Ashley Laurel Wilson

Apple's Most Intriguing Designs

iPod Holder Meets Swanky Suit

Techie Tees

The relationships between startups and older organizations is comparable to the relationship between siblings. There's rivalry for sure, but also mutual respect. Yet though discussions oftentimes focus on what startups can learn from their older, more established "rivals", it's time that startups' business smarts got noticed. Startups are long-term vision oriented, social networking savvy and budget conscious.

Although startup founders may have patches of nervousness or self-doubt, they're generally enthusiastic about their endeavors.

Valentine's Day doesn't have to include red roses and Frank Sinatra. Technology influenced activities -- like geeky movies underscored by a love plot line, and online-based activities -- bring new flair to this year's holiday.

Leading up to Valentine's Day, Dailycandy.com is running a contest called "Get with the Programmer", which currently notes the top 11 hottest tech guys nominated by site readers. The goal of the contest isn't dating, but Dannielle Kyrillos, editor-at-large of DailyCandy.com, says that she doesn't doubt it will generate romantic interest in the nominees. Over 900 tech guys were nominated and the top 11 were chosen by humor, their humble nature and those who were "delightfully geeky". Though team did receive an image of a guy with a computer over his "database", he was immediately disqualified for the entry's inappropriate nature, Kyrillos says. "Loving tech boys isn't superficial."

Microsoft recently cut 1,400 jobs of its planned 5,000 person layoff-and it's not alone. Other big tech companies like IBM, Sprint Nextel and Google are also laying off people by the thousands. So how is it that Apple is still sailing along? It has the consumer to thank.

According to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at The Enderle Group, Apple is still driving people to products despite the economic downturn. Apple is still a "consumer company" and its success isn't based on contracts, except really for iTunes, which is only a minor part of its revenue.

For some people, deconstructing a computer can lead to a tangled mess of wires. Yet others are finding that by rewiring or recycling their Macs they're stumbling upon some very creative projects.

More than just information storage facilities, computers also function as brains. A group consisting of more than a dozen students from the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabruck set up an Artificial emotion Project part of artificial intelligence, to study how to create emotion in machines. One aspect of the project was to create a WALL-E-type robot, whose "brain" consisted of a Mac mini.

Graphic: Chip TaylorThe Mac OS has long been known as an operating system for graphic artists, creative folks and those who prefer to treat their personal computers as, well, personal. Widespread business use is almost unheard of. But lately there's been a lot of discussion that Apple may be about to make a big push into the enterprise market. Here are four stories about people and companies whose positive thoughts about their Windows-based PCs may be waning.

Web Development firm switched

Glenn Romanelli, owner of Lightaus Designs, Inc., a Web development firm l in Smithtown, NY, says that although there are still a few PCs around the office, they will eventually be weeded out. Making the transition, Romanelli says, was a "no brainer."

Telecommuting used to be an obscure option in enterprise career benefits, trotted out only when an existing employee was so precious or skilled that the company would do anything to keep him -- including let her work from home.

The situation is very different today, in part because so many teams have team members in wide-ranging geographies. If you're not sitting next to someone in the same office, does it really matter whether the coworker is across the street, across town or across the country? So telecommuting (at least part-time) is fast becoming part of the usual way of doing business. As a result, it affects IT decisions, from VPNs to teleconferencing hardware choices.

Shirts that light up with LED ads. Textiles with embedded temperature sensors. Athletic gear that changes color to show the intensity of an athlete's workout. Technology is not just for your desktop anymore; it has the potential to infiltrate your closet.

Wearable technology is being used in sports and medical care to improve performance and help people lose weight. Fashion designers are incorporating tech elements into fabrics to give clothes a modern edge, and gamers are using wearable tech to enhance their gameplay. It's a cultural and technological time when the ubiquitous nature of tech means that people interested in the fusion between portable circuits and fashion can now wear what's "smart" and what computes. And with social networking technologies taking off in certain circles-generating a true look at me syndrome-wearable technology follows that fashion, along a means of self-expression, and picks up where computers, portable or otherwise, leave off.

It would be nice if medical professionals never lost patient information. But unfortunately, doctors and other healthcare specialists are only human. And the running cliché that doctors' handwriting is hard to read is often repeated for a reason. During his presentation at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discussed four key reasons why medical records should be stored online. Storage, compliance, patient access and community are among the (supremely productive) Halamka's supporting reasons for his claim that online medical records will ensure a national standard of healthcare.

Privacy issues are likely to arise, he admitted, but they can be worked out, and the benefit of better organization of our medical records would be phenomenal. "Open and transparent is good," Halamka explained to this open-source-centric audience. "Proprietary is bad."