, a coalition of energy companies called “Solar Sandy” has contributed renewable electricity generators to victims in hardest-hit areas. But can we use solar power to prevent similar blackouts in the future?

What is the biggest threat to jobs in American manufacturing: robots or a skills gap? Many manufacturing jobs are vanishing because of computer-driven machinery, as discussed at Techonomy 2012, and nearly as many jobs have been outsourced. Thus, the industry’s future seems to lie in a new generation of highly skilled manufacturing employees who can run the computer that runs the machine. This means they must have a basic understanding of metallurgy, physics, chemistry, pneumatics, electrical wiring, and computer code.Some say there’s a skills gap, and employees with the right training simply do not exist. But that may not be the whole problem.

Who’s your biggest competition for that new job? Turns out, it could be a robot named Baxter. This humanoid robot, created by Rodney Brooks and his team at Rethink Robotics, is easy to program and costs only $22,000. At the Techonomy conference in Tucson, Ariz., Brooks joined MIT research scientist Andrew McAfee to talk about how robots will change our lives.

Just weeks after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast, climate change was on the forefront of everyone's mind at Techonomy 2012 in Tucson, Ariz. In a session about geo-engineering, Harvard physics professor David Keith and Harvard Kennedy School research fellow Andrew Parker talked about the realistic possibility of reflecting sunlight away from the planet to lower the earth's temperature -- and, more pressing, the complicated political implications of this climate change quick-fix.

The Techonomy 2012 conference outside of Tucson, Ariz. wrapped up with a session featuring two Facebook team members: Sam Lessin, Project Manager, and David Fischer, VP of Business and Marketing Partnerships. Together they explained an ideal future of Facebook where the newsfeed is a perfectly aggregated newspaper and advertising efforts do what traditional print newspapers cannot: make money.

Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple: four Internet companies that are, arguably, the best of the best. They’re global goliaths that leave little room for competitors in a fast-growing online world. At the Techonomy conference outside of Tucson, Ariz., an afternoon panel explored why these companies succeed, how they can keep growing, and whether they are stifling innovation.

As a go-to search engine and powerful online advertiser, Google has great influence over online consumers. But is this influence illegal? As Google has moved beyond search and search advertising and into online commerce and local reviews, antitrust officials have become suspicious. Regulators in the U.S. and Europe are conducting inquiries into whether Google is using its power to stifle competition—specifically whether the company uses its search engines to favor offerings like Google Shopping and Google Plus Local over rivals.

Can tablet computers educate the world? In two Ethiopian villages, illiterate children with no schooling are quickly learning their ABCs—and more—with Motorola Xoom tablets provided by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. OLPC is experimenting to see if the children can teach themselves to read by playing around with the tablet and its preloaded educational apps and games. So far, the program has been a success—the children quickly figured out how to turn on and use the tablets, and within five days they were using 47 apps per child, per day. They retained information from the apps, and even customized their tablet desktops (working around OLPC software set up to prevent them from doing so). While the study is still in its early phases, these results confirm that technology will be an invaluable resource for educating the uneducated.

As companies adopt cloud computing solutions, CIOs universally report positive results. But what about their bosses, employees, partners, and customers? Are they finding cloud computing efforts to be beneficial? According to Andi Mann, vice president for strategic solutions at CA Technologies, business executives are not as excited as IT about cloud computing. Companies must realize that the cloud does more than cut costs.

Who says Facebook isn’t making any money? On Tuesday afternoon Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is making $3 million per day in revenue from Facebook’s flagship mobile ad product, Sponsored Stories. Add in the revenue from Sponsored Stories on desktop and the figure rises to $4 million per day.

Forget the Wall Street Journal or The Economist—according to Business Insider, the most powerful business journalist on the Internet is Dan Roth, the executive editor of LinkedIn. Roth oversees and aggregates LinkedIn Today, which brings top headlines to the site's 175 million-plus members.

Every night around 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Michael Lazerow eats dinner with his family. Usually this means sitting down in his New York City apartment with his wife and three children. But sometimes, when the Buddy Media CEO is traveling for business, he sits on the table instead of in a chair.

Near the end of last night’s presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley asked President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney a common question: How do you convince companies like Apple to bring manufacturing back to America? Unfortunately, both candidates flubbed their answers, AllThingsD’s Arik Hesseldahl argues. Romney simply talked about Chinese currency manipulation and intellectual property […]

Is technology ruining our teenagers? Today’s teens are constantly staring at screens of smartphones, iPods, tablets, computers and TVs. And the consequences are problematic, psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman has found. Teens’ addiction to gadgets is wrecking their attention spans, triggering depression, and creating a sedentary lifestyle that is linked to heart disease, strokes and diabetes. Not to mention contributing to global warming, SmartPlanet reports. Obviously technology is doing the world a lot of good—but how do we harness tech without turning our children into mush?

This presidential campaign has taken social media to a new level, expanding beyond Facebook and Twitter and into the world of Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, and Spotify. Both camps are reaching out to young voters by employing online tactics, from GIFs to pics. But is Ann Romney’s patriotic cake recipe on Pinterest or the Obama-Biden Spotify playlist enough to woo important swing votes? Both campaigns seem to believe that the more online action, the better.

A new $10 million federal program is bringing “hackerspaces” to high schools, the New York Times reports. Hackerspaces are community groups for hackers to build and invent technology (and take things apart). They are considered incubators for innovation and a major part of the DIY movement—but the high school program has sparked some controversy.

Student debt is so widespread that two-thirds of the class of 2010 graduated with loans averaging $25,250 each, according to the Project on Student Debt. At the same time, some experts say the country is facing a shortage of workers in STEM fields—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. This means that it may be easier to find good-paying jobs in these fields.Is the STEM shortage a way out of student loan woes? Perhaps if more students choose to study a STEM subject, the country would see less student debt.

Researchers at the US Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis say that the patent system should be abolished, SmartPlanet reports. Innovation will come from a patentless, cooperative environment in which technologies and discoveries are shared.

In a new approach to fixing the computer science skill gap, Microsoft is sending its own engineers to teach in high school classrooms. Volunteers for the program commit to teaching a computer science class for a full school year for at least two hours a week.

Finally, some good news for U.S. manufacturing. Despite declining for the past three months, manufacturing in the U.S. grew in September. The Institute for Supply Management's factory index rose to 51.4, up from 49.6 in August. Measures above 50 represent expansion. This outcome defied economists’ projections of 49.7, Bloomberg reports. U.K. and Chinese manufacturing both shrank.

Want to change the world, or at least an industry? To spark and nurture social change, impact investors need to focus on whole sectors rather than individual firms, writes Omidyar Network in a recent report. Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm that invests in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. It is focused on fostering economic advancement; areas of investment include microfinance, low-cost education for the poor, and mobile payment platforms.

A picture says 1000 words—or at least more than 140 characters. Instagram has beaten Twitter in daily mobile users for the first time, according toAllThingsD via an unpublished comScore report.

Google Glasses are the future of cheating, writes Jeff Bercovici at Forbes.com. Students are already using technology like smartphones and tablets to cheat on tests and homework, and, after recent scandals like the one at Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School, some say we’re facing an epidemic.

Managing “Big Data” is a big issue these days, especially within the energy industry, SmartPlanet reports. Companies are compiling huge amounts of data about energy supply and consumption, and cloud computing is enabling them to forecast future usage and even create alternative energy models.

Female and minority entrepreneurs are few and far between in the technology industry, but lately there have been efforts to change that, Deborah Gage at the Wall Street Journal reports.

The annual field trip to the local pond has gone high-tech for some Massachusetts and New York middle-school students. Harvard education researchers are giving the kids smartphones loaded with augmented reality software to see how the technology changes the way they explore of local environments.

One Brooklyn company has flipped the manufacturing model on its head. Whereas most goods are made in China and shipped to the U.S., Watermark Design is making plumbing parts here and shipping them to China. Jack Abel, the engineer who built the factory, has figured out how to make high-end custom-made fixtures at low cost, and has sold thousands of them to luxury hotels and condominiums in Asia, the New York Times reports.

Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and Square, talked to MLive.com about the future of Detroit after speaking at last week’s Techonomy Detroit conference. Dorsey said that Detroit has reached a turning point, and mentorship is essential for the city’s burgeoning tech scene. While Detroit doesn’t have the experience level of Silicon Valley, local leaders like Dan Gilbert should spend time with young entrepreneurs because it “passes along the torch in ways nothing else can,” Dorsey said. “I think this conference is a start.… Actually seeing someone in the flesh, seeing them on stage and seeing them talk about what they did well, what they did poorly, and what they’re trying to do better at.” Although Detroit has seen an increase in homegrown tech startups, if the city is to truly overcome its formidable economic and structural challenges it needs strong entrepreneurial leadership. Perhaps it will come from someone like Dorsey—who doesn't hide his aspiration to one day transition from tech entrepreneur to mayor of New York City.

Nuclear power is a big deal in Japan. Before the Fukushima power plant emergency in 2011, more than 30 percent of the country’s electricity came from nuclear reactors. Now most Japanese people are adamantly against nuclear power—yet the government seems indecisive. They announced last Friday a plan to completely phase out nuclear power by 2040, but backed off only five days later. In less than a week, the government’s commitment to end its reliance on nuclear power “transformed from bold determination into sheepish second thoughts,” SmartPlanet reports. Nuclear opponents are disappointed, but, as some point out, the country’s nuclear future depends on more than the government taking a firm stance—it is also contingent on the will of electricity users, technological innovation, and the global energy outlook.

Colleges are finding more uses for 3D printing, from art students creating sculptures of futuristic animals, to engineering students developing zero gravity fuel storage, to biology professors replicating dinosaur bones. All disciplines have the potential to benefit from 3D printing, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, especially as the technology becomes more sophisticated and less expensive. Many professors are supporters of controversial open-source 3D printers, an affordable do-it-yourself approach where printers are designed from online instructions based on expired patents. Despite impending patent disputes, proponents see open-source 3D printers as a way to bring the technology to the masses, offer more experimentation in the classroom, and attract younger students to STEM fields. One university class even printed 8,000 edible cookies for visiting high-school students—a huge hit for the potential engineers of the future.

A Connect Michigan study has found that broadband availability in school increases test scores, CBS Detroit reports. As e-learning becomes an essential part of learning, increased access to broadband allows for critical online interaction, both in and out of the classroom. Broadband availability increases math and reading proficiency scores for students in grades 3 through 8, the study found, as well as the number of students who meet ACT college readiness benchmarks.

At Techonomy Detroit last week, venture capitalist Tim Draper had some harsh words for the local crowd. Detroit automakers have lost the electric-car battle to Tesla Motors, he said, and the only hope for the Big Three is to make something as innovative as a flying car. But Todd Woody at Forbes says Draper was wrong: “The electric car battle has only begun and if the objective is to win the war against fossil fuels then Tesla needs Detroit, Tokyo and Munich to join forces and sell as many cars as possible."

Google’s helpful Autocomplete function has landed the Internet giant in German court. Former German first lady Bettina Wulff filed a lawsuit against Google after finding that searches for her name automatically adjust to include rumors of a sordid past. When a user types “Bettina Wulff” into the search bar, Google automatically suggests “Bettina Wulff prostitute” and “Bettina Wulff escort,” the New York Times reports. But Google says it’s not to blame, as all queries in Autocomplete have been previously typed by other Google users.

Two entertainment moguls are braving the e-book publishing business with the launch of Brightline, a venture created in partnership with Brooklyn-based publishing start-up Atavist. Brightline will publish e-books and eventually paper books. With powerful founders—Scott Rudin, a film and theater producer, and Barry Diller, chairman of InterActiveCorp—the company could bring some competition to the dynamic digital publishing industry, in which Amazon controls 65 percent of e-book sales.

Walk through one of the high schools in the Katy Independent School District in Texas and you’ll see students staring at cell phones, headphones in their ears and fingers on their keypads. On every table in the lunchroom is a mobile or wireless device. Peek into a classroom and you’ll find students using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to research assignments. Last year, for the first time, all K-12 Katy students were allowed to bring their own devices to school, and the move was a predictable hit, says Lenny Schad, chief technology officer of the district.

In anticipation of the Techonomy Detroit conference on September 12, we’re profiling six tech startups that are driving that city’s re-emergence as a center of innovation. Are You A Human? offers an alternative to CAPTCHAs, those fuzzy letter/number combinations that web shoppers are often required to decipher before buying online. Because automated software tools are increasingly able to bypass CAPTCHAs, and because users are increasingly annoyed by them, Are You A Human? has turned human authentication into a game with its quick, fun PlayThru challenges.

PicketReport.com, a website that aggregates information about neighborhoods and towns, is one of the latest tech startups in the Detroit area to garner attention. The site serves people relocating to unfamiliar areas, curating information about schools, crime, and income levels. It even pinpoints the nearest grocery stores and cafes. I spoke with Brian Bandemer, Picketreport.com’s co-founder and COO, about how his company is part of Detroit’s renewal.

In anticipation of the Techonomy Detroit conference on September 12, we're profiling six Detroit tech startups that are driving the city’s re-emergence as a center of innovation. Quikkly was founded in Philadelphia, but moved to Detroit early this year after Detroit Venture Partners invested in the company. Quikklys are short-term offers, announced randomly via text or Facebook, that give the best deal to first responders. For instance, a $10 coupon to Fandango costs $1 for the early birds and $8 for slowpokes. I spoke with Shawn Geller, co-founder and CEO of Quikkly, about how he got into the online coupon biz and what it’s like running a business in Detroit.

Here’s another reason to be excited for Techonomy’s Detroit conference next Wednesday, Sept. 12. Fast Company has included Detroit in its list of “10 Underrated Hotbeds of American Innovation,” highlighting the “gonzo spirit” of Detroit Labs, a startup that builds mobile applications for big clients like Chevrolet. Fast Company already wrote about Detroit Labs in August, pinpointing its success on a policy that allows employees to “futz around,” devoting one day a week to personal projects.

Taxi-hailing app company Uber introduced its service in 105 of New York City’s 13,000 yellow cabs—but the convenience of finding a cab via mobile app might be too good to be true. The legality of Uber’s service is questionable, the New York Times reports, citing city rules that forbid prearranged rides in yellow cabs, unjustified refusal of fares, and use of electronic devices while driving.

In anticipation of the Techonomy Detroit conference on September 12, we're profiling six Detroit tech startups that are driving the city’s re-emergence as a center of innovation. GreenLancer Energy connects freelance renewable energy engineers with companies and contractors looking for green expertise. Since 2011, GreenLancer’s clients have included the U.S. Department of Defense, Occidental Oil, General Motors, and the U.S. Armed Forces. I spoke with co-founder and CTO Patrick McCabe about freelancing renewable energy, the Midwest’s lack of green energy experts, and Detroit’s tech scene.

The Apple-Samsung verdict will have lasting consequences in the consumer tech field. Shelley Palmer of MediaBizBloggers.com lays out the good (patent protection), the bad (fewer consumer options), and the sad (an uncertain future for tablet innovation).

For nearly a decade, gaming has been touted as one of the next big trends in educational technology. At first, many dismissed the use of computer games as learning tools, but now both educational leaders and gaming companies are starting to take the idea seriously.

When Marc Seigel’s honors students tackle their chemistry homework, they don’t crack open a textbook or pull out a worksheet. Instead, they lounge on beds with laptops balanced on knees, stand at bus stops staring at smartphone screens, and watch YouTube videos on family computers. In November, Seigel started to replace traditional homework assignments with eight- to 12-minute video lectures, each intended to mimic a 45-minute lecture in class. By introducing this trendy “flipped classroom” model, the Middletown, N.J. teacher turned his classroom upside down.