Nick Bilton over at the New York Times has quietly released what is either a mega-scoop or some sharp speculation supported by original reporting.

We're not sure which. But we're convinced:

Apple's building a TV, and it will be powered by Siri.

Steve Jobs' "I've finally cracked it" comment to Walter Isaacson, Bilton says, was referring to the TV interface, not the actual TV set. Instead of having a pile of remotes on our coffee tables, or an absurdly complicated remote keyboard like the one Google uses with Google TV, we'll just tell Siri what you want to watch. And Siri will play it.

What are the key challenges for corporate innovation units? Let’s have a discussion on this. Below you get my starters. Your input is highly appreciated!

Hit the window! The window of opportunity gets smaller and smaller and the time to success decreases. In short, cash cows are a dying race. Corporate innovation units need to hit smaller windows more often in order to create strong return on investments.

Lots of important SBIR news this week including something from the President, along with signs that the House is ramping up to get SBIR reauthorization passed soon. House Small Business Committee chair, Sam Graves is a popular guy, getting mail from House Armed Services Committee chair Buck McKeon voicing concern about a House SBIR provision, and a letter from 11 Senators concerned about the House SBIR bill. We also have a new but somewhat mysterious USPTO SBIR Pilot Program, so let's go to press!

The Supra Incubation Center, devoted to integrating resources for biotechnology, will begin operations Nov. 1 under the Executive Yuan, according to SIC Director Soo Whai-jen.

To boost Taiwan’s burgeoning biotech industry, Soo said, the center will focus on identifying profitable new drugs and equipment, formulating complete industry value chains for each case and bringing products to market in the shortest time possible.

Soo said he will conduct a comprehensive review of biotech research projects presented by local academics to identify potentially profitable drugs.

Springboard Cambridge director Jon Bradford has co-founded what appears to be the world’s largest tech accelerator – TexDrive – targeting Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe.

Bradford, who moved to Cambridge UK following the successful launch of Springboard in the city earlier this year, says TexDrive is the first in Eastern Europe and CIS member of TechStars Network, and is supported by Springboard. Both are well known acceleration programmes and networks.

Universities and federal laboratories often license their inventions to industry as a way to commercialize those technical advances. Which generate higher royalties?

Recently released data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) indicates that the average university invention brought in significantly more in licensing income than the average invention from a federal laboratory in 2009, the latest year for which data are available.

People weren't buying much during the Great Depression. This we know. But from 1929 to 1933, refrigerator sales went up 30%--because it was a "highly innovative product" at the time, says the Boston Consulting Group. Even more important: It was produced by an industry willing to hire people, invest in research and development, and market itself when others weren't. Which is to say, it was an industry willing to take some risks. Eighty years later, not much has changed: The economy is sour, and it's time to be contrarian. "This is the time of opportunity," says Yoram Wind, a marketing professor at the Wharton School. "When times are good, people add things, they do more things--but not all of that is leading to a return. Now is a chance to ask, Can we do things more efficiently?" That may explain why companies such as Netflix and Gap have made big, structural changes in hopes of resetting their trajectories. But in this climate, not all shake-ups work well. So who's taking the right risks? In the list below and the pages that follow, we offer a guide to this moment of fear and change.

Application guidelines for the Rhode Island Research Alliance 2012 Collaborative Research Grant program are now available. Click here to download guidelines.

Through this grant program, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) will award funding of up to $200,000 per project to collaborative, multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary catalytic research and development activities across the state’s academic and commercial research institutions.  These awards are a direct investment of state funds to teams that are pioneering Rhode Island’s future through new ideas, technologies and innovations that are well positioned to attract follow-on investment.

Canada is one of the best countries among the G20 for small business owners, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially as the country will need to lean on younger entrepreneurs coming out of the current recession, Ernst & Young said in a new business barometer released Monday.

The study, prepared for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Summit in Nice, France, that starts Monday, surveyed 1,000 entrepreneurs across the G20 (50 in each country).

It found Canada is among the leaders in several areas, including business confidence, startup costs, strong banking sector, and good coaching and education programs for young entrepreneurs.

This is intended to be an apolitical post  so if you want to get into a political debate in the comments you’re missing the point.

Herman Cain. He’s sorta lovable. He just says whatever he thinks and we expect politicians not to do that. He’s sorta like a crazy uncle. He says out loud that we ought to build a double fence on the border with Mexico and electrify it. WTF? He then says he was joking. And then that he wasn’t.

With the world's population set to reach 7 billion by the end of this month, there has never been a greater need to find and scale solutions to the complex societal challenges we face -- from environmental sustainability to accessible health care and education to providing access to financial services to the more than 2 billion people living on less than $2 a day. At the same time, we're better equipped to overcome these challenges than at any point in history. Technology has radically increased our ability to connect people to lifesaving and life-enhancing innovations. Businesses are more global, with remarkable reach into distant communities and immediate access to resources. And a new generation of social entrepreneurs has emerged, catalyzing innovation across every area of need.

Tomorrow is the day! After 18 months of writing, sketching, and preparing, "Blah Blah Blah" hits the shelves (real and digital). To help us all get in the blah-blah-blah mood, I'm officially launching the Blah-Match game today.

In two weeks, Global Entrepreneurship Week kicks off with more than 40,000 events spread out over a seven day period in 123 countries. At competitions like Startup Open for the most promising new startups in 60 countries, to tournaments for cleantech ideas, at stadiums where entrepreneurship will meet music and sports, from heads of state to high school competitions, Global Entrepreneurship Week has become a movement for the next generation of startups and entrepreneurs inspired by the possibility of human endeavor for the benefit of all.

Why do nearly 10 million people across the globe turn up at these events with millions more engaging on-line?

From a practical perspective for the curious individual, Global Entrepreneurship Week offers a chance to look inside ourselves and “try it out” risk-free. While some activities may have more drama and fun than others, the most you can lose is a little of your time. It offers citizens across the globe a chance to learn that new firm formation is a team sport enabled by informal networking--and provides them with an opportunity to meet potential collaborators, mentors and even investors. It offers us the chance to explore whether at some point in our career, we too might give birth to an idea and perhaps even make a job for someone else. It gives everyone a glimpse of themselves controlling their destiny and being a little closer to achieving that common human desire to do well and good in the world.

From very humble beginnings, the biotechnology industry in Massachusetts has grown to be one of the most significant regional clusters of any industry in the world. But we're not done yet — we at MassBio join our colleagues in industry, government and academia in a quest to continue our stellar growth. How can it be done? With a renewed focus on being the best place in the world for innovation, research and development.

Biotechnology began to take hold in Massachusetts in the late 1970s, benefitting from the numerous research universities and hospitals in the greater Boston area. The industry began in old converted industrial spaces in Boston and Cambridge, but today, Massachusetts has over 500 biotech and pharma companies, 18 million sq. ft. (1.6 million sq. m.) of commercial laboratory space and close to 50,000 workers in the field.

People who lead their organizations’ collaborative innovation programs cannot relax until they have brought the first one or two collaborative innovation campaigns to a successful close. No wonder. For many, this engagement represents their first exploration of the potential that the practice of collaborative innovation can offer their organization and them. They appreciate that implementing the practice transforms the ways in which the community works together and behaves towards one another. Change brings tension borne of uncertainty.

At some point, the leader sees the community introducing compelling, novel approaches to seemingly intractable problems. They see their colleagues realizing their potential for leadership in forming and pursuing ideas to resolution with the campaign sponsors. Nobody has lost a limb or their career. Life is good—or, more to the point, life is more open, dynamic, and engaging than it had been: characteristic prerequisites for making headway in the knowledge economy.

By Tom Still

MADISON – With the Wisconsin Legislature huddled in the Capitol to debate ideas for improving Wisconsin’s economy, it’s only fitting that some of the companies actually shaping the state’s future will be gathered two blocks away next week.

The annual Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, which matches up-and-coming companies with potential investors and other partners, will be held Wednesday and Thursday at Madison’s Monona Terrace Convention Center. It will serve as a reminder that Wisconsin’s innovation economy is cranking out ideas that can compete anywhere.

Nearly 40 emerging companies from a mix of industry sectors – biotechnology, software, advanced manufacturing, medical devices and consumer products – will tell their stories to angel and venture capitalists from across Wisconsin and beyond. The conference also features a number of hands-on panel discussions and speakers such as Rich Bendis of Innovation America, one of the nation’s leading startup catalysts.

As a venture capital associate, I’m privileged to speak with entrepreneurs every day about their businesses.  In over three years of conversations, I’ve had the chance to speak with all kinds of founders.  I’ve spoken with CEOs of varying ages (from the kid who started his business in his dorm room to the 75-year-old third-generation owner), who have businesses in vastly different industries (ranging from software to healthcare to manufacturing and everything in between), and companies of all sizes (from pre-revenue to over $50M of cash flow).

Most of the entrepreneurs I know realize they have some bad habits, like maybe procrastination or not listening well, so they focus on dropping these. New studies indicate that a more productive approach would be adopting new good habits and behaviors that clearly move your business forward, like good time management and implementing customer recommendations.

These two approaches may sound similar, but actually require different skill sets. For example, learning to stop smoking may leave you with a gap to fill, but finding activities that remove your urge to smoke really gets you where you want to be.

Gov. Scott Walker on Friday proposed a compromise aimed at settling months of wrangling over legislation to boost venture capital investment.

Walker said he wants legislators to create a $100 million "fund of funds," an investment vehicle in which a manager hired by the state would put taxpayers' money into a variety of existing venture capital funds. All of the money from the state would have to be invested in Wisconsin-based businesses.

The most notable part of Walker's proposal is what it does not include: participation by certified capital companies, or CAPCOs. Those controversial out-of-state firms lobbied heavily to be included but have been dogged by criticism over their past handling of state money under a previous venture capital program.

In the video below posted on the site Innovation Excellence, Henry Chesbrough, originator of the concept of open innovation, discusses products as an innovation platform.