Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/

Speak & Spell: New Apps Turn Phones into Multimedia Search Appliances

About five years ago, in a previous life at another technology publication, I wrote that I wished I could “Google my sock drawer.” I was being facetious, but my point was that searching the Web had become so easy that it left me yearning for equally convenient ways to search other things, like the books … Continue reading “Speak & Spell: New Apps Turn Phones into Multimedia Search Appliances”

Calling All Bands and Music Fans—Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 2 Is Approaching

January can be a cold, dark, cruel month around Boston. But Xconomy plans to liven it up—at least for one very loud evening—with our second annual Battle of the Tech Bands, planned for January 22 at the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub here in Cambridge, MA. If you’re a musician and at least one member … Continue reading “Calling All Bands and Music Fans—Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 2 Is Approaching”

Boston Loses Mobile Internet World Conference to San Francisco

The Mobile Internet World trade show, produced in Boston in 2007 and 2008 by the Trendsmedia events division of Boston-based market research firm Yankee Group, will be transplanted to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009 and revamped as a “more intimate” conference focused on networking and education, according to a Trendsmedia announcement. The announcement, … Continue reading “Boston Loses Mobile Internet World Conference to San Francisco”

BeatThat Founder: Holiday Discounts Unimpressive So Far

Both traffic to online retailers and actual sales appear to have been up moderately on Cyber Monday, the Internet equivalent of last week’s Black Friday bricks-and-mortar shopping binge. But it wasn’t because of the big discounts allegedly being offered by e-retailers as a way to get recession-stung consumers to open their wallets, according to an … Continue reading “BeatThat Founder: Holiday Discounts Unimpressive So Far”

Re-energizing Energy Innovation: Experts Spar (Lightly) at Xconomy Forum

The role of technology entrepreneurs in rebuilding the U.S. energy economy was the main theme at Xconomy’s latest forum Tuesday night. Topping the agenda was an all-star panel of local entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and academic analysts, who shared their thoughts with a sold-out crowd of some 125 attendees at the British Consulate General in Cambridge, … Continue reading “Re-energizing Energy Innovation: Experts Spar (Lightly) at Xconomy Forum”

Videré Acquired by Providea

Quincy, MA-based Videré Conferencing, which outfits companies with high-definition videoconferencing facilities, announced today that it has been acquired by a West Coast competitor, Camarillo, CA-based Providea Conferencing. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Back in July, Providea received a venture infusion from Boston-based Westview Capital Partners.

Polaris Co-Leads Infinite Power Solutions Series B Round

Waltham, MA-based Polaris Venture Partners and D.E. Shaw Ventures of New York are the lead investors in a $13 million Series B investment round for Infinite Power Solutions of Littleton, CO, the startup announced today. Existing investors Core Capital Partners, Applied Ventures, and In-Q-Tel also joined the round, which brings the company’s total venture pot … Continue reading “Polaris Co-Leads Infinite Power Solutions Series B Round”

Speech Recognition on the iPhone, Via Vlingo

Back in June, Cambridge, MA speech-recognition startup Vlingo rolled out software that lets Blackberry owners run their devices using voice commands instead of their thumbs—opening applications, dictating e-mails, entering terms into Web search engines, and the like. CEO Dave Grannan said at the time that Vlingo engineers were working on similar software for other devices, … Continue reading “Speech Recognition on the iPhone, Via Vlingo”

38 Studios Goes National with Student Game Challenge

38 Studios, the Maynard, MA-based game development house founded by Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, announced today that it’s repeating the “Massachusetts Game Challenge” it launched last year. But the company is extending eligibility beyond New England this time to all U.S. and Canadian college and university students. The contest is designed to cultivate and … Continue reading “38 Studios Goes National with Student Game Challenge”

FeedRoom Swallows Clearstory

Clearstory Systems, a maker of digital asset management software in Westborough, MA, said today that it has been acquired by The FeedRoom, a New York-based Web video management company. Clearstory’s price was not disclosed.

UTest Raises $5M Series B Round

UTest, the Boston-based software quality assurance outsourcing startup we profiled back in August, said today that it has raised a $5 million Series B funding round. The funds, which come on top of a $2.23 million Series A round announced in March, are from new investors Longworth Venture Partners and Egan-Managed Capital, both located in … Continue reading “UTest Raises $5M Series B Round”

Can Tiny Insect Planes Survive Collisions? The Air Force Wants to Know

Here at Xconomy we usually focus on technologies already hitting the marketplace rather than laboratory-stage investigations. But last week we got wind of a project that’s so cool we just had to write about it: an effort to build tiny robot planes with flexible structures and built-in reflexes that would allow them to ricochet off … Continue reading “Can Tiny Insect Planes Survive Collisions? The Air Force Wants to Know”

Venture Rounds at Energetiq, ExtendMedia, Viridity

It’s time for a trio of local funding announcements by way of Private Equity Hub, whose parent company Thomson Reuters has an arrangement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to receive copies of Regulation D filings disclosing changes in stock ownership at privately held companies (a complicated subject unto itself). Frequently, the information on these … Continue reading “Venture Rounds at Energetiq, ExtendMedia, Viridity”

Clearwire Finally Inks WiMax Deal

Since May, Kirkland, WA-based Clearwire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLWRD]]) and Overland Park, KS-based Sprint Nextel (NYSE: [[ticker:S]]) have been working to combine their next-generation wireless Internet access businesses, and the two companies finally completed the deal on Friday. Using a $3.2 billion venture investment from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks, the new … Continue reading “Clearwire Finally Inks WiMax Deal”

Cyber Monday Breaking Records So Far, Akamai Says

Today is Cyber Monday—the Internet sequel to the Black Friday retailing rush. And according to Cambridge, MA-based Akamai, whose global network of content servers is used by hundreds of large e-commerce sites to accelerate website performance, traffic to e-retail sites is approaching record-breaking levels today as consumers try to complete their holiday gift-giving online. Akamai’s … Continue reading “Cyber Monday Breaking Records So Far, Akamai Says”

Fairchild Sues Infineon

Fairchild Semiconductor, based in South Portland, ME, said in an announcement Friday that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against German chipmaker Infineon Technologies. The two companies have been attempting to negotiate cross-licensing arrangements regarding Infineon switches and power converters using technology that Fairchild believes it has patented; the negotiations broke down and Fairchild … Continue reading “Fairchild Sues Infineon”

Oak Puts $25M into Huffington Post

Westport, CT- and Palo Alto, CA-based Oak Investment Partners is the sole participant in a $25 million financing round for the Huffington Post, the news and politics site co-founded by Arianna Huffington, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal‘s technology news site AllThingsD. Earlier reports in the Times of London and other … Continue reading “Oak Puts $25M into Huffington Post”

LocaModa Links Facebook to Times Square Jumbotron

Cambridge, MA-based LocaModa, whose software lets people using cell phones and computers connect with public displays in indoor and outdoor locations, said today that it has launched a multiplayer, cross-platform word game called Jumbli. The Web- and text-messaging based game allows players on social networking sites such as Facebook to compete with audiences interacting with … Continue reading “LocaModa Links Facebook to Times Square Jumbotron”

The Roots of Power: How Voltree is Tapping Tree Energy to Save Forests

Stella Karavas, CEO of Voltree Power, sounded a little tired of talking about trees when I reached her last week. Seems the Canton, MA, company has been inundated by press inquiries since CNN ran a spot on its tree-powered forest fire monitors last year—a flood that started all over again after MIT’s official news site … Continue reading “The Roots of Power: How Voltree is Tapping Tree Energy to Save Forests”

Microsoft Cuts Staff at FAST Search Division

Xconomy received a report last week that the Oslo, Norway-based FAST Search division of Microsoft, which has a 180-person outpost in Needham, MA, and a smaller office in New York, had laid off 25 people in its U.S. offices. We have now confirmed that report, and have learned that 10 of the affected staff members … Continue reading “Microsoft Cuts Staff at FAST Search Division”

Battery, Charles River Fund Flat-Rate Wireless Network for Northeast

Battery Ventures of Menlo Park, CA, and Waltham, MA, said today that it is the lead investor in a $100 million venture round for Pocket Communications Northeast, a new cellular network that will offer flat-rate, unlimited-use calling plans to wireless subscribers in parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Charles River Ventures, which also has … Continue reading “Battery, Charles River Fund Flat-Rate Wireless Network for Northeast”

Sky Cowboys: Cambridge’s Aurora Studies Ways to Lasso Robot Planes In Flight

Here’s an idea worthy of Tom Swift: Send a big, long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) such as Northrup Grumman’s Global Hawk into a battle area with a flock of smaller, bird-sized robot planes in its belly. Jettison the baby planes for short-range, low-altitude, low-speed reconnaissance missions, then lower a cable to recapture them, one by … Continue reading “Sky Cowboys: Cambridge’s Aurora Studies Ways to Lasso Robot Planes In Flight”

Casual Games May Be Recession-Proof; Companies Report Record Revenues, and Some Surprising Trends

“Countercyclical” is a word you’re probably going to hear a lot in the coming months—from entrepreneurs professing that their businesses are not only recession-proof, but will actually fare better during lean times. It’s a word that the leaders of the casual games industry, which has a strong presence in both Seattle and Boston, have been … Continue reading “Casual Games May Be Recession-Proof; Companies Report Record Revenues, and Some Surprising Trends”

Reported Job Cuts at NameMedia, WSI Add to Week’s Total

Our apologies to all Xconomy readers for ending the week on a downer, but it’s time for a roundup of the week’s tech layoff news around Boston. On Wednesday, Cambridge, MA-based Akamai said it would cut 110 jobs, or about 7 percent of its workforce. On Thursday Luke reported news of 30 more layoffs at … Continue reading “Reported Job Cuts at NameMedia, WSI Add to Week’s Total”

Springpad Wants to Be Your Online Home for the Holidays, And After

If you’re like me, you go through life with the vague hope that someday, technology will help you become a more efficient person. How often I’ve driven to the grocery store or the library to pick up one thing, knowing full well that there’s some other item I needed, but that I’ll never be able … Continue reading “Springpad Wants to Be Your Online Home for the Holidays, And After”

Massachusetts, Washington Top Kauffman Foundation’s List of “New Economy” States

In a report released Tuesday, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation named Massachusetts the nation’s leading state when it comes to the structural economic factors that make the state’s businesses competitive in the “New Economy”—defined as global, entrepreneurial, knowledge-based, rooted in information technologies, and innovation-driven. Massachusetts hung onto … Continue reading “Massachusetts, Washington Top Kauffman Foundation’s List of “New Economy” States”

From Virtual Threads to Polar Bear Cubs: MITX Honors Region’s Top Web Marketing Campaigns

The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX), the industry association for Boston-area digital media and marketing companies, handed out its 13th annual “Interactive Awards” last night in a ceremony at the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotel. A kind of multimedia version of the national Clio awards, but recognizing the years’ most creative advertising campaigns by … Continue reading “From Virtual Threads to Polar Bear Cubs: MITX Honors Region’s Top Web Marketing Campaigns”

In-Q-Tel Invests in Febit

Febit, a Heidelberg, Germany-based maker of automated, microfluidic gene and RNA sequencing devices with laboratories in Lexington, MA, said today that In-Q-Tel, the venture wing of the U.S. intelligence community, has made a strategic investment in the company. The size of the investment was not disclosed, but In-Q-Tel’s investments usually range between $1 million and … Continue reading “In-Q-Tel Invests in Febit”

EnerNOC Wins Fed Business

Boston’s EnerNOC, which runs “demand-response pools” consisting of companies, municipalities, and other organizations that agree to dial back their electricity consumption during hours of peak demand, said today that it’s won permission to sign up U.S. federal and military facilities as pool participants. The Pentagons’ Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) formally approved EnerNOC as a … Continue reading “EnerNOC Wins Fed Business”

$7 Million for Rave

Rave Wireless, a Framingham, MA, startup that makes security and emergency alert software for mobile phones, has closed a $7 million Series D financing round, according to a November 15 report in PE Hub that cited regulatory filings. The report said Rave has now raised about $42 million, with major contributions from Bain Capital Ventures, … Continue reading “$7 Million for Rave”

Slydial Users Pass 1 Million Messages; We Test New Slydial iPhone App, Which Isn’t Always So Sly

Back in July I wrote two somewhat skeptical stories about Slydial, the free service that lets you leave voicemail messages for cell-phone users without causing their phones to ring. My problem wasn’t with the technology itself, but with the misanthropic way that MobileSphere, the Boston company that created Slydial, was marketing it. They were promoting … Continue reading “Slydial Users Pass 1 Million Messages; We Test New Slydial iPhone App, Which Isn’t Always So Sly”

Amazon Takes on Akamai with CloudFront Delivery Network

Does Amazon’s CloudFront announcement today mean a cold front is on the way for Cambridge, MA-based Akamai? Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) said a couple of months ago that it was working on a way to let users of its Amazon Web Services  infrastructure speed delivery of Web graphics, software downloads, audio and video files, and other … Continue reading “Amazon Takes on Akamai with CloudFront Delivery Network”

ATG Adds Click-to-Call to Video Ads

Back in 2006, Cambridge, MA-based Art Technology Group (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARTG]]) spent north of $48 million in cash and stock to acquire eStara, a maker of software that allows Web surfers to open voice-over-Internet connections with sales agents by clicking on Internet ads. Yesterday the company announced that it’s extending eStara’s capabilities to Flash-based video ads. … Continue reading “ATG Adds Click-to-Call to Video Ads”

The Scoop on Pandora for the iPhone and Other Platforms: Tim Westergren Speaks at Boston’s Apple Store

At least two of us here at Xconomy—Rebecca and myself—are huge fans of Pandora, the Oakland, CA-based streaming music company. My enthusiasm has only grown since July, when Pandora released an iPhone application that, I think many users would agree, is the single most useful and enjoyable third-party app available for the device. (It’s currently … Continue reading “The Scoop on Pandora for the iPhone and Other Platforms: Tim Westergren Speaks at Boston’s Apple Store”

IRobot Wins 6 R&D Grants

Bedford, MA-based iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]), which makes small robots for home and military applications, announced today that it has secured six grants totaling $4.4 million under the Pentagon’s Small Business Innovative Research program. The grants, which are aimed at making iRobot’s Packbot and small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV) robots easier to use and at developing … Continue reading “IRobot Wins 6 R&D Grants”

DigitalArbor, Backed by Flybridge, Offshores Digital Marketing

When you’re listing countries rich in Web development and software engineering talent, you might think of places like Estonia, Russia, Poland, and Romania. Now you can add Costa Rica to the list. That’s the location of the “offshoring” facility where a new Massachusetts-based digital advertising, marketing, and communications firm called digitalArbor will turn for low-cost … Continue reading “DigitalArbor, Backed by Flybridge, Offshores Digital Marketing”

Qualcomm Adopts Skyhook Technology

San Diego-based Qualcomm, which is famous for its CDMA wireless communications chips but is also a leading maker of GPS chips for cell phones and other devices, has signed a deal with Boston’s Skyhook Wireless that will move it toward hybrid location-finding technologies. Qualcomm will incorporate Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System—a software system that determines a … Continue reading “Qualcomm Adopts Skyhook Technology”

Layoffs at Mascoma, Javelin

Another day, another bundle of layoffs. Boston-based biofuels startup Mascoma is laying off between five and 10 employees, according to a report today in the Boston Globe. That’s about 10 percent of the company’s staff, which numbers around 100.* Mascoma, which is building demonstration fermentation plants to convert sugars from high-cellulose material such as wood … Continue reading “Layoffs at Mascoma, Javelin”

Attention, Startups: Move to New England. Your Gay Employees Will Thank You.

If you’re trying to decide where to build your new tech startup, California obviously has a lot of attractions. You’ll be close to the heart of the venture capital community. Non-compete agreements, which are said to slow innovation in states like Massachusetts, are illegal in the Golden State. The weather is beautiful year-round. And let’s … Continue reading “Attention, Startups: Move to New England. Your Gay Employees Will Thank You.”

The Boston Tech Layoff Tracker

For the longest time, it seemed that New England was showing some measure of immunity to the economic stagnation settling over the rest of the country. Last December we wrote about a staffing crunch so severe that the region’s tech companies were having to invent creative ways to recruit employees away from one another, and … Continue reading “The Boston Tech Layoff Tracker”

Springpad Opened to Public

Boston’s Spring Partners, a venture-backed Web software startup founded by five former executives from mobile marketing firm Third Screen Media, announced today that it’s opening beta testing of its first product, Springpad, to the general public. Springpad is a Web-based personal information management system that helps users create annotated lists or “notebooks” around dozens of … Continue reading “Springpad Opened to Public”

MacTrak Posts Laptop Thieves’ Photos, Locations to Flickr

Woe to the hoodie-wearing miscreant who steals a Mac laptop equipped with MacTrak. He’s likely to find his photo plastered all over the Internet—and the police at his door. MacTrak is a beta application for Macs introduced today by Portland, OR-based GadgetTrak. It’s similar in conception to Absolute Software’s LoJack for Laptops and to Adeona, … Continue reading “MacTrak Posts Laptop Thieves’ Photos, Locations to Flickr”

OpenCandy Bites into $3.5M

OpenCandy, a San Diego startup that inserts software advertisements into the series of screens consumers see when installing Windows software, said today that it has raised $3.5 million in Series A venture funding. Backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and angels Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Jordan Greenhall, co-founder and former CEO of … Continue reading “OpenCandy Bites into $3.5M”

How Crimson Hexagon Translates the Blogosphere’s Babel Into Wisdom

File this under “Only in Cambridge.” Before my interview last week with the founders of Crimson Hexagon, a startup using statistical methods to comb the blogosphere for the latest opinion on brand-name products, I had assumed that the company’s name came from its affiliation with Harvard, where its technical founder, Gary King, is a professor … Continue reading “How Crimson Hexagon Translates the Blogosphere’s Babel Into Wisdom”

PeerApp Raises $8 Million

PeerApp, a Newton, MA-based maker of caching servers that Internet service providers use to speed delivery of frequently-downloaded peer-to-peer video and music files, said today that it has closed an $8 million Series B financing round. Investors Pilot House Ventures, Cedar Fund, and Evergreen Venture Partners, who ponied up $3 million in Series A funding … Continue reading “PeerApp Raises $8 Million”