Tech

I want to feel good for Nick D'Aloisio, I really do. It's not every day that a 17-year-old kid becomes a millionaire after spending off-hours while attending school writing code for a smartphone app. My petty jealousy aside, though, D'Aloisio's story got me thinking: Are there any other industries -- other than entertainment -- that would create opportunities like this? I can't think of any. First of all, there just aren't a lot of businesses that allow teenagers to participate, even on the periphery.

USC's Viterbi School of Engineering is launching an early-stage technology accelerator to help student and alumni entrepreneurs start their fledgling technology companies in the Los Angeles area. The newly created Viterbi Startup Garage is designed to foster an environment where start-ups could flourish in Southern California with financial resources and business expertise provided by the school and its partners, United Talent Agency and the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Scott McGregor, the chief executive of chip developer Broadcom Corp., is happy to talk about the expanding list of uses for his company's products - smart cars, for instance - and new innovations that will fuel his company's growth for years to come. Just don't ask which cellphone he carries in his pocket. Broadcom, based in Irvine, designs and sells chips that are used in Apple Inc.'s iPhone as well as in smartphones that use Google Inc.'s Android operating system, the iPhone's chief rival.

SAN FRANCISCO - As HBO adapts its television empire to the digital age, it's rolling out the red carpet to Silicon Valley. The pay TV network put on showy "Game of Thrones" season premiere parties this week in Silicon Valley and Seattle, ground zero for the revolution underway in television viewing habits. Digerati turned out by the hundreds to immerse themselves in the fantasy realm of Westeros, some wearing Twitter logo T-shirts, others Google Glass, the Internet giant's yet-to-be-released futuristic eyewear.

When Microsoft Corp. announced recently that it was starting a big push to grow its market in Africa, it cited the continent's big growth opportunities, calling Africa a "game changer in the global economy. " Similarly, IBM Corp., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other tech companies in recent years also have expanded their presence in Africa. As the growth of tech hardware, software or services flattens or declines in mature markets such as the U.S. and Western Europe, and markets in China, India and Russia grow increasingly competitive, many of the largest tech companies are looking to Africa.

In a move that could be a godsend to accident-prone users, Apple may be working on a way for iPhones to fall the same way cats do to protect its most fragile parts. In a patent filing, Apple has designed a system called the "Protective Mechanism for an Electronic Device" that would detect when the phone is falling and shift the phone's weight so it falls on the side that would cause the least amount of damage, according to a report by Apple Insider .  "In one example, the protective mechanism is configured to alter the device orientation as the device is falling," part of the patent reads.

SAN FRANCISCO -- As novel as the concept sounds, Blueseed was not the first company to take "offshoring" so literally. In 2005, a San Diego company called SeaCode proposed housing foreign software engineers on a cruise ship three miles off the California coast. The controversial plan to bring low-cost, offshore labor so close to California shores came under fire as a "slave ship" and "sweatshop on the sea. " But Roger Green, an entrepreneur, and David Cook, a former tanker captain who had gone into technology, said they were simply trying to help American businesses.

When it comes to the green technology sector, there's California and then there is everyone else. The state has managed to reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions even as its economy and population have grown, according to Next 10, the San Francisco nonprofit group that has produced the California green innovation index for the last five years. In its just released 2013 report, Next 10 said the state continues to be the national leader in areas such as venture capital funding for green technology, green tech patents and the growth in clean power generation.

SACRAMENTO - We used to call it "shop. " Wood shop. Auto shop. Then the educators got fancy and renamed it "vocational education. " Later, as the dot.com era dawned, it was rebranded "career tech. " Now, throughout much of California, you can just call it history - the victim of recession-rooted budget cuts in the state Capitol and school districts. Career tech classes are expensive. Buying and updating machinery isn't for penny pinchers. So these courses are easy targets for the budget axe, even though they may be the most meaningful and relevant for many students, who otherwise might just get bored and drop out. Shop isn't completely dead in California.

BEIRUT -- The major Syrian opposition group early Tuesday elected a U.S.-educated Syrian activist to serve as prime minister of rebel-controlled areas of Syria, news agencies reported. Named to the post was Ghassan Hitto, a native of Damascus who has been living in the United States for decades, working recently as a technology executive, according to various news service reports. Hitto, little known outside Syrian exile circles, has been active in humanitarian efforts to aid Syrians during the nation's two-year conflict, reports indicated.