Cheap, simple cellular? Google answers the call - Business - The Boston Globe

Also see Google's New Wireless Service Should Make Verizon and AT&T Squirm (MIT Technology Review) and Google’s Wireless Service: What It Means for Consumers, Google and the Carriers (Re/code)

"But the founder of another wireless upstart thinks that’s just fine with Google. “They’re not trying to massively disrupt,” said Stephen Stokols, president of FreedomPop. Instead, he thinks it’s a replay of Google Fiber, the company’s superfast Internet service. It’s available in just a few cities, but Google Fiber’s popularity is goading major broadband companies to boost their network speeds, making Google’s online offerings more attractive.

FreedomPop offers features similar to Project Fi, such as phone calling over Wi-Fi networks and the right to roll over unused data bits. But Stokols thinks Google’s biggest innovation is a phone that can switch between multiple carriers."

Cheap, simple cellular? Google answers the call - Business - The Boston Globe

Now you can control your PowerPoint presentation with your Apple Watch | 9to5Mac

Also see OneNote for iPhone also gets Apple Watch enhancements (SuperSite for Windows)

"Microsoft has today updated the iOS version of Powerpoint to allow you to use your Apple Watch as a remote, to start presentations, navigate to the next slide and track your progress by viewing elapsed time, current slide number and total number of slides. The watch app currently only controls the iOS version of Powerpoint, not the OS X version."

Now you can control your PowerPoint presentation with your Apple Watch | 9to5Mac

Netflix: A Lot More than “House of Cards” | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Excerpt from a Netflix/AWS synergy snapshot

"Last year, the company had revenues of $5.5 billion, up 25.8% from 2013. Profits were $267 million. Streaming delivered 88.9% of the business though it has only been in 2007 that Netflix’s business consisted entirely of shipping DVDs and Blu-rays.
But another place Netflix has by itself is as a huge and extremely clever, successful user of Amazon Web Services (AWS), to which it moved its operations in 2010. Any Netflix service a customer gets — from signing up to a subscription to making the service available on just about any device capable of displaying the content to watching a showing of “Orange Is the New Black” to data and streaming is handled on AWS."

Netflix: A Lot More than “House of Cards” | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Aaron Levie: Box Will Help Customers Build, Won’t Stop Spending to Get New Ones | Re/code

A pivotal day for Box

"Box has a market value of $2.1 billion, down 38 percent just three months after its IPO. When Mossberg queried Levie about Box’s profitability issues, the CEO quickly parried, “It depends on your definition — but no, we’re not.” Then Levie wondered out loud if that comment shouldn’t be scrubbed from the record because the SEC might not like it.

On the eve of a two-hour keynote tomorrow announcing new platform services, Levie didn’t go into too much detail about Box’s new tools. But he explained his company wants to “help dramatically accelerate [its customers’] ability to build really great transformative software.”"

Aaron Levie: Box Will Help Customers Build, Won’t Stop Spending to Get New Ones | Re/code

How Amazon Swooped in to Own Cloud Services - Bloomberg Business

A big week for AWS

"On April 23, Amazon plans to disclose the numbers for its cloud business for the first time, in its quarterly earnings report. Analyst Karl Keirstead at Deutsche Bank estimates annual revenue of about $6 billion, about 10 times the revenue of its closest competitor in the public cloud market. Amazon’s cloud business may be the fastest-growing corporate technology business of all time and executives contend that it can grow to be bigger than the company’s $83 billion-per-year retail operation. The only thing standing in Amazon’s way are giants like Microsoft, Google, and the rest of a computing industry that, at long last, has woken up to seek revenge."

How Amazon Swooped in to Own Cloud Services - Bloomberg Business

Google Set to Unveil Wireless Service - WSJ

For the Google Nexus 6 only, initially

"Google Inc. is set to unveil its new U.S. wireless service as early as Wednesday, pushing the Internet giant further into telecom and injecting fresh uncertainty into a wireless industry already locked in a price war.

In a key development, the service is expected to allow customers to pay only for the amount of data they actually use each month, people familiar with the matter said—a move that could further push carriers to do away with lucrative “breakage.”"

Google Set to Unveil Wireless Service - WSJ

HP’s Audacious Idea for Reinventing Computers | MIT Technology Review

Elsewhere in the article: "The first 'Machine' should be complete sometime before 2020"

"The Machine is designed to overcome these problems by scrapping the distinction between storage and memory. A single large store of memory based on HP’s memristors will both hold data and make it available for the processor. Combining memory and storage isn’t a new idea, but there hasn’t yet been a nonvolatile memory technology fast enough to make it practical, says Tsu-Jae King Liu, a professor who studies microelectronics at the University of California, Berkeley. Liu is an advisor to Crossbar, a startup working on a memristor-like memory technology known as resistive RAM. It and a handful of other companies are developing the technology as a direct replacement for flash memory in existing computer designs. HP is alone, however, in saying its devices are ready to change computers more radically."

HP’s Audacious Idea for Reinventing Computers | MIT Technology Review

Finally, Neural Networks that Actually Work | WIRED

From a Jeff Dean profile

"As one of Google’s earliest engineers, Dean helped create the fundamental computing systems that underpin the company’s vast online empire, systems that span tens of thousands of machines. This work gave him celebrity-like status among Silicon Valley engineers—people recognize him as he walks through the Google cafeteria. Now, armed with those massively distributed systems and the ideas that drive them, he has returned to the world of neural networks. And this time, these artificial brains work remarkably well.

Together with a team of other big-name researchers, Dean is building neural nets that can identify faces in photos, recognize spoken words, and even understand natural language. And many other tech companies—from Microsoft to Facebook to Twitter—are creating services with similar capabilities."

Finally, Neural Networks that Actually Work | WIRED

Microsoft Announces Azure Service Fabric, A New Framework For Building Highly Scalable Cloud Services | TechCrunch

Building momentum

"Microsoft today announced Azure Service Fabric, a new Azure service that aims to make it easier for developers at startups and ISVs to create highly scalable cloud applications.

The idea is to give developers the tools necessary to build cloud apps without ever having to worry about scaling and having to rearchitect their infrastructure to keep up with growth.

To do so, Service Fabric combines microservices with the company’s expertise in orchestrating and automating them across distributed systems. Service Fabric will also offer Visual Studio and command-line tooling and application lifecycle management support."

Microsoft Announces Azure Service Fabric, A New Framework For Building Highly Scalable Cloud Services | TechCrunch

Mobilegeddon Checklist: How To Prepare For This Week's Google Mobile Friendly Update (Search Engine Land)

Check the full post for a detailed Q&A on Google's mobile-friendly update

"The Google Mobile Friendly Update launches tomorrow, a day that many including ourselves here at Search Engine Land are calling “Mobilegeddon.” We first learned of Google’s plan to release a new algorithm designed to reward mobile-friendly web pages back in February. It’s unprecedented for Google to pre-announce a big algorithmic change like this, but Google did so in order to give publishers ample time to make their web sites mobile friendly.

The mobile friendly update will potentially give a ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results. Below you will find a list of common questions and concerns that have been answered over the past two-months around this algorithm."

Mobilegeddon Checklist: How To Prepare For This Week's Google Mobile Friendly Update

Survey: Structured RDBMS Data Still Reigns -- ADTmag

An interesting DBMS market reality check

"Despite all the Big Data hype, a new survey of database deployments shows a traditional, structured relational database management system (RDBMS) still rules the corporate world.

And it's not just a matter of a large established technology user base holding a dwindling lead while upstart Apache Hadoop and the NoSQL databases make market inroads. Instead, the new survey commissioned by Dell Software reveals the use of traditional structured data is growing even faster than unstructured data."

Survey: Structured RDBMS Data Still Reigns -- ADTmag

Ex-Microsoft Designer Explains the Move Away from Metro - Thurrott.com

Excerpt from a wide-ranging Microsoft reality check

"Do you believe in the Windows 10 platform? “I think the design changes are going to be a hard pill to follow because they’re less distinct. But they’re vital. Some of my best friends are working on the redesign and they’re building a much stronger foundation for the long run even if it looks visually less arresting … Build is coming. So I suspect both visuals and docs will come a long way between now and release … But the next few years can be very kind to Microsoft. I’ve spoken to and worked with the people driving forward the evolution that 10 is just the first step of, and they’re great. It’s just going to take some time.”

So why not just kill Windows Phone? “Windows Phone is small, relatively speaking. But absolutely speaking it still sells a lot of units. And they can’t not have an OS. So it’d be nice if they had more market on mobile, but having zero just topples the whole strategy.”"

Ex-Microsoft Designer Explains the Move Away from Metro - Thurrott.com

Nokia Plots 2016 Return to Phone Market | Re/code

In other Nokia news, see What's at stake in the $16.6 billion Nokia-Alcatel-Lucent deal (Fortune)

"So it is surprising that Nokia is quietly plotting a return to the consumer mobile market.

As early as next year, the company aims to rejoin the phone market, two sources briefed on Nokia’s plans told Re/code. In addition, the company has a number of other ambitious technology projects, including some in the virtual reality arena, these sources said."

Nokia Plots 2016 Return to Phone Market | Re/code

Solar Power Battle Puts Hawaii at Forefront of Worldwide Changes - NYTimes.com

A pattern Elon Musk is expected to accelerate on April 30th

"Customers are increasingly asking about the batteries that he often puts in along with the solar panels, allowing them to store the power they generate during the day for use at night. It is more expensive, but it breaks consumer reliance on the utility’s network of power lines.

“I’ve actually taken people right off the grid,” he said, including a couple who got tired of waiting for Hawaiian Electric to approve their solar system and expressed no interest in returning to utility service. “The lumbering big utilities that are so used to taking three months to study this and then six months to do that — what they don’t understand is that things are moving at the speed of business. Like with digital photography — this is inevitable.”"

Solar Power Battle Puts Hawaii at Forefront of Worldwide Changes - NYTimes.com

Your Weakest Security Link? Your Children - WSJ

A sign of the cybersecurity times

"It’s a fact of life online: a network is only as strong as its weakest link. For many people, that weakest link is their children. They inadvertently download viruses. They work around security to visit sites their parents don’t want them to. They run up huge bills using their parents’ one-click ordering.

And, most frustrating of all, many of them are far ahead of their parents’ ability to keep them from making mischief—in fact, many of them act as the family’s de facto tech support."

Your Weakest Security Link? Your Children - WSJ

Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming - NYTimes.com

A tumultuous TV transition time

"The emphasis on original content is an extension of Netflix’s long-term view that the Internet is replacing television, that apps are replacing channels and that screens are proliferating, Mr. Hastings said.

“We’ve had 80 years of linear TV, and it’s been amazing, and in its day the fax machine was amazing,” he said. “The next 20 years will be this transformation from linear TV to Internet TV.”"

Netflix Is Betting Its Future on Exclusive Programming - NYTimes.com

Box, Provider of Cloud-Computing Services, Faces Make-or-Break Moment - NYTimes.com

A big week ahead for Box

"At a company conference this week, Box, which has so far focused on Internet data storage and collaboration technology, will explain how it plans to help other businesses build their own cloud services. The goal is to create a so-called ecosystem that ensures continued growth just as Microsoft did with PCs and Apple did with the iPhone.

If the plan does not work, it is doubtful that Box will survive as an independent company, and Mr. Levie, for all those high hopes, will become a footnote, someone with a great idea who could not quite turn it into a lasting business."

Box, Provider of Cloud-Computing Services, Faces Make-or-Break Moment - NYTimes.com

Local travel firm aims to trip up Google - Business - The Boston Globe

More busy times ahead for Google's lawyers

"TripAdvisor officials declined to speak with the Globe but released a statement from chief executive Stephen Kaufer.

“Google engages in preferencing and manipulates search results so that consumers see content that benefits Google, not the best content for consumers,” Kaufer said. “This practice harms consumers and competition, and must be ended.”

In a posting on its corporate blog, Google senior vice president Amit Singhal denied any wrongdoing. Singhal noted that while TripAdvisor said it has been harmed by Google’s tactics, it also “claims to be the Web’s largest travel brand and has nearly doubled its revenues in the last four years.”"

Local travel firm aims to trip up Google - Business - The Boston Globe

Microsoft and Cyanogen Form Mobile Integration Deal | Re/code

Interesting Android times

"Fresh off its $80 million funding round, Cyanogen, the aggressive startup building an Android alternative to Google, inked a pact with Microsoft. Cyanogen will distribute Microsoft’s software suite, including Office, Skype and Bing search. In return, Microsoft, which is among the tech titans considering financing Cyanogen, will tailor its native apps and services for the startup’s operating system. The tie-up comes on the heels of a European Union investigation into Android, launched on Wednesday, probing Google’s practice of bundling mobile apps and services."

Microsoft and Cyanogen Form Mobile Integration Deal | Re/code

Verizon Fios TV Package Offers Mix and Match Bundles | Re/code

Tangentially, see Netflix Doesn’t Want to Kill HBO. It Wants to Kill TV (Re/code)

"What’s more interesting is that Verizon has been able to convince some programmers to let them carve up their bundles, which have been the foundation of their business models for years. Disney, for instance, usually insists that pay TV providers that sell ESPN also sell channels like the Disney Channel; Verizon’s deal lets subscribers get one without the other.

That newfound flexibility is yet another sign — HBO Now’s launch this month was a big, blinking billboard of its own —  that the TV Industrial Complex doesn’t think it’s nearly as powerful as it was just a couple of years ago. That sound you hear is Reed Hastings rubbing his hands together."

Verizon Fios TV Package Offers Mix and Match Bundles | Re/code

WikiLeaks Publishes Sony Documents - Bloomberg Business

In search of relevance?

"The release includes 30,287 documents and 173,132 e-mails, sent from or received by more than 2,200 Sony Pictures e-mail addresses, according to a WikiLeaks statement Thursday. The material is searchable, giving legions of journalists and Sony competitors access to the information that was quickly taken down after it was first posted by hackers tied to North Korea.
“This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation,” said Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, known for its unauthorized publication of documents, including classified government communications, since its founding in 2006. “It is newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there.”"

WikiLeaks Publishes Sony Documents - Bloomberg Business

Slack CEO Defends $2.8 Billion Valuation - Digits - WSJ

Slack unconstrained

"The question the CEO said he asked himself was, “Does it make sense for this company where we are right now to take $160 million from people who are buying about 5.5% of the company?”

One potential downside of startups raising funds at lofty valuations is that it can hamper their ability to recruit workers, who may decide to join a company based on the potential for its equity to rise in value. But Butterfield said a higher valuation can also attract engineers and others who believe they are getting a piece of a substantial, growing company, Butterfield said."

Slack CEO Defends $2.8 Billion Valuation - Digits - WSJ

With Eye on Mobile, Yahoo Revises Its Search Partnership With Microsoft - NYTimes.com

Still searching for a sustainable relationship; also see FAQ: The New Yahoo-Microsoft Deal, Explained (Marketing Land)

"Marissa Mayer has finally gotten what she’s wanted ever since she left Google three years ago to run Yahoo: a chance to build a new experience for searching the web and mobile phones.

Yahoo and Microsoft announced on Thursday that they had amended their 10-year search partnership to allow Yahoo to deliver its own search results and ads for up to half the searches made by visitors to Yahoo sites and apps."

With Eye on Mobile, Yahoo Revises Its Search Partnership With Microsoft - NYTimes.com

Sizing Microsoft Azure And Amazon AWS Revenue (Forbes)

Check the full post for more cloud market dynamics details

"Deutsche Bank estimates Amazon AWS revenues are approximately $6B, nearly ten times the size of Microsoft Azure today.

Microsoft Azure revenues for the current fiscal year are estimated to be between $500M and $700M and represents approximately 1 to 2% of total Microsoft revenues."

Sizing Microsoft Azure And Amazon AWS Revenue

Surface 3 review: Finally, a cheap Surface you'd actually want (Engadget)

Final paragraphs from a detailed review

"I can't recommend the Surface 3 to everyone, but it's the first $499 Surface that I can recommend to someone. And that's more than I can say for the Surface 2 and RT. It's a machine that's capable of doing a lot -- within limits. And come the eventual Windows 10 upgrade, which will be freely available to all Windows 7 and 8 users later this year, it will only get better. Even if it's not for you, the Surface 3 shows that Microsoft's vision of a single device that can serve as both tablet and laptop isn't a mere pipe dream. The company is learning from its mistakes -- ahem, Windows RT -- and it's continually doubling down on what makes the Surface lineup great. The big problem for Microsoft? It still doesn't have a killer, must-buy Surface. And that leaves it open to being usurped."

Surface 3 review: Finally, a cheap Surface you'd actually want

An Analysis of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Crash Landing | WIRED

Third time was almost a charm; check the full post for video and more details

"SPACEX ONCE AGAIN successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with supplies for the International Space Station.  The booster that launched the payload was then supposed to return, landing on a platform (at sea). Well, that didn’t go so well. The booster crashed on landing. Landing a rocket in this manner is clearly a difficult task. (Here is my previous explanation.) Maneuvering a tall rocket using the main thrusters would be like balancing a vertical broom on your hand and then moving this broom across the room and setting it down on the floor while still being upright. Try it. It’s not so easy—even for a computer."

An Analysis of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Crash Landing | WIRED

Kaspersky Cracks CoinVault - TechSmash

More details on Kaspersky's ransomware removal tool

"CoinVault predecessors CryptoWall and CryptoLocker were often run by malware operators who received payment and never gave the infected user the chance to get their files back. Humans can be so cruel.

If you or anyone you love, like, or tolerate becomes infected with CoinVault, you can head on over to noransom.kaspersky.com to begin the process of decryption. It’s basically digital Batman. You’re welcome."

Kaspersky Cracks CoinVault - TechSmash

Moore’s Law Turns 50, May Not See 60 | Re/code

Excerpt from a Moore's Law snapshot

"The end of the line is now a real concern as Intel undergoes the next phase of what once appeared to be a never-ending progression of chip miniaturization. As of the end of its fiscal first quarter, more than half of the chips it shipped were built on its new 14-nanometer manufacturing process, supplanting its older 22-nanometer technology, which is slowly being ramped down.

For some perspective, a nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Printed on paper, the period at the end of this sentence would be about one million nanometers. An object of 14 nanometers in size is smaller than a typical virus cell, and about the equivalent to the thickness of the outer cell wall of a typical germ."

Moore’s Law Turns 50, May Not See 60 | Re/code

Google has patented the ability to control a robot army - Quartz

Interesting times in the Googleplex

"There are certainly legitimate applications of this that Google might have in mind. For example, making sure all of its self-driving cars can communicate with each other and be monitored from a central source seems like a (literal) no-brainer. Applying this task management system to other Google ventures, such as its robotics arm Boston Dynamics, the potential seems a little more worrisome. Hopefully we will not require the services of a skeptical Will Smith to combat Google robots in the future."

Google has patented the ability to control a robot army - Quartz

Microsoft, Once an Antitrust Target, Is Now Google’s Regulatory Scold - NYTimes.com

Compete different

"The main battle is now in Europe, where the two companies are fighting what could be called an away game, thousands of miles from their American headquarters. Policy makers are alarmed that Google’s European market share is roughly 90 percent in many countries, even greater than it is in America.

“Microsoft is doing its best to create problems for Google,” said Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People’s Party, the center-right party that is the largest voting bloc in the European Parliament.

“It’s interesting. Ten years ago Microsoft was a big and strong company,” he added. “Now they are the underdog.”"

Microsoft, Once an Antitrust Target, Is Now Google’s Regulatory Scold - NYTimes.com

In smartphones, a battle for second-best - Business - The Boston Globe

Final paragraphs from a Hiawatha Bray smartphone market reality check

"I could happily tote the new HTC phone around for the next two years. But I don’t think I will. With its superb build quality, first-rate camera, and the promise of Samsung Pay, the Galaxy S6 has leapfrogged my former favorite. For a committed Android user, it’s the one to choose.

And yet, I’ll keep on recommending iPhone 6, which does just about everything, and just about perfectly. Exciting though they may be, the Samsung-HTC wars are a fight for second place."

In smartphones, a battle for second-best - Business - The Boston Globe

Microsoft + iPhone - Thurrott.com

Check the full post for a Microsoft iOS app list; also see Microsoft delivers iOS, Android versions of Delve (ZDNet) and Microsoft acquires mobile business intelligence leader Datazen (The Official Microsoft Blog)

"Just a few years ago, there was a sharp divide between fans of Microsoft and fans of the iPhone. But in this “mobile first, cloud first” world, it’s now possible to combine Apple’s iPhone hardware with Microsoft’s best-in-breed productivity apps and not feel terrible about yourself. Things really have changed, and for the better.

And if you are a Microsoft guy, there are good reasons to choose iPhone over Android … and even over Windows Phone. Microsoft mobile apps generally appear on iPhone before they do so elsewhere, and certain Microsoft mobile apps are only available on iPhone, at least for now. In several cases, you will see finished Microsoft apps appear on iPhone, whereas Android receives a rougher preview release instead. In many ways, iPhone—or iOS more generally—is the place to be if you’re interested in Microsoft’s mobile solutions."

Microsoft + iPhone - Thurrott.com

Apple bans selfie sticks from Worldwide Developers Conference 2015 - Business Today

I assume Apple Watch Camera Remote is okay, however...

"In a statement released on its website, the company said: "You are not permitted to make audio or audiovisual recordings of WWDC or take professional photographic or video equipment, or wearable recording devices into Moscone West or Yerba Buena Gardens. In addition, you may not use selfie sticks or similar monopods within Moscone West or Yerba Buena Gardens.""

Apple bans selfie sticks from Worldwide Developers Conference 2015 - Business Today

Samsung Is Creating a Team That Will Make Screens for Apple Devices Only - Bloomberg Business

Co-opetition, c2015; also see Apple Watch May Be Winning the Hype Battle, but Samsung's Galaxy S6 Is Off to a Strong Start

"Samsung Electronics Co. created a standalone team of about 200 employees working exclusively on screens for Apple Inc. products as the world’s biggest technology companies strengthen business ties, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The team at Samsung Display Co., which provides screens for iPads and MacBooks, helps develop products and is only allowed to share information about Apple business within the group, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public. The team formed April 1 and also helps with sales, the people said."

Samsung Is Creating a Team That Will Make Screens for Apple Devices Only - Bloomberg Business

Google Says It Has ‘Very Strong Case’ in European Antitrust Battle - Digits - WSJ

Perhaps a very long case; also see Here Is Google’s Internal Response to the Imminent EU Charges (Memo) (Re/code)

"Google told employees Tuesday it has a “very strong case” against expected charges by European regulators that it violated antitrust law by favoring its own services in search results.

In an internal memo, Google warned employees to expect formal charges Wednesday from the European Commission over the way it displays and ranks certain search results, particularly for shopping. It also said the regulator will open a formal investigation into its Android mobile operating system on Wednesday."

Google Says It Has ‘Very Strong Case’ in European Antitrust Battle - Digits - WSJ

Does Your Whole Home Need Antivirus Now? - WSJ

A different type of home security

"A new type of Internet security product is designed to stand guard over the whole smart home full of gadgets. Rather than counting on antivirus on every device, they scan all the activity in your house for signs of trouble. If you click on a malicious link, or your thermostat starts sending a thousand emails per hour, your sentry will hoist a red flag.

These products are in their infancy, and their promise outweighs their present effectiveness. But they offer a glimpse of how home network security is going to change for all of us. And while they develop, there are steps you can take with existing home routers and security software to stay safe."

Does Your Whole Home Need Antivirus Now? - WSJ

HP: We're not leaving the public cloud | ZDNet

Never mind...

"Several days after HP seemed to announce that it was going to stop offering public cloud services, the company is now stating that it will continue to offer its OpenStack-powered Helion public cloud. In a blog posting, HP's SVP of Helion Product Management Bill Hilf now states that "a quote of mine in the media was interpreted as HP is exiting the public cloud, which is not the case." When asked for clarification, HP public relations simply replied, "Bill's quote was interpreted as HP is exiting the public cloud, which is not the case. HP's commitment to its cloud strategy remains unchanged since our launch of HP Helion nearly one year ago.""

HP: We're not leaving the public cloud | ZDNet

Hands-on: Apple’s all-new Music app in iOS 8.4 | 9to5Mac

I'd happily settle for a version of iTunes Match that works consistently...

"Overall, the Music interface Apple has previewed with the first developer beta of iOS 8.4 is promising. Its similarity to iTunes on the Mac will make it familiar to many users. There are still some areas in which Apple needs to improve it, however, and that’s to be expected with a beta. Some of the buttons are awkwardly small, while the iTunes Radio interface is cluttered and unintuitive. Nevertheless, I’m a fan of the overall design direction Apple has taken the Music app and I think, especially when coupled with a streaming music service, it will be unmatched by its rivals."

Hands-on: Apple’s all-new Music app in iOS 8.4 | 9to5Mac

Kaspersky and INTERPOL Say Blockchain is Vulnerable | Inside Bitcoins | Bitcoin news | Price | Bitcoin Conferences

Cybercurrency insecurities? In other Kaspersky news, see Kaspersky releases decryption tool that unlocks ransomware (Engadget)

"Kaspersky Labs and INTERPOL have presented research in which they show how blockchain-based cryptocurrencies can potentially be abused with arbitrary data that can be disseminated through its public decentralized databases."

Kaspersky and INTERPOL Say Blockchain is Vulnerable | Inside Bitcoins | Bitcoin news | Price | Bitcoin Conferences

The Messaging Shockwave — Tap the Mic — Medium

Excerpt from a Ray Ozzie team productivity perspective; also see Talko v2: Messaging, calling and conferencing — all in one (Medium)

"You’ve almost certainly heard of Slack. For many teams (including ours!), it’s almost completely displaced email. You’ve likely also used or read about tools such as Quip and Dropbox’s Composer. The important aspect of these tools isn’t so much how they’re redefining the document per se, but rather that they’re centered from birth on team communications directly in the context of your work.

And then there’s Talko, my company’s app for team communications designed from the outset for our increasingly mobile lives and work styles. It’s simply an amazing tool.

It takes immense work to make something that “just works”, simply, pleasantly, and effectively. I am incredibly proud of the team building Talko and am thankful for our early-adopter customers who have given us invaluable feedback."

The Messaging Shockwave — Tap the Mic — Medium

How Not to Be a Jerk While Wearing the Apple Watch - Bloomberg Business

Notification curation and other tips

"Apple wants the Watch to make you more present in the moment and to free you from the supposed tyranny of your iPhone, but what the Watch does is bring another screen into your life with all the associated tapping, beeping, and peek-sneaking. Here are a few crucial dos and don'ts to keep you from being that guy."

How Not to Be a Jerk While Wearing the Apple Watch - Bloomberg Business

Apple's Swift takes crown of most-loved language among developers (AppleInsider)

Swift momentum

"Less than a year after its unveiling, Apple's Swift programming language has not only received widespread acceptance but has also become one of software developers' favorite tools, data from a recent survey shows."

Apple's Swift takes crown of most-loved language among developers

Hard Truths for the PC Industry | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

A stark PC market dynamics reality check

"We are getting signals from vendors and supply chain that 2015 is off to a rocky start. The rebound of 2014 was largely driven by an IT refresh bump that appears to be short lived. We are anticipating the launch of Windows 10, which, at the very least, may help the PC industry by getting IT to migrate off Windows XP and Windows 7. Windows 8 did not advance the cause so the hope lies on Windows 10. The problem is IT will not start any serious upgrading in 2015 with Win 10. Only IT early adopters will make a move, largely for testing, which means we can’t count on IT to help boost any PC sales this year. This is one reason we are looking at a few quarters with greater than 5% declines."

Hard Truths for the PC Industry | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

LinkedIn Raises Its Game In Social Media With Elevate, An App To Suggest And Share Stories | TechCrunch

More deeply linked

"LinkedIn, the social platform with 350 million users where people network for business deals, new jobs, news, and soon to learn a thing or two, is now tapping another business area: social media management.

Today, the company is taking the wraps off Elevate, a paid mobile and desktop app that suggests articles to its users — based on algorithms from its news recommendation services Pulse and Newsle, as well as “human curation” — and then lets users schedule and share those links across LinkedIn and Twitter, with the aim to add more networks like Facebook over time."

LinkedIn Raises Its Game In Social Media With Elevate, An App To Suggest And Share Stories | TechCrunch

The Mobile Video Moment Has Finally Arrived | Re/code

Lead paragraphs from a mobile video market snapshot

"Mobile video is definitely having a moment.

Consider: It’s helping people feeling connected to each while broadcasting on new live apps, it’s enabling instant virtual appointments with plumbers and nurses thousands of miles away, and it’s even enabling a guy in South Carolina to drastically shift the path of justice by exposing a cop in the act of murder.

And it’s all happening right now, all the time."

The Mobile Video Moment Has Finally Arrived | Re/code

Amazon, Google and More Are Drawn to Home Services Market - NYTimes.com

At your service

"Some of the biggest names in e-commerce, along with a growing pool of start-ups, are vying for a chunk of the fragmented, quotidian, heretofore entirely local market of electricians, plumbers, dog walkers and other manual labor, known broadly as home services.

The work may be mundane but the money and stakes are huge. Angie’s List, the 20-year-old subscription service that offers reviews of local service providers to members, estimates the home services industry is $400 billion. Others put it at more than $800 billion."

Amazon, Google and More Are Drawn to Home Services Market - NYTimes.com

Amazon Wants to Replace the Enterprise Data Center | Data Center Knowledge

Hybrid as a transitional function of data center depreciation

"The ideal goal for AWS is for every single function supported by enterprise data centers today to be offered by Amazon as a service delivered out of its data centers. In that vision, the role of hybrid is simply to smooth the transition and let customers’ existing infrastructure investments reach their natural end of life. “Most large organizations have existing IT investments that haven’t yet fulfilled their life,” he [Stephen Orban, head of enterprise strategy at Amazon Web Services] said.

Why? According to Orban, AWS can provide those functions cheaper and faster, leaving enterprise IT teams with more free time and resources to add value to the organizations they support."

Amazon Wants to Replace the Enterprise Data Center | Data Center Knowledge

China Is Said to Use Powerful New Weapon to Censor Internet - NYTimes.com

Behold "the Great Cannon"

"China’s new Internet weapon, the report says, is similar to one developed and used by the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ, a system outlined in classified documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, the former United States intelligence contractor. The American system, according to the documents, which were published by The Intercept, can deploy a system of programs that can intercept web traffic on a mass scale and redirect it to a site of their choosing. The N.S.A. and its partners appear to use the programs for targeted surveillance, whereas China appears to use the Great Cannon for an aggressive form of censorship.

The similarities of the programs may put American officials on awkward footing, the researchers argue in their report. “This precedent will make it difficult for Western governments to credibly complain about others utilizing similar techniques,” they write."

China Is Said to Use Powerful New Weapon to Censor Internet - NYTimes.com

Muted Debut for Apple Watch With Sparse Crowds in Europe and Asia - Bloomberg Business

No lines at the Salem, NH Apple store last night -- I was able to explore the new MacBook and try a couple Apple Watch models. I left the store impressed but empty-handed; I'll wait for >= 1.1 versions of both device types (in part, for the MacBook, because I am still happy with my > 3-year-old MacBook Air).

"By Friday morning at New York’s Fifth Avenue store, customers could try on a watch without an appointment, waiting no more than 10 minutes for the opportunity.
“I was sort of surprised that there are not more people in the store,” said Kishin Manglani, 24, a software engineer who builds iPhone apps. “I would say this is actually fewer than normal.” He speculated that may be because of the price and because consumers can’t leave the store with the watch."

Muted Debut for Apple Watch With Sparse Crowds in Europe and Asia - Bloomberg Business

Facebook still cool among teens, says survey - CNET

Full report is here

"Though such sites as Instagram and Snapchat increasingly appeal to teens, Facebook is still a "dominant force," Pew said Thursday. Among the more than 1,000 teens surveyed, 71 percent said they use Facebook, while 41 percent said Facebook is the site they use the most frequently over all other social networks. Instagram and Snapchat scored as the second and third most frequently used sites, respectively.

Retaining and even building the teenage audience is critical to Facebook to attract advertising dollars, both in the present and especially in the future. Meanwhile, Facebook's role in the life of the typical teen has been repeatedly called into question in recent years."

Facebook still cool among teens, says survey - CNET

Almost all Apple Watch models sold out, AppleCare+ pricing revealed | 9to5Mac

Looking like a good day for Apple so far...

"Whether due to high demand or low supply, all models of Apple Watch have now almost entirely sold out with many slipping delivery date estimates in mere minutes of preorders opening. In the US, the 38 mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Classic Buckle is the only model still on offer with a ‘April 24th – May 8th’ shipping date.

AppleCare+ pricing is now also visible on store.apple.com. AppleCare+ costs $49 for Apple Watch Sport, $69 for Apple Watch and $1500 for Apple Watch Edition. Interestingly, Apple is also offering a ‘combo purchase’ where you can buy AppleCare+ for both your iPhone and your Watch at a bundled price of $100 more. The bundle prices don’t offer any saving over buying both devices  (if you can ignore the negligible $1 difference), so they seem to be offered as a convenience purchase only."

Almost all Apple Watch models sold out, AppleCare+ pricing revealed | 9to5Mac

AWS lands more enterprise software vendors building on its cloud | ZDNet

A possible new tagline for AWS: you're soaking in it

"The company said Thursday that MicroStrategy, Software AG, Tibco and Onshape will deliver their software-as-a-service offerings on the AWS platform. Vendors including Infor, Informatica and Splunk are some of the other software vendors using AWS.

AWS' real end game is to land more enterprise customers even indirectly. If enough software providers build on AWS infrastructure you could be a customer and not even know it."

AWS lands more enterprise software vendors building on its cloud | ZDNet

Review: Apple MacBook | WIRED

First and last paragraphs of an 8-out-of-10-score review

"I don’t know just who Apple’s newest laptop is for. Rich people who fly coach? People with one laptop who want a second, gold one? Maybe. But I do know two things about the new MacBook: This is what the future of laptops looks like, and I want one very badly.
[...]
Much like that first Air, the new MacBook is for the future. It’s a vision of our next computer, the one we’ll buy when our Airs or ThinkPads can’t keep up anymore. The MacBook is a work in progress: The processor and the battery will improve, and the price will drop. It won’t take long. The future’s getting here faster than you think."

Review: Apple MacBook | WIRED

Three Reasons LinkedIn Acquired Lynda.com | Re/code

A logical learning leap for LinkedIn

"Teaching isn’t traditionally viewed as a high-paying career choice. But building software for teaching? That appears to be a little more lucrative.

At least it was today, when LinkedIn announced the $1.5 billion acquisition of online education company Lynda.com. It’s the online business network’s largest acquisition ever by a wide margin. The company paid around $175 million for Bizo last summer, the closest LinkedIn’s ever been to a billion-dollar acquisition until now.

Lynda.com provides video courses to paying subscribers hoping to learn online, with tutorials on a wide range of business subjects from Web design to 3-D animation. It’s one of a number of companies working in this space, including well-known startups like Coursera and Codecademy that were both founded in the past five years."

Three Reasons LinkedIn Acquired Lynda.com | Re/code

AWS Wants To Put Machine Learning In Reach Of Any Developer | TechCrunch

Check here for more Amazon Machine Learning details

"The Amazon Machine Learning service is designed to give developers without machine learning background the tools to build smart, data-driven applications that can not only analyze what’s happening in real time or what happened in the past, but also predict what’s going to happen in the future (and that’s what’s most interesting here).

Companies like Netflix have been using AWS tools to undertake machine learning tasks for some time, but as Jassy said, “it’s hard work”, and AWS wanted to create a service specifically suited to machine learning without requiring specific expertise."

AWS Wants To Put Machine Learning In Reach Of Any Developer | TechCrunch

Apple MacBook Review: The Laptop of the Future Isn’t Ready for the Present - WSJ

Final paragraphs of a new MacBook review highlighting all of the potential downsides ... that probably won't prevent it from becoming a bestseller; tangentially, see Sales of PCs Fall, Again, on Weak Demand (NYT)

"It’s nearly impossible not to be seduced by this MacBook’s beauty, its dazzling screen and perfect trackpad. But don’t give in. Like the original MacBook Air, introduced in 2008, there are too many key compromises—in battery life, speed and port access—for the early-adopter price.

I expect the new MacBook to follow the same path as the Air. Over the next few years, it will improve, and become an affordable, indispensable tool for life in the future. But here, now, in the present day, there are more practical slim, everyday laptop choices. The MacBook Air is the best option all around, the MacBook Pro Retina 13 is a great step up, and PC users can do no better than Dell’s latest XPS 13."

Apple MacBook Review: The Laptop of the Future Isn’t Ready for the Present - WSJ

Get Used to More Twitter Takeover Rumors | Re/code

Check the full post for a stark Twitter reality check

"Those are the two key reasons these rumors keep surfacing, and why activist investors are watching Twitter closely for any opportunity to attack. There is no question the company is indeed vulnerable and, despite a solid financial showing in Q1, Costolo seems destined to be a permanent fixture on the investor hot seat.

As one source told Re/code’s Kara Swisher in January: “Dick has nine lives, but he might be on his eighth at this point.”

So, it begs the question: Why is Twitter such a persistent target of investor rumor-mongering? Here are a few things to consider when discussing the possibility of a Twitter takeover:"

Get Used to More Twitter Takeover Rumors | Re/code

Microsoft Announces Nano Server for Modern Apps and Cloud - Windows Server Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Also see Microsoft Unveils New Container Technologies for the Next Generation Cloud (Microsoft Azure blog)

"Nano Server will allow customers to install just the components they require and nothing more. The initial results are promising.  Based on the current builds, compared to Server, Nano Server has:

• 93 percent lower VHD size
• 92 percent fewer critical bulletins
• 80 percent fewer reboots

 To achieve these benefits, we removed the GUI stack, 32 bit support (WOW64), MSI and a number of default Server Core components. There is no local logon or Remote Desktop support. All management is performed remotely via WMI and PowerShell. We are also adding Windows Server Roles and Features using Features on Demand and DISM. We are improving remote manageability via PowerShell with Desired State Configuration as well as remote file transfer, remote script authoring and remote debugging.  We are working on a set of new Web-based management tools to replace local inbox management tools."

Microsoft Announces Nano Server for Modern Apps and Cloud - Windows Server Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Reviewing Your Corporate Life in Real Time - NYTimes.com

Launching into a crowded market with ~infinite expectations

"To date, Domo has raised a total of $450 million, or almost a quarter of that big valuation. Online computing may be cheaper, but building this kind of software, and a sales team to go with it, clearly isn’t.

Mr. James said Domo had some analytic capabilities and would be adding more. The effects of the software are already being seen in his early beta customers, he said, like a media company that is changing its content in real time to meet changing tastes, or a retailer that can develop graphic representations of employee theft."

Reviewing Your Corporate Life in Real Time - NYTimes.com

Amazon Hints at Smart Home Future Through Echo Device - Digits - WSJ

The Internet of things with proprietary interfaces; tangentially, see With Meld, Another Step Toward the Internet of Tasty Things (NYT)

"But the race to develop such “smart” homes has been complicated by competing goals from hardware makers, as well as challenges like inconsistent Internet service.

The Echo’s new features rely on power outlets from Belkin’s WeMo unit and Hue light bulbs from Philips, both of which can connect to a home’s Wi-Fi network. Amazon said three WeMo products, including a light switch, would work with the Echo, as well as five different Philips light bulbs. The Seattle-based company didn’t say whether it would enable other companies’ devices to work in tandem with the Echo."

Amazon Hints at Smart Home Future Through Echo Device - Digits - WSJ

Facebook Goes Old School, Opens Messenger to the Web - Digits - WSJ

Probably about time to ramp up the "HTML5 isn't dead after all" meme

"Facebook went old school Wednesday, by launching a desktop version of its Messenger mobile app.

Through the website messenger.com, users will be able to carry on conversations without the distraction of status updates and advertisements on Facebook’s main website. The conversations can be continued on a user’s smartphone through the standalone Messenger mobile app, which has about 600 million users. Users can also choose to get desktop notifications whenever they get a message."

Facebook Goes Old School, Opens Messenger to the Web - Digits - WSJ

Surprise! Cell calls that sound superb - Business - The Boston Globe

Smartphones that actually work well as phones -- what a concept...

"After years of talking about it, the major cellphone carriers are introducing a technology called HD Voice that will bring traditional telephone calls into the 21st century.

If you’re using compatible phones on a compatible network, you can already hear the difference. And someday soon, we all will. 

HD Voice answers a question that’s nagged at me for years: Why do phone calls sound so bad?"

Surprise! Cell calls that sound superb - Business - The Boston Globe

Windows RT: Did it really die? Absolutely not and here's why (BetaNews)

An ardent defense of Windows RT, followed, inevitably, by a lively discussion thread, but I doubt any of this will be solace to Surface (non-Pro, < 3) customers who now have dead-end devices

"The long and short of what is happening with Windows RT is pretty darn simple: 

• Microsoft (Surface and Surface 2) and Nokia (Lumia) branded ARM-based tablets will NOT be getting a formal update to Windows 10. They will be entitled to limited subset upgrades of Windows 10 functionality, but will not be given Windows 10 as we know it. 
• Windows RT as its own SKU, or brand, of Windows will be going away (naturally). 
• Windows RT's combined direct spiritual successors are the Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 IoT SKU lines, which work on devices under 8" in size and DO feature ARM processors.
• Windows 10 Mobile devices will not have access to "desktop" mode, and as such, lack of any proper x86 app support."

Windows RT: Did it really die? Absolutely not and here's why

Apple Watch: the definitive review (The Verge)

From the conclusion of an extensive day-in-the-life review; also see Apple Watch Review: The Smartwatch Finally Makes Sense (WSJ) and Dear Diary: My Week Wearing an Apple Watch (NYT)

"There’s no question that the Apple Watch is the most capable smartwatch available today. It is one of the most ambitious products I’ve ever seen; it wants to do and change so much about how we interact with technology. But that ambition robs it of focus: it can do tiny bits of everything, instead of a few things extraordinarily well. For all of its technological marvel, the Apple Watch is still a smartwatch, and it’s not clear that anyone’s yet figured out what smartwatches are actually for.

If you are willing to go along on that journey, then you’ll enjoy the Apple Watch. It is a bauble, after all, and baubles delight simply by their presence. Apple will update the software, and developers will make apps, and Google and Samsung and Microsoft will release competitors, and the people who love technology will have something to buy and argue about, talismans that display tribal affiliations.

But that’s technology as fashion; it’s not quite yet fashion itself. If you’re going to buy an Apple Watch, I’d recommend buying a Sport model; I wouldn’t spend money on how it looks until Apple completes the task of figuring out what it does."

Apple Watch: the definitive review

HP Comes to Terms With the Cloud - NYTimes.com

A less cloudy future for HP

"HP thought it would compete with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft for business rentals of computing power via so-called public cloud assets. Companies like Netflix, Snapchat and 3M now run significant parts of their businesses in such clouds, and the field is growing rapidly.

After looking at the market, however, HP is now ceding the public cloud.

“We thought people would rent or buy computing from us,” said Bill Hilf, the head of HP’s cloud business. “It turns out that it makes no sense for us to go head-to-head.”

HP is still selling servers, but increasingly it looks like its biggest customers will be cloud companies themselves, or other computing behemoths, like Facebook. For thousands of other customers, Ms. Whitman hopes to build smaller cloud systems, while figuring out ways these companies can also use Amazon or Microsoft."

HP Comes to Terms With the Cloud - NYTimes.com

They’re Using Drones to Herd Sheep - WSJ

Drone on the range

"“There are limitations, but you don’t have to get on a horse, you don’t have to feed it,” Mr. Thomson says. “Just give it more batteries.”

What do the sheep think? Most seem to respect the drone, though some just look quizzically until it is “a foot away from them and then they realize, Oh crap. I got to run,” he says. “Sheep are naturally scared of things that might attack them.”

Tech-savvy livestock farmers from the Australian Outback to the Irish countryside are starting to use drones as a relatively cheap alternative to the cowboy and the sheepdog. Camera-wielding copters that can be bought off-the-shelf for as little as $500 can cover hilly terrain quickly, finding and guiding sheep and cattle while the rancher operates remotely—sometimes wearing goggles that show the drone’s perspective."

They’re Using Drones to Herd Sheep - WSJ

Measuring Social 'Trust' to Make Loans - NYTimes.com

Friends with financial benefits

"Vouch Financial, which is emerging from its pilot testing phase this week, has an unusual spin on the data science approach. Big data lenders often analyze a person’s social network on LinkedIn or Facebook as one signal, among many, for hints about how reliable a payer a loan candidate is likely to be. But Vouch wants you to construct a social network of people who trust you financially — people who will, yes, vouch for you.

The Vouch formula looks to back to a bygone era of banking when community bankers routinely asked their customers for “social character” references before granting loans. “We’ve taken that principle and digitized it,” said Yee Lee, co-founder and chief executive of Vouch."

Measuring Social 'Trust' to Make Loans - NYTimes.com

Giving Out Private Data for Discount in Insurance - NYTimes.com

Deep discounts for desirable data

"People who sign up will receive a free Fitbit monitor, which can be set to automatically upload activity levels to the insurer. The most active customers may earn a discount of up to 15 percent on their premiums, in addition to Amazon gift cards, half-price stays at Hyatt hotels and other perks.

John Hancock, a division of Canadian insurer Manulife Financial, says it hopes the program will help reinvigorate life insurance sales, which have stagnated industrywide for decades. Just 44 percent of households in the United States own individual policies, according to Limra, a trade group, a 50-year low. Any product that reminds consumers of their mortality is hard to get excited about, but industry analysts said that financially strained households, changing demographics and increasingly complex and expensive products have led to the decline in sales."

Giving Out Private Data for Discount in Insurance - NYTimes.com

IBM Tries an Unproven Brain-Inspired Approach to Machine Learning from Palm Founder, Jeff Hawkins | MIT Technology Review

Numenta and IBM partner on machine learning

"For more than a decade Jeff Hawkins, founder of mobile computing company Palm, has dedicated his time and fortune to a theory meant to explain the workings of the human brain, and provide a blueprint for a powerful new kind of artificial intelligence software. But Hawkins’s company, Numenta, has made little impact on the tech industry, even as machine learning has become central to companies such as Google.

Now, one tech giant is finally taking an interest.

IBM has established a research group to work on Numenta’s learning algorithms at its Almaden research lab in San Jose, California. The algorithms are being tested for tasks including interpreting satellite imagery, and the group is working on designs for computers that would implement Hawkins’s ideas in hardware. Hawkins says that around 100 people are working on the project, known internally as the Cortical Learning Center."

IBM Tries an Unproven Brain-Inspired Approach to Machine Learning from Palm Founder, Jeff Hawkins | MIT Technology Review

Oxford Professor Nick Bostrom Wants Companies Like Google and Facebook to Help to Keep Artificial Intelligence Friendly | MIT Technology Review

Check the link below for a timely AI reality check/interview

"Many people working on AI remain skeptical of or even hostile to Bostrom’s ideas. But since his book on the subject, Superintelligence, appeared last summer, some prominent technologists and scientists—including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates—have echoed some of his concerns. Google is even assembling an ethics committee to oversee its artificial intelligence work. Bostrom met last week with MIT Technology Review’s San Francisco bureau chief, Tom Simonite, to discuss his effort to get artificial intelligence researchers to consider the dangers of their work"

Oxford Professor Nick Bostrom Wants Companies Like Google and Facebook to Help to Keep Artificial Intelligence Friendly | MIT Technology Review

Uber Is Winning Over Americans' Expense Accounts - Bloomberg Business

Transforming transportation

"Worry about its impact on jobs, or quibble with its tactics, but give Uber this: The ride-hailing startup is taking over transportation within cities at stunning speeds.
Here's the latest evidence: Last month, Uber accounted for 47 percent of all rides expensed by employees whose companies use Certify, the second-largest provider of travel and expense management software in North America. In March 2014, Uber accounted for only 15 percent, according to a study by Certify released on April 7. Over that period, the amount spent on traditional taxis, limousines, and airport shuttles fell from 85 percent to 52 percent of expensed rides. Lyft, a rival ride-hailing service that caters more to consumers than professionals, currently accounts for 1 percent of business rides, the study found."

Uber Is Winning Over Americans' Expense Accounts - Bloomberg Business

Android Creator Andy Rubin Launching Playground Global - WSJ

A new hardware incubator/accelerator; tangentially, I wonder when we'll see a General Magic alumni club profile book; see General Magic: The Most Important Dead Company in Silicon Valley? (Fortune, 2011) for a partial list

"Mr. Rubin, 52 years old, is a longtime gadget tinkerer with a particular interest in robotics. He worked at Apple Inc. in the early 1990s and then at Apple-backed General Magic, which tried to develop a hand-held communication device. After a stint at online video startup WebTV, he founded Danger in 1999 to make an early smartphone called the Sidekick. He founded Android in 2004 and sold it to Google the following year.

Mr. Rubin believes that large technology ecosystems, such as the Web and mobile, emerge about once every 20 years—and Playground will help him search for the next one. “Hardware will drive future ecosystems,” he said."

Android Creator Andy Rubin Launching Playground Global - WSJ

If Algorithms Know All, How Much Should Humans Help? - NYTimes.com

A different kind of storytelling

"But the stakes are rising as the methods and mind-set of data science spread across the economy and society. Big companies and start-ups are beginning to use the technology in decisions like medical diagnosis, crime prevention and loan approvals. The application of data science to such fields raises questions of when close human supervision of an algorithm’s results is needed.

These questions are spurring a branch of academic study known as algorithmic accountability. Public interest and civil rights organizations are scrutinizing the implications of data science, both the pitfalls and the potential. In the foreword to a report last September, “Civil Rights, Big Data and Our Algorithmic Future,” Wade Henderson, president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, wrote, “Big data can and should bring greater safety, economic opportunity and convenience to all people.”"

If Algorithms Know All, How Much Should Humans Help? - NYTimes.com

Planes Without Pilots - NYTimes.com

An impressive leading indicator

"In 2014, airlines carried 838.4 million passengers on more than 8.5 million flights. Commercial aviation is already heavily automated. Modern aircraft are generally flown by a computer autopilot that tracks its position using motion sensors and dead reckoning, corrected as necessary by GPS. Software systems are also used to land commercial aircraft. In a recent survey of airline pilots, those operating Boeing 777s reported that they spent just seven minutes manually piloting their planes in a typical flight. Pilots operating Airbus planes spent half that time."

Planes Without Pilots - NYTimes.com

The Hackathon Fast Track, From Campus to Silicon Valley - NYTimes.com

Recruit and/or invest different

"Collegiate hackathons have replicated that scene on a far grander scale. Identifying talented coders who can dream big and thrive under pressure is particularly valuable to Silicon Valley. Since hackathons showcase some of the best, brightest and most motivated upstart programmers, the events have become a focal point for recruiting. Some say hackathons are as fruitful as job fairs.

“We want to find the next Mark Zuckerberg and the next Jack Dorsey,” says Andy Chen, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that invested in Uber, Google, Snapchat and Twitter, which Mr. Dorsey helped found. The firm sends representatives to at least 20 collegiate competitions each year."

The Hackathon Fast Track, From Campus to Silicon Valley - NYTimes.com

Tewksbury police pay bitcoin ransom to hackers - Business - The Boston Globe

A multifaceted sign of the cyber-times

"“Your personal files are encrypted,” it read. “File decryption costs ~ $500.”

It continued: “If you really value your data, then we suggest you do not waste valuable time searching for other solutions because they do not exist.”

Tewksbury had joined the list of police departments victimized by “ransomware,” an insidious form of Internet crime that is crippling computers worldwide. [...] 

Moreover, in the Tewksbury case, hackers demanded that a bitcoin payment be sent through Tor, a technology that makes it very difficult to identify the physical location where the money is received."

Tewksbury police pay bitcoin ransom to hackers - Business - The Boston Globe

The Internet of Amazon Things | Monday Note

Summary of a timely Amazon/IoT reality check by Jean-Louis Gassée

"With its new ordering system of one-push buttons spread around the home, Amazon wants to simplify lives, theirs more than ours as we’ll find out. In doing so, we’ll face – again – still unresolved issues for the Consumer version of the Internet of Things."

The Internet of Amazon Things | Monday Note

Startup Aims for a Social Virtual World | MIT Technology Review

From a VR + social snapshot

"AltspaceVR is among a growing number of companies trying to figure out what, exactly, we’ll do with these devices when they get here. Facebook, which owns Oculus VR, said in March that virtual reality gaming will be coming this year, while Philip Rosedale, the creator of the online virtual world Second Life, is building a virtual-reality universe called High Fidelity (see “The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality”). AltspaceVR CEO and founder  Eric Romo wants to develop ways for people who are physically far apart to interact that are more engaging than, say, video chatting or talking on the phone.  “That nonverbal part of communication is really lost in any other medium other than being together, and that’s something we feel can be replicated to a great extent in virtual reality,” Romo says."

Startup Aims for a Social Virtual World | MIT Technology Review

Predicting The Future Of Cloud Service Providers (Forbes)

From a (Microsoft commissioned) 451 Research study summary

"47% of marketing departments will have 60% or more of their applications on a cloud platform in two years.
When asked which Value-Added Reseller (VAR) is most likely to win their enterprises’ business for a significant hosting project, the majority said IBM (18%) followed by Microsoft (11%), Amazon (8%) and Dell (7%).

Database (57%), e-mail (54%) and business applications (ERP, CRM & industry-specific apps) (49%) are the three leading application hosting investments enterprises will be making in the next two years."

Predicting The Future Of Cloud Service Providers

John Oliver Makes Edward Snowden Squirm on ‘Last Week Tonight’ - The Daily Beast

Full segment with interview available via YouTube at the link below (interview starts around 14 minutes in); also see John Oliver's Edward Snowden interview is as smart as it is hilarious (The Daily Dot), which notes "Considering John Oliver's effect on the net neutrality debate last year, it will be interesting to see how his viewers react to this straightforward look at the dangers of government surveillance."

"Strangely enough, the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight conducted arguably the toughest interview with Edward Snowden, taking him to task on the leaked NSA documents."

John Oliver Makes Edward Snowden Squirm on ‘Last Week Tonight’ - The Daily Beast

Apple Confirms: No Walk-In Purchasing for Apple Watch | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Buy different

"Not only is Apple likely using online reservations to control inventory—and give potential customers a more reasonable expectation of when they might get a new smartwatch—but it's also being a bit more hands on about the entire purchasing process in general. Apple likely wants to make sure that potential purchasers know all the options for which specific watch they might want and, just as important, which band and style they might want. It's a product that requires a bit more hands-on treatment than, say, grabbing a box off the wall and checking out."

Apple Confirms: No Walk-In Purchasing for Apple Watch | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

This Is Big: A Robo-Car Just Drove Across the Country | WIRED

A mileage milestone

"Nine days after leaving San Francisco, a blue car packed with tech from a company you’ve probably never heard of rolled into New York City after crossing 15 states and 3,400 miles to make history. The car did 99 percent of the driving on its own, yielding to the carbon-based life form behind the wheel only when it was time to leave the highway and hit city streets.

This amazing feat, by the automotive supplier Delphi, underscores the great leaps this technology has taken in recent years, and just how close it is to becoming a part of our lives. Yes, many regulatory and legislative questions must be answered, and it remains to be seen whether consumers are ready to cede control of their cars, but the hardware is, without doubt, up to the task."

This Is Big: A Robo-Car Just Drove Across the Country | WIRED

Collecting private information: Uses and abuses | The Economist

Final paragraph from a Data and Goliath review

"Some recent books on digital privacy have been written by journalists, with an emphasis on sugary narrative instead of original analysis. This one comes from a practitioner, and offers a deep but accessible look at surveillance in the post-Snowden, big-data era."

Collecting private information: Uses and abuses | The Economist

More background on building collaboration into Sway - Office Blogs

Groovy...

"We’re excited to announce today that Sway is now collaborative and lets you create and edit together with others. Check out this blog post for more detail.

One of the great things about working at Microsoft is that you can build on the work of other teams. Several members of the Sway team formerly worked on Word and OneNote. We’re able to learn from that experience as well as build on some shared pieces of technology in Office. We’ve built the core collaboration infrastructure for Sway based on the co-authoring technology pioneered in OneNote several years ago, which has been lighting up across Office over the last number of years. Building on our shared technology helps us not only get these features into your hands sooner, but also addresses the really hard challenges. For example, while it is not uncommon for online editing tools to support co-authoring these days, especially tools with only basic feature sets, it is much harder to find tools that reliably support this scenario when the authors go offline."

More background on building collaboration into Sway - Office Blogs

Office Lens comes to iPhone and Android - Office Blogs

A handy option for OneNote users

"Office Lens for iPhone is available for free at the Apple App Store. Here’s a quick look at some of the more significant features and capabilities that Office Lens for iPhone supports:

• Recognizes the corners of a document and automatically crops, enhances and cleans up the image.

• Identifies printed text with optical character recognition (OCR) so that you can search by key word for the image in OneNote or OneDrive.

• Converts images of paper documents and whiteboard notes into Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDF files for easy editing and reformatting (see more details here). 

• Captures business cards and generates contacts you can add to your phone. 

• Inserts images to OneNote or OneDrive (as DOCX, PPTX, JPG or PDF format) and gives you options to save, export and share the image."

Office Lens comes to iPhone and Android - Office Blogs

The Economist’s Tom Standage on digital strategy and the limits of a model based on advertising » Nieman Journalism Lab

Excerpt from an extensive interview with "Economist deputy editor Tom Standage, who oversees the magazine’s digital efforts"

"STANDAGE: The Economist has taken the view that advertising is nice, and we’ll certainly take money where we can get it, but we’re pretty much expecting it to go away.
So we’re switching toward what we call thought leadership, which is we sell sponsorship of conferences, with white papers, with online advertising as well. But essentially it’s not straightforward display advertising. It allows advertisers to associate themselves with particular topic areas, or raise their profiles in particular areas. And it’s not native advertising either, because the crucial thing for me is that we’re not serving this out of our editorial CMS. For me, that’s the line that we won’t cross. When the ads are coming out of the same CMS as the editorial, which is one definition of native advertising — we won’t do that."

The Economist’s Tom Standage on digital strategy and the limits of a model based on advertising » Nieman Journalism Lab

Google’s ARC Beta runs Android apps on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, and Linux | Ars Technica

Interesting Android times

"In September, Google launched ARC—the "App Runtime for Chrome,"—a project that allowed Android apps to run on Chrome OS. A few days later, a hack revealed the project's full potential: it enabled ARC on every "desktop" version of Chrome, meaning you could unofficially run Android apps on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. ARC made Android apps run on nearly every computing platform (save iOS).

ARC is an early beta though so Google has kept the project's reach very limited—only a handful of apps have been ported to ARC, which have all been the result of close collaborations between Google and the app developer. Now though, Google is taking two big steps forward with the latest developer preview: it's allowing any developer to run their app on ARC via a new Chrome app packager, and it's allowing ARC to run on any desktop OS with a Chrome browser."

Google’s ARC Beta runs Android apps on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, and Linux | Ars Technica

LinkedIn Acquires Refresh App | Re/code

Cyber-stalking for sales and other interpersonal networking domains

"Refresh, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., scours the Internet for information on the people a user is scheduled to see, such as news items mentioning those people. The app will also pull info from Facebook or LinkedIn, and can sync with your email to determine when you first met (or at least emailed with) the people you’re scheduled to meet.

LinkedIn already offers a similar product called Connected that manages your existing LinkedIn relationships and reminds you to follow up with people after you’ve met."

LinkedIn Acquires Refresh App | Re/code

What Will It Take for the Apple Watch to Be a Success? - Digits - WSJ

Also see iPhone Killer: The Secret History of the Apple Watch (Wired)

"In a newly released forecast, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray predicts sales of the much-hyped new product will hit one million on opening weekend, but his view for all of 2015 is well below the Wall Street consensus.

Wall Street is calling for 14 million watch sales from Apple in 2015. But Mr. Munster has a more conservative view, anticipating sales of eight million units. That would represent about 2% of Apple’s revenue in 2015 based on Mr. Munster’s estimate. While he does not expect sales to surge immediately, Mr. Munster forecasts watch sales could reach 40 to 50 million by 2017, which would account for roughly 10% of total revenue at Apple. And that, he says, would mark “a success for the watch.”"

What Will It Take for the Apple Watch to Be a Success? - Digits - WSJ

Antitrust and Other Inquiries in Europe Target U.S. Tech Giants - NYTimes.com

Where antitrust is about protecting local competitors, not global consumers

"Europe’s willingness to police tech companies’ activities contrasts with a relatively hands-off approach favored by United States authorities, which have so far refrained from widespread antitrust lawsuits and privacy investigations into how tech companies use people’s online data.

In recent years, however, American tech companies have become the central target for Europe’s antitrust officials. Advocates say this approach is aimed at limiting the dominance of a small number of companies, though industry executives say Europe is using the investigations to promote the region’s own tech companies, which often have been unable to compete with their United States rivals."

Antitrust and Other Inquiries in Europe Target U.S. Tech Giants - NYTimes.com

U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

From a Pew Research "smartphone-dependent" market profile

"The traditional notion of “going online” often evokes images of a desktop or laptop computer with a full complement of features, such as a large screen, mouse, keyboard, wires, and a dedicated high-speed connection. But for many Americans, the reality of the online experience is substantially different. Today nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, and 19% of Americans rely to some degree on a smartphone for accessing online services and information and for staying connected to the world around them — either because they lack broadband at home, or because they have few options for online access other than their cell phone.

Indeed, 7% of Americans own a smartphone but have neither traditional broadband service at home, nor easily available alternatives for going online other than their cell phone."

U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

Microsoft at middle age: Opening Windows | The Economist

Excerpt from an extensive Microsoft reality check

"The biggest question is about Microsoft’s finances. As people and businesses buy ever fewer, and cheaper, PCs, the revenues from Windows are falling. In the quarter to December 31st they were down by 13% on a year earlier. Sales in the commercial cloud business, including Office 365, more than doubled year-on-year, to reach an annual run-rate of $5.5 billion. But this is only a small fraction of total revenues, and the division is still thought to be losing money. Furthermore, says Rick Sherlund of Nomura, an investment bank, it is unclear how newer applications, such as Cortana, will make a living. “The business models have yet to be invented.”

They are unlikely to be as much of a cash cow as Windows and Office, which still generate 44% of revenues and 58% of profits. The gross margin of classic Office is 90%; that of Office 365 is currently only 53%. In other cloud businesses profits will be elusive, given the intense competition from Amazon, Google and increasingly IBM. Citigroup, another bank, recently estimated that Amazon’s margin in the cloud was between -2% and -3%. In other businesses Amazon has shown a high tolerance for losses as it strives for growth."

Microsoft at middle age: Opening Windows | The Economist

Facebook Launches Riff, a New App for Group Videos | Re/code

Also see Everyone can broadcast. But will anyone watch? (Boston Globe)

"Facebook launched a new app on Wednesday with user-generated video as the main focus.

Riff, which is available for free on both iOS and Android, lets users create and share a video to Facebook (or other places online) where other users can then add to the project with their own video clips and share it to their followers."

Facebook Launches Riff, a New App for Group Videos | Re/code

Airbnb Is Now Available in Cuba - Bloomberg Business

From each according to rentability, to each according to need

"Expanding an Internet service to Cuba means overcoming a host of challenges, including spotty Web access, limited payment options, and the still-ongoing U.S. embargo. So Airbnb is starting small: U.S. travelers can choose from about 1,000 listings throughout the country, mostly concentrated in Havana. The company says its model—stay in somebody’s home, pay less than a hotel would charge—will help it facilitate travel that won’t pave over Cuba’s unique character, forged by decades of isolation from its northern neighbor. “Think about the big hotel chains coming in, with mass development,” says Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb co-founder and chief technology officer. “The idea here is to support growth in travel that isn’t disruptive, that actually celebrates and preserves Cuba as a distinct destination.”"

Airbnb Is Now Available in Cuba - Bloomberg Business

With Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung Tries to Regain Its Footing - NYTimes.com

A paradox of abundance

"But if the new phones are beautiful and functional, they are still something of a pain to use. The S6 and S6 Edge run Samsung’s modified version of Google’s Android operating system. Despite Samsung’s engineers’ efforts to clean up the software, the phone’s interface is a hodgepodge of odd design decisions and overly complicated functions.

The situation is made worse by the many companies competing for space on your phone. Open a new Galaxy and you’ll find a host of duplicative apps preloaded by Samsung, Google, your carrier and even Microsoft, an ostensible competitor of both Samsung and Google. The crush of apps would be funny if it weren’t so annoying. Why does a brand-new phone have two web browsers, two email apps, two app stores, a handful of music and video services and four different messaging apps?"

With Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung Tries to Regain Its Footing - NYTimes.com

April Fools' Day: the best (and worst) tech pranks of 2015 - Telegraph

A handy index

"Every year, the Telegraph is inundated with terrible April Fools' pranks, pitches and ideas. Here are the best and worst we've seen"

April Fools' Day: the best (and worst) tech pranks of 2015 - Telegraph

New York Times Develops an Apple Watch App - NYTimes.com

All the news that's fit to glance

"The New York Times said on Tuesday that it had developed an app to provide brief news reports for the Apple watch when it is released next month.

The reports, which will consist of a sentence accompanied by bullet-point summaries and photography or graphics, “will provide the news at a glance across many Times sections, including business, politics, science, tech and the arts,” the company said in a statement.

The Times’s breaking news alerts will also appear on the watch, the company said."

New York Times Develops an Apple Watch App - NYTimes.com

Acer and Haier Launch $149 Chromebooks, Asus Previews Chrome OS Convertible And HDMI Stick [TechCrunch]

ARMed for price competition

"A few weeks ago Google made headlines with the launch of the new Chromebook Pixel, the highest-end Chromebook on the market (and with a price to show for it). Today, the Chrome OS laptop ecosystem is launching two products that are the exact opposite: the Haier Chromebook 11 (now available online at Amazon) and the Hisense Chromebook (now available at Walmart). Both of these 11.6-inch Chromebooks will retail for $149, making them the most affordable Chromebooks yet.

In addition, Google today announced that Asus plans to launch a $249 convertible Chromebook/tablet soon, as well as the Chromebit, a fully featured Chrome OS-based computer on an HDMI stick, similar to Intel’s Compute Stick. The launch date for these two products is unclear."

Acer and Haier Launch $149 Chromebooks, Asus Previews Chrome OS Convertible And HDMI Stick

Amazon Dash Aims to Be a Push-Button Substitute for the Supply Run - NYTimes.com

The Internet of never-empty things; also see Amazon’s Dash Button Is Not a Hoax, It’s Phase One (WSJ)

"Buried in Amazon’s release documentation is a description of the Dash Replenishment Service, or D.R.S., a way to build reordering products from Amazon directly into household devices.

For example, Whirlpool, one of Amazon’s test partners, will soon offer a washing machine that detects when you are running low on detergent and automatically order a new box for you from Amazon. Quirky, the online retail and manufacturing start-up, will sell a smart coffee pot that can reorder beans from Amazon before you run out. The idea with Dash is that the coffee pot will order beans, coffee filters and a water filter — and be able to measure the use of all three and order each one separately when needed.

Initially, the program will pair with only a few device makers that plan to build the replenishment service into their products."

Amazon Dash Aims to Be a Push-Button Substitute for the Supply Run - NYTimes.com

Microsoft resurrects the Surface with third try | Computerworld

A less feature-rich (than Surface Pro) but more price-competitive Surface, running full Windows; see the full article for more details; also see Surface 3: Microsoft’s Budget Tablet Gets Full Windows 8.1 (WSJ)

"Unlike earlier incarnations, the third Surface runs Windows 8.1 and so can handle legacy Windows programs. That was one of the biggest beefs about the Surface RT and its 2013 follow-up, the Surface 2. Surface 3 buyers will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge when Microsoft releases the new OS this summer. The Surface 3 features a 10.8-inch screen with a 1920x1280-pixel resolution -- the Pro 3 boasts a 12-in. display with 2160x1440-pixel resolution -- relies on an Intel quad-core Atom processor, and weighs in at 1.4 lbs. (The Surface Pro 3 tips the scales at 1.8 lbs.) The Surface 3 also comes with a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, which lists for $70."

Microsoft resurrects the Surface with third try | Computerworld