Brand: Z-CoiL
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $99-$149
Features: Z-CoiL shoes have a spring that absorbs the shock and distributes across the shoe more than any other shoe.  This means less pain for the human body.  This would be especially useful if you’re into Parkour.
Source: ZCoiL.com

Brand: Vibram
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $70-$90
Features: Vibram is an Italian company that creates rubber footwear for better grip and comfort.  The company was started by Vitale Bramani.  He started the company after 6 of his mountaineering friends died in the Italian Alps partly due to the footwear.

The shoe displayed above is called Vibram Five Fingers.  They were designed to be in the same shape of your foot to give you a more natural walking motion.  This reduces the impact on your back and knees when climbing.
Source: Vibram Five Fingers

Brand: Nike (put together with an NES console by Sneaker Pimps)
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: The Sneaker Pimps gutted the components out of an NES and stuck it into a shoe… literally.  The Sneaker Pimps took this device on a tour with them on a nationwide tour in October 2007. 
Source: The above photo was taken by Flickr user Mobius1ski.   

Brand: Pioneer
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes were designed by Feijun Chen and Bin Zhao.  The shoes come equipped with headlights to make sure you don’t trip over anything while jogging in the dark.  The shoes light up the ground 5 feet ahead.  There is also a bright green LED light on the back so cars can see you when in the dark.  The best part is that the lights are powered by kinetic energy.
Source: YankoDesign.com

Brand: Natalie Cosette Thorne
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes have adjustable heel sizes.  The adjustable heel can go from 3.5 inches to 1.5 inches and vice versa using a peg system and magnets.  The shoe also has snap-on parts with different colors.
Source: CNET

Brand: Electrolux
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes were made for those that are too lazy to pull out the vacuum cleaner.  How the shoes actually do the vacuuming job has not be revealed.  The company did not specify whether the shoes suction or store dirt.
Source: Gizmodo

Brand: Verb For Shoe
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $699
Features: Verb For Shoe has an embedded computer that automatically adjusts the level of support on your shoes depending on the activities you do.  You can share your contact information with other people wearing Verb For Shoes by automatically pressing a button.  The shoe has a built-in wireless connection to connect to your PC.  You can adjust the comfort of your shoes or sync your contacts from your shoe to your PC and vice-versa.
Source: VerbForShoe.com

Brand: Reno Gmbh
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes are the first I’ve heard of that will be using RFID technology.  Earlier last year, Reno signed a deal with Checkpoint Systems to have RFID tags and store tagging systems for their shoes.  They are being used to track the shipping of the shoes from Asia and for security purposes within their stores.
Source: Wired

Brand: Dada Code M
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: Starting at $199
Features: These sneakers have built-in speakers and an MP3 player.  The MP3 player can hold about 100 songs.  The shoes are water-resistant and are very durable.  The built-in music player has about 3 hours of battery life.  The music player is compatible with a PC and a Mac (via iTunes).

The shoe comes with a headset where you can control the music player’s volume and song change.  The shoe is available at retailers such as Journeys, The Finish Line, Underground Station, Footaction, Footlocker, etc.
Source: Dadafootwear.com

Brand: Adidas
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $250
Features: Adidas first created these shoes in 1984 as the cutting edge shoes for runners.  Fourteen years later they decided to reintroduce them to the market with a new design.  The shoes are made of leather, nylon, and suede.

Inside the shoe there is a microprocessor that has a built-in pedometer, stopwatch, and LCD display.  This shoe is perfect for short and long distance runners.
Source: Uncrate

(more…)

1. Apple 1984 commercial

2. Steve Ballmer Pitching Windows 1.0

3. Apple vs. Mac featuring Gisele Bündchen

4. Microsoft – I’m A PC

5. eBay.com.au – Make Shopping Exciting

Limewire recently announced a number of upcoming upgrades to its P2P software. The company is going more social by adding social networking features into verson 5.0 of its software. The company also shared its vision of turning Limewire into a platform for services.

Here is a list of upcoming features in Limewire 5.0:

Set up secure personal sharing networks based on existing contacts; users can choose to limit distribution to personal network only

Integrate buddy lists from Jabber-compatible services

Provide better virus protection

Interface with The LimeWire Store

Easier navigation with a new visual design of both website and application allowing users more security and better ability to manage shared files, download, search and connect with friends

Via: MarketWatch

Tesla Motors secured an additional $40 million in capital today. The company had only  $9 million left from previous funding rounds. The $40 millin is a convertible debt. Unlike equity-based venture funding, convertible debt is a loan that can be converted to equity at the discretion of an investor.

Tesla has now raised a total of $186 million.

Source: Reuters

[image credit: Tomas]

The NASDAQ Composite Index ended 11.81% higher today.  And at the biggest point gain ever, the Dow upped 976 points.  While my fellow tech bloggers are reporting how bad the economic crisis is for tech companies, they started making a recovery today. 

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) closed at $381.02 (+$49.02, 14.77% gain)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed at $110.26 (+$13.46, 13.90% gain)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) closed at $25.50 (+$4.00, 18.60% gain)
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) closed at $13.49 (+$1.20, 9.76% gain)
Adobe Systems Incorporation (NASDAQ:ADBE) closed at $30.38 (+$3.26, 12.02% gain)
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) closed at $62.02 (+$5.77, 10.26% gain)
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) closed at $16.97 (+$1.61, 10.48% gain)

What bubble?

Russian search engine Yandex receives 50 million searches per day.  These search numbers includes those conducted on Mail.ru, Quintura.ru, and Tut.by.  This also includes sites that are powered by Yandex.XML.  This means that Yandex conducts 1.5 billion searches per month, making it to the 6th largest search engine property.

Yandex’s Advertising Network reaches about 10 million users.  This is an increase of 80% from Sept. 2007.  Yandex’s Advertising partners include Livejournal.com, Mail.ru, Aport.ru, Gogo.ru, Quintura.ru, and Mamba.ru.  Yandex’s revenue in 2007 was $167 million.

Yandex decided to postpone their IPO until the economy recovers.  The IPO was planned for some time in the second half of 2008.  Internet Search Investments and Baring Vostok Capital Partners owns 35% of Yandex.  Tiger Technologies owns 15% of the company.  Mail.ru also is postponing their IPO.

This past week, David Kernell was indicted with a charge for accessing Sarah Palin’s protected computer by means of an interstate communication.  The maximum charge can be a $250,000 fine and 5 years of prison for this charge.  Kernell pleaded not guilty to this charge.  Around the same time that this was taking place, Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers was looking at this case from another perception.

Judge Stowers ordered that Sarah Palin’s must be preserved.  Andree McLeod, a Republican watchdog pushed the case forward.  The e-mails exchanged between Palin, her husband, and others may reveal how the vice-presidential candidate runs the state of Alaska.  The e-mails may also reveal any communication about Walt Monegan. 

Walt Monegan is the former Police Chief of Anchorage, Alaska.  Sarah Palin laid him off on July 11, 2008 for not being “a team player on budgeting issues.”  Palin offered Monegan a position as a director of the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, but he turned it down.  Monegan also stated that he resisted pressure from Sarah and Todd Palin to fire Trooper Mike Wooten.  Wooten was in a custody battle with, Sarah Palin’s sister Molly at the time. 

David Kernell brought Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail account into the public eye.  And the e-mails revealed in the screenshots that Kernell published clearly indicate that the e-mails relate to legislation.  Palin and her husband also created an e-mail account monitored by a computer company in Wasilla, Alaska.  That e-mail account was frozen after Kernell penetrated the Yahoo! account.

“On one hand, I’m pleased that the judge saw fit to order the retrieval and preservation of these e-mails, to the extent of going to the providers to get them,” stated McLeod.  McLeod is a Republican who used to be close to Palin. “But on the other hand, I’m amazed that I even have to go to court to get the governor to comply with Alaska’s public record laws.”

McLeod also is pushing for Palin to release 1,100 e-mails that have been withheld from the public.  This includes 40 that were CC’d to Sarah’s husband.  McLeod was described by Palin as a disgruntled former employee.  However, Palin endorsed McLeod in 2004 as a state House candidate that is “not afraid to stand up for what’s right.”

David Kernell does not deserve jail-time.  I actually think that he did the right thing by bringing this into the limelight.  It helps keep politicians transparent.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has released a new project in the Labs called In Quotes.  In quotes is a way to track what the two leading presidential hopefuls have to say about certain topics. 

“While political consistency (or inconsistency) can be funny, as [Jon] Stewart pointed out in a recent episode of the Daily Show, it can also be a serious political matter,” stated Jack Hebert on the Google News Blog.  “With upcoming elections in the United States and Canada, we’ve built a tool that you can use to compare what candidates and other political figures are saying about different issues: we call it ‘In Quotes.’ As you might know, Google News already extracts quotes from news articles. Even so, it was a pretty tedious process to compare what two people were saying about a particular topic.”

Google In Quotes users can type in a certain keyword and then Google will find news articles that quote both of the presidential hopefuls on that keyword.  Some of the hot keywords that are suggested includes abortion, Bush, change, economy, education, election, health care, housing, energy, environment, human rights, immigration, Iran, Iraq, marriage, oil, recession, social security, and taxes.

Since the highlight of today is John McCain’s desire to postpone the debates and suspend his campaign, I did a search on campaign.  Below is a screenshot of what I found.  Click on the image to enlarge it.

This is the most important election of our generation.  I want to make sure that our next President stays consistent with what he says throughout his campaign.  I want to be able to track when one of the hopefuls says that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong” and then a few days later say that the “American economy is in danger.”  It doesn’t matter if it is McCain or Obama, we as voters need to make sure that our future President knows what he is doing.

[image credit: danah.org]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has hired Danah Boyd for their Research division.  Boyd is an unorthodox writer that focuses on social media and social networks.  Boyd is not afraid to censor herself when it comes to writing.  This is perhaps what makes Microsoft interested in recruiting her. 

Below is an excerpt from her one of her papers entitled: Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace, written in June 2007.

The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other “good” kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we’d call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, “burnouts,” “alternative kids,” “art fags,” punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.

Social networking is becoming a high priority of Microsoft as indicated by their $240 million investment in Facebook.  As new social networks come up, Boyd is perfecting for researching them for acquisition or investment purposes.  Boyd will be working at Microsoft Research New England in Boston, MA and will be using her Mac to do the research. 

Many media and financial analysts compared this past week’s economy as being as bad as the 1930’s Great Depression.  As a recovery is underway, the Associated Press published an article regarding how well several of the online trading websites held up with a sudden surge of traffic.

Scottrade, Inc. had it’s highest-volume of trading this past Thursday.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, Scottrade has it’s most busiest days of traffic.  Orders shot up 60% from the week before.  Fortunately, Scottrade was able to manage the sudden surge in traffic. 

Keynote Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:KEYN) measured the up-time for all of the major financial trading sites and it turns out that E*TRADE did very well too.  Many of the trading sites performed at 95% availability–5% of users were not able to complete their transactions. 

The Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHW),”definitely saw higher-than-usual traffic this week,” stated Schwab Corp. spokeswoman Sarah Bulgatz. Schwab added capacity to their website and it “seemed to have paid off.”

Hitwise Pty. Ltd. stated that the traffic of Yahoo! Finance and other online broker companies saw a rose about 33%.  JPMorgan, WaMu, and Citibank did not have any slow-downs as well. 

I have to admit that I am thoroughly impressed by the reliability of all of these financial sites.  Managing a sudden surge of traffic is not easy to manage.  If you look at some of the tech companies out there, they seem to struggle with it.  It doesn’t matter if you are Twitter or if you are Apple.  They have something to learn from the financial companies.

[photo credit: schlunzi]

Daniel Waterhouse worked at 3i Group for about 20 months, then left.  Before working at 3i Group, Waterhouse was at Yahoo! for 6 years in the corporate development division.  Now Waterhouse is joining Wellington Partners as a full-time venture partner in London. 

” I am now delighted to announce I have joined Wellington Partners… This is a very exciting move and I join a first class pan-European VC,” wrote Waterhouse in an e-mail.  Waterhouse was involved with Yahoo!’s European division and worked on several acquisition deals.

Waterhouse has been involved in the investments of demandmedia.com, fotolog.net, habbohotel.com, buyvip.com, garlik.com, hdpi.com, bluelithium.com, taptu.com, agentprovocateur.com, twenga.com, fastbooking.com, and carbonite.com.

Cuil received a ton of press when it first launched.  As soon as people started tinkering around with it, a ton of negative reviews were published.  Tyler Hall, a developer at Yahoo! was able to replicate Cuil using Yahoo! Boss and the Google App Engine.  He called it Yuil, but later took it down.

Investors somehow believe that Cuil was worth $200 million when they put money into the company.  Cuil raised about $33 million in funding from several investors.  What possibly drove Cuil’s high valuation is it’s confidence in challenging Google.  Google is the most powerful search engine company on the map today and they are worth $140 billion. 

It seems like that any search engine that believes they can challenge them will get funding and a high valuation.  And Cuil used the same strategy as Powerset to get funding: building the hype.  Cuil claimed that they index more links than Google, but they struggle to find results as accurately.  

Powerset claimed to have better search technology than Google.  So they raised $20.5 million and was acquired by Microsoft for $100 million.  The only product that Powerset launched was a Wikipedia search solution before the acquisition.  Microsoft plans to integrate Powerset into Windows Live down the line.

To shake things up further, Cuil’s VP of Product Louis Monier resigned from the company.  Building the hype usually works against the founders of a start-up because it puts more pressure on them.  More pressure means more stress and more stress leads to less of a desire to stay with a company.

Matt Marshall of VentureBeat wrote an interesting article about how Cuil may have a hard time finding an acquisition with such a high valuation.  Cuil needs to do something drastic to prove that they are a worthy adversary of the big 3 search engines out there.