Category: Tech news

 Let the coding begin! Over 1,000 hackers have filed into the Manhattan Center and are diligently banging out code and tearing apart APIs. Over the next 24 hours these teams will work furiously, powered by Red Bull and Nerf Gun tomfoolery, to create a stunning application or hardware project. Read More

 Here is one idea that arrived before its time: the push-based web, where information comes to us, versus the search-dominant web we’re most familiar with. Those who are looking at the push web in the context of a new mobile and connected device-centric world might be having a real 90s flashback (remember PointCast?), except this time the push web could take off and transform the economy… Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, May 1, 2015. @Scobleizer gets his Watch, @borthwick on TwitterGate, and why negative filtering is the New Deal. Plus, the latest G3 (below) with Halley Suitt Tucker, Kristie Wells, Rebecca Woodcock, Francine Hardaway, and Tina Gillmor.
@stevegillmor, @scobleizer, @borthwick, @kteare Read More

 Ahead of its annual WWDC developer conference in June, Apple has opened up beta access to a new mobile app analytics service aimed at iOS developers. Simply called “Apple’s App Analytics,” an announcement inviting developers to request early access to the service appeared today on the iTunes Connect developer portal. Those with an iTunes Connect account can also reach the… Read More

 By now, the outrage machine is in full bore over the shutdown of Valley darling Secret. The once high-flying app, which allowed you to anonymously share details with your friends and the wider world, eventually sputtered in its growth, leading its founders to shut it down yesterday.
Startups fail all the time, but what made this one special was that the founders, David Byttow and Chrys… Read More

 After Facebook and Twitter reported mixed results this week, LinkedIn today was the latest of the social networks to report its Q1 earnings. The company, which has over 350 million users globally, posted sales of $638 million, up 35% year on year, with non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.57. Both beat analyst expectations but the stock is taking a big hit in after-hours trading, down more… Read More

 What do a teepee, cosmetic surgery and hot tub supplies have in common? They all appeared on corporate expense reports in 2011. Yes, it turns out that when companies tell employees, “Spend company money like it’s your own,” some people listen too well. When the average American household carries $15,611 in credit card debt, let’s face it: you don’t actually… Read More

 How old do you look? Old for your years? Young enough that you get carded every time you try to buy a beer? Now, how old do you look… to a computer that does nothing but guess ages? As something of an experiment, Microsoft’s machine-learning team has built a site that takes any photo you throw at it and tries (with varying success) to guess the ages of those it portrays. They say… Read More

 Google announced today that it will begin running tests of a new way to deliver search results to mobile users with slow connections. The company’s pilot trials will initially take place in Indonesia, a country where the Internet is playing a greater role in people’s lives – especially among younger users – but is still plagued by slow mobile connection speeds, which… Read More

 Thanks to the release of Windows 10 for multiple single-board computers, tinkerers are now waking up to the possibility of running Windows as a usable and surprisingly polished alternative open source operating systems like Raspbian. But how do you run Windows on a RaspPi? And why? First, I invite you to check out Microsoft’s refreshingly complete GitHub page where they offer… Read More

 Microsoft quietly launched a set of new machine-learning APIs in beta under the “Project Oxford” moniker yesterday. These new APIs allow developers to add face detection and recognition features to their apps, as well as speech recognition with the ability to understand the speaker’s intent. The project also features a vision API for automatically categorizing images and… Read More

 The e-commerce eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker has raised $100 million to expand physical store locations from 12 to 20 by year’s end and to work on technology that will allow customers to conduct eye exams on their mobile phones.
Global investment management firm T. Rowe Price led the round, along with participation from Wellington Management and from previous investors Tiger Global… Read More

 It’s been increasingly evident for years: smartphone users are digging bigger phones as they do more on screens, and spend less time talking on the phone. And there’s no sign of the appetite for super-sizing mobile handsets abating — not according to a new report from Yahoo-owned mobile analytics firm Flurry. Read More

 In further proof of the rise of streaming video services and the cord-cutting trend in general, TV measurement firm Nielsen today said it would begin to track viewing data and audience demographics across Roku’s 10 million+ devices, including its media players and Roku TVs. The move is being heralded as an industry-first by the two firms, as it will allow advertisers to measure… Read More

 Digital art is gaining popularity, with companies like Curioos dedicating entire marketplaces to the medium, but the idea of scarcity when it comes to the Internet is relatively new. NeonMob is looking to change the way we think about that with a platform dedicated to digital art collectibles. The company offers tools to creators so they can build out a collection of art — perhaps… Read More