Category: Tech news

 Speaking at the DLD conference in Munich today, Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick sang a rather different tune than he has of late. In recent times, the service has been fighting fires on a number of fronts, from controversies about its relationship with the media, to the safety of its riders, both in the US and in emerging markets. Read More

 The bitcoin train is really made up of two revolutions in one: Money and finance, based on the bitcoin protocol, and exploiting the “currency programmability” aspects; and decentralized applications, based on the blockchain’s distributed technology capabilities. Read More

 It’s hard to find a space the sharing economy hasn’t touched. We find people “sharing” accommodations and cars, dog sitters and personal assistants, bikes and even wardrobes. The sharing economy allows people to conveniently access goods and services in sustainable ways, to engage in new experiences, and to capitalize on greater economic efficiencies. And this trend… Read More

 Complex communication is one of the bedrocks of human civilization. The tools we use – voice and face muscles, smoke signals, quills and ink, emojis – start out as delivery systems for existing ideas. Without exception, those tools end up influencing the ideas themselves. For proof, look no further than the impact of technology on the nuclear family over the past hundred year Read More

 Paulina Raguimov never expected to get paid to make video games when she walked into her high school’s career fair at 16. Read More

 So many eyeballs, so little growth. Or so Yahoo’s recent performance under Marissa Mayer could be summarized. Joining Yahoo as its head in 2012, Mayer quickly made a splash with a rapid series of acquisitions, from the billion dollar purchase of Tumblr to the $30 million acquisition of Summly. The performance of that strategy has been lackluster. While Yahoo has acquired nearly 50… Read More

 It’s a standard Apple play to shave a few atoms off the waists of its gadgets come refresh time — allowing the company’s marketing department to crow about thinner flagships that also pack more power and boast better screens, or both. Read More

 Share or subscribe with this link: Snapjams from Evan Spiegel Snapchat wants to be a music app. Leaked emails from the Sony Pictures hack and news reports indicate Snapchat’s been talking with music companies like Sony and Vevo to potentially play songs or music videos in its app. The startup already takes great care in choosing songs for its promo videos, leading me to discover… Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — Dan Farber, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Topics include the Nesting of Google Glass, Neil Young’s Pono and mixing to the car radio, why Selma got shortchange in the Oscar nominations, Facebook @ Work or not, and some tough notification talk to wind it up. If you miss Scobleizer, watch him join our sister show G3. Read More

 The latest viral sensation on the world wide web has lost some of its sparkle. ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com (yes, this is what we’ve come to) is up for auction on Flippa with a current bidding price of $61,000. When I first heard about a “Glitter thing” on the internet, I tried to ignore it as best I could. At best, it was the name of a new Sean Parker startup. At… Read More

 Rosie, C3PO, HAL, WALL-E, Bender, Optimus, Asimo. Our obsession with robots propels them to the single name status normally reserved for pop icons like Sting, Madonna and Oprah. The media has a long history of shaping our view of what robots are – we have seen them in movies and TV shows and read about them in books. In fact, the term “robot” was first coined by Karel Capek… Read More

 The Internet has become the world’s Sorting Hat: it identifies, and increasingly defines, the subculture(s) to which people belong. Does your Facebook feed feature Mother Jones or Fox News? The Guardian or The Telegraph? GamerGate vs Social Justice Warriors. Civil libertarians vs. terror-thumping authoritarians. r/parenting vs. r/childfree. Second Life vs. Digital Detox. Read More

 Medium does a lot of things well. Its easy-to-use interface for composing blog posts creates a clean, distraction-free environment for the reader. But one thing it doesn’t do well is audio. Music, radio shows, and podcasts aren’t a featured part of the product. London-based developer Roman Mittermayr put together MediumSounds so he could mash together what he liked about the… Read More

 I’ve been a big fan Faraday Bicycle‘s $3,500 electronic bicycle ever since I first learned about it. Over the years, I’ve watched and waited until the bike finally made it into production and started shipping to pre-order customers. And last year, I got a chance to try it out for myself. Read More

 The breakneck growth in internet usage over the past two decades has forced policymakers to confront a host of challenges, from how to regulate the sharing economy to who owns the infrastructure behind the “tubes” themselves. While tempers have flared on a number of these issues, I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to policymakers. The transformation of our society has been… Read More