“The Northstar Multiple Listing Service, the group that manages most Twin Cities-area home listings, is updating its iPhone/iPad app for real estate agents and other MLS members with a technology called HomeSpotter, which was developed by Twin Cities tech guru, Aaron Kardell.”

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“A Twin Cities man has become the latest consumer to sue Apple, AT&T and California software firm Carrier IQ for allegedly spying on his iPhone via secret monitoring software. About 60 similar lawsuits have been filed against cellphone companies nationwide.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis by consumer George Howell, says the alleged spying violates federal privacy, wiretap and fraud laws.”

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“Tait Danielson Castillo’s office wall is dominated by a laminated map covered in erasable marker that’s about as long as he is tall. It’s 16 years old, and finally on its way out now that a new digital mapping system is dramatically changing how the neighborhood organizer reaches out to area residents.

Danielson Castillo is using geographic information system (GIS) mapping to layer several sets of data on a computerized map of District 7, a collection of 5,500 households just north of University Avenue between N. Lexington Parkway and Interstate 35E in St. Paul.”

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“Maverick Software Consulting is at the center of an award-winning academic-corporate partnership that employs computer science students to develop and test software for companies such as Thomson Reuters and Digital River.

Maverick also is the bearer of some rather promising news on the job front: According to founder Martin Hebig, all 150 of the students who have worked at Maverick since the program started in 2006 have been hired to full-time positions at companies including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM.”

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“What do Stillwater prison and a K-12 Minnesota school have in common? One has inmates doing hard time, and the other is dealing with hard times from budget cuts. But there is other common ground.

The Minnesota Computers for Schools (MCFS) program is a non-profit organization that trains Stillwater Correctional Facility inmates to refurbish computers donated by local businesses. The computers are then shipped to K-12 schools across the state for a nominal fee.”

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“Little robots with remote cameras to scout out the bad guys were largely the stuff of science fiction when Lt. Andrew Borene and the rest of the 1st Marine Division rolled into Iraq in early 2003.

Today Borene is an executive with an Edina-based firm that just contracted to deliver 315 more of its “Recon Scout” robots to the Army for $4.8 million. That followed a $5.8 million order in August.”

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“The fix is looking a little loose for Target.com.

CEO Gregg Steinhafel recently assured investors that the Minneapolis-based retailer is smoothing out the kinks in Target.com after two embarrassing crashes following the site’s August launch. Steinhafel said Target has added money and staff to improving the website, though the company declined to disclose specific steps.”

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“SPS Commerce (NASDAQ: SPSC) , a fast-growing provider of supply-chain management services, has nearly doubled its share price since its initial public offering last year in what has been one of the country’s more successful IPOs since the Great Recession.

“We’re trying to build for the long term a very strong company that only does a fairly small portion of our business with Minnesota companies,” CEO Archie Black, a 13-year veteran of the Minneapolis-based company, said in an interview last week. “We serve a global market.”

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“HickoryTech (NASDAQ: HTCO), once a 19th-century small-town telephone company, aims to become a 21st-century regional telecommunications firm.

Over the past two decades, the Mankato-based firm has expanded from its local phone company roots to become a statewide provider of business telephone and Internet services over a growing fiber-optic network. The company’s shift to business services was based partly on the assumption — which proved correct — that demand for wired residential phone service would decline while competition for home Internet service and consumer cellphone service would become intense, said John Finke, the CEO.”

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“Clearfield Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD) of Plymouth now has a million-dollar bell.

“When we started the company in 2007, our salespeople would ring the bell for an order of $10,000 or more,” said CEO Cheri Beranek, 48. “Then we got a different bell for $100,000 orders.”

The fiber-optics connectivity firm’s million-dollar bell rang in sales in the just-completed fiscal year of $35.2 million, up 44 percent, while earnings were $6.2 million, up 422 percent.”

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