Product Development

In a lab in Caltech, Harry Atwater holds up a plastic panel, a fraction of a millimeter thick. Even in the brightly lit room, the surface's panel remains jet-black -- absorbing all the light that hits it. The high-tech material is 10 times more efficient at absorbing light than the regular silicon cells that some homeowners install on their roofs to harvest the energy of the sun. It is one of several projects that Atwater's team at Caltech...

When Boeing Co. unveiled plans to build the 787 Dreamliner, the aircraft was touted as revolutionary, a major technological shift in the way a plane is made and in the way it operates. But revolutions rarely come without a struggle. The 787 is now more than two years behind schedule and by some estimates is costing Boeing $4 billion more to develop than planned. The troubled jetliner has also set back other Boeing projects, analysts say, and has left some suppliers financially strapped.

The hydrogen car may have legions of fervent fans, but Energy Secretary Steven Chu apparently is not among them. Earlier this year, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist essentially zeroed government funding for the vehicles and came close to mocking their potential, saying the technology needs four "miracles" before it can become widely adopted. "Saints only need three," he said in a magazine interview. But the hydrogen car is back. On Thursday, the Senate agreed to restore nearly all the money for research that the Obama administration had proposed to cut. This year's revival of government funding is unlikely to end the dispute over the vehicles, however.

Apple Inc. has made significant upgrades to its venerable iMac computers and several other products. The announcement of the new wares came Tuesday, which is perhaps not coincidental. On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. is set to unveil its Windows 7 operating system, and concurrently reveal several new computers created with the system in mind. Here's a look at what Apple brought forth, and what's known about the Win7-friendly computers about to debut. Apple The new products, most made available upon the announcement, didn't mark a big-enough change to warrant one of the firm's Steve Jobs-hosted events.

On Friday, only days after NASA tested its next big-ticket rocket, a ragtag group of space junkies in the Mojave Desert flew a bargain-basement rocket ship that could be the real future of spaceflight in the 21st century. Masten Space Systems sent its 10-foot-tall Xoie (pronounced Zoey) rocket soaring over a patch of scrub desert that stood in for the moon, a move that appeared to vault the company into the lead in the $2-million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The contest is sponsored by NASA as part of its long-range effort to give a boost to private companies in the hope that they will someday take on such routine space tasks as delivering cargo to the International Space Station.

A new book on advertising reminds me of a joke William Shatner once told on "Saturday Night Live": "Star Trek" is really popular in Japan, where it's known as "Sulu, Master of Navigation." That same self-glorying attitude is on display in "Baked In: Creating Products and Businesses that Market Themselves" by Alex Bogusky and John Winsor. Running at a mere 150 pages of big type, the book is the ad guys' parochial perspective on why advertising and marketing so often fall flat.

It's gotta be the shoes, right? No other basketball shoe has changed the face of business, athletics and marketing as the Air Jordan has. This month, Nike releases the 23rd edition, and it is expected to be just as venerated as its predecessors. The sleek design and link to Michael Jordan's jersey number make it a touchstone in the line.

Hyundai Motor Co. launched its rear-wheel drive Genesis luxury sedan Tuesday, a car the South Korean company sees as its ticket into the ranks of the world's top-end automakers. Hyundai preceded the introduction by showing a promotion film featuring a decidedly James Bond-like actor driving the sleek, road-hugging vehicle. The screen then receded to reveal an orchestra and three South Korean tenors who gave a live performance of "Nessun dorma," an aria from Puccini's opera "Turandot."

General Motors Corp.'s planned launch of the highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt in 2010 is "a stretch" even though the automaker has not hit any snags in its development of the rechargeable electric car, the automaker's chief executive said Tuesday. Rick Wagoner said the automaker's initial tests of a new-generation of lithium-ion batteries needed to power the Volt had been favorable.

To judge by the vehicles being touted at the North American International Auto Show this week, an extension cord may well become a standard car feature. Irvine-based Fisker Automotive unveiled a luxury sports car here Monday that it says can travel 50 miles on a battery charged by plugging it into standard, 120-volt current. The $80,000, rear-wheel-drive Karma will be able to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in less than six seconds and top out at 125 mph, the company says.