Gidsy goes to Hollywood with its Airbnb for activities
Hot Berlin startup Gidsy, which lets people find and book tours, lessons and other offline experiences, is opening the doors on a service in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Read more »
Does WikiLeaks still matter?
WikiLeaks is trumpeting its latest release, a cache of millions of internal emails from StratFor, a security-consulting firm with ties to the U.S. government. But the nature of the emails and a partnership with the hacker collective Anonymous raise questions about WikiLeaks’ continued relevance. Read more »
Retail needs a reboot to survive
Although some believe the death of brick-and-mortar retail is inevitable, Mark Sigal, CPO of Unicorn Labs, thinks we all have a vested interest in seeing the industry reboot itself for the modern age. He outlines three paths for physical retail stores to avoid extinction here. Read more »
John Chambers on the future of Cisco
Cisco hit the skids 18 months ago which led to a restructuring that was completed in record time. Now Cisco is ready to roll again, and to celebrate, CEO John Chambers discussed the company’s future. Here are 3 key takeaways. Read more »
Shop til you drop (calls): How iPhone users can shop in stores
Nielsen released a study that found just about a third of smartphone users turn to their device for shopping-related activities. But the study highlights that while not everyone is using their phone in this way, many more would like to. Read more »
Savvy rebrands as Eyeona to help retailers fight Amazon
Pricetector, which launched a price adjustment service called Savvy.com in November, is rebranding under the name Eyeona, as it looks to become an even more useful tool to both consumers and retailers. Eyeona’s goal is to help retailers build a stronger relationship with consumers. Read more »
DiData launches OpSource cloud services
Systems integrator Dimension Data bought OpSource for its cloud services in June, and is now unveiling the updated cloud offering under its brand. The updated services include a public compute-as-a-service cloud, a private version of same, as well as managed hosting and managed services. Read more »
Mobile app companies agree to CA rules on privacy policies
Mobile privacy will still be a murky issue despite a new agreement between the state of California and six leading mobile companies over how best to help app developers comply with a California law requiring them to post a privacy policy. Read more »
Amazon yanks 5,000 Kindle titles in fight over terms
Amazon has turned off the buy button on nearly 5,000 Kindle titles from distributor Independent Publishers Group after IPG refused to capitulate to Amazon’s demand for better terms… Read more »
Amazon Appstore more lucrative for many devs than Android Market
Analytics firm Distimo said that, of the top 110 apps that appear in both Android Market and Amazon Appstore, 42 of them make more money on Amazon than on Android Market. That’s a strong showing for Amazon’s Appstore, which got a boost from the Kindle Fire. Read more »
A $199 Nook Tablet takes aim at Amazon’s Kindle Fire
Barnes & Noble announced a $199 version of its Nook Tablet on Tuesday with half of the memory and storage of the current $249 model. B&N is taking aim at Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire, but it doesn’t have a full-featured ecosystem to compete with. Read more »
The Internet won the mobile broadband war (but you could still lose)
Mobile operators might as well give in and work with web companies. But if they are smart they will adapt their pricing before consumers start dumping texting and voice services, so they can still maintain the same wallet share (and maybe higher margins). Read more »
Big data skills bring big dough
If you are a data scientist, or have other “big data” chops, you can write your own ticket, headhunters say. A search of popular job posting sites shows huge demand for anyone who can demonstrate these skills even in this tough economy. Read more »
Vantage plants energy-efficient data center in the Valley
With its newest facility, Vantage Data Centers wants to prove that a low-power data center in Silicon Valley is not an oxymoron. Vantage’s new Santa Clara, Calif., V2 data center claims an impressive 1.12 PUE (power use efficiency) energy rating. Read more »
Zynga CTO talks up Z Cloud 2.0, shift away from Amazon
Game giant Zynga is weaning itself from Amazon’s infrastructure as it moves the bulk of its workloads onto its internal Z Cloud infrastructure. Zynga’s CTO said the company has optimized Z Cloud for its games, so it is more efficient than the public cloud provider. Read more »
Zynga lessens its Amazon dependency
Zynga the newly public company behind the games played by gazillions of people, is relying far less on Amazon’s public cloud than it has in the past: 80 percent of its daily average users now run on Z Cloud — not on that other cloud. Read more »
Nimbula, Citrix clouds vow Amazon-style computing
If you didn’t think that Amazon was the king of cloud, just look at what other cloud companies announced Monday. Even paragons of the private cloud world are trying to cloak themselves in the glow cast by Amazon, which is squarely in public cloud realm. Read more »
Amazon hiring creative execs for original programming
Add Amazon Studios to the list of online video providers that could soon release some new original programming. The company is looking to hire creative executives to develop and produce original comedies and kids shows for online and traditional distribution. Read more »
Amazon: No plans to launch a standalone video service soon
As Amazon adds more content to Prime Instant Video, some expect the company could create a standalone service to compete with Netflix. But Digital Content Acquisition Head Brad Beale said Amazon will stay focused on the Prime bundle, at least in the near future. Read more »
With Viacom deal, Amazon looks like a real competitor to Netflix
Amazon continues to add content to its Amazon Prime Instant Videos service. It announced a deal with Viacom that will bring the number of titles available to more that 15,000, or three times the amount of content it launched the service with. Read more »
Memo to publishers: Remind us why you exist again?
photo: Flickr user David Reece
As more authors choose to do an end-run around the traditional book industry, publishers are going to have to try harder to defend their continued existence — self-published author J.A. Konrath says that most are tied to a “broken, outdated and increasingly irrelevant business model.” Read more »
Satisfaction survey shows why Apple’s iPad will remain on top
Apple’s iPad still the tablet market leader in terms of sales, despite gains by the Kindle Fire, and a recent survey of tablet user satisfaction suggests it’s well-poised to stay ahead. Setting the standards for tablet-buyer expectations will help Apple continue to lead the pack. Read more »
Why is Amazon hiring like a drunken sailor?
The most striking thing about Amazon’s Q4 filing was that head count was up a whopping 67 percent to 56,200 full- and part-time employees, compared with 33,700 from a year ago, according to Amazon’s 8-K filing; 67 percent is a very big number — even for Amazon. Read more »
iPad propels Apple to top of PC market as growth stalls without tablets
Apple is the king of the PC heap, so long as you consider the iPad among those devices. Research firm Canalys does, and its most recent look at PC sales, focusing on the fourth quarter of 2011, shows the PC market growing with the iPad included. Read more »
Apple doesn’t fear Android tablet gains, but PC makers should
Apple’s iPad sold 15.4 million units during the final calendar quarter of 2011, representing a 111-percent year-over-year increase in tablet sales. Android tablets may have gained market share during the same period, but it’s PC makers that should fear that growth. Read more »
LuxeYard puts a social spin on high-end flash sales
LuxeYard, a site selling high-end home decor products, is launching Tuesday. Yes, it’s technically another flash sales site. But what’s interesting about LuxeYard is that it’s doing things a bit differently from the established players in the space such as One Kings Lane and Gilt Groupe. Read more »
HP moves big data ops to Cambridge
The greater Boston area may not be the hub of the big data universe that some recent research suggests, but it got a leg up this week with news that tech giant Hewlett-Packard is moving some of its big data operations to Cambridge. Read more »
IBM, Microsoft tout fat cloud progress, but proof is thin
To hear IBM and Microsoft tell it, their respective cloud strategies are coming along nicely, thank you very much. But given the hazy definitions of cloud computing and the lack of real numbers, it’s hard to tell if that really is the case. Read more »
There’s room for both tablets and e-readers (for now)
Although there’s some overlapping functionality between tablets and e-readers, it doesn’t seem to set up either device to cannibalize the other; at least not yet. The number of adults who owned either a tablet or an e-reader doubled this holiday season. Here’s why neither is “winning.” Read more »
Cloud provider Joyent gets $85 million for global expansion
Joyent will use the cash to fund expansion of its cloud services and take on Amazon, the behemoth in that space. The company hosts its own public cloud services and sells infrastructure that customers use to field their own public or private cloud services. Read more »
Lovefilm lands on LG, Roku up next
U.K. Netflix clone Lovefilm just announced an app for LG’s smart TV’s, and the company is also getting ready to launch on Roku’s media streamer once the device becomes available to Britons. Details on the Roku app are scarce, but it could launch in early February. Read more »
‘Conservative’ estimate predicts 48 million iPad sales in 2012
It’s time to start placing bets as to how many iPads Apple will sell in 2012. Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu is starting things off with an estimate of 48 million, he said Wednesday morning. Wu says that number could end up being “conservative,” and I agree. Read more »
Amazon launches home-grown NoSQL database
Amazon Web Services is adding a home-grown NoSQL database to its roster of cloud computing offerings. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels calls DynamoDB a “fully managed” NoSQL implementation the company built over the years and and tested by customers for a few months. Read more »
Apple event preview: Tools to bolster in-school iPad use
Apple’s plans for its Thursday media event have been the subject of considerable speculation. Now a new report released Wednesday adds a little more weight to recent suggestions that the focus will be on tools that help produce e-books and other educational materials on the iPad. Read more »
Why e-books will be much bigger than you can imagine
After publishing his first print book, photographer Trey Ratcliff started his own e-book publisher, FlatBooks. Why? Because the painful process taught him everything that’s wrong with the old model of publishing and opened his eyes to the near-limitless potential of e-books. Read more »
Netflix, Hulu and the golden age of content
Hulu is launching its first original scripted show just days before Netflix will unveil its first stab at an original TV show. Both companies are part of a bigger movement toward original online programming that includes new ways of funding as well as distribution. Read more »
Uh-oh, PC: Half of computing device sales are mobile
Is the PC “dead”? Of course not, but if you don’t see the trend moving away from local / desktop computing and towards mobile / cloud computing, you’re missing the sales figures for each market: Nearly 50 percent of recent device sales are mobile. Read more »
Proposed spec aims to nix cloud lock-in
A group of tech companies led by IBM and including CA, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, NetApp, Red Hat, SAP — is throwing its weight behind a proposed standard to assure that applications can move between clouds. Amazon, RackSpace, Microsoft? They’re not on board, at least not yet. Read more »
Software defined networks could create an auction-based bandwith bazaar
What if delivering bandwidth worked like an auction, where business bid for the right to transfer their traffic depending on how crowded the network is? Using Open Flow to create software defined networks makes such a scenario possible. Is that a good thing? Read more »
iPad growth seen slowing in 2012, but that’s no disaster
Apple might not have as impressive a year in 2012 in terms of iPad growth as it did in 2011, according to some early predictions. Numbers from DisplaySearch on Friday indicate 9.7-inch flat panel shipments for iPads are expected to hit around 65 million in 2012. Read more »
