Car conversation gets new meaning

A group of eight automakers that include Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen is working in Farmington Hills on technology to enable vehicles to talk to each other, to prevent crashes, says Detnews.com.

Ford demonstrated the emerging technology on three Escape SUVs, ahead of this week's Washington Auto Show. “If every car had it, it would be like another pair of eyes," says Mike Shulman, technical research leader at Ford's active safety research and advanced engineering team.

The wireless technology alerts drivers to oncoming vehicles, when other technologies such as radar are unable to pick up on their approach. It sends out the vehicle's position 10 times a second.

A substantial source of funding for Houston-area entrepreneurs probably won't be as significant in the future, according to Bizjournals.com.

The Texas emerging technology fund, a five-year-old programme developed to foster research and development of new technologies, has been targeted to be cut by as much as 85% in the Texas House's first official draft of the state budget.

Since 2005, some 39 companies in the Houston area have received $45.5 million, according to the Gulf Coast Regional Centre of Innovation and Commercialisation.

After a typically long day at work, Jean Harvey will head home, crash on her couch by herself and vegetate in front of the TV, writes SFGate.com.

But Harvey can still share her TV experience with friends, even those who live across the country by using Miso, a Web site and mobile phone application that lets you reveal what you're watching through Facebook or Twitter.

Miso was developed by one of a growing number of companies around the world that believe that the next big tech wave is 'social TV'.