Panasonic Says It Has Made A Safer Lithium-Ion Battery

And why not? The wired-up public has both driven and created some of the most cutting-edge content on the Web, while also changing the way content is used, created, and delivered. We're talking blogging, texting, IMing, music downloads, videos, digital photos—even the way in which cell phone services and use have evolved.

Hyperbole? I don't think so. Entire industries have grown up around activities that were once the purview of a small number of consumers—often young consumers. In fact, much of the credit for what You have accomplished goes to the digitally savvy younger generations. It's their lust for IM that led to the txtng crze, and the services to exploit and support it on your phones. It's their comfort level with socializing and playing online, that was the harbinger of today's growth in online gaming and the emergence of social networks, which have most recently caught the eye of real-world businesses that have decided they need to grab a piece of the virtual action. (The one irony here is that the digital You is also a great consumer of "reality" programming. Maybe all that time spent online drives a need to at least see other people interacting face to face.)

Sea changes have occurred in how people communicate, socialize, and even view their careers and conduct business. Take the growth of new companies. Increasingly people are opting for entrepreneurship, in many cases made easier or more approachable by a vast array of technology, true, but driven, again, by the digital You, who are perfectly comfortable stitching together the component pieces needed to get up and running, collaborating, and then conducting business in the cubicle-less ether. Down the road, I can see You helping to refine and drive the use of videoconferencing, which has struggled for years to gain traction.

And those changes, taken together, have had an undeniably wide-reaching impact, starting with blogs. To read more about why Time chose You as its Person(s) of the Year, and the impact I think You have had on the industry, the world, and how we live and work, please go to my blog entry for this editor's note.

Patricia Keefe
[email protected]
www.informationweek.com

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Panasonic Says It Has Made A Safer Lithium-Ion Battery
The company says it has developed a heat-resistant layer made of insulating metal oxide that would prevent a battery from overheating and possibly bursting into flames.