Infotrade

A San Francisco startup has developed a car that could be a game changer for the auto industry. In a large garage in San Francisco's SOMA District, a company called  Lit Motors  is building a car unlike any other.  The company's C-1 is half the size of a Smartcar and designed for a driver with one passenger in the back seat. But despite its small size, the vehicle is capable of driving in all weather, with gyroscopically stabilized wheel technology that prevents it from tipping over. The C-1 is fully electric, and can drive up to 200 miles on a single charge. In fact, the C-1 isn't really a car at all: It's officially classified as a motorcycle, but CEO Daniel Kim says that the vehicle resists classification. "It's disrupting the automotive space," says Kim.  According to Kim, it's a concept whose time has come. Today's youths are less interested in buying cars than they are in buying iPhones and other gadgets: Car ownersh...

AS WE APPROACH  the most built-up time of the year, The INQUIRER has put together a list of what it deems the best gadgets of 2012.  Whether it has a five figure price tag, or it would give you change from a £20 note, here's our run down of the most essential or just plain fun pieces of tech available right now, in no particular order. Lenovo Ideapad Yoga As Lenovo's first 'multi-mode' notebook, the Ideapad Yoga is a 13in  laptop  that deserves a place in our top ten best gadgets of 2012 due to its ability to perform as its name suggests: bending and folding into an array of positions so you can enjoy it in different ways. Available in two sizes of 11in and 13in, we really like how both models' high-definition IPS touchscreen displays and stylish designs are built with a special hinge that allows them to tilt 360 degrees, folding from a laptop to a  tablet  in one satisfyingly smooth motion. But the Yoga isn't just all style and no substance,...

The startup Womply recently brought us Groupon-like "effortless offers." Today it launches Loyalty Cloud, hoping to slice through the messy customer-loyalty market with the "simplest loyalty program ever for local merchants." Last month a new startup,  Womply , launched to bring "effortless offers" schemes to local merchants--coming with an impressive pedigree because it's cofounder Brandt Squires was formerly  LivingSocial  executive. Just weeks later, Womply has an additional offering--Loyalty Cloud--that promises the same sort of effortless experience but for customer loyalty schemes, rather than  Groupon -style "special offers." According to the new site, its simplicity rests on the fact that, "Merchants create offers that reward customers for repeat visits and Womply handles everything else, from marketing and remitting offers to customers, to providing analysis and insight on the amount of revenue generated as a result....

You know when you complete an online form — say on the NBC or Home Depot website — and give out your name, email address and personal information? Your information gets sold to other companies and can wind up in the hands of hackers and criminals who conduct identity theft. As the infographic shows, Facebook and social media are all about sharing, but you may be giving away your privacy.

Can autistic workers help fill America's gap in highly skilled talent? Danish company Specialisterne (the Specialists) wants to help create 1 million jobs worldwide for high functioning autistic workers by focusing on their strengths instead of their weaknesses. Owned by the nonprofit  Specialist People Foundation , Specialisterne outsources workers with autism and similar challenges once seen as unemployable to perform high-paid consulting tasks in the IT, telecom, healthcare, and financial services sectors. While people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) can have difficulty with communication and understanding social cues, their talents often include strong focus and concentration, the ability to recall details, and the perseverance to perform repetitive tasks -- a great match for jobs like software testing, quality control, and data entry. For some companies, highly functioning autistic workers represent an untapped talent pool to fill highly skill...

Forbes released its annual  30 Under 30 lists  yesterday and a stunning 15 of the 30 companies that people on the  “Tech” list  work for are  Y Combinator  alumni companies . Because multiple people from the same company are counted as a single entry on the list, Y Combinator actually counts 23 of the 40 people, rather than entries, on the tech list as alums. Nate Blecharczyk, CFO of Airbnb; Adora and Aaron Cheung, cofounders of Pathjoy; Patrick and John Collison, cofounders of Stripe; Dave Fowler, founder of chart.io; Eric Frenkiel, cofounder of MemSQL; Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman, cofounders of Hipmunk; Daniel Gross and Robby Walker, cofounders of Cue; Victor Ho and Matt Doka, cofounders of FiveStars; Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, cofounders of Dropbox; Alex Mittal and Boris Silver, co-founders of The FundersClub; Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit; Joshua Reeves, CEO of Zenpayroll; Blake Ross, who is listed on the Forbes list as senior ...

Instagram's new terms caught many off-guard Image Gallery  (4 images) Cisco - Cloud Computing  -  Cisco.com/go/cloud Drive Innovation And Secure Your Data w/Cloud Storage. Learn Now! GPS Fleet Tracking  -  www.Sage-Quest.com Increase Fleet Productivity Get a Free Demonstration 3M Multi-Touch Displays  -  www.3m.com/multitouch 40 Finger Touch. 22"&32" HD Display Find The Display That Works For You BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900  -  BlackBerry.com Get more of the speed, style and performance you love. Learn more. Ads by Google Nothing spreads on the internet like outrage. For evidence, look no further than today's Instagram kerfuffle. The Facebook-owned company announced new  terms of service , which allow it to capitalize on you and your photos. Unsurprising as the terms are, the backlash caught Instagram's attention, and the company responded. Is there still cause for concern? Coming to terms What's so outr...

Eric Migicovsky & Loic LeMeur @LeWeb London photo by Kmeron via Flickr Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Now, even the earliest stage startup can rise to visibility or be forever lost by their first media spotlight, so it behooves us all to know the rules early. Most entrepreneurs I know admit to a poor first media interaction, and many are still waiting for the instant replay. On the social media side, the stakes are just as great. Ask Eric Migicovsky, founder of  Pebble , who raised over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform for his relatively low-tech wristwatch with programmed clock faces. Kickstarter may take a bit of the credit for this, but they admit the majority of projects without media attention don’t even approach their funding goals. There are lots of expensive public and media relations firms out there who can give you the full treatment, but I reco...

JEFF BEZOS founded Amazon in 1994. Apostolos Apostolakis and his mates started  e-shop.gr , Greece’s biggest online retailer, just four years later. The comparisons end there. The Seattle juggernaut’s annual sales grow at double-digit rates; e-shop’s have been savaged by Greece’s depression. Amazon made its name selling books. E-shop was stymied by regulated book prices and shifted early into electronics. The Americans have indulgent shareholders while the Greeks were nearly undone by skimpy equity. Economic woes aside, Greece is tough terrain for online shopping. Less than half of Greeks are regular internet users compared with two-thirds of Europeans overall. More than 40% of Europeans shop online but fewer than 20% of Greeks do. Broadband connections are sparser and consumers are warier. Most refuse to submit credit-card details on line, preferring to pay cash on delivery. Islands make Greece an obstacle course for couriers. E-shop found clever fixes. It has a fleet of 50...