Israel’s virtuous pirates arrr acknowledged for decreasing software piracy

Posted on May 17, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | 1 Comment

pirate.jpg

Haaretz tells the following hilarious joke followed by some praise of Israel’s improving software piracy stats..

One nation, one disk. That’s what they used to say about Israel, and what they meant is that one Israeli would actually buy the software, then everybody else would copy it. A recent study by IDC reveals however, that the joke is obsolete.

…Israel ranked 15th among the 20 countries with the lowest incidence of software piracy.

…The U.S. ranks the highest, with the lowest incidence of bootleg software - 21%. Second is New Zealand. But the U.S. , being a giant market, suffered the worst losses due to piracy: $7.3 billion, IDC found. Read more

Galya Yemini, “Israel among top 20 most virtuous nations regarding software piracy”, Haaretz, May 15, 2007

 

Haifa IBM lab offers easy-to-use web application tool. Cost: $0

Posted on May 17, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Sys-Con media reports:

IBM today announced a free Web application development tool made in IBM labs with a simple user-interface to allow people without technical skills in small businesses and other organizations to create applications that solve daily tasks.

Created at IBM’s Haifa Research Laboratory in Israel, the IBM® Development Engagement Service (DevEngage) requires no programming skills and is a visually appealing, user-friendly, interactive tool designed to develop online forms for any small business’ tasks, including Human Resources, Finance, Sales or Marketing, that automate common manual processes, such as the collection and analysis of information.

… An example of this useful technology in action might be at a small business where lunch is ordered every day from a local restaurant. The office manager collects orders and at the end of the week subtracts lunch costs from each employee’s salary. This application could be used to easily build a Web-based form where each employee fills in his lunch order every day. The application could calculate the weekly or monthly costs and keep everything orderly. On the flip side, the restaurant owner may want people to be able to order food online — even without actually purchasing the food. This way the restaurant owner can prepare the right food on time and know to whom the food should be delivered.

Made in IBM Labs: IBM Unveils User-Friendly Web Application Development Tool for Non-Techies, Small Businesses, MarketWire, May 16, 2007

Who knows what’s next? Maybe food will be delivered right to your inbox! Getting hungry just thinking about it.

 

Roundup of famous faces coming to Israel

Posted on May 16, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Art and Culture | Tags: | Leave a Comment


Tori Amos

Respected designer, Donna Karan was recently in Tel Aviv at the Shenkar design college. You can see the video here. Her highlight of Israel was that traveling around the coutnryl is so manageable and she can’t wait to come back.

Here is a list of some upcoming celebrity appearances

I am a little skeptical that all of these shows will actually take place. I had tickets to the Kelly Clarkson concert but apparently she had a “sore throat” so she couldn’t come. Also Depeche Mode cancelled last year because of the war with Lebanon. But on the other hand, as Tuvia the Dairy Man from Fiddler on the Roof would say, 50 Cent and Black Eyed Peas showed up and put on a great performance.

It’s great that the trend of visiting Israel on tour is starting to catch on. Keep it comin’ but try not to dissapoint us.

 

CNBC creates an upbeat video series on Israel’s business sector

Posted on May 16, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Business, Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment

CNBC created a video series called “Business in Israel”. It highlights the Israeli economy stopping for nothing and a growing world player in business and technology. Definitely worthwhile.

 

Bo*ya*manyak - bring musicians to Israel

Posted on May 16, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Art and Culture | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Bo ya manyak loosely translates to “Come here, you jerk”

The questions at bo ya manyak are simple enough:

1. What music artists do you want to come perform in Israel?

2. How much would you pay for them to come?

I added my favorite band, Jimmy Eat World, and said I would pay 200 shekels. It’s so fun to play the hypothetical game.

How great would it be if this site got a critical mass of people to use it and actually worked so we could bring hand-picked musicians to Israel. I’m not sure who’s behind the site but I hope they have follow-through capability if the site really picks up.

I wonder if the musicians will find out about the name of the site…

 

Israel-based IncrediMail rakes in some Incredidollars

Posted on May 16, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment

According to their press release, Israel-based IncrediMail Ltd. (NASDAQ:MAIL), reported net income growth of 51% in the first quarter of 2007. IncrediMail revamps emails with entertaining add-ons like emotions, sounds, animations, you name it. You can download the basic IncrediMail for free on their cute website. The company is more than a pretty face though, as it reports revenues in the millions.

A little more about Incredimail:

IncrediMail designs and markets an integrated suite of customized and entertaining Internet software products for the consumer market. Our products include: IncrediMail Xe, which allows users to personalize email messages with creative features and is offered free of charge; IncrediMail Premium, an enhanced version of IncrediMail Xe; IncrediMail Letter Creator, which enables further personalization of backgrounds; The Gold Gallery, a content database of additional backgrounds, animation and notifiers, JunkFilter Plus, an anti-spam solution, and the recently introduced Magentic, a desktop enhancing solution. IncrediMail generates revenue by the sale of these products and services; licensing and co-branding the Incredi brand to operators of third party websites; and selling paid advertising and sponsored links on its website and email client. For more information about IncrediMail, visit www.incredimail-corp.com.

Check out the millions of bucks this company is raking in:

Revenue in the first quarter of 2007 was $4.4 million, double the $2.2 million recorded in the first quarter of 2006. Net income on a U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) basis for the first quarter of 2007 reached $0.8 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, increasing 51% over the $0.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, reported in the first quarter of 2006. Mr. Yaron Adler, Chief Executive Officer of IncrediMail, said, “This is IncrediMail’s third consecutive quarter of record revenue. During this quarter we continued to invest in our product pipeline, and our new Magentic product has already surpassed 2.5 million registered downloads. We’ve released the Japanese version of our program and are diligently working on our new Chinese language version, intended for release in the second quarter of 2007, as well as the beta version of our new instant messaging product, which we expect to release then, too. We continue to ramp up our investments in R&D and sales and marketing, which combined, nearly tripled in the first quarter of 2007, compared to the first quarter of 2006. We further enhanced and improved our administrative infrastructure, which helped to manage this quantum growth.”

 

Israel’s economy movin’ on up in World Competitiveness

Posted on May 16, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Israel starts to compete with the big-timers as it advanced to the 21st spot out of 55 countries ranked in World Competitivenes. One place above Israel was the UK and one place below was Estonia. Number one.. can you guess? the USA. Here are some more details, provided by Globes-Israel:

Israel’s economy has climbed three places to 21st place in the World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings, published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The survey, which was published today, ranks 55 countries according 323 economic criteria, and is based on data collated from business entities worldwide. Israel is ranked in 20th place for economic strength, unchanged from last year. However, it has climbed 20 places, from 45th to 25th in the ratings for international investment.

…The survey assesses each country’s performance according to four main measures: economic efficiency, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. Israel dropped two places to 33rd in the economic efficiency rankings. It rose two places to 25th place in the government efficiency rankings, and climbed to 16th from 24th place in the rankings for business efficiency. It rose by just one place to 14th place in the infrastructure rankings.

Stella Korin-Lieber and Reuters, “Israel up 3 places in World Competitiveness rankings” , Globes-Israel, May 7, 2007

 

US gets backstage pass to Israel’s airports

Posted on May 10, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment

How do they think of those magic security questions? How do they check your bag with magical cloths and get results in 2.2 seconds? How do they sell sandwiches for 90 shekels? I guess the US airport authority heads gave up and had to come to Israel firsthand for a behind-the-scene look at Israel’s security practices. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I wanted my older brother to tell me how to do a magic trick. I would beg and beg and beg until he caved in. But afterwards, he would make me promise never to tell anyone. Magician’s honor. Security is Israel’s best kept secret, so just giving it away like this leaves me feeling a little vulnerable. From now on, though..let’s promise we won’t tell anyone else.. magician’s honor. The Jerusalem Post reports,

A group of US airport authority heads this week got an inside look at the running of the Israeli airport system in the hopes of learning new ways to improve the overall security and efficiency of US airports.

The five-day trip, organized and hosted by the Foreign Ministry, included meetings with Israeli government officials and officials at Ben-Gurion International Airport, as well as meetings with Israeli high-tech companies which specialize in airport security technology.

On Wednesday, the group viewed, amongst other things, the luggage screening and sorting process and the airport’s emergency response services.

 

Microsoft to invest hundreds of millions of $$$ in Israel’s R&D specialists…

Posted on May 6, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Business, Technology | Tags: | Leave a Comment

According to Globes:

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) launched an aggressive employee recruitment campaign ten days ago. The company plans to hire 150 people, most of them R&D specialists. Microsoft corporate VP Israel Research & Development Moshe Lichtman said that last year the company doubled the manpower at its R&D centers in Israel (from 200 to 400 people), largely as a result of the three companies it recently acquired (Whale Communications, Gteko, and Secure Dimensions). He claimed that the company spent $200 million on the new R&D activity last year, a statement that provides an official basis for the estimates relating to the sizes of the acquisitions (Whale Communications was reportedly acquired for $76 million, Gteko for $120 million, and Secured Dimensions for a few million dollars). “Microsoft plans to spend several hundred million more over the coming years,” he added.

Shmulik Shelah, “Microsoft Israel VP: We’ve spent $200m on R&D here”, Globes, May 3, 2007

 

Israel gets good reviews for public social welfare and health orgs.

Posted on May 6, 2007 • By Rebecca Markowitz
Category: Social | Tags: | Leave a Comment

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Israel’s public social welfare and health organizations are among the most innovative and creative in Europe, according to research conducted and published this week by a team of professors from the University of Haifa’s Graduate School of Management.

The study, carried out at the behest of the European Union to determine what makes an organization or a company successful and forward thinking, examined a range of health institutions and non-government welfare organizations in nine European countries - Britain, Ireland, Holland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway and Spain and Israel.

Looking at the traits that affect organizational innovativeness - openness to change, risk-taking, future-orientation, creativity and pro-activeness - the researchers revealed that Israeli organizations led the way in … areas of creativity, openness to change and focusing on future goals. Israeli organizations also scored highly when it came to risk taking and pro-activeness.

Ruth Eglash, “Israel’s NGOs hailed as European leaders in innovation, creativity”, The Jerusalem Post, May 3, 2007

 

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