ICYMI: Amazon’s TV dreams, Chrome OS and Andrew Sullivan
Looking for some weekend listening material? Catch up on the week’s tech news and conversations with the GigaOM Podcasts! Read more »
Stories for Apr. 28, 2013
Last week on Pro: content personalization and the future of shopping
photo: Flickr / Denise Chan
For a deeper dive into the topics and technologies covered on GigaOM, check out the latest in-depth analyses on GigaOM Pro, our subscription-based research service. This week: our latest Sector RoadMap on the future of content personalization, how mobile will impact retail, and more. Read more »
Stories for Apr. 27, 2013
Feast brings the online academy model to cooking classes
photo: David Spinks
Feast CEO David Spinks is combining the e-learning model pioneered by education sites like Udemy and Coursera with his experience in building online communities, and he’s applying it all to building on online cooking school. Read more »
Flat is the new up: Why are companies using organizational structures that are thousands of years old?
photo: View Apart/Shutterstock
Businesses regularly evolve to meet modern new challenges, so why do they rely on the same old military-style organizational hierarchies? Here are a few companies that have adopted new structures to try to inspire workers and make the companies more agile. Read more »
Timing is not just for traders anymore, networks need it too
Internet architects are realizing that timing is becoming more and more important on packet-based networks. The question is how they can implement precise timing on a distributed architecture. Read more »
It’s not just Tumblr — most social networks don’t understand original content
The trend among social networks to produce original content often ends badly, as Tumblr’s shuttering of Storyboard showed. Here’s where other big services, from Facebook to YouTube, are going wrong – or, in the case of LinkedIn, going right. Read more at paidContent »
Android this week: Galaxy S 4 reviewed; HP Slate 7 arrives; Mailbox for Android coming
Reviews for the Samsung Galaxy S 4 generally agree: Nice hardware improvements and a possibly complicated feature set. HP’s $169 Slate 7 goes up against Google’s $199 Nexus 7 tablet while Mailbox, a hot iOS app for Gmail, could land on Android. Read more »
Dear Diary: What’s the role of a personal journal in the digital age?
photo: Flickr / thompsoe
I started keeping my diary 15 years ago, before Twitter, Facebook and a deluge of email. In a digital era, personal journal-keeping has changed and adapted to the more technological world — but those who privately chronicle their lives still find the practice useful. Read more at paidContent »
Stories for Apr. 26, 2013
Predicting Twitter popularity is all about probability
How can you predict which tweets will get more views, and more viral retweets? A new study developed a statistical model to estimate the popularity of tweets. Read more »
Amazon, Facebook want to hire software-defined networking engineers
photo: Jordan Novet
Amazon and Facebook are looking for engineers to work on deploying next-generation software-defined networks. Amazon’s project could bring new services for its cloud customers. Read more »
GigaOM Reads: A look back at the week in tech
Well no one saw this one coming: a comparison between Steve Ballmer and Tim Cook; the Future of Television according to Netflix; 3D printers and guns; plus Touchscreen Toddlers and San Francisco’s real estate inflation are some of topics covered this week. Read more »
North Korea asked for Android — Google chairman on good tech and bad governments
Smartphones are part of a revolution that is connecting and giving a voice to people for the first time. Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, warned on Friday that the revolution has a dark side too. Read more »
LivingSocial reports hack that could affect data of 50 million customers
photo: Shutterstock / deepspacedave
LivingSocial saw a major hack to its computer systems, reported Friday, that could impact the accounts of more than 50 million users. Read more »
RightScale sees uptick in cloud adoption and multi-cloud use
A survey from cloud-management player RightScale shows a rise in both cloud computing use and multi-cloud adoption. That bodes well for the company and its competitors. Read more »
How data is changing the car game for Ford
photo: Shutterstock / PhotoSmart
The advent of big data is affecting Ford Motor Co. in some significant ways, from how it analyzes its supply chain to the features it puts into its cars. Read more »
Now there’s an app to help you dodge bullets
photo: Thinkstock
Researchers have developed a new app and hardware module that will help you find the direction of gunfire. Read more »
Vermont gets a gigabit network. And it only costs residents $35 a month
Residents of rural Vermont are getting gigabit networks that will cost $35 a month. No, not from Google, but from their incumbent telco provider. Read more »
Banned in China: Bloomberg and New York Times say they had no choice
Should news outlets in China engage in occasional self-censorship for the greater good of reaching readers and projecting influence? Read more »
Video: The trends behind the year of clean energy turbulence
Global clean energy investing dropped by 22 percent in the first quarter of 2013 says Bloomberg New Energy Finance CEO Michael Liebreich. In his keynote address for Bloomberg’s energy conference this week, he unpacked some trends in the global financing of next generation energy technology. Read more »
HP Slate 7 hits US for $169. How does it stack up against Google’s $199 Nexus 7?
You can finally buy an HP Slate 7 in the U.S. for $169.99, but will you? I think it’s a tough sell for HP when the Nexus 7 is priced just $30 more and has a better screen. Read more »
Games for the weekend: Girls Like Robots
This week’s game looks like a simple puzzle game but is really about learning complex patterns. Read more »
iTunes turns 10. What’s in store for the next decade?
A decade after the launch of iTunes, Apple is still the king of digital music. But as attitudes about music ownership continue to shift, the software’s next 10 years will likely be more challenging than its last. Read more »
Tesla to offer loaner cars to customers with cars in the shop
Tesla plans to offer loaner cars to its customers when the customer’s car is in the shop and needs to be serviced. Read more »
Carriots is building a PaaS for the internet of things
Carriots, a Madrid startup, wants to build a PaaS for the internet of things. Is this the right model to help spur more hardware development, or should companies build out their own infrastructure? Read more »
Despite Foursquare’s struggles, Chicago’s Evzdrop isn’t scared of the check-in — or “drop”
A small startup trying to gain traction in the Windy City, Evzdrop has designed geo-social network that doesn’t connect you to your friends but to strangers wherever you happen to be. Read more »
Must-have Android app, AirDroid, adds remote access and more in AirDroid 2
My pick for a must-have Android app in 2013 was AirDroid, but now I have to update that selection. It was just displaced with AirDroid 2 which adds remote phone access over 3G/4G and more features. Read more »
As smartphone shipments surpass feature phones, Samsung rules the galaxy
Smartphone shipments eclipsed those of feature phones for the first time ever, says IDC. Who’s the current smartphone king, based on the numbers? Samsung is, with a strategy that started in 2010. Read more »
iOS reading platform Readmill partners with digital marketplace Gumroad
iOS reading platform Readmill announced three partnerships Friday. The Berlin-based startup is working with digital marketplace Gumroad, and has also partnered with U.K. companies Faber Factory and Firsty Group, which offer services to independent publishers and authors. Read more at paidContent »
Podcast: Apple’s knack, AP hack, and TV’s future track
From Apple earnings to the AP Twitter hack to Amazon’s set-top box, this week provided tons of fodder for a great podcast. Read more »
UK prepares for white space broadband rollout in 2014
photo: Flickr / Cillian Storm
The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced an industry pilot of the long-range broadband and M2M technology later this year, in order to make sure everything works properly ahead of a likely national deployment next year. Read more »
Wikipedia is now drawing facts from the Wikidata repository, and so can you
The Wikimedia Foundation’s first major new project in 7 years is now feeding the biggest project in that stable, Wikipedia itself. But anyone can take structured data from Wikidata, due to its open license. Read more »
Cord Cutters: Our review of Plair, which promises to be AirPlay for the rest of us
Can a $99 HDMI stick turn any TV into a smart device capable of AirPlay-like streaming of web content? Check out our Plair review to find out. Read more »
Stories for Apr. 25, 2013
AT&T launches its internet of things effort and it’s pretty big
photo: AT&T
AT&T’s home automation and security packages is now available in 15 markets and will appear in more soon. It’s impressive, integrated and AT&T promises it will one day be open. Read more »
Missed out on a WWDC ticket? Try an alternative conference, one block away
photo: Erica Ogg
The second-ever AltWWDC conference, an alternative to Apple’s WWDC developer conference, is seeing lots of interest as organizers line up speakers. Read more »
Would you like some storage in your storage?
Fast, low-power resistive RAM could corner the nonvolatile memory field, and also exhibits the ability to store charge like a battery. Read more »
Marco Arment on Instapaper’s sale and the “big” market for read-it-later apps
Marco Arment sees a bright future for read-it-later services, and says that Instapaper’s acquisition by Betaworks will allow it to get some new features that he hasn’t had time to add. Read more at paidContent »
It’s not always about ads, as data researchers use Facebook likes to gauge public health
A new study finds that Facebook likes and interest data could be used to map obesity prevalence. Read more »
Betaworks acquires Marco Arment’s read-it-later platform Instapaper
New media incubator Betaworks has acquired Marco Arment’s popular read-it-later platform Instapaper. Betaworks acquired Digg last year, and the firm is focusing on both short-form and long-form content companies. Read more at paidContent »
Facebook acquires mobile development platform Parse
Facebook has acquired Parse, the company that helps developers write mobile apps in the cloud. Read more »
After a radical transformation, Blip gets ready to take on cable
Blip used to be just another video hosting site trying to compete with YouTube. These days, it’s looking very different – and it’s getting ready to take on cable TV. Read more at paidContent »
