Science and Technology

The Future Is Software – This Week, Anyway

By Felicia Knight

This week Microsoft and Apple made it clear that software is the new hardware. For the time being.

Microsoft is buying the business-oriented social network LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash, and Apple is pivoting away from its slow-selling laptops, tablets, and smartphones to focus on improving its software.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called the purchase of LinkedIn key to the company’s corporate image building – a way to reinvent productivity and business processes. “How people find jobs, build skills, sell, market, and get work done and ultimately find success requires a connected professional world.”

The ethanol in your gas tank should come from a tree in a Maine forest

Originally published in the Bangor Daily News

Fortunately, this challenge comes at a time when new renewable energy technologies are poised to drive demand for biomass both in the U.S. and abroad. So our forests are well-positioned to nurture growth and well-paying jobs in both export opportunities, with the state-of-the-art bulk conveyor system at the Port of Eastport, and with the development of home-grown green energy production in Maine.

Wireless Partners Announces Expansion of High-Speed Internet Access for Downeast Maine through partnership with Premium Choice Broadband

BREWER, ME – Wireless Partners, LLC today announced a new partnership with Premium Choice Broadband that allows Premium Choice to reach more customers in more parts of rural Maine.

Premium Choice Broadband currently serves customers in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Hancock and Franklin counties. By joining with Wireless Partners, Premium Choice can now resell wireless capacity from the Wireless Partners 4G LTE network throughout Washington and Hancock counties. Premium Choice Broadband is also expanding and now offering fiber, cable, wireless broadband, including a new project to provide wireless broadband at Brunswick Landing.

Exciting Interactive Exhibits Come to Portland Science Center

Two new exhibits will touch down at the Portland Science Center, bringing with them the excitement of space exploration and interactive robotics. SPACE: A Journey to Our Future and The Robot Zoo will open to the public on Friday, January 29, 2016.

“With SPACE, we’re taking Mainer’s to the moon,” said Joe Gold, President of The Gold Group, which owns and operates the Portland Science Center. “Or, more accurately, we’re bringing the moon to them—as well as Mars and the universe. With THE ROBOT ZOO, we’re illustrating the real-life characteristics of animals and insects through interactive robotics. These exhibits are visually stunning and educationally stimulating.”