Beyond Meat CEO: One day eating meat will have no connection to animals
Can a Valley-backed startup help usher in a transition to plant-based proteins dominating the meat counter? Read more »
Stories for May. 7, 2013
What do we mean when we talk about “messaging” services?
photo: Corbis / Jim Frazier
It’s fun to compare the different ways of sending a digital message, but is there a point to doing so? According to one irate analyst, the debate – as currently framed – is futile. Read more »
Sponsored post: ShoreTel Dock turns workers’ iPads and iPhones into UC end points
ShoreTel Mobility enables iPads and iPhones with a unified communications solution to give users a productivity tool supporting their own work rhythm. With ShoreTel Dock, workers can click their device into the dock to gain benefits of a desk phone including a handset, keypad and speakerphone. Read more »
Updated: Where are your five nines now? CenturyLink’s nationwide outage affects millions
If you’re one of CenturyLink’s 5.8 million broadband subscribers, you’re probably fuming because your service is out. Such nationwide outages are rare, but that doesn’t make it any less painful for customers. Read more »
Need instant Wi-Fi? Boingo makes it an iTunes in-app purchase
Boingo is the latest company to take advantage of in-app payments on iOS devices. An update to the Boingo Wi-Finder app lets you sign up for a $7.99 monthly Wi-Fi plan simply by typing your iTunes password. Read more »
STMicro taps Quantenna’s gigabit Wi-Fi technology for future chips
Quantenna has developed a 802.11ac chipset that uses multiple antennas and multiple frequencies to deliver up to 2 Gbps of bandwidth. The partnership with STMicro will expand Quantenna’s scope beyond home networking to other industries. Read more »
New tool uses big data to predict student performance
A new analytics engine from education technology company Desire2Learn uses big data to predict and improve student performance in higher education. Read more »
Evan Williams on Medium: “The magazine is the analog for what we’re doing”
Evan Williams sees Medium, the blogging platform that he and Biz Stone launched last year, as a modern-day magazine. While Medium will eventually open to everyone, Williams said he wants the site to be “a great place for professional writers.” Read more at paidContent »
If Apple decides to make a television, Foxconn will be ready to build it
Foxconn isn’t looking for ways to reduce its dependence on Apple; it’s really looking for ways to rely less on the iPhone. Read more »
Local news outlets get MLB clips (and money) in deal with video wire NDN
photo: MLB, Reggie Jackson
Local papers will get a heaping of Major League Baseball highlights thanks to a new syndication deal with NDN, a company backed by Reggie Jackson. Read more at paidContent »
The promise of better data has MetLife investing $300M in new tech
MetLife is building new products on new technologies thanks to a $300 million investment in new technology and new skills. One of the first products is a MongoDB-based app that puts all of customers’ information in one place. Read more »
Froont wants to solve many-screen design problems from within the browser
The in-browser tool, which currently only allows editing in Chrome, is intended for designers who would rather do without the services of front-end developers as they create web pages for a range of devices. Read more »
Whoops! Windows 8 do-over on the way
Uh oh. Looks like Windows 8 is due for some changes, according to a Financial Times report featuring thoughts from a Microsoft executive. Read more »
Inktank gears up Ceph storage with support for Red Hat Linux
Ceph is an open-source storage fan fave and now Inktank is buffing it up with Red Hat Linux support. Read more »
Lace up your sneakers, Pebble watch owners, you’ve got RunKeeper!
Owners of the Pebble ePaper watch have a new app available for their wrist today. The promised integration with RunKeeper is here, showing pace, distance and more on the wrist. Read more »
Smaller equals scale for Riverbed’s new mini application-delivery software
photo: Riverbed
To bring scalability to application delivery controllers, Riverbed has miniaturized its software, so load-balancing resources can keep up with changes in storage and compute. Read more »
Sponsored post: The Cable Show 2013: Broadband Takes Center Stage
Broadband is the essential enabling ingredient for some of the most innovative work being done in the Internet and digital media ecosystem. It’s also the focal point of The Cable Show 2013, happening June 10-12, 2013 in Washington, DC. Find out more. Read more »
Sponsored post: Learn about distributed systems at Basho’s RICON East conference
RICON East is a developers’ conference happening in NYC on May 13-14. Come learn about distributed systems best practices from over 30 industry leaders, including speakers from State Farm Insurance, the Weather Channel, Comcast, MIT, Harvard University and more. Read more »
In its first Asian launch, Huffington Post expands to Japan
photo: Flickr / Marcus Vegas
The Huffington Post rolled out its first Asian edition in Japan on Tuesday. Read more at paidContent »
Social shopping app Wanelo’s redesign puts users in charge as it eyes a wider audience
photo: Corbis / Heide Benser
Wanelo has grown in popularity recently, especially among young female shoppers, but how the company can move beyond that core audience remains to be seen. Read more »
5 photo apps that will make a creative Mother’s Day gift in a snap
From photo collages to photo mosaics, there are several apps that can help you whip up a quick customized gift. Read more »
Viber morphs into full-blown Skype rival by releasing desktop app
Until now, Viber has been a mobile-only play that sits somewhere in between Skype and WhatsApp. Now it’s on the desktop too, and the different platform versions are very tightly integrated indeed. Read more »
pC LIVE Podcast: New media entities panel with Slate, Vox, reddit and LinkedIn
photo: Albert Chau
Enjoy this re-broadcast of a star-studded panel from our recent paidContent LIVE show in New York. Read more at paidContent »
Top jobs of the week in tech
photo: Shutterstock / Tom Mc Nemar
Looking for a job in tech? Each week we highlight some of the most interesting positions posted to GigaOM’s job board. Check out the latest tech gigs at leading companies across the country. Read more »
Stories for May. 6, 2013
Which steps are best when considering a move to the cloud?
Since a well-defined use case will determine the correct services, organizations moving to the cloud should understand where they are, where they need to go, and the best technological path to get there. Read more »
Bright outlook: First Solar sells out of solar panels, inks new deal in China
After reducing production and costs and closing a big solar panel factory, First Solar says it’s done a better job of managing its supply and has sold out of its production through nearly the end of the third quarter of this year. Read more »
Internet sales tax bill passes Senate, awaits House approval
The Marketplace Fairness Act — which will force online merchants to collect tax on behalf of other states — passed the Senate on Monday. Read more »
Google keeps fighting for the heart of the iPhone with new Gmail update
Even as Apple has decoupled its iPhone partnership with Google for everything except search, the web company has still found a way to reach its users who have iPhones and iPads. Read more »
The grand ambitions of Google Ventures
Google Ventures is looking to become one of the top-tier VC firms in Silicon Valley, and hiring high-profile partners is part of the path to the top. Read more »
Want a job at Gawker Media? You can get a head start by being a regular commenter
The new weekend editor at Gawker’s auto-focused Jalopnik blog got hired because he was a knowledgeable commenter on the site, an example of how the feedback loop between writers and readers can pay off for blogs. Read more at paidContent »
Qualcomm Life buys HealthyCircles to tie patients, caregivers and health data
Qualcomm Life has acquired HealthyCircles, a startup founded by a former Microsoft HealthVault executive. Read more »
Samsung acquires second-screen startup MOVL
Samsung has picked up MOVL, a startup known for smart TV games and its TV app development platform. Read more »
How an old-school telco gear maker got the cloud religion. Can it convert the carriers?
Metaswitch is bringing the cloud model to telcos by open sourcing it’s new IMS core software that runs on commodity hardware. IT’s a good first step for the telcos but they must go further. Read more »
Intel debuts Silvermont: mobile chips with powerful battery-sipping abilities
photo: Intel
Does Intel still stand a chance in the highly-competitive mobile chip market? Yes, if the company’s new Silvermont chip lives up to its promise of 3x the performance of today’s Atom or 5x the power efficiency. Read more »
Adobe bets that Creative Cloud, not the desktop, is the future
RIP Adobe Creative Suite. In a true sign of the times Adobe nixes continued development on its landmark desktop apps to refocus on SaaS delivery. Read more »
Government lab demonstrates stealth quantum security project
Quantum cryptography is a kind of holy grail solution for securing sensitive networked resources. Researchers at Los Alamos National Lab have revealed that they’ve successfully been running what amounts to a mini quantum internet. Read more »
Dropbox to host first-ever developers conference this summer
What better way to draw developers to your platform than by hosting a developers conference? That’s exactly what Dropbox is going to do. Read more »
Big Bird, Caillou and Sonic could be part of YouTube’s subscription slate
YouTube is reportedly close to launching paid channel subscriptions on its site – and we’ve found a number of clues that hint at kids content being part of this initiative. Read more at paidContent »
Recruiting new iPhone carriers may be harder than adding individual users
The key to Apple’s growth is finding international carriers that will sell the iPhone to new smartphone users. But, as Bloomberg points out, that’s getting harder to do because of Apple’s requirements. Read more »
EMC plots software-defined data center journey from ViPR storage virtualization base
photo: EMC Corp.
EMC says ViPR will abstract out a company’s storage and automate how it gets divvied up by the workload. The company will roll out its software-defined data center plan this week. Read more »
