Grab your biofuel startups fast, Lux Research says — the field of contenders with game-changing technologies for turning non-food feedstocks into useful hydrocarbons is getting sparser by the minute. The report sees Big Oil and consumer products conglomerates quickly winnowing the field of the best technologies. Read More »
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Cloud provider GoGrid has expanded its Infrastructure-as-a-Service catalog by launching a Hosted Private Cloud that maintains all the features multitenant clouds, but on dedicated physical servers. It’s an interesting tactic, and it highlights the different value propositions and visions of the leading cloud providers. Read More »
Video publishers that want to distribute to viewers through apps built into connected TVs are feeling the effects of fragmentation, having to pick and choose between platforms. But the ability to build for a single, standards-based browser like Opera could make development a lot easier. Read More »
With more chips, our cars are getting smarter. That paves the road for more mobile apps that work between a phone and a vehicle: 129 million will use such apps by 2016, up from the 3.2 million consumers this year. What will the apps look like? Read More »
Some of Apple’s technologies stop just a little short of greatness. That’s where third-party applications come in to complete the picture (and the sound). Airfoil helps extend Apple’s AirPlay on Macs and iOS devices, and a brand new app called AirView improves AirPlay’s video playback abilities. Read More »
New York City has launched a “crowdsourcing” effort aimed at getting ideas from city employees to help the city function more efficiently. The program, called Simplicity, is being powered by Spigit, which makes a software platform that companies and governments can use to crowdsource ideas. Read More »
The controversial decision by the World Wide Web Consortium to create a new — and potentially confusing — brand identity for HTML5 doesn’t tell us much about the future of technology, but it does expose the weaknesses that motivate the web’s ruling body. Read More »
Verizon is launching four LTE handsets in the first half of 2011, but one, the HTC Thunderbolt, is expected to offer simultaneous voice and data. It’s likely Verizon will keep voice and data traffic separate meaning the solution will only work in areas of LTE coverage. Read More »
Playboy is coming to the iPad starting in March. And that’s not just a big screen conversion of the watered-down app currently available on the iPhone and iPod touch. No, it’s the fully uncensored magazine, both past and current issues. Read More »
Starbucks is taking mobile payments nationwide with the rollout of payments by smartphone at more than 7,500 locations. The payment system builds off a limited trial from last year and has the potential to push mobile payments into the mainstream for the first time. Read More »
Amazon Web Services, which built and popularized cloud computing with its Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service has moved up the stack from infrastructure to providing Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, its brand new Platform-as-a-Service play. With Beanstalk, Amazon hopes to outgrow the competition. Read More »
Hulu has become a major destination site for television fans since its launch, serving up both primetime and original content. But this week, it gets the closest it’s ever gotten to crossing the line between content production and content distribution with a new web original series. … Read More »
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