Booming tech opportunities key Hub-Israel collaboration

Boston-area techies are heading to Tel Aviv for a marathon hackathon at Google in a trip that highlights the burgeoning relationship between the Israeli and Bay State tech sectors.

"Israel right now is at a really unique place in the tech world," said Max Kleiman-Weiner, an MIT Ph.D. candidate who is on the first tech-focused trip run by Birthright Israel, a program that sends Jewish young adults to tour Israel. "There's just so much happening in terms of startups and tech."

The trip, which includes half a dozen Boston-area techies, will culminate in a 36-hour hackathon — a marathon coding session — at Google's Tel Aviv office. The group will be split into teams and will work alongside Israeli developers to create a project under a not-yet-announced theme.

Israel's booming tech sector has made big news in the United States this year, most recently when Israeli social mapping service Waze was acquired by Google for close to $1 billion.

Israeli companies have also paid dividends for Massachusetts. A report earlier this month found Israeli-founded businesses brought nearly $12 billion in economic benefit to Massachusetts, and employed more than 6,600 people.

The report says future growth between Israel and Massachusetts will be a result of similarities in focus, including in robotics and biotech.

Kleiman-Weiner said Israel is especially interesting to him because his focus — machine learning — is taking off there.

"That space is particularly hot in Israel," he said. "For me it's definitely a place I want to keep my eye on and figure out what's going on there."

Gidi Mark, CEO of Birthright Israel, said the nonprofit chose to design the trip around technology out of a belief that it is a great global unifier.

"We believe that this is the beauty of the 21st century," Mark said.

That connection has already brought together the group. Kleiman-Weiner said he had not considered going on a Birthright trip, but the tech focus sold him.

He said while the technology and the companies the group will visit are interesting, he is most interested in meeting and making significant connections with other people who share his tech interests.

"During the time the groups are here, there is a development of long-term relationships that changes the perspective and the perception about each other," Mark said. "Many of them have identical spheres of interest."

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

New app incorporates social media and driving

Dreading a long road trip home this holiday season? Relief is on the way in the crowdsourced driving app Waze.

Recently acquired by Google — reportedly for more than $1 billion — this brilliant app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone is a new take on GPS navigation. In short, it makes traffic social.

Waze, based in Israel, allows users to report — and commiserate about — road hazards, police activity and traffic conditions, with a critical mass of devotees leading to a stunning level of accuracy that, on my recent four-hour drives to and from New York, far surpassed that of Google Maps and my portable GPS.

However, you will want to make sure the passenger in the car — not the driver — is using Waze. While full-voice integration is surely the future, Waze currently requires a set of eyes on the screen.

What sets Waze apart from other traffic apps is that it makes calculations based on the vehicle speeds of other users. Both my Garmin GPS and Google Maps suggested that I exit the Mass Pike at the Brighton tolls — but Waze noticed cars were crawling and recommended an alternate route.

Even during a long, frustrating journey, using Waze allows you to at least feel like a good Samaritan. While using Waze, I was able to tell drivers on a particularly narrow stretch of Interstate 95 in Connecticut that a stopped vehicle in the right shoulder meant that those nearby should keep left.

But I'd be careful not to dub Waze a traffic safety app. The ability to report the location of speed traps — probably 
a key reason for its popularity — is likely not appreciated by the law enforcement community.

In true social network form, Waze users choose screen names and avatars that show their location on a map. You'll get the occasional "hi there" or "this stinks" message from other users. In an emergency, the ability to ask another user "do you have jumper cables" or "know how to change a tire?" is something that I'd consider if AAA or state trooper help were far off.

Google Maps is in the process of integrating some Waze features, and at some point, Google Maps will probably subsume all of Waze. In the meantime, Waze is a great way to make those endless holiday car trips a bit more bearable.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Phishing scammers go after Target data breach victims

Target Corp. is warning of "phishing" scam emails aimed at customers whose card information was compromised under the breach of its point-of-sales system.

"We are aware of limited incidents of phishing or scam communications," spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement yesterday. "To help our guests feel confident that what they are hearing from Target is really from us, we are in the process of setting up a dedicated resource on our corporate website where we will post PDFs of all official communications that Target sends to our guests."

Target confirmed that it was partnering with the Secret Service and Department of Justice on the investigation of the Nov. 27-Dec. 15 breach that left credit and debit card information of an estimated 40 million customers vulnerable. Yesterday it said it wanted to make clear that "neither entity is investigating Target."

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase increased withdrawal and spending limits it had imposed on 2 million debit-card customers affected by the Target breach.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Post Office stuffs stockings with 3-cent stamp hike

The U.S. Postal Service delivered a surprise on Christmas Eve that may land them on some naughty lists as it announced a temporary 3-cent price increase on first-class stamps.

The hike, approved by an independent Postal Regulatory Commission, will raise the cost from 46 cents to 49 cents a letter. The commission justified the increase in the face of severe volume decreases, going back to 2008, and as a way for the Postal Service to recoup a reported $2.8 billion in losses.

The increase will take effect on Jan. 26 and will last no more than two years. The commission rejected a request to make the hike permanent.

There will be a 6 percent increase on bulk mail, periodical and package service rates. The mail industry is said to oppose the increase, saying charities and bookstores will suffer from the increased cost of mass mailings and package delivery.

The Postal Service reportedly lost $5 billion last fiscal year.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Critic blasts Cape Wind tax credit

Offshore wind company Cape Wind has signed a key contract for the construction of its controversial turbines, but critics say the contract is just a ploy to qualify for a crucial federal tax credit before the end of the year.

"This is smoke and mirrors and nothing more," said Cape Wind opponent Audra Parker, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. "It's a desperate attempt to try to qualify for the investment tax credit, which expires in a week."

That federal tax credit requires the Cape Wind project to either begin construction or incur 5 percent of the $2.6 billion total the wind farm is expected to cost. Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said yesterday the project should qualify for the tax credit by accruing the $130 million necessary to hit the cost threshold.

The contract, signed with Siemens, will pay the German engineering company to construct and service 130 wind turbines, as well as build an offshore substation to send electricity to land.

Rodgers said the contract was the result of prolonged negotiations, and said the timing of the announcement was not related to the expiration of the federal tax credit.

He declined to say if Cape Wind would be eligible for the tax credit without the cost of the contract. The tax credit, if awarded, could pay for 30 percent of construction costs.

"This is purely a tax play for Cape Wind," said Bob Rio, senior vice president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "What I think they are trying to do is get up to the 5 percent."

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Revere trumps Boston in new deal

Mohegan Sun says Boston can expect fewer benefits as a surrounding community to its proposed Suffolk Downs casino than Revere will get under a new host agreement unveiled yesterday in the deal that resulted from the project being shifted a few feet over the city line after East Boston voters rejected it.

The deal stipulates Revere will receive not less than $25 million a year in "impact fees" — up from Revere's $9 million minimum under the previous plan — and up to $40 million depending on annual gaming revenue. Boston stood to receive $32 million to $52 million a year as host before the Nov. 5 vote killed an Eastie casino.

Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Etess said Boston is now a surrounding community in the company's eyes.

"I think that host communities have certain expenses and needs that surrounding communities do not," Etess said. "I would say it's fair to say that host communities have far more needs and mitigations that need to take place than surrounding communities."

Boston has yet to respond to Mohegan's request to begin surrounding community negotiations, and is unlikely to until Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh takes office. Walsh said the city has to negotiate the best deal it can.

"This doesn't mean I support a casino here," Walsh said in a statement. "In fact, I find it very concerning that the casino proposals may be located within mere feet of the Boston city line, and the transportation plans are likely to have a very significant impact on our city. But if we don't work to negotiate the best deal possible for Boston, then an arbiter will decide what benefits we will receive, and the result may not be what is in the best interest of Boston."

Walsh said there are "serious questions about whether or not Boston should be considered a host community or a surrounding community" until the new Mohegan plans are filed with the Gaming Commission. The plans are due Dec. 31.

Anti-casino advocates said they will pore over the Revere agreement for indications that Boston will face equal impacts to Revere.

"Our position is Boston is a host community until somebody can definitively prove otherwise," said Matthew Cameron, an East Boston attorney who assists anti-casino activists. "We're going to keep making that argument."

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Analysts: Economy is on track

Boston, Massachusetts and the country are well-positioned for continued economic success in 2014, experts say, though we might not see the type of growth that came unexpectedly in 2013.

"Boston is in a great position because the economic engine of Boston is very dynamic at the moment," said Hub advertising giant Jack Connors.

Connors said the region's strengths in heath care, biotech and academia will serve Greater Boston's economy well in the coming year and beyond.

"I'm feeling very bullish about 2014 and 2015 and 2016 for the Greater Boston area," Connors said.

Connors said Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh should be able to build on Mayor Thomas M. Menino's economic success.

"If he surrounds himself with the right people, and he's committed to the same kind of goodness, he is going to be very successful," Connors said.

Statewide, the year is coming to a close on a somewhat sour note, as the state unemployment rate rose above the national rate for the first time in six years. Still, the state should see slow, continued growth next year.

"I would think we'd probably parallel the U.S. in 2014," said Elliot Winer, a former chief economist for the state.

Winer said he expects to see the state add between 5,000 and 10,000 jobs a month.

"I'm not expecting to see a huge, dramatic upturn," Winer said.

He said the state's traditional industries — including health care — have shown strong growth, but other sectors have not.

"The other industries are basically flat," Winer said.

Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne Goldstein told the Herald last week the state is still in a good economic position.

"The economy is going in the right direction," Goldstein said. "We continue to be optimistic."

Nationally, numbers released Friday showed the economy grew at its fastest rate since 2011 in the third quarter of 2013, and several indices hit record highs at the closing bell Friday evening.

Still, economists do not expect that growth rate to continue next year.

"We are going to do well this coming year," said Christine Armstrong, senior vice president at Morgan Stanley. "2014 is not going to be as fabulous in our opinion as 2013 was, but there are still so many attractive things going on."

Armstrong said the biggest concerns through 2013 — Syria, Israel, the government shutdown — have ended up not wreaking havoc on the economy and stock market the way some initially feared they might.

"2014 will hopefully be a good year. We have taken those concerns off the table," Armstrong said.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

What did we learn in `13?

'Tis the season for regret and recriminations. Let's not let this year pass without taking stock of social media's epic fails — and the lessons we can carry into 2014:

5) While having a private conversation in public, you could be live-tweeted. This lesson comes to us care of the guy who chronicled every detail of his neighbor's awful breakup, which he overheard on their Brooklyn roof deck and broadcast to thousands of followers under the apt hashtag #Roofbreakup. The sad duo had clearly learned nothing from retired Gen. Michael Hayden. The former National Security Agency head also had his entire confidential conversation — this one with a journalist — live-tweeted by a fellow passenger, a former MoveOn.org activist sitting behind him on an Acela train.

4) When in doubt, hire a qualified social media manager. This lesson comes to us care of beloved Boston-based restaurant delivery service Foodler, which posted a picture on Facebook of a mouse with a meat cleaver strapped to his back in a "name that caption" contest. Animal-loving customers were not amused. Martha Stewart's penchant for tweeting awful-looking food photos — making even the tastiest holiday ham look hellacious — shows that even a domestic diva could use some professional help. For City Councilor-elect Michelle Wu, it was her husband's angry tweet — amid a controversy over her support for a conservative city council prez — that she didn't need her progressive base. All epic fails that could've been avoided with a social media manager.

3) Viral does not equal true. From TV producer Elan Gale's made-up airplane fight with rude fellow passenger "Diane" to the far-fetched tale that one of the Boston Marathon bombers was a missing Brown student, 2013 was a banner year for Internet falsehoods. Reporters at sites like Buzzfeed fell for them. Let's be more discerning in 2014.

2) Make sure your password isn't "password." Having a generic password is like asking to be hacked, if the throngs of Facebook and Twitter users who had their accounts compromised are any indication. I suspect that this is why someone was able to briefly turn Burger King's Twitter account into a pro-McDonald's sideshow in February.

1) Ignore crowdsourced "investigations." In another marathon-related gaffe, several self-appointed Internet sleuths saw fit to post pictures of the crowd taken prior to the attacks and speculate irresponsibly about which people in the pictures were the bombers. Well-intentioned, but wrongheaded and dangerously damaging for the innocent spectators who were racially profiled and saw their pictures circulated as potential suspects with no evidence. It was social media at its worst. It shouldn't ever happen again.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fannie, Freddie hiking mortgage loan fees

Buying a home will be more costly next year for many people thanks to planned fee increases.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will hike the guarantee fees on government-backed mortgage loans — fees that typically are passed along to borrowers and will result in higher mortgage rates.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the policy change Dec. 9 as part of an effort to decrease the government-owned mortgage finance companies' presence in the U.S. mortgage market and bring private capital back into the mix.

"Any increased fees impact people's ability to obtain home ownership," said Brenda Clement, executive director of the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, a nonprofit umbrella group for affordable housing and community development in Massachusetts. "The housing market has come back slowly, particularly for people at the low-income levels, and anything that increases fees or increases the complexity of buying a home is always problematic."

On Monday, Fannie and Freddie, which currently back about two-thirds of new U.S. mortgages, said fees will rise sharply for many borrowers who don't make down payments of at least
20 percent and don't have high enough credit scores — a large share of homebuyers.

The fee increases are especially hard to swallow in Massachusetts, a higher-
value area in terms of real estate and housing costs in general, said Peter Ruffini, incoming president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and regional vice president at Jack Conway Realtors in Norwell. "Whenever we hear news like this, oftentimes it impacts us to a greater extent," he said.

Interest rates already are expected to creep into the 
5 percent to 5.5 percent range, absent the fee increases, Ruffini noted. "Things like this affect a first-time homebuyer's ability to get into the market," Ruffini said. "It decreased their purchasing power, and it's tough to get a loan right now anyway."

Making mortgages more expensive, especially while interest rates already are rising, may inhibit the recovery and have unintended consequences, said David Abromowitz, a Boston attorney who specializes in affordable housing. "Raising the guaranty fees now won't make the housing system safer, as lenders are already screening out borrowers without high credit scores and strong, documented income," said Abromowitz, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington, D.C., public policy think tank. "But it will make home-buying more costly, while rents are also shooting up — with the consumer losing out either way."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cool Deal fills FIFA cup

A Plymouth company will help hydrate soccer fans across the globe under a licensing deal with the Federation Internationale de Football Association.

Cool Gear International will produce FIFA-themed, reusable chillers, tumblers and its signature coolgearcans to mark the 2014 FIFA World Cup that will be hosted by Brazil from June 12 to July 13.

"We've done some really fun stuff for the World Cup," Cool Gear founder and CEO Donna Roth said. "It's an exciting deal for us because it's hitting a different market for us — sports — but still is viable for (the mass market) as well."

Cool Gear pursued the FIFA contract because it recently broke into the sporting goods market, and it has strong distributors in Brazil and key countries around the world, according to Roth.

"We developed a line of products that was more geared to the sporting goods industries — higher scale bottles, with a little more bells and whistles," she said.

In addition to World Cup venues, the collectable products will be sold in North America, elsewhere in Brazil, Europe, Colombia, Africa and South Korea. They'll be available locally at Dick's Sporting Goods this month and at www.coolgearinc.com.

Roth, who categorized Cool Gear as a mid-middle market company, declined to reveal the value of the FIFA deal or privately held Cool Gear's annual revenue. Mid-middle market companies' revenue range from $50 million to 
$500 million.

"It will be a nice piece to add," Roth said of the FIFA deal. "The time frame is short. We'll get a big hit this first and second quarter, and then it will be over."

The FIFA deal — along with a three-year agreement signed with Coca-Cola in October — is part of a move by Cool Gear to get back into licensing.

Its predecessor company, Fun Designs, was heavily into licensing in the 1990s and had deals with companies including Disney, Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon. But at the same time, it was developing its Cool Gear brand, and when licensing royalties "went through the roof," it decided to concentrate on its own brand and renamed the company.

All of Cool Gear's products are proprietary, and it has more than 150 patents for them. Introduced this summer, its coolgearcan is a double-wall insulated, BPA-free plastic beverage holder that looks like a 12-ounce can, but is 
reusable and has a spill-proof slider lid.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More