The tools that have revolutionized the way we live are only just starting to have an impact on scientific research. Now ResearchGate — the “Facebook of science” — is hoping to speed up the change, with a new round of investment from Founders Fund to make … Read More »
Bobbie Johnson
Bio:Bobbie is a British journalist who has covered technology and society over a decade in London and San Francisco. He was technology correspondent at the Guardian for five years, and has written for outlets including the BBC, Technology Review and Wired UK.
My Focus
European startups
Mobile technology
Berlin is famous for its thriving music scene — and now local startup wahwah.fm is taking on the idea of pirate radio with a social, mobile app that lets you broadcast to your friends. Read More »
Cloud collaboration software company Huddle is launching a new sync option for its hundreds of thousands of business users — centered on a smart matching algorithm that makes sure you only get the files you need Read More »
Finnish startup ThingLink has been trying to find ways to encourage users to get excited about its “rich pictures.” Now it’s hoping it may hit the mother lode by helping advertisers and marketers build interactive images inside Facebook pages. Read More »
Search engine Yandex is looking to extend its dominance in Russia through a deal to access Twitter’s firehose — allowing users to search millions of incoming tweets in real time. Read More »
In a move that echoes Amazon’s purchase of Zappos back in 2009, Russian web store Ozon is buying online shoe seller Sapato.ru — a deal that Ozon CEO Maelle Gavet says will turn it into a “powerhouse online retailer”. Read More »
French startup Pearltrees just scored another $6 million to help scale up its social curation service that helps people save, sort and share what they find on the web. But with dozens of services in play, is this a bubble waiting to pop? Read More »
Europe’s most notorious cloners have built their reputation by copying big American companies. But now they appear to be readying a new rival to small Swedish startup Wrapp — a change of tactics that has ‘surprised’ Wrapp CEO Hjalmar Winbladh. Read More »
Remember Crazy Frog? The bike-riding amphibian and his irritating, ubiquitous song symbolized the premium ringtone market a few years ago, before fading into obscurity. The frog has disappeared, but one startup thinks it has found a way to evolve the idea for the modern mobile user. Read More »
Roku has filled a vital gap in its lineup by announcing the addition of a channel for the BBC’s popular iPlayer service, just as it starts shipping its media streaming boxes to Britain for the first time. Read More »
Advertisers and publishers have swarmed over QR codes as they try to add interactivity to analog media. Now the Swiss team behind retooled mobile app Shortcut hopes they can help make the black-and-white glyphs a thing of the past. Read More »
London-based art discovery service Artfinder is set to step up its plans for taking high culture to the web, after bringing in a second round of funding from Northzone, Greylock, and Wellington Partners. Read More »
Embattled Nokia is hoping it can become faster and more competitive by shifting the heart of its manufacturing operations to Asia, a move which will see 4,000 jobs cut in Finland, Hungary and Mexico but will be seen as long overdue. Read More »
More details have emerged about Google’s intriguing plan to open a co-working space in London’s trendy startup district — but businesses and the authorities should be careful of reading too much into the move. Read More »
Italian computer scientist Massimo Marchiori became famous after inspiring the code that underpins Google. But is his new search engine Volunia — the ‘innovative’ new service he launched today — solving a problem that anybody has? Read More »
One of the world’s most popular BitTorrent search engines has closed down voluntarily, as the domino effect brought on by recent moves against Megaupload and the Pirate Bay starts to hit other filesharing sites. Read More »
Swedish iOS studio Toca Boca has become a hit with parents and kids around the world, thanks to its smart suite of simple, open games. Now it plans to open a U.S. office and target the American market in 2012. Read More »
- 21 Today: Why do we need academic journals in the first place?
- 36 This Week: Why Mountain Lion could blunt Android’s momentum
- 110 This Month: Which is less expensive: Amazon or self-hosted?
- Boku targets carriers with in-store payment system
- How Infochimps wants to become Heroku for Hadoop
- GetJar offers virtual currency to boost app downloads
- Green Overdrive [video]: Test driving the Fisker Karma
- HP earnings: top 3 takeaways
- Ericsson’s new HSPA: Now with 3 times the upload oomph!
- Mobile app companies agree to CA rules on privacy policies