Product Development

There are 8 million ways to exercise in the naked city. High-impact aerobics, low-impact aerobics, high-/low-impact aerobics, step, step circuit, power step, power walking, power dance, aqua aerobics, country-Western dance aerobics, hip-hop aerobics, cardio-funk, power-funk, strength training, stair-climbing machines, exercise bicycles, treadmills, kick-boxing, in-line skating, yoga, Pilates and spinning.

SAN JOSE - Yahoo Inc.Chief Executive Scott Thompson unveiled a much-anticipated reorganization plan Tuesday in a memo that said the struggling Internet pioneer would focus its efforts in three main divisions that he hoped would build closer ties with consumers and advertisers. Thompson announced the changes a week after unveiling plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or about 14% of Yahoo's workforce. The new CEO is under pressure to return the Sunnyvale, Calif., company to growth after a period in which revenue and profit have steadily declined.

M. James Barrett and his lean team of scientists and engineers are hot on the trail of overcoming a challenge that has stumped medical-device makers for years: developing a fast, accurate blood-sugar monitor small enough to be implanted in diabetics. Barrett puts the task before him succinctly: "The field is littered with the dead bodies of those who have tried and failed at this."

Ford Motor Co. announced a series of senior management changes but gave no hint to who might succeed Alan Mulally as the automaker's next chief executive. Lewis Booth, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Derrick Kuzak, group vice president of global product development, have elected to retire effective April 1. Each has served the automaker for more than 30 years and at times has been mentioned as a possible successor to Mulally. Booth, 63, will be succeeded by Bob Shanks, who is currently vice president and controller, it was announced Thursday.

At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust. Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot -- dubbed Kansei, or "sensibility" -- responds to the word "war" by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears "love," and its pink lips smile. "To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks," said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University.

The sleek Infiniti G37 Cindy Marsh bought last August was the car of her dreams, equipped with the latest keyless electronics technology that allows her to start the engine with the touch of a button. But right away, the system gave her trouble. To get the engine started, she would sometimes have to tap the power button repeatedly. Sometimes it wouldn't start unless she opened and closed the car doors, Marsh recalled. She eventually adapted to the system's quirks but said that even now she isn't sure how to shut off the engine in an emergency.

Out of the frying pan and onto your clothes. DuPont's Teflon, which put the no-stick coating on cookware, is broadening its stain-free finishes for ready-to-wear. Most spills on treated clothes bead up and can be blotted off. Last fall, Koret of California, which caters to the working woman, added Teflon fabric protector to a collection of wool separates. Even silk can be treated to stay clean longer without losing its soft touch and bright color.

For airline passengers, the attempted Christmas Day attack and a directive by President Obama to pursue advanced screening technology will certainly mean added security procedures at airports. So for high-tech companies in Southern California and elsewhere, the increased focus on airport security means new opportunities to land hefty government contracts. Among those is Syagen Technology Inc., a Tustin company with 20 employees that has built an airport screening device that blows air on travelers and then analyzes the cast-off particles to detect explosives.

In a step toward eliminating smoke-belching trucks and transit buses from the road, Detroit Diesel Corp. has built the first methanol-powered engine for heavy duty vehicles that meet new, tougher California emission standards, the company said Friday.

Vsource Inc. in Ventura said revenues for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31 were $3,500, compared with $60,527 a year earlier. Revenues for both years came from the discontinued software-based Virtual Source Network product. No revenues from the new Internet-based VSN product were recorded in the 2000 fiscal year. The company reported a net loss of $5.5 million for fiscal year 2000, compared with a loss of $1.7 million for the previous year.

Now that Apple Inc.'s chief visionary is gone, the company is facing a billion-dollar question: Will it be able to conjure another pioneering product without Steve Jobs? Perhaps fittingly, a possible answer came posthumously from Jobs himself. The television set, the quintessential squawk box of the 20th century, is ripe for a reinvention, the Apple co-founder said before he died Oct. 5. "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson in the new book "Steve Jobs," which hit shelves this week.

Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey will take on a more active role at the fast-growing social networking and microblogging service, the company announced Monday. Dorsey, who has been Twitter's nonexecutive chairman, was named executive chairman in charge of leading the company's product development. Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo announced the new position for Dorsey in a tweet Monday morning, writing that he was "excited" that Dorsey was "returning to the company day-to-day leading product as Executive Chairman.

General Motors Co. on Thursday continued a shake-up of its executive ranks, naming its first female product development chief. The Detroit automaker said Mary Barra would become senior vice president of global product development and be responsible for the design, engineering and vehicle quality of the company's 11 brands around the world. The appointment comes as GM faces a slowdown in new product introductions this year and next, threatening to slow the momentum of its recovery from a 2009 bankruptcy and the closing or sale of four of its eight U.S. car brands.

"Did you take your medicine today?" Soon, patients won't have to rely on their memories for the answer. Scientists are developing tablets and capsules that track when they've been popped, turning the humble pill into a high-tech monitoring machine. The goal: new devices to help people take their meds on time and improve the results coming out of clinical trials for new drugs. Doctors can already prescribe pills that release drugs slowly or at a specific time. They even have camera pills that take snaps of their 20- to 40-foot journey through the gastrointestinal tract.

Google's very own computer operating system has arrived, just before time would have run out on a promise. In July 2009, the company ? in its continuing effort to take over the tech universe ? said it would introduce its all-new Google Chrome operating system in 2010, specifically designed for lightweight laptops. The system would be cloud-based, Google said, wiping out the need for on-board operating systems that add to the cost of computers. Imagine no more Windows.

Ask any musician what's wrong with video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and you'll get some variation of this response: If gamers spent half as much time with a real instrument as they did pushing plastic buttons on a toy version, they could become musicians instead of just mimicking them. That argument has been heard loud and clear at Seven45 Studios in Boston, where game designers have come up with Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, which puts a genuine electric guitar into players' hands, allowing them to unplug from the game, hook up to an amplifier and rock for real.

Daniel J. Jinguji has been named vice president of product development for Interactive Buyers Network International Ltd. in Ventura. Jinguji is a former Microsoft Corp. design engineer who co-wrote "Learn Microsoft Visual J++ 6.0 Now," published by Microsoft Press. He developed and taught software engineering at the Boeing Co. before joining Microsoft.

A.J. Khubani turns that old saw about the world beating a path to your door if you invent a better mousetrap upside down. Inventors beat a path to his door. One day last week they arrived in waves: inventors of new takes on dog leashes, floor mats, home exercise devices, skin creams, pillows, umbrellas, coffee mugs, kitty litter strainers, eyelash curlers. Early Wednesday morning, 44 inventors crammed into a conference room and lined up in the hallway on an upper floor of the Los Angeles Airport Marriott.

U.S. researchers have developed a prototype vaccine that protects monkeys and mice against the emerging chikungunya virus, a major step toward the production of a vaccine for humans. Human trials could begin later this year. Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that first appeared on Reunion Island off the eastern coast of Africa in 2005 and has spread to more than 18 countries, infecting millions. It is characterized by rash, a high fever and its most distinctive characteristic, a severe arthritis that can persist for years.