Welcome Kif Leswing, Gigaom’s newest mobile writer
Meet Kif Leswing, who will be covering mobile technology for us out of New York. Read more »
Stories for Apr. 16, 2014
Google AI that solves reCAPTCHAs is now cracking address numbers in Street View
photo: Flickr / Tim Pritlove
Google found that an algorithm can solve reCAPTCHAS with an accuracy of more than 99 percent. Read more »
Mounties arrest man who used Heartbleed bug to steal Canadians’ tax data
photo: Flikr
A 19 year old attacked Canada’s tax agency, and stole sensitive data from 900 accounts. The country’s police service has now made an arrest. Read more »
A few accumulated thoughts on media
photo: Albert Chau
The future of the media business continues to be an important and oftentimes confusing discussion. Here are a few thoughts. Read more »
Time Warner Cable bets big on easy and secure Wi-Fi, rolling out Hotspot 2.0 networkwide
TWC has launched the first large-scale implementation of Hotspot 2.0, which will make public Wi-Fi networks behave like cellular networks. You log into the network once and you’ll be instantly connected wherever you go. Read more »
In Brief
Frontback finally brings selfies to Android
Selfie app Frontback — which allows users to take advantage of a phone’s front- and rear-facing cameras to switch together two-shot photos to share with friends – released its app for Android on Wednesday. The iPhone app has been around for a year and just surpassed its millionth download in March. The company says that the Android app includes identical features to the iOS version, but also has a new feature called “Offline Mode,” which allows users to take pictures without an internet connection.
Google’s downloadable Android camera app gets bokeh with Lens Blur
Refocusing camera images after taking the picture is becoming all the rage on mobile devices. Google must agree since it has a new downloadable Google Camera app with a Lens Blur feature. Read more »
Google’s Project Ara still has a long way to go before modular smartphones become a thing
Google will release a modular smartphone in January 2015, according the the leader of Project Ara, Paul Eremenko. Read more »
Gigaom Research
What today’s companies need to bridge the sales automation-to-CRM gap
A new generation of contact-management capabilities is required for enterprises, and modern CRM solutions from companies like Contactually, Nimble, and Introhive point to how the market needs to evolve. Read more at Gigaom Research »
With more than 25M users, We Heart It has found a niche with girls under 24
We Heart It is a success with teenage girls, but can it rise above its roots and hit the mainstream? Read more »
Confusion over dead celebrities on social media, as Twitter suspends James Dean fan account
Twitter appears to have backed down in a legal fight over who can use dead celebrity images. The case could have broader ripples for online expression. Read more »
Netflix reportedly launching in Germany in September
photo: gfhdickinson
Netflix is getting ready to launch in Germany in September, according to a local media report, and preparing an advertising campaign for multiple German cities. Read more »
Mark Zuckerberg on the shift to mobile and the Great Unbundling of Facebook
photo: Jason McELweenie/Flickr
Mark Zuckerberg says his approach to mobile consists of breaking the monolithic Facebook app down into smaller, more discrete experiences — ones that may look and feel nothing like the big blue app or main website, and may even allow for different identities Read more »
Tubi TV wants to take on Crackle with free movies and TV shows
Tubi TV is launching with 3,000 movies and TV show episodes on Amazons Fire TV as well as Roku’s set-top box and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Read more »
Here comes an app to tie your carbon footprint with what you buy
Startup Oroeco is tying financial data from Mint with carbon emissions data, in the hopes that their app will be compelling enough to change user behavior. Read more »
New Volvos will get AT&T connectivity starting this summer
photo: Volvo
Volvo has struck a deal with AT&T to embed wireless connectivity into its model year 2015 vehicles. AT&T will provide the internet link for Volvo’s new Sensus infotainment system and its telematics services. Read more »
Gigaom Research webinar: taking the guesswork out of operational expenses: quantifying the value of uptime
In our next webinar, the analyst panel will provide simple steps that businesses can use to produce hard numbers and discuss the ways in which they can apply that data to evaluate and justify spending. Join us along with our sponsor VictorOps on April 30. Read more »
DabKick launches TV rooms to combine group chats with appointment viewing
photo: DafneCholet
iPhone media sharing app DabKick wants to make it easier for you to meet new people, so it introduced a room feature that lets you chat away while watching TV together. Read more »
Goodreads users can now sync Amazon purchases with their accounts
Goodreads users can now automatically import the print and ebooks they’ve purchased on Amazon into their Goodreads accounts. Read more »
“OK Glass, book a room”: Starwood Hotels comes to Google Glass
Wandering around wearing Google Glass with no place to stay? The SPG for Glass can solve that problem, helping you search for a room or manage your Starwood Preferred account on Google’s wearable computer. Read more »
MtGox tries to recover $5M from Homeland Security, moves to liquidate
photo: Mark Karpeles
Bankrupt bitcoin exchange MtGox will enter liquidation, even as its lawyers hold out hope that it can recover $5 million in cash seized by Homeland Security. Read more »
iPhone app Superb wants to match users with new places
photo: Shutterstock/Gang Liu
New iPhone app Superb helps users craft a list of places they want to go to, using a Tinder-like swiping interface. Read more »
Samsung VP tips high-end Tizen phone, new form factor for Galaxy Note
Samsung product strategy VP Yoon Han-kil shares details about Samsung’s 2014 plans, including a “high-end model” Tizen phone at the end of the second quarter and a “new form-factor” for the Galaxy Note. Read more »
Apple brings low-cost 8 GB iPhone 5c to more countries
Customers in more countries can buy Apple’s lower-cost iPhone 5c with 8 GB of storage as of today. Will they? Probably not in large numbers if retailers are discounting the 16 GB model for an even lower price. Read more »
Upcoming Gigaom Event: Play golf with cloud execs and help raise funds for a great cause!
Join us on June 17 for the Gigaom Cloud Classic Charity Golf Tournament. This will be a great day of golf at the beautiful TPC Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco on the day before Structure 2014. You’ll play alongside conference executives and sponsors, plus help raise awareness and support for GLIDE in San Francisco. Read more »
Amazon cordons off — but keeps selling — oldie but goodie EC2 instances
photo: Barb Darrow
Amazon will keep fielding EC2 instances that have been around since 2006, but it will steer customers to newer, more powerful and efficient resources. The question is: how long will this last? Read more »
Chrome Show: ChromeBleed checks for HeartBleed issues before you surf insecurely
Still blindly surfing in the wake of HeartBleed? Our Chrome extension of the week will give you a little more peace of mind, telling you which sites are still at risk of being hacked before you even hit them. Read more »
Stories for Apr. 15, 2014
Xyo powers contextual app search for T-Mobile in US and Europe
photo: Xyo
Carriers are becoming more interested in app recommendations, not only because of potential advertising revenues but to promote their ever-increasing number of app partnerships. Read more »
Judge says 33 states can seek Apple ebook money, report cites “much work to do” on antitrust
There’s no end in sight for Apple’s legal misery over an alleged ebook conspiracy. New court reports scold the company, and clear the way for a damages trial to start on July 14. Read more »
Microsoft is trying to be the platform company for big data apps, too
Microsoft showed off more its big data strategy on Tuesday in an event that touched on everything Excel to “ambient intelligence.” If the company can execute, it has a shot to repeat its desktop success in the data era. Read more »
SpaceX signs agreement to operate NASA launch pad
photo: SpaceX
SpaceX will operate and pay for Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Flight Center for the next 20 years. The pad was originally used for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Read more »
In Brief
WordPress parent Automattic said to be raising a VC round that values it at $1 billion
Automattic, the San Francisco-based company that is responsible for the WordPress web-publishing and blog-hosting platform — and the associated open-source community — is raising a round of venture capital that could value the company at $1 billion or more, according to a report in Fortune magazine. The financing is said to be in the $100-million to $150-million range. WordPress recently acquired Longreads, a content-sharing community, and has said it wants to get more into content recommendation. Web-publishing competitor Squarespace just closed a financing round of its own that was worth $40 million.
Disclosure: Automattic is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of Gigaom.
The design decisions behind the tech industry’s beloved anonymous Secret app
The Secret app might be fueled by gossip, scandal, and salacious secrets, but it’s soared to popularity (at least in the Valley) because it’s used a no-UI concept and utter simplicity to just get out of the user’s way. Read more »
Signing in to services with an Amazon login just became easier for Kindle owners
Amazon wants to make it easier for Kindle users to stay within Amazon’s playground. Read more »
Check out Gooseberry, the upcoming animated feature film from the makers of Sintel
The makers of Big Buck Bunny and Sintel are raising money for a new animated feature film — but the campaign is still far from being completely funded. Read more »
Gigaom Research
How public policy affected the consumer tech space in first-quarter 2014
From the review of Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable to the FCC’s proposed reboot of its overturned net neutrality rules, policymakers are playing a key role in shaping the future course of both old and new media industries. Read more at Gigaom Research »
We are drowning in data about readers and attention, but which metrics really matter? You won’t like the answer
photo: Thinkstock / Sergey Nivens
There are more ways than ever to measure traffic, readership, attention and engagement with our content. But all that means is there are even more things to distract us from the important questions about who we are trying to reach and how. Read more »
Former Googler and Kyte CEO Daniel Graf joins Twitter as product development executive
Google’s mobile Maps lead Daniel Graf will be joining the flock at Twitter, where he will help mold the company’s product development efforts, especially on mobile devices. Read more »
Why web video vet My Damn Channel is now Omnivision, and why it’s not going anywhere
After seven years of producing premium quality content, My Damn Channel is expanding its focus to talent management — and taking on a new name to do so. Read more »
The first CarPlay compatible systems are on sale, but iOS hooks won’t come until “summer”
Pioneer announced five existing in-dashboard consoles will be receiving a firmware upgrade that adds Apple CarPlay functionality. All five units are part of the NEX line and are currently available from Amazon. Read more »
