Avatar isn’t just a James Cameron movie, it’s aslo a key component in Mike Kuniavsky vision of the internet of things. To find out more, check out our video. Read more »
Earlier this morning, Adobe Systems, the San Jose-based creative software giant announced that it was buying New York City-based design-oriented community, Behance. Since then, many have been wondering how much did Adobe shell out? Now we have the answer. Read more »
Will Apple replace the Intel processors in its Macbooks with ARM-based chips? In the last week new processor designs from ARM as well as Apple’s desire to merge the iOS and OS X experience have driven a new cycle of rumors. Here’s why they make sense. Read more »
The future is bright for mobile payment company Square, which as COO Keith Rabois noted Friday is not only taking off with a Starbucks partnership that will bring its technology to stores across America, but with a popular product that sells itself through in-store presence. Read more »
In an interview with The Seattle Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer indicates a “sweet spot” for the price of the company’s upcoming Surface tablet, which is expected next month. He also discusses the company’s path over the next five to ten years. Read more »
Once synonymous with PCs, Hewlett Packard and Dell are now struggling to keep up with the software-driven shift to integrated, differentiated systems. Mark Sigal of Unicorn Labs takes a closer look at how their hardware-centric models have failed them and what the future may hold. Read more »
The implications of Apple’s recent billion-dollar victory over Samsung in a patent-infringement case go beyond the specifics of this particular battle — the reality is the war over software and design patents is bad not just for individual companies but arguably for society as a whole. Read more »
With billions in losses coming each quarter, it feels as if Nokia’s living on borrowed time. While many people expect Microsoft to step in and purchase the struggling Finnish handset giant, that may be unlikely. So here are five ways it might turn things around. Read more »
You’re ready to launch your cloud service to the rest of the enterprise and migrate applications at a rapid clip. Unfortunately, your enterprise software vendor has a gun pointed at your head and is threatening to derail the whole initiative. This could get ugly. Read more »
A court ruling says consumers are free re-sell downloaded software just like boxed software. What will it mean for video games, mobile apps and the future of cloud storage? Read more »
Dell has agreed to purchase Quest Software in a deal valued at $2.36 billion, giving the computer maker a path forward in the software business, and helping Dell reduce its reliance on selling hardware. The bid brings a bidding war for Quest to a close. Read more »
Marc Andreessen has famously argued that software is eating the world, reconfiguring nearly every industry. That’s good for America, according to Andreessen, but it’s also great for software collaboration tools company Atlassian, which is generating steady profits and a lot of IPO chatter. Read more »
Enterprise 2.0 is one of the best opportunities in the technology market. And forward-looking companies are realizing that they need to attract the user, not the IT department. Scott Irwin of Rembrandt Venture Partners breaks down the key components to an effective freemium go-to-market effort. Read more »
For developers, consumers and even carriers, Android seems irreparably broken. But Google’s not likely to “fix” Android anytime soon, because despite the fragmentation problem, the company is getting what it wants: massive amounts of user data. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apps are undergoing a “Cambrian explosion” of availability, and the new place of business is on the buyer’s device. In order to avoid extinction, businesses need to evolve into platforms. Sam Ramji of Apigee lays out a game plan for survival. Read more »
Enterprises realize their big data is a strategic asset, and they have budget to spend against it. But without the usual yardsticks and metrics for measuring the success, these projects will fall flat. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple is making strides with enterprise customers, according to a lot of recent surveys, but how does that look on the ground? Two recent examples include a program that’s bringing Macs to corporate heavyweight General Electric, and the ongoing rollout of iPads among local governments. Read more »
Trenches II is the latest in a lineup of World War I-themed games from Thunder Game Works. Falling somewhere between Plants vs. Zombies and Flight Control, Trenches II offers slightly more advanced, compelling gameplay, so much so that it approaches the realm of real-time strategy gaming. Read more »
It is becoming abundantly apparent that, while there is still focus on install rates of physical smart meters, what will matter in the future is how well the data from these smart meters can be secured by utilities and how well utilities can use that data ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Box.net’s CEO Aaron Levie told the Net:Work conference that the key to making better enterprise software is to learn from consumer software and service companies, and make tools that are easy for users instead of just trying to lock them in to a specific platform. Read more »
The U.S. MVNO market is now largely a niche where a handful of companies provide phones and services on the cheap. But several notable new players are joining the space next year and will provide a different, more-specialized kind of service; network operators could benefit in ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A new biography of Steve Jobs quotes Bill Gates as saying that the Apple co-founder “never really understood much about technology.” While the Microsoft billionaire likely saw that as a put-down, technology is arguably the least important thing about Apple’s most successful products. Read more »
On Tuesday Apple introduced a major update to Final Cut Pro X that restores many features missing in the original release, and also comes alongside a free 30-day trial version for people still a little gun-shy after Apple’s latest overhaul to its professional video editing suite. Read more »
Cisco said its sales would grow by 5 to 7 percent through 2014, cutting its revenue growth in half, and signaling the end of its massive restructuring effort at an analyst day Tuesday. The move sent the stock up, but Cisco isn’t out of the woods. Read more »
Hewlett-Packard plans to spend some $10.25 billion to acquire Autonomy, the United Kingdom–based software and services company. HP’s balance sheet currently has $13 billion in cash. Why is the company making such a big bet? According to HP’s CEO, Leo Apotheker, it’s now or never. Read more »
The non-iPad tablet market is relatively young, but the iPad is still running away with the lion’s share of the tablet market. Aside from the iPad, consumers and enterprises can choose from tablets running on Android, BlackBerry and webOS. But are they buying? Here are a ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Some people just seem to have “it” — that spark that makes them seem like they have an inside track on everything and everyone worth knowing. There’s no question that, in the technology industry, Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is one of those people. Read more »
Folks experiencing a major laptop crash might be dead in the water: Without operating system DVDs and an optical drive, it’s a potential problem. IsoStick, a Kickstarter project, aims to solve this issue with a small flash drive that appears as an optical drive to computer. Read more »
Apple isn’t about to miss out on sales of its new Mac OS to those who don’t have a solid Internet connection. The company is going to put Lion on a USB stick and sell it for $69 starting in August. Read more »
What do you do if your brand or product is looking a little long in the teeth? Hitch your wagon to Apple’s star, that’s what. Apple’s software and hardware offer a great opportunity for brands to reinvent and extend themselves, but only if it’s handled correctly. Read more »
CloudFloor, which launched at Structure 2011 last month, has raised $3.1 million from undisclosed investors to build out its software which purports to show both IT workers and business managers how their cloudy assets are performing against business goals. Read more »
Apple filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit against seven small app developers started by patent holder Lodsys on June 9 related to the use of in-app purchases. If granted, Apple would be added to the Lodsys suit as a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff. Read more »
Today, at WWDC, after Steve Jobs took the stage to highlight some new features in OS X Lion, Phil Schiller and others walked the audience through 10 important new changes to the OS. Read more »
I’ve long recommended SwiftKey as a third-party keyboard for Android smartphones. The keyboard shows intelligence by predicting the next word before tapping a single letter. But the new SwiftKey X, a private beta version now open to the public, is even smarter, thanks to the cloud. Read more »
Mobile hardware is progressing at a blistering pace, but to deliver the type of user experiences enabled by awesome hardware software must keep pace. This goes beyond the need for innovations in OSes and applications, to the underlying software that ties everything together. Read more »
As a rule of thumb, systems can grow ten times under their current architecture or paradigm, and then they must be re-architected. This 10X effect causes old technologies to become obsolete, new ones to emerge and underlies the massive shift to cloud computing. Read more »
In the course of writing about different tools, I often make a point of asking about them on various social networking sites. The responses I get sometimes include comments about how much much users absolutely loathe particular tools that they have to work with. Read more »
Increasingly, the information we use to manage our companies is moving to the cloud, and human resources is no exception. Here are several solutions that provide simple and affordable online employee management and tracking to save you time, money and effort. Read more »
The smart grid industry’s focus is now shifting to the true purpose of the smart grid movement: applications that will improve the efficiency, reliability and versatility of the electric grid. This report analyzes six key smart grid application trends that will help shape the industry landscape in the years to come: distribution automation, data analytics, demand response, carbon management, home energy management and electric vehicles. The applications that prevail in this new arena will define the smart grid experience for industrial, commercial and residential customers. Along the way, new business opportunities that arise from these applications will become available for the providers of software, systems, devices and services, and enhance customer awareness and control of energy consumption. Companies mentioned in this report include Echelon, Google, EnerNOC, ZigBee and Microsoft. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
I’ve noticed an irritating trend in the startup world: After adding my email to a launch page, I get asked to submit a few of my friends’ email addresses in exchange for a higher place in line or earlier access. It’s annoying, but it apparently works. Read more »
