Controlling Home Appliances with Hand Gestures Coming Soon
Last week, it was only a well-founded rumor, but this week it’s official. Apple is acquiring the Israeli company, PrimeSense for some $345 million. Why? Not only because it’s a great company that developed the motion-detecting game console, Kinect, but Apple is interested, as in VERY interested, in PrimeSense’s ability to map 3D spaces. PrimeSense is best known for the controls it developed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, but its solutions are also adaptable to iRobot’s Ava, Asus Xtion and 3D scanners.
In Memory of Arik Einstein, Perhaps Israel’s Top Singer of All Time
Arik Einstein, beloved father, extraordinary singer and songwriter, but more than anything a human being passionate about life and the up’s and down’s it throws our way, passed away at around 11pm Tuesday. I grew up listening to Arik’s songs–the likes of “Ani Ve’ata,” “Uf Gozal,”Einech Yahcola,” etc, etc…
Shiloh, Home of the Mishkan
North of Beit El in the beautiful Shomrom, on the mountain peaks of Binyamin, amidst olive trees and vineyards is the most exquisite juxtaposition of the ancient and modern, sacred and mundane that you will find in Israel.
Meet the Winners of the Dev4Dev Cleanweb Hackathon
Last Thursday and Friday, November 14-15, some very cool techies met at the “Dev4Dev Cleanweb Hackathon” at the Google Campus Tel Aviv with one goal—to develop apps that would change…
A 3-Layered Approach to the Arab-Israeli Conflict
There are three layers to the Arab-Israeli conflict: the National/Historic, the Religious, and the “What’s right/wrong?” (let’s call it “Justice”) approach. The question of who’s right: the Arabs or the…
A Poem in Memory of Gush Katif
They would not budge/ If it were them/ Let go now?/ “Hard”, “tragic”, In their words/ No room for mercy/ Self-annihilation/ In my words/ Tragedy strikes/Have we not learned?
Big Buck Exits in Israel’s Hi Tech
Remember when we reported that Google was planning to buy the Israeli traffic app Waze for a sum close to $1 billion? That was undoubtedly a huge sum of money for an Israeli startup, but it turns out that there have been many other successful exits this year.
An Interview with my Friend “Hahish”: a Fighter for Justice and the Jewish Way of Life
I met “Hahish” (he doesn’t want his real name to be revealed), while in high school. A mutual friend introduced us. We were headed along the same path: he was a young Zionist who had been born in Russia and had moved to the US as a teenager. He wanted to make Aliyah and serve in the IDF. He was already becoming acquainted with the Jewish way of life.
More Soup, Please!
Mr. Goldberger loves eating hot soup on Shabbos. He often takes seconds. Lately, he heard in Hilchos Shabbos shiur that one should be careful not to re-heat liquids that cooled down. After enjoying his first bowl, Mr. Goldberger started wondering: should he dry the ladle before taking seconds?
A Culinary Bazaar at the First Station–For Foodies!
In September 1892, the Jerusalem train station opened as the first and last stop of the Jerusalem-Jaffa line. It closed in 1998 and the station offices, ticket office and hall and its 3000-square-meter concourse sat deserted until “First Station” was renovated and restored this past year. The site opened in May and is a venue for seven eateries, a family bazaar, a design fair for 30 designers, a running shoes store, an activity center for children and a visitors store plus a myriad of activities running seven days a week.
Take a Train Trip Through Europe
A unique exhibition of .62 miles of train tracks with miniature trains, villages, towns, landscapes and train yards of Europe opened at the First Station, the recently renovated Jerusalem train area, early this August. This is the first time a miniature train exhibition has been held in Israel, and train enthusiasts of all ages will marvel at the way this has been created.
“He Who Lives Outside of ‘The Land’ is Like he Who Has No God:” Insights on Parshat Va’yetze
Ramban, on the other hand, says that (translated from Hebrew): This is not a condition as Rashi says, but a vow and “unless I return to my father’s home, I will not follow in the ways of Hashem in the Promised Land at the location of this stone where I will built a House of G-d and bring the ma’aser. And there’s a (secret) in this matter (from כתובות ק”י): Anyone who lives outside of ‘The Land’ is like he who has no God.”
A Mobile App to Protect Corporate Secrets
Israelis Yair Amit and Adi Sharabani of Skycure made international headlines earlier this year when they discovered that the personal information of users of LinkedIn was at risk. LinkedIn was…