3 things holding New York tech back

Yes, the technology scene in the Big Apple is surging. But these factors still stand in the way.

FORTUNE -- New York is no Silicon Valley.

It's been a great year for the New York City tech scene. Facebook (FB) began to build an engineering team in midtown. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans for Cornell University to build a new applied sciences and engineering school on Roosevelt Island. And local entrepreneurs Kass MORE

The information economy is reaching maximum overload

In the race to solve one problem, the last century's greatest technologists created a host of new ones.

FORTUNE -- This month I went off the grid -- all the way off. I powered my iPhone down, popped the vacation responder on my email, and headed out for a two-week adventure. By day two, I had stopped reflexively reaching for my phone; after a week, I could read a book for MORE

Meet the modern Nobel. (He's Russian)

Investor Yuri Milner bet long on risky tech companies like Facebook -- and made out. Now, he wants to change physics forever.

FORTUNE -- When Russian Investor Yuri Milner decided to put some of his fast-growing fortune to work in support of his greatest passion, physics, he had any number of options. He could have funded a university or started a scholarship fund. He could have followed Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropic model MORE

3 things to watch for in Facebook's earnings

After its brutal initial public offering, the social networking company must show Wall Street it is serious about making money.

FORTUNE -- Facebook will face a tough audience when the company reports its first quarter earnings on Thursday. After a theatrically disastrous initial public offering in May, the Menlo Park, Calif-based social network must now show Wall Street it can continue to grow both users and revenue at a brisk pace MORE

How to win the tech talent war

Talented engineers are more in demand than ever -- and that means incredible salaries.

FORTUNE -- Want to hire good engineers? The top talent is going to cost you -- it's not unusual right now for recruiters to offer senior engineers a base salary of $210,000 to $240,000, says Andreessen Horowitz's Technical Talent Partner Shannon Callahan. And that's before the perks.

Callahan joined Facebook's (FB) Vice President of People Lori Goler and MORE

Seamless knows what you want for lunch

Greek food if it's raining. Hamburgers over hot dogs almost any day. The innovative ordering company has reinvented tradition -- lunch -- via the web.

NEW YORK -- Seamless knows a lot about the way we eat. For example: Investment bankers order more sushi while hedge funders prefer deli options -- roast beef sandwiches and the like. On rainy days, people order more Greek food. And hamburgers have it over hotdogs MORE

The future of TV (maybe)

Outfits like NimbleTV and Aereo want to finally fulfill the promise of web TV. But disrupting the massive home-entertainment industry won't be easy.

FORTUNE -- Since the advent of the Internet, web TV has perpetually lingered over the horizon. Years after major cable companies unveiled "TV everywhere" initiatives and giants Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT) began peddling hardware to beam the Internet to televisions, the merging of the Net MORE

How 137 Ventures hacked the stock option tax code

Three Silicon Valley insiders created an investment fund to solve the ultimate tech-boom problem: owning too much startup stock.

FORTUNE -- In 2010, after three years as a communications manager at Facebook, Kathy Chan left. The 28-year-old's Facebook shares were the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket -- the company's valuation in private markets had already soared to $23 billion, but it was still a few years from its IPO. To MORE

Airbnb: More than a place to crash

The web startup has thrived by making it easy to list and find rooms to rent. But CEO Brian Chesky thinks the site can be an eBay for the social age.

FORTUNE -- The house-sharing website Airbnb lists 4,881 apartments for rent in Paris, but CEO Brian Chesky is paying a lot of attention to listings like the one for a parking spot in Île-de-France for $20 a night. Strange things MORE

Can Instagram solve Facebook's mobile problem?

Facebook is fighting Google and Apple for mobile users. With Instagram, it gains a core of developers that have the mobile design chops Facebook has lacked.

FORTUNE -- Facebook's billion-dollar acquisition of the photo-sharing application Instagram represents a new strategy for the world's largest social network. The company is a pioneer of the so-called acq-hire, buying companies mostly for their talent. Two of founder Mark Zuckerberg's five direct reports joined Facebook MORE