For “Glassholes” only: Google Glass’s exclusion problem
photo: Noah Zerkin
Google Glass isn’t aimed at the masses. But since its release, the divide between would-be users and everyone else seems to widening. Read more »
Stories for Jun. 6, 2013
Samsung Galaxy S 4 update adds more user storage, app installs on SD cards
Buyers of the 16 GB Samsung Galaxy S 4 thought they’d have a wee bit more storage available but Samsung’s software took up nearly half of it. Now, the company has a software update to address the situation. Read more »
Say goodbye to the connected device price gap. Adding connectivity will soon cost $5
photo: Ayla Networks
Who wants a connected device if it costs a lot more than the “dumb” device? In this week’s podcast we discuss the cost gap and how big companies will use the internet of things. Read more »
Box launches $rev program to entice app developers and make customers happy
photo: Box
Box needs all the help it can get in the race to become the Dropbox of the enterprise, so it’s incentivizing developers to make apps that paying customers actually use. Read more »
Adaptive learning startup Knewton takes its biggest step yet in K-12 education
Knewton, an education technology startup, has signed a deal with publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to bring its adaptive learning technology to millions of K-12 students. Read more »
A guide to WWDC 2013: what we expect, what we want to see
There will be very little — if any — emphasis on shiny new hardware. There will be new products, but this is going to be a software and services show, anchored by glimpses of the next versions of OS X and iOS. Read more »
Choosing service and management levels in the cloud
What are the differences between self-service, managed service and full-service IaaS providers? Learn the answer when you join GigaOM Research and our sponsor HOSTING for an in-depth webinar discussion on June 18, 2013, at 10 a.m. PT. Read more »
Note to dog owners: A fitness tracker won’t cure your pooch (or you)
Whistle promises to be an early sickness-detection device for dogs, but pet owners shouldn’t get their hopes too high. Read more »
Panzura gets $25M to staff up global sales presence
Panzura looks to expand its enterprise cloud storage push with new money from Meritech Capital Partners and current backers. Read more »
Design could help transform the web into a hits business, and that’s not a good thing
photo: Courtesy of David Fulmer
Will design contribute to this growing trend of Silicon Valley turning into a hits-driven ecosystem, not unlike Hollywood? Read more »
Tango built its video chat empire. Now it’s taking on the mobile gaming market
Tango has already built up a surprisingly large following of social gamers within its communications app. Now it plans to export its video, voice and messaging platform to other game makers. Read more »
As sports TV costs soar, leagues find new ways to slice up video dollars
Professional sports video is worth many billions of dollars — and the leagues are getting smarter about parcelling it out in small pieces to sell across different platforms. Read more at paidContent »
Day 3 of the Apple ebook trial: Simon & Schuster, Amazon execs take the stand
In court on Wednesday, Amazon executive Russ Grandinetti argued that publishers’ switch to the agency model was intended to “slow down the success of the Kindle,” while Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said Apple did not force publishers to enact agency contracts with Amazon and other retailers. Read more at paidContent »
What cities, data and Yahoo have in common: Interaction matters
photo: Shutterstock / pio3
A recent study from MIT suggests the likelihood of face-to-face interactions within a city means more productivity. It seems to apply equally to companies and even data, which suggests engineers and architects of all types should take notice. Read more »
Touting fastest 4G takeup in Europe so far, EE adds sharing and pre-pay options
It appears that LTE subscriber numbers at EE — a carrier that still has a monopoly on 4G in the UK — are increasing at an accelerating pace. But rivals are set to launch their 4G offerings soon. Read more »
While you’re waiting for your Fairphone, here are some tips for smartphone sustainability
Fairphone has received enough pre-orders to start developing its finalized ethical Android smartphone. But even now, there are steps you can take to make your smartphone purchase more ethical and sustainable. Read more »
Stories for Jun. 5, 2013
Think Google’s rich snippets are useful? Russia’s Yandex goes one better
photo: Flickr / kossy
Russia’s leading search provider has introduced a new feature that lets webmasters embed interactive functionality – think hotel booking or flight check-ins – directly into their search results listings. Read more »
N3twork emerges with a new type of content app, $12M from Google Ventures, Kleiner
Five-month-old startup N3twork has emerged from stealth with $12 million from Valley investors. We’ll have to wait until later this year for its product to unstealth, too. Read more »
Will the latest NSA surveillance scandal be a wake-up call about the power of data?
photo: Flickr / Candida.Performa
We talk a lot about the business benefits of big data and only a bit about the privacy implications. A report alleging that Verizon is sharing phone data at the request of the NSA may make privacy a higher priority. Read more »
Tweetdeck: now visually in line with the rest of Twitter
Tweetdeck has a new look, bringing it more in line with the rest of Twitter’s apps and brightening the overall visual appearance. Read more »
The cost of some peace and quiet in NYC? $20 an hour
photo: Breather
New startup Breather is commodifying co-working spaces by offering them on a per-hour basis. It’s a sign of the times that indicates the world of coworking spaces is getting a lot more complex. Read more »
Stripe tweaks its payment tech for the collaborative consumption economy
photo: Stripe
New peer-to-peer marketplaces like AirBnB and Lyft require that multiple people get paid from a single transaction. Stripe is simplifying that process by supporting complex payment models. Read more »
Cities with crime problems ask smartphone companies to solve crime problems
The district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of New York would like to know why Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Motorola haven’t yet made a phone with a “kill switch.” Read more »
With the big cities covered, AT&T starts filling in its LTE gaps
AT&T is done with its major-metro phase of its LTE rollout. From here on out it will be building its new network in increasingly smaller cities and towns to hit its 250 million-person year-end coverage goal. Read more »
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 »
Factor.io wants to be a sous chef, handling prep work for developers
Factor.io is trying to bring automation to the prep work that developers have to do before they can start coding new features. That’s why it is a Structure LaunchPad finalist. Read more »
Sorry Microsoft: AMD cheats on Windows, plans a fling with Chrome and Android
AMD is following Intel into Chrome OS devices and Android tablets, breaking away from its Windows exclusivity. With another Microsoft hardware partner playing the field, the trend is clear: The times are a-changing! Read more »
Why Amazon’s turn to real-life groceries is both surprising and yet makes total sense
More online retailers are making their way into the brick-and-mortar world, and Amazon may have cracked the code by turning to groceries. Read more »
Crowdfunding in healthcare isn’t easy – Health Tech Hatch turns to Indiegogo to make it work
Health Tech Hatch, a crowdfunding site for health entrepreneurs, is now partnering with Indiegogo, in addition to offering beta testing and campaign management services. Read more »
Reports: BlackBerry’s next phone is the A10, already in testing, out in November
If you thought the Z10 and Q10 comprised the entire 2013 BlackBerry phone lineup, you thought wrong. Multiple reports — including one hands on — say the A10 will be more of a flagship device when it arrives on Sprint in November. Read more »
The CIA takes an interest in Narrative Science’s quick summaries of big data
photo: Flickr / B_Zedan
While visualizations have gotten plenty of attention as options for getting good stuff out of data, In-Q-Tel’s investment in Narrative Science suggests information in paragraphs could work too. Read more »
GigaOM Chrome Show 8: Mysterious Chrome Mobile news and better iOS voice search
On this week’s audio podcast devoted to all things Chrome, we consider what Google might be announcing at a pair of upcoming Chrome Mobile events. We also tackle the most common Chrome OS question: “Is now a good time to buy a Chromebook?” Read more »
Heroku targets MongoDB with new Postgres V8 feature
photo: Shutterstock / z0w
Heroku has rolled out a new feature to its Postgres database service that lets users write JavaScript functions within the database. The company says this makes it comparable to MongoDB. Read more »
Nextel shutdown will leave 45,000 tons of network junk. How Sprint plans to recycle it
On June 30, the Nextel iDEN service goes offline, sticking Sprint with a heck of a lot of network scrap. Sprint, however, isn’t just throwing it all in a dumpster behind Walmart. It will recycle whatever it can’t use. Read more »
YouTube’s mobile ad revenue triples as mobile views reach 40% in the US
photo: Google
Two out of five YouTube video views are coming from mobile devices in the U.S., and the video service is increasingly cashing in on these mobile views. Read more at paidContent »
Switches & storage: Companies are buying more hardware but paying less
photo: Flickr / getinet
Companies big and small are still spending money on networking and storage hardware, voice and conferencing systems, except they are not paying as much, thanks to a brutal price war down in the trenches. Read more »
Sponsored post: Data silos: biggest breaking point to cloud adoption and a CIO’s sanity
Data silos impact how quickly and effectively CIOs can adopt new cloud apps like Salesforce.com, ServiceNow or Workday and connect them with on-prem apps like Oracle or SAP. Find out how an elastic integration approach can overcome this barrier as a powerful on-ramp to the cloud. Read more »
If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em, says Kinvey, as it partners with Google
MBaaS player Kinvey says new integration will make it a snap for mobile developers to develop on Kinvey and deploy on Google App Engine, or vice versa. Read more »
The quantified pup: Whistle wants to create the world’s largest database on dog behavior
photo: Whistle
Startup Whistle has designed an activity tracker that clips on to your dog’s collar, but its core offering is a cloud-based analytics service designed to quantify your pet’s health. Read more »
Readmill partners with Guardian, Atavist and Livrada and adds a free book section to its app
Berlin-based e-reading startup Readmill has added a free books section to its iOS app, and also announced partnerships with The Atavist, The Guardian and Livrada. Read more at paidContent »
