Growing number of mobile apps on multiple mobile platforms made by the likes of Google and Apple means that app discovery has become a major challenge. For some companies, including the newly reborn Digg, now part of Betaworks, that represents an opportunity. Read more »
With current broadband market is essentially a comfortable duopoly of cable and telecom operators with little competitive pressure that leads to forward looking features. It is no surprise that cities are looking to take matters in their own hands taking a cue from Bristol, Tennessee. Read more »
Meraki, a San Francisco-based company that came out of MIT Roofnet project, has been acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion in cash. With $100 million in bookings for 2012, Meraki was reflection of the growing demand for WiFi in a smartphone & tablet infested world Read more »
Twitter is changing its board again – and this time it is adding Peter Chernin, one time News Corp executive and the architect of Hulu, to its board. Chernin’s social media credentials are lower than my baseball batting average, so it is all about advertising & money! Read more »
Here are my notes from a conversation with David Karp, CEO & Founder of Tumblr. He talks about the social web, Tumblr’s place in this new Internet, the shift to mobile, the iPad Mini and how he has changed as a founder and entrepreneur. Read more »
There are more than 80 million broadband subscribers in the US, a sign that the market is getting saturated. It is not a surprise that the growth of new broadband subscribers has started to slow. So far this year, we have seen 200,000 fewer new additions. Read more »
Dropbox is an online storage success story and if recent numbers are to believed, then it is headed for even greater glory. Competition from Google has not impacted their growth. And now mobile phone makers like HTC have already helped it become really big. Read more »
Jawbone is coming back to the market with a brand new (and much improved) version of its much maligned UP wearable device that tracks your personal data including time spent walking. This time, it faces considerable challenge from Nike’s increasingly popular, Fuelband. Read more »
Technology business is chock-a-block with a lot of conferences. Some are new, some are old, but only very few are must attend events. Le Web, an annual technology fest in Paris is one of those don’t miss it events. This year they are talking about Internet-of-things. Read more »
Joshua Kushner, the well known founder of New York-based Thrive Capital, an investor in hot startups such as Instagram, Fab, CodeAcademy and Warby Parker is working on his second startup, that is said to be focused on the healthcare industry. It is all very hush-hush. Read more »
A bootlegger and a gun merchant go to war, the New York Subway is punished by Sandy but bounces back quickly, the curse of multitasking, the business of minor league baseball and sugar, the silent killer — these are some of the stories to read this weekend. Read more »
AT&T is going all-in on IP – the Internet Protocol, and cutting the cord with its past. Instead, it will push newer, faster broadband via a hybrid of fiber-and-copper technologies. And what that means is end of the line for classic DSL. Nothing wrong with it. Read more »
Amazon is increasing the speed with which it is rolling out its Lockers across the country by partnering with retailers such as Staples and RadioShack. That attention is helping lift the fortunes of startups that want to take on Amazon — BufferBox being one of them. Read more »
Microsoft today announced that it is transitioning over 100 million of Windows Live Messenger users to Skype. It is the latest sign of Microsoft-ization of Skype. The race to integration is having some unintended consequences — including declining quality of voice calls. Read more »
Hurricane Sandy has been on the mind of everyone this past week. Here are some stories about raccoons, Australia, China, baseball and the U.S. post office, that might give you some momentary distraction from what has been a tragic week. Read more »
Last year at Roadmap we talked to folks such as Jack Dorsey, Matt Mullenweg, Drew Houston, Brian Chesky and others about how connectedness changes everything. Here are some videos to watch ahead of RoadMap 2012 which features the likes of Ev Williams and Kevin Systrom. Read more »
Will there be a day when we shall see commercial planes connecting to the Internet at LTE speeds? A recent test by Ericsson gives hope to the possibility, though it is more likely that superfast trains are more likely to see LTE speeds. Read more »
Nary a day goes by when someone or the other doesn’t come up a new way to help us deal with information overload. Today, Summly enters the sweepstakes with an app that automagically summarizes news from different sources for quick easy on-the-go consumption. Read more »
The Wi-Fi version of Apple’s iPad Mini goes on sale on Friday. It is already sold out and the reviews, which hit the web tonight, seem to like the iPad Mini. However, most remain wistful for the more modern Retina display on the larger iPad. Read more »
Pinterest has been one of the biggest web success stories of past 12 months. Its growing influence on fashion and product oriented web sites is now extending to e-commerce sites. A growing number of e-tailers from eBay to mom-and-pop operations are adopting the grid-like look. Read more »
Scott Forstall, the deposed iOS chief, has been a divisive figure inside Apple. His exit from Apple is likely to have an impact on the company’s stock price when the markets re-open. How are Apple insiders feeling about his exit? I asked a few of my sources. Read more »
By combining chemistry, processing and engineering expertise, IBM researchers have come up with a new chip technology that would allow the industry to get more powerful, yet smaller with lower power consuming chips. It may take more than a decade before the technology become commercially viable. Read more »
What a week in tech – the new iPad Mini and Microsoft Surface. And more is yet to come. Perhaps that is why you need a dose of non-tech refresh this weekend, so here are some pieces about Euro car crisis, Rio and Frank Sintara. Read more »
John Maeda, the President of Rhode Island School of Design and one of the most influential people in the world of design and technology, spoke at TED earlier this year about the importance of art, technology and design inform creative readers. It is fun and educational. Read more »
AT&T says it saw 4.7 million iPhone activations for the three months ending September 30, 2012. Eighteen percent were new to AT&T. Due to supply constraints a “vast majority of third-quarter iPhone sales going to existing customers to satisfy pent-up demand.” Verizon activated 3.1 million iPhones. Read more »
Lost in the madness and hype around iPad Mini is Apple’s newest waif like iMac, which has lost a lot of weight, got a new screen and it might be Apple’s best desktop computer just yet. My quick hands-on with the iMac. Read more »
Time Warner Cable, like some other broadband service providers, is now charging monthly rental fee for modems. That’s hardly a surprise, given the dearth of alternatives for consumers. Of course, the FCC willfully ignores the lack of a competitive market dynamic. Read more »
Facebook Vice President Joanna Shields, who in the past has worked for Google, Bebo, AOL and most recently with Facebook is now taking over as the chief executive of Tech City Investment Organization, a group that wants to make London a center of tech innovation. Read more »
Did AOL just come up with a new way to do email? Who is Felix Baumgartner? Are we too addicted to techno-nannies? What is happening to the American salesman? Ina Drew plus what lurks in the wild. Some of the stories on tap this week. Read more »
By all measures, Google had a terrible day yesterday. The earnings news was accidentally released earlier than expected, and poor financials saw the stock tank. But there was some good news: Estimates of Nexus 7 tablet sales are near 1 million units for the quarter. Read more »
Second quarter of 2012 represented three good months for planet broadband, particularly for the US which saw big gains in higher broadband speeds. In addition, Japan got faster and more countries are offering more broadband to more people. But there is some bad news as well. Read more »
As more sources of news start to go direct by posting their thoughts to their blogs, Twitter and Facebook pages, a journalist’s role becomes more about deciding what to amplify and what to ignore. Read more »
Reuters reports that FTC is looking to take anti-trust action against Google, because there is belief that Google has abused its dominance of the search business. If true, it will have a far reaching impact on the company and its culture. Read more »
RockMelt, a startup co-founded by Tim Howes & Eric Vishria burst on the browser scene two years ago with a social browser. Today the company is launching a brand new iPad app that marries browser and a reader. It is part of company’s growing focus on mobile. Read more »
Kickstarter co-founder and CEO Perry Chen is the latest to join an all star line-up of speakers for GigaOM RoadMap conference, scheduled to be held on November 5 in San Francisco. Other speakers include Evan Williams (Twitter and Obvious), Instagram’s Kevin Systrom and Birchbox’s Katia Beauchamp. Read more »
James Dyson, the maverick engineer who created Dyson line of vacuum cleaners is donating $8 million of his money to an incubator that is based at London’s Royal College of Art. Its mission – create new physical products that solve modern society’s vexing problems. Read more »
This is a potpourri of subjects — from Salman Rushdie to the business of tacos. If that doesn’t get you interested, then how about Homeland’s CIA connection, the little fish that can save the Atlantic Ocean, karma and the road to nowhere, a one-eyed matador, and Williamsburg. Read more »
Steve Jobs once said to follow your heart, do what you love and let the dots connect themselves. Today, on the first anniversary of his death, we can all try to do just that, especially here in Silicon Valley that seems to be afflicted by short-termism. Read more »
Today, there is a lot of talk about Facebook signing up a billion users – a staggeringly large number. However, the real value of Facebook comes from how it allows us to use our Facebook identity to sign-up for apps, e-commerce website and even gadgets. Read more »
