Stories for Oct. 14, 2013
‘Hour of Code’: Tech giants join Code.org to bring learn to code campaign to millions of students
photo: spaxiax
Tech companies from Apple to Zynga are supporting a nationwide computer science initiative to get 10 million students across the country to learn to code. Read more »
Snapchat clarifies who can see your snaps, and how
Amid confusion about privacy, Snapchat releases a blog post to clarify the accessibility of the app’s data. Read more »
Netflix teams up with Sony Pictures on new drama from Damages creators
Netflix is getting a new original drama from the creators of the FX show Damages. The show will be produced by Sony Pictures, a first for Netflix. Read more »
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Blokify iOS app aims to make modeling for 3D printers accessible to kids
photo: Blokify
Users can drag their finger across the screen of an iPhone or iPad to create rows and stacks of blocks. Read more »
Think twice before you send: This app can save Snapchats forever
SnapHack Pro lets you save the pictures and videos you receive on Snapchat and view them as many times as you want. Read more »
In Brief
BlackBerry makes a public plea: You can “count on us”
Amid concerns about its future, which appears to be the sale of all or part of the company, BlackBerry is taking an open letter approach to quell its customers concerns. Reuters reported on Monday that BlackBerry will run the letter in 30 news outlets in 9 countries this week, with the intent to explain that it isn’t going anywhere just yet.
The letter, which can be found here thanks to CNet, explains how the company still has plenty of cash on hand and no debt, plus new phones running on advanced software and 6 million pre-registrations for its BBM service on iOS and Android. Government and enterprise security is also “best in class” says the note. All of these observations are arguably valid. However, it’s ironic that the company is saying you can still count on it when so many did just that for years, only to arrive at this juncture for the once-king of all smartphones.
On The Web
Two-Hit Wonder
The New Yorker has published a long, languid look at the entrepreneurial talents of Twitter and Square creator Jack Dorsey, following him from an upstart college dropout in the ’90s to single-minded entrepreneur and now as a tailored veteran businessman and anticipated IPO beneficiary. While author D.T. Max presents Dorsey as a sort of restrained, introspective pseudo-Steve Jobs, there’s also plenty of talk surrounding the CEO’s “right place, right time” luck. But it establishes Dorsey as a figure in the pantheon of Silicon Valley greats, and remains optimistic for his next venture.
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On The Web
How California’s new ‘do-not-track’ law will hurt consumers
Law professor and blogger Eric Goldman drops some knowledge on the ineffectiveness and, one could argue, innovation-hindering effects on these types or privacy laws. I think regulation is a good idea, but it must be flexible and it should be paired with better public education so consumers can make informed choices. I’d rather websites spend money protecting my data or asking me at the time of collection whether they can use data for ads.
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The Mobilize Manifesto, five years into the mobile revolution
photo: Shutterstock
It is our core philosophy that everything with a digital heart beat will be connected and that in turn will redefine our relationship with the world around us. The big question – one we will explore at Mobilize 2013 – what happens when everything is indeed connected. Read more »
Meet Seene: A free iOS photo app that captures 3D-like images
Looking to add a little spatial manipulation to your iPhone photos? Check out Seene, a relatively new free app for iOS that does just that. You won’t get a full 3D image, but the app does offer more than just a traditional 2D view. Read more »
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Former Valve hardware gurus Kickstart augmented reality glasses
photo: Technical Illusions
When Valve laid off some of its staff earlier this year, the CastAR was put on ice. But now its revived, and seeking funding on Kickstarter Read more »
Feds reportedly used phone database to track “burner” use
Burner phones provide a cheap, disposable tool to hide your communications — it will be no surprise that spy services are taking an interest in them. Read more »
U.S. Cellular introduces shared data plans, eliminates unlimited data for new subscribers
photo: U.S. Cellular
U.S. Cellular on Monday unveiled new shared data plans, which also means the elimination of unlimited data for new users. Read more »
Newest Tesla car gets great reception . . . desk
Electrifying secretaries the world over. Read more »
On The Web
Canada wants to force cable companies to unbundle TV
Canada’s cable TV subscribers could soon have the ability to subscribe to just the channels they actually watch: Canada’s Industry Minister James Moore recently said on a local TV show that his government is going to require pay TV providers to unbundle their offerings and offer TV channels a la carte, according to Reuters. Any such move would likely be watched closely by both cable companies and consumers in the U.S., where TV executives have long said that unbundling would actually make TV more expensive for consumers.
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Why keeping internet traffic within borders is a tall order
photo: Shutterstock / ramcreations
In an echo of Brazil’s push for greater online autonomy, Deutsche Telekom has proposed keeping German internet traffic within German borders, wherever possible. That’s not going to protect much, though. Read more »
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Report: Google smartwatch “heavy into” Google Now functionality
photo: 9to5Google.com
In August, I explained why I wanted Google Now on my wrist. Now a report says the Google is nearly done with a smartwatch built around Google Now. This is the type of innovation needed to reinvent the smartwatch market. Read more »
Report shows Apple iPhone 5s outselling iPhone 5c by more than double
photo: Apple
A survey shows that customers are twice as likely to buy an iPhone 5s than an iPhone 5c right now. Read more »
Hadoop startup Zettaset sues Intel over trade secrets [updated]
photo: Shutterstock / tlegend
Zettaset has sued Intel over its Intel Manager for Apache Hadoop product, claiming it misappropriates Zettaset’s trade secrets. The complaint was filed last week in California. Read more »
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Why both the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 are likely to have an “always listening” function
Was the touchless control feature of the Moto X a preview of what’s to come in Android 4.4? Yes says one report and I’m inclined to agree for several reasons related to hardware, user input on mobile devices and Googles wearable ambitions. Read more »
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Years in the making, Foursquare opens up its ad platform
photo: Foursquare
Foursquare has finally opened up an ad platform to serve its 1.5 million registered small businesses. Read more »
Connect your home’s existing things with Revolv
Revolv, a Boulder, Colo.-based startup, is one of the finalists in GigaOM’s upcoming Mobilize Showcase. It wants to be a hub for your existing connected devices. Read more »
LG’s curved, 6-inch G Flex phone pictured in leaked images
photo: Engadget
Leaked images show the 6-inch LG G Flex with a much more pronounced curve than the Samsung Galaxy Round. Read more »
Must read
Oracle’s hardware business may be worse than we thought
Nomura Securities analyst Rick Sherlund sees sales of high-end Engineered Systems, the linchpin of Oracle’s hardware strategy, slowing down. Read more »
BillBoard, Nielsen and the ridiculousness of charts in the Internet age, as shown by Kanye West’s “Gone”
photo: Getty Images
Kanye West’s “Gone,” an eight-year-old song, hit the BillBoard Hot 100, thanks in part to a viral video hit on YouTube that used it as a soundtrack. That bump in the rankings shows that media ratings and rankings are mere relics of the past. Read more »
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Windows Phone Update 3 brings support for larger 1080p screens, faster chips
The third major update of Windows Phone is on the way. Microsoft announced it on Monday saying it will roll out to older phones in the coming months but it also brings support for larger phones with 1080 displays. Read more »
StartUp Health’s newest class of digital health companies: genomics, mobile health, sensors
photo: Nonnakrit/Shutterstock
New York-based digital health academy StartUp Health has picked its latest class of digital health startups. Read more »
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The designers of Tesla cars & Xbox One join our RoadMap conference
Announcing the designers of Tesla’s cars and Microsoft’s next-gen gaming console Xbox One to our experience design conference RoadMap. Read more »
Sonos releases new $200 speaker, CEO dismisses Spotify’s Connect speaker partnerships
Sonos CEO John MacFarlane declined when Spotify asked the company to join its connected audio intiative. Instead, he hopes to pick up new customers with a $200 speaker, and promises to make Sonos more like Chromecast. Read more »
Sponsored post: Unconstrained data center networks for the cloud era
Nuage Networks makes network services as dynamically available as virtualized applications need them to be, in a programmable and automated multitenant infrastructure. By utilizing the key tenants of software-defined networks (SDN), Nuage Networks brings the power of NOW to data center networks everywhere. Read more »
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BuzzFeed is crowdsourcing translation with language learning startup Duolingo
As BuzzFeed expands internationally, it’s not relying solely on local-language editors or traditional translation. Instead, it’s outsourcing translation work to language learning startup Duolingo. Read more »
HTC announces One Max with fingerprint sensor and 5.9-inch display
photo: HTC
HTC on Monday officially revealed its new One Max “phablet” with a 5.9-inch display and rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Read more »
Netflix desires cable deals to bring original content to set-top boxes
Netflix is trying to woo cable companies into a special place on their set-top boxes. Read more »
A web page that lasts forever: the plan to stop “link rot” in law and science
Many links cited by influential science journals and the Supreme Court are broken – the result is a growing memory hole in the places where scholars expect to find an authoritative source of knowledge. The good news is a solution is at hand. Read more »
Facebook buys data compression specialist Onavo to aid its Internet.org quest
The Israeli firm helps users cut down on their mobile data consumption without using fewer services — a feature that will be critical in Facebook’s mission of connecting more people in the developing world. Read more »
Vodafone’s Kabel Deutschland takeover is pretty much done and dusted
The British telecoms giant has paid $7.7 billion for 76.57 percent of Kabel Deutschland’s share capital, making it a much stronger rival to Deutsche Telekom. Read more »
Stories for Oct. 13, 2013
Consolidate this: Quantified self edition
There are too many choices available for consumers when it comes to devices and apps that track your steps or daily activities. What needs to happen is consolidation across the industry and a focus on storytelling, not just activity. Read more »
A peek inside Microsoft’s new ‘design-first’ development strategy
Microsoft says it has seen the light in terms of designing software that business users actually want to use. For its new Q&A feature for visualizing Excel data, for example, the product team spent six weeks thinking about UI before even thinking about technology. Read more »
Why email newsletters still work — and how you can make yours better
photo: Thinkstock
Email sometimes seems like an outdated technology, but email newsletters can still be a thriving business model. The former CEO of Daily Candy offers some guidelines. Read more »
114 million views and counting: What Does The Fox Say is this year’s Gangnam Style
Mixing comedy and music to create viral video is a time-honored tradition of online video, but in 2013, according to YouTube’s experts, what gets these videos to spread has evolved. Read more »
