Thornley lasted fewer than three months and in January Better Place chairman and Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer took over some of the CEO duties.

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As far as I could tell, Idan was a glowy tentacle of energy that could knock over a can of soda or even open a hatch.

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Idan Beck, CEO of Incident Technologies, said as more small hardware companies have grabbed consumer interest through Kickstarter, they are proving there's a market for newfangled devices.

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Boxee co-founder Idan Cohen joined us at Expand and mentioned some of the other updates the team is working on, we'll see if oft-requested features like the ability to pause live TV are added any time soon.

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"Under Shai's leadership, we've successfully achieved our goals in the first chapter of Better Place, and we owe Shai our gratitude for turning his powerful vision into a reality, " said Idan Ofer, Chairman of the Better Place Board of Directors.

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