Five years ago, Twilio, a cloud-based communication service provider couldn’t find a penny. Last week it snagged $70 million and is worth half-a-billion dollars and is on track to do $50 million in revenues in 2013. It has IPO ambitions, thanks to CEO/co-founder Jeff Lawson. Read more »
On the menu this weekend: the cyberwar between US and Iran has gone online and Michael Gross has the details; war through women’s eyes; The Great Gatsby, Babe Ruth and Yellow Fever. Plus are coders worth it? Read more »
Salesforce is trying hard and spending large to diversify from its CRM base. Today it announced plans to buy Exact Target for $2.5 billion on top of about $1.5 billion it spent on companies such as Heroku, Radian6 and Buddy Media. Read more »
Instagram is one of those rare companies that has been able to marry the digital and the physical and create a community based on delight and relationships. It is one of the reasons why I think it was a steal of a deal for Facebook. Read more »
In his Disruptions column for the New York Times, Nick Bilton laments the echo chamber of Silicon Valley. When you live in an industry town like San Francisco, you start to see things with a narrower perspective that eventually makes you oblivious to the big picture. Read more »
Why are American men not charming, a growing suicide epidemic, a killer tornado and the new George Soros are some of the must reads of the week. And then there is The Zen Master, the hot new architect. Enjoy these reads. Read more »
From 2.5 Gbps in 1990 to 400G in 2012, the optical technology keeps getting better. Good news for Internet. What’s bad is that our access to the Internet remains in control of oligopolies who are the real gatekeepers of our broadband future, not science or technology. Read more »
The long weekend is here and that means a lot to read: or at least I like to do that. Here are some amazing stories about San Francisco, Rajat Gupta, Argentina in the 1970s, Buffalo, razors, Philip Dick, Facebook, Brooklyn and cars. Read more »
HTC was the shining star during the early days of Android. Now it is reeling under the pressure of cheap Androids, a dominant Samsung and a management disarray. It’s a damn shame, as the new HTC One is actually a nice device. Read more »
Imagine if Nikola Tesla had to pitch venture capitalists to fund his idea. The reaction to his crazy ideas would be precisely what you see on this video. Sadly, the video also says a lot about the skewed risk and investment system in Silicon Valley these days. Read more »
Costa Rica’s killer bull, fear in Cyprus, crimes of Ranbaxy and BitCoin bubble — that along with basketball uber coach Phil Jackson are part of this week’s reading material. Of course, question to ponder: briefs or boxers, how did they get into men’s pants. Read more »
Eight years after Google launched Maps as a beta product, the search giant is reinventing the map for a new data rich web that lives on fast broadband, and runs on computers with oomph to spare. Read more »
Google’s reworking of its social network, Google+ shows that the company has started to marry data with design and craft new experiences. Will that be enough to turn you and I into active participants? Who, knows, I am just happy it doesn’t look like Facebook. Read more »
Reality TV, Raymond Chandler, Miami cold case, a dead hedge fund manager and privacy in the age of Facebook, circa 1985 — here are some of the the stories on the menu for this weekend. Enjoy! Read more »
The NYT’s multimedia project Snow Fall was a huge success, attracting big audiences and lots of plaudits. But the paper can do even better — it can build a new business from this type of project, and change the definition of journalism in the new century. Read more »
Warby Parker is opening up its first full-fledged store (beyond its showrooms) and is using sensors, Wi-Fi and other technology to understand how people use their retail space, and take that data and marry it with their online sales trends. Read more »
Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new political group, FWD.us and has been joined by Silicon Valley luminaries. They want reform in immigration but their focus on technology and innovation centric changes doesn’t take into account the harsh reality of post industrial society & its invisible victims. Read more »
Facebook’s history as a repeat offender on privacy, and playing loose and easy with our data means that need to be even more vigilant about privacy issues, thanks to this Home app/faux-OS. Read more »
As we move towards a quantified society, one shaped by data, we start to dismiss things that are unquantified. Empathy, emotion and storytelling — these are as much a part of business as they are of life. Here is why. Read more »
Uber, a San Francisco-based personal transportation oriented startup, is facing a backlash from a few of its drivers. But the confrontation is less about Uber and more about the challenges facing a society being rebuilt because of connectedness. Read more »
Google Glass backlash, a model, a professor and a suitcase full of cash, forever blue jeans, probiotics, what is design thinking in school, and what air travel was supposed to be in the future — these are some stories on menu for this weekend. Read more »
The insomnia plague, the 1,000 mile Yukon Quest dog sled race, Lululemon fans, 3D-printed meat, rise of the well-dressed man, the new new social science, and why do we laugh when people fall — those are stories in the mix for this weekend. Read more »
You might have noticed that there is an active debate around the future of freelance journalism in a digital-first world. As a digital writer & founder of a digital-only media company, I have my own twist on this tale. Have a read. Read more »
It is fashionable these days to either like big data or just malign big data. Regardless of what your personal feelings are, the question has always been and will always be – what is data good for. Here are three stories to illustrate those questions. Read more »
A 101-year-old marathoner, who U.S. gets weather forecasts wrong, what does 212 have to do with rotary dial, India’s rice revolution, Armed Forces and their treatment of women, rise and fall of Alex Rodriguez and amazing chef Curtis Duffy. Read on … Read more »
Google today released a new video showcasing the user interface of its Google Glass efforts. On the surface it might look like a hands free camera, but in reality it can open up a lot of new possibilities. Just like the iPad did before it. Read more »
Dell is filthy rich and his empire is spread wide and far. There is a lot he can do with his time – politics for example. The question is why is Michael Dell putting his reputation and fortune on the line. I have an answer. Read more »
Drugs, baseball and Alex Rodriguez, yeah nothing new here, except new allegations; John Cheever, unplugged; Steven Cohen, the art collector; a family lost in time; Frenchman who knows too much; and hanging out in West Bank. Read more »
The D2C generation, student debt, Mike Matheny’s tragic story, the problem with social news and the amazingly talented Dualtone records are some of the stories on the menu this week. Read more »
Design trends for 2013, dementia, mobile photography boom, the rise of Tide as the currency for drugs, Lena Dunham is back, and a look back at time when CES was actually cool — those are some of the topics in this week’s newsletter. Read more »
The new, new thing to do these days is to launch a new streaming video service to compete with Netflix and Amazon. Intel, Walmart, AT&T, Sony, Verizon… the list of me-too offerings is getting longer. The problem is that they aren’t really better than the incumbents. Read more »
One of the big trends of 2013 and beyond is the pervasiveness of technology in everything we do – from how we work to how we live and how we consume. And it is going to bring a brand new crop of buyers to techlandia. Read more »
Welcome to a new year — a new year of great stories to read on your weekends. This week we got a pickpocket, Jerry Seinfeld, getting around the globe, quest for perfect bowling score, machine learning for normals and how to keep your new year resolutions. Read more »
In some ways, it’s amazing Hulu has made it this far. As CEO Jason Kilar departs after months of rumors, here’s a look back at what a pioneering video distribution company has accomplished. Read more »
If there is going to be one theme for 2013, then it is the inevitable march of technology (and the Internet) into everything we do and every aspect of our daily life. From car dashboards to rental cars – the fun is just getting started. Read more »
An ode to the Delhi gang-rape victim, iTunes as a discovery service, what science stories to watch for in 2013, the rise of Snapchat, robots everywhere, manly origins of cheerleading, history of the GIF in video and web-UX trends of 2012. Read more »
Twitter, Google, Apple, Facebook, iPhone, Android — what’s new — dominated my writing during 2012. But there were others such as Famo.us, Kickstarter and France’s Free. Here are some of my stories from this year that I believe will have an impact technology ecosystem in 2013. Read more »
Getting Bin Laden, the future of special ops, the art of time, bursting of the art bubble, the science of light, and what friendship means in the age of social media are some of the stories that are on deck for this last collection from 2012. Read more »
How did the wheelie suitcase come about? What happens when greed comes to healthcare? How did the TV show Lost come about. How to publish in a post-iPad world? The War on Drugs has failed, what’s next? Internet of plants. This week’s recommend reading list. Read more »
Thanksgiving, shopping, social — boy aren’t we overwhelmed by all the clamor. It is time to make sense of it all. Why Verizon doesn’t get social. 10 Gbps broadband. Where is MOG founder going? And GE CEO Jeff Immelt is all crazy about the Industrial Internet. Read more »
