OECD Global Youth Competition 2013
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Israeli companies at TechCrunch Disrupt NY
Israeli companies at TechCrunch Disrupt NYIn the last few years, TechCrunch Disrupt has developed into one of the most anticipated hackathons-cum-tech-startup events in New York. Israel was the first country to set up a national pavilion at Disrupt, an...
Buffett completes ownership of Iscar for $2 Billion
Buffett completes ownership of Iscar for $2 Billion
A new era in transportation? The buzz around Phinergy
A new era in transportation? The buzz around Phinergy
The worldwide buzz around the revolutionary aluminum-air battery of the Israeli-based technology company Phinergy is reaching new peaks. Even president Obama had the chance to view the technology during his visit to Israel.
Phinergy has created a car battery that powers an electric vehicle for as long as 1,000 miles (1600 km) before needing a recharge. The Company’s Aluminum-Air battery system has been successfully integrated into an electric vehicle resulting in more than three times the driving range of current EVs.
Aluminum is a widely available metal that is easily recycled and contains high amounts of energy (8 kilowatt-hours per kilogram). Today, Phinergy’s Aluminum-Air battery is using air and water to unleash the vast energy stored in aluminum. The air is breathed in by a proprietary membrane – the air electrode – and the water is filled into a tank by the user, creating a holistic system that enables an Electric Vehicle to drive without having to stop other than to refuel with water every few hundred kilometers.
President Obama checks out Phinergy
President Obama had the chance to view Phinergy's technology, among other Israeli innovative companies and technologies, during his recent visit to Israel.
Phinergy, which has been operating in stealth mode during the last few years, first publicly announced its achievements at the Israel Dealmakers Summit that was held in New York last March, in a panel chaired by Mr. Oded Distel, Head of Invest in Israel and Israel NewTech.
"I believe aluminum will become the next major sustainable energy source thanks to metal-air technology," said Mr. Aviv Tzidon, Phinergy's Chairman & CEO.
"Phinergy is a current example of an Israeli-based technology that has the potential to create real impact on the global energy and transportation arenas," says Oded Distel. "We were in close contact with Phinergy during their ‘stealth years’ and knew that something very promising is going on over there. I feel very confident saying that during the next few months some more Israeli companies that have been developing technologies ‘under the radar’ will come out".
For the full article go to the Israel NewTech blog.The Technion – Israel’s Hard Drive
The Technion – Israel’s Hard Drive
Cornell and the Technion together won the prize in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s contest to create a new science school. According to the Technion,The Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII) is a joint venture of Technion and Cornell University, and will be a key component of the new Cornell NYC Tech campus, a unique high-tech graduate school to be established on Roosevelt Island in New York City. As conceived by Mayor Bloomberg, the goal of the entire NYC Tech campus - and the TCII within it - is to turn NYC into the high-tech capital of the world.Even though the sprawling Cornell NYC Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is still 25 years away, the New York Times recently reported that the first program is already up and running. Eight students enrolled in January in what is being called the beta class, a one-year master’s program in computer science.
Perhaps in light of this exciting project on the horizon in New York, the Times recently covered the Technion and tried to understand what is the "magic formula" which makes the Technion such a phenomenon:
“I can say without exaggeration that Israel could not have been built without the Technion,” says Yossi Vardi, who has founded or helped build more than 60 companies in Israel and has five degrees from the Technion. “There is a Technion graduate behind practically every highway, desalinization plant, new missile technology and start-up company in the country.”
This is not mere school spirit talking. According to Shlomo Maital, senior research fellow at the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, a fourth of the university’s 60,000 alumni who are of working age have, at one time or another, initiated a business, and a fourth are C.E.O.’s or vice presidents. The annual output of graduates in high-tech industries is estimated to be at least $21 billion. Among inventions from Technion research labs: the memory stick, drip irrigation, the Parkinson’s drug rasagiline, the iron dome air defense system and instant messaging.
What stand behind the success is being debated, it could be the fact that Israeli students come out of their military service, making them more mature, it could be the "Jewish Mother" effect, or simply excellence in education. Whatever it is, New York's Bloomberg hopes that the Cornell NYC Tech will do for the city what the Technion has done for Haifa, and for Israel's hi-tech industry as a whole.
For the full New York Times article click here.
Where is Facebook going for new games? Israel
Where is Facebook going for new games? Israel
Codorniou looks beyond gaming on Facebook, and points to Plarium as a company which symbolizes the industry's future. "Casual games are a big hit, but we'll see that the next thing will be hard core games, such as Plarium's 'Total Domination' and 'Stormfall'," he says, adding that a game like "Stormfall", which did not exist six months ago, is now one of the 20 fastest-growing games on Facebook worldwide.
Until one or two years ago, Zynga , the developer of Farmville and other games, was a byword for games of Facebook, but Codorniou says that it is now just one of the companies in the field. "The situation has changed. Today, 70% of growing gaming companies on Facebook come from Europe," he says.
Facebook is definitely a gaming powerhouse, with more than 250 million players a month, 11% more than in 2012, making it a larger gaming platform than all games consoles combined. 130 Facebook games have more than one million active players a month, with the average gamer playing more than three games a month.
In view of the website's success, Facebook current target is mobile. Codorniou says that for a social game to succeed it must first go through Facebook's online platform, and then to its mobile platform, and only afterwards to Apple and Google app stores. But what might be perceived as competition against Apple and Google is actually cooperation.
"We want to be one of the biggest traffic creators for the app stores," admits Codorniou in commenting on the possibility that mobile games developers should promote their wares on the Facebook app by a direct download key. "23% of the time people in world spend on mobile is on Facebook. There is no doubt that gaming companies want to be part of this share," he says, adding that 80% of the top ten Android and iOS apps interface with Facebook accounts.
For the full Globes article click here. OECD Factbook 2013: A Statistical View on Israel
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