Category: Tech news

 When Google bought bebop Technologies last fall for $348 million, it got more than a stealthy startup. It also landed Diane Greene as executive vice president of Google Cloud Enterprise — and that perhaps was the bigger prize. Greene brought with her years of industry experience, having co-founded and been CEO at VMware for a decade, building it into a virtualization powerhouse. In… Read More

 Today, the big data sector amounts to more than 7.5 percent of total venture investments. So where are we in the world of big data, and is the recent obsession with AI still fundamentally related to big data? Read More

 In partnership with TechCrunch, The Europas Conference & Awards, which I founded, has come up with a new kind of tech conference. Think of it as a relaxed, summer prelude to the heat of a Disrupt, followed by an all-out celebration of startups. Admittedly, it’s how we like to do things in Europe… The Europas includes a public vote to determine the industry’s favorites.… Read More

 In the popular media, we talk a lot about robots stealing jobs. But when we stop speculating and actually look at the real world of work, the impact of advanced robotics is far more nuanced and complicated. Issues of jobs and income inequality fade away, for example — there aren’t remotely enough robots to affect more than a handful of us in the practical sense. Read More

 “Enjoy your com-FORT-able stay,” says a robot front-desk clerk at Japan’s Robot Hotel. Do you thank the robot for its awkward salutation? Or maybe you hesitate for a moment before shuffling off in silence. If our digital screens are separating us from human interaction, you better believe AI will further tear that tenuous social fabric. Read More

 The fundamentally transparent nature of blockchain technology — with its unalterable public ledger — will force politicians to be more honest about themselves and their intentions. Blockchain, they promise, will eventually disinfect the American political system — exposing dishonesty and triggering a more accountable political conversation. Read More

 It may slip our notice, but technological innovation is often reducible to an innovation in the marketing and conceptualization of technology. While there are undoubtedly many technological breakthroughs that can’t be reduced to linguistic and conceptual changes, it’s surprising how often apparent innovations depend on shifts in terminology and discourse. Read More

 This week on the Technotopia podcast I interviewed Jeffrey Martin, the creator of 360Cities and the maker of the Sphericam. Martin is a skilled 360-degree camera operator and has created amazing panoramas of cities around the world.
“I’ve been working with VR since the days of CRT monitors,” he said as he explained the challenges and changes coming to us thanks to new… Read More

 Livestreams start boring because broadcasters don’t want to begin the real action until more people have tuned in. That can take a few minutes, even with streams being rapidly distributed via push notifications, tweets and the News Feed. But by that time, the initial audience may have bounced, and the recorded replay won’t entice viewers later. Facebook Live videos auto-play… Read More

 Chatbots have been in the news a lot this year. First there was Tay, Microsoft’s racist love child, who just couldn’t keep herself under control. Then came Facebook with its messenger bots, which, by most accounts, didn’t start well. And now there’s news coming from Viv, which at first glance seems like Siri 2.0. Not surprisingly, it was built by the founder of Siri. Read More

 Musical.ly is expanding beyond music videos with the launch of livel.ly, its live stream platform. Users will be able to broadcast through the livel.ly app, and the streams will be viewable on musical.ly. Launched last year, musical.ly is growing fast with about 80 million young teens using it around the globe. The app makes it easy to create music videos, by allowing users to dub over… Read More

 This week, Google successfully defended itself against the the $9 billion fair use court case against Oracle, Snapchat’s financials were leaked, Twilio revealed its IPO filing and more. These are the top stories of the week to catch you up on all things tech. 1. Closing out a $9 billion case that has stretched across many years, a jury found that Google’s implementation of… Read More

 Comixology recently launched Comixology Unlimited, a subscription plan that offers unlimited access to thousands of digital comics for just $5.99 per month.
Given the “all you can read” model, it’s natural to compare the new service to Netflix, but CEO David Steinberger told me that Amazon Prime’s video offerings are a closer match — and no, not because of the… Read More

 The UE Roll 2 is fun. How do I know it’s fun? Look at all of the press images on the side of the box. It’s gone skiing, bike riding, mountain climbing and rolling around in the mud with a bunch of attractive product models. Even more telling, the product ships with its very own miniature inner tube, which is a pretty fun thing to do. Also inside the box is a bright yellow USB cable… Read More

 San Francisco’s fashion staple seems to be ripped jeans and a hoodie. But just between the edgy All Saints and Paris designer St. Laurent on San Francisco’s Maiden Lane is a rare, high-end fashion pop-up called Maison de Mode. The shop boasts ethical fashion for the luxury buyer with hard to find artisanal items from globally sourced brands you’d normally only find at… Read More