Self-Driving Cars and the Economy of Fuel by Beth Kelly

14 July 2015

Self-Driving Cars and the Economy of Fuel

By Beth Kelly

Internet search leader Google is testing its self-driving automobiles on public roads this summer. This latest phase of testing follows previous successful trials, further indicating the fact that the reality of driverless cars is coming ever-closer to fruition. It’s only a matter of time before these autonomously operating vehicles begin to displace “traditional” human-directed cars – a development that will have serious repercussions across the whole of society.

There have been plenty of features introduced over the years to make driving a car easier, like power steering and cruise control, but Google’s driverless cars are a whole new ballgame. The on-board computer will handle accelerating, braking, steering, lane positioning and all other functions without human intervention, turning the “driver” into little more than a glorified babysitter. These awesome capabilities are made possible by the fusion of sophisticated sensors and cameras with heavy-duty computing machinery to process the incoming data and determine the correct action for the vehicle to take at all times. Indeed, it’s fair to say that this new type of automobile will be more tech gadget than horseless carriage.

Read more of this post

Google Makes Its Nest At The Center Of The Smart Home

Google Makes Its Nest At The Center Of The Smart Home

Posted 1 hour ago by Matt Burns (@mjburnsy)

“Okay Google, turn down the heat.”

Using Google Now, a homeowner will soon be able to talk to a Nest Learning Thermostat and complain about the heat. And that’s just the beginning.

Google is turning the Nest Learning Thermostat into the hub of smart homes. With the “Works with Nest” certification program, announced today, gadgets, cars and universal remotes will all work with the Thermostat, providing automated actions agnostic of the brand. Suddenly the smart home world is much smaller. Read more of this post

Asia turns on the taps for tech funding

June 24, 2014 2:52 am

Asia turns on the taps for tech funding

By Josh Noble in Hong Kong

When the bosses of US video messaging app Tango were on the lookout for a strategic partner, they turned in the direction of Hangzhou, China – home of ecommerce company Alibaba.

Within weeks, Tango’s founders met with Alibaba’s executive vice chairman Joe Tsai, before selling a quarter of the company for $215m.

Deals like this, where Asian capital goes into a young tech company from another part of the globe, are becoming increasingly common. The region is emerging as a key source of funding for the sector, putting Hong Kong and Singapore firmly on the map for tech startups seeking cash. Read more of this post

Robots will not eat the jobs but will unleash our creativity; Tech revolution has put the means of production within everyone’s grasp, says Marc Andreessen

June 23, 2014 5:25 pm

Robots will not eat the jobs but will unleash our creativity

By Marc Andreessen

Tech revolution has put the means of production within everyone’s grasp, says Marc Andreessen

Agrowing number of people seem to fear that robots will eat all the jobs. Their worry boils down to this: computers can increasingly replace human labour thus displacing jobs and creating unemployment. Your job, and every job, will go to a machine.

It is textbook Luddism, relying on a “lump of labour” fallacy – the idea that there is a fixed amount of work to be done in the world by humans. The counterargument comes from economists such as Milton Friedman, who believe that human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do. Read more of this post

Microsoft Makes Bet Quantum Computing Is Next Breakthrough

Microsoft Makes Bet Quantum Computing Is Next Breakthrough

By JOHN MARKOFFJUNE 23, 2014

Michael Freedman, Sankar Das Sarma and Chetan Nayak proposed a computing model in 2005 that can be used to construct qubits, the foundation of quantum computing.CreditEmily Berl for The New York Times

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Modern computers are not unlike the looms of the industrial revolution: They follow programmed instructions to weave intricate patterns. With a loom, you see the result in a cloth or carpet. With a computer, you see it on an electronic display.

Now a group of physicists and computer scientists who are funded by Microsoft are trying to take the analogy of interwoven threads to what some believe will be the next great leap in computing, so-called quantum computing. Read more of this post

Tech moguls raise cash to fight Washington’s ‘big money problem’; “Until we fix the root problem – the big money problem – we’re going to keep dealing with attack after attack on a free, open and innovative Internet”

Updated: Tuesday June 24, 2014 MYT 10:11:41 AM

Tech moguls raise cash to fight Washington’s ‘big money problem’

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has joined a Super Political Action Committee (PAC) called Mayday which will raise big money in order to fight the problem of big money in American politics characterised by powerful lobbies buying influence through funding political campaigns by candidates – AFP Photo.

SAN FRANCISCO: A group of influential Internet moguls aim to fix what they refer to as the “big money problem” in Washington politics by, well, raising cash.

Forming a Super Political Action Committee (PAC) called Mayday, the executives hope to raise US$12mil by the mid-term elections in November in hopes of supporting candidates who are committed to changing how elections are financed. Read more of this post

How Marissa Mayer Fell Asleep and Kept Ad Executives Waiting for Hours

Jun 23, 2014

How Marissa Mayer Fell Asleep and Kept Ad Executives Waiting for Hours

SUZANNE VRANICA

For media companies, the Cannes advertising festival is all about getting face time with top media buyers and advertisers.Yahoo YHOO -1.20% CEO Marissa Mayer missed a golden opportunity to do just that last week.

Last Tuesday evening,Interpublic Group IPG -0.56% arranged a private dinner at the swanky L’Oasis for Mayer to meet executives from marketers such asMondelez International MDLZ -0.69%, brewer MillerCoors and Greek yogurt maker Chobani. It was supposed to be a chance for Interpublic and some of its clients to get a first hand update from Mayer on what Yahoo has to offer. Read more of this post

Seiko Epson President Bets on Ink-Jet Printer Revival; Company Is Also Focusing on Wearable Technology, Developing ‘Smart’ Glasses

Seiko Epson President Bets on Ink-Jet Printer Revival

Company Is Also Focusing on Wearable Technology, Developing ‘Smart’ Glasses

ERIC PFANNER

June 23, 2014 8:15 a.m. ET

SHIOJIRI, Japan—While other printer companies are racing to introduce machines that can create three-dimensional objects, Seiko Epson Corp. 6724.TO +2.14% , the biggest maker of inkjet printers, says there is still opportunity in the two-dimensional business of putting words and images on paper.

3-D printers now on the market lack precision and efficiency, and operate with too limited a range of materials for commercial use, said Minoru Usui, president of Epson. Read more of this post

Digital single-servings: Why Yo, a crude app that took only eight hours to make, hit it big; Come on, Silicon Valley, you can do better than this

Digital single-servings: Why Yo, a crude app that took only eight hours to make, hit it big

BY MATT MCFARLAND June 23 at 9:17 AM

There are 1.2 million apps in Apple’s App Store. Most of them you’ve never heard of. Most of them will quietly fade away, lost in a competitive marketplace. For app developers, it’s a daunting task to create something that stands out and gets downloaded by thousands. This makes what’s happened with Yo in the last week so curious.

Yo is a messaging app in which users can hit a button and send each other a “yo,” which arrives on their smartphone as a push notification. The app took only eight hours to build. It was launched on April Fool’s Day. Yo’s logo is as vanilla as possible, simply a shade of purple. Its security was weak enough that a group of college kids hacked it. That led its co-founder to write a post, headline: “We were lucky enough to get hacked.” Read more of this post

Tech-savvy investors want digital solutions, but firms lag behind

Tech-savvy investors want digital solutions, but firms lag behind

2:45pm EDT

By Michael Leibel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Executives at top U.S. wealth managers say they need more technology to maintain their market-leading positions as younger investors seek to manage their money in a digital world, but research shows firms are not keeping up with client demands.

Many managers are more comfortable meeting face-to-face with clients. But a preference for video chat through services such as Skype is becoming more prevalent, especially with under-40 investors. Read more of this post

Apps bring speed reading into the digital age

Apps bring speed reading into the digital age

1:54pm EDT

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) – Speed reading has been around for more than half a century, but new apps are bringing the technique into the digital age, helping users breeze through books faster.

ReadMe!, a new app for iPhones, lets readers control the pace of their reading from 50 to 1,000 words per minute.

“It’s about being able to read a book like ‘Harry Potter’ in an hour and a half and still have the full comprehension of it,” said Pierre DiAvisoo, who created the app and is based in Boras, Sweden. Read more of this post

IBM at the Crossroads: Employees Talk; In this first of a three-part series we talk to analysts and current and former IBM employees about the company’s future as a chipmaker

IBM at the Crossroads: Employees Talk

Rick Merritt

6/23/2014 08:40 AM EDT
In the Shadow of Layoffs

In this first of a three-part series we talk to analysts and current and former IBM employees about the company’s future as a chipmaker.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — IBM should sell its semiconductor plants and get out of the chip-making business, say a handful of analysts and current and former IBM employees, pointing to GlobalFoundries as the best potential buyer.

A senior executive in charge of the IBM group told us chip operations remain strategic and — at least for the moment — intact. He would not, however, comment directly onreports in February that the company is exploring a sale of one or both of its fabs. Read more of this post

Quirky to Create a Smart-Home Products Company

Quirky to Create a Smart-Home Products Company

By STEVE LOHRJUNE 22, 2014

The repurposed red brick warehouse in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood is a bustling hub of modern industrial activity. Skilled young workers are hunched over pristine machine tools and 3-D printers that churn out prototype products.

This is the home of Quirky, a start-up that now fields 4,000 new product ideas a week, picks three winners and then takes over all aspects of production, from making blueprints to marketing the goods through big-box retailers like Home Depot and retail websites, including Amazon.

Most of Quirky’s top-selling products have been inventive, stand-alone devices — like a power strip that pivots so a plug never blocks an adjacent socket, and a plastic stem that inserts into a lemon or lime and becomes a push-button citrus spritzer. Read more of this post

Vice Has Many Media Giants Salivating, but Its Terms Will Be Rich

Vice Has Many Media Giants Salivating, but Its Terms Will Be Rich

By JONATHAN MAHLER and RAVI SOMAIYAJUNE 22, 2014

A black S.U.V. recently rolled through the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and stopped in front of the converted warehouse that is the global headquarters of Vice Media. Out of the vehicle stepped the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox owns a small stake in Vice, and he was visiting Brooklyn to meet with Vice’s chief executive, Shane Smith. Among the topics at hand was a rumor that Vice was negotiating to collaborate with, and perhaps sell a large stake to, one of Fox’s competitors,Time Warner. Read more of this post

A Little Girl Wrote Google A Letter Asking To Give Her Dad A Day Off, And Google Responded

A Little Girl Wrote Google A Letter Asking To Give Her Dad A Day Off, And Google Responded

KARYNE LEVY TECH  JUN. 23, 2014, 9:12 AM

Here’s some advice on how to get some time off from work: Have your daughter send a really cute letter to your employer, asking them to give you a day off.

Bonus points if the letter is written in crayon.

One little girl decided to give her dad a hand. She wrote his employer, which happens to be Google, a letter, asking that they cut him some slack with the work schedule. Read more of this post

A Tale Of Two Patents: Why Facebook Can’t Clone Snapchat

A Tale Of Two Patents: Why Facebook Can’t Clone Snapchat

Posted 7 hours ago by Billy Gallagher (@gallagherbilly)

Facebook released Slingshot, its second attempt at an impermanent sharing app, last Tuesday. The app borrows heavily, in concept and features, from Snapchat, as well as smaller startups like Frontback and Look.

Slingshot and Facebook Messenger feature the same photo and video recording interface–a very user friendly mechanism where you tap the main button to take a picture, and hold that button to record a video.

There’s just one problem: Facebook may be violating Snapchat’s patent, “Single mode visual media capture” that was approved over a year ago. Read more of this post

A Rare Peek Inside Amazon’s Massive Wish-Fulfilling Machine

A Rare Peek Inside Amazon’s Massive Wish-Fulfilling Machine

BY MARCUS WOHLSEN

06.16.14  |

The vast intake bay, where products come to Amazon for sorting, storing, and delivering. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

The first thing I saw when I walked into Amazon’s Phoenix warehouse was a man riding on a giant tricycle. Behind him, yellow plastic tubs the size of office recycling bins whizzed by on a conveyor belt. On the wall above, six massive words called out to the 1,500 workers who pass through metal detectors each day as they enter this million-square-foot cavern of consumerism: “work hard. have fun. make history.” Read more of this post

The rise of the super-fast industrial 3D printer

The rise of the super-fast industrial 3D printer

by Signe Brewster

JUN. 19, 2014 – 3:49 PM PDT

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and 3D Systems have been working on two very different takes on how to make 3D printers faster.

3D printers are slow; so slow that in the time it would take to print a screwdriver, you could just drive to the store and pick one up with a half hour to spare. And that’s a problem when a manufacturing job calls for creating units as quickly as possible.

And the frustrating thing is that existing 3D printers could technically print faster. It’s just a matter of using an extruder that puts out thicker ropes of material, allowing the printer to lay down more material with the same number of movements. But thicker layers means sacrificing the printer’s resolution, because the place where one layer ends and the next begins becomes obvious. Read more of this post

How B2B innovations are presenting a ‘very quick path to revenue’ for entrepreneurs; B2B startups are interesting because instead of needing millions and millions of users, you need thousands

How B2B innovations are presenting a ‘very quick path to revenue’ for entrepreneurs

Quentin Casey | June 22, 2014 7:00 AM ET
When Dax Dasilva founded LightSpeed back in 2005, it took a full month to get his first customer setup with the company’s retailing software.

Today, Mr. Dasilva is adding close to 500 stores to his customer roster each month. Nearly 20,000 stores — processing $7.3-billion in annual transactions — now use LightSpeed’s retail commerce tools to track inventory and improve sales. Among LightSpeed’s clients are DASH, Harman Kardon, Frank & Oak, Adidas, and Fender Guitars. LightSpeed, based in Montreal, has raised $30-million from investors, including Accel Partners and iNovia Capital. Revenue at the 180-person company, Mr. Dasilva adds, is doubling every year. Read more of this post

LinkedIn boss Jeff Weiner: We mustn’t smile too much

LinkedIn boss Jeff Weiner: We mustn’t smile too much

The ‘professional social network’ now has 300m users, but how will it keep them happy? Chief executive Jeff Weiner explains

Jeff Weiner says LinkedIn is no longer just a place to publish your CV, it is a platform for sharing information and doing business Photo: Geoff Pugh

By Matt Warman

5:52PM BST 22 Jun 2014

In the foyer of KPMG’s soaring Canary Wharf office, Jeff Weiner is trying not to look too cheerful. Asked by The Telegraph’s photographer if business is good, he smiles broadly, but turns away before the picture of a grinning chief executive of LinkedIn can be captured for posterity.

Weiner should be smiling, because business for LinkedIn, in the main, is extraordinarily good. Read more of this post

Boohoo determined not to be another fashion sob story

Boohoo determined not to be another fashion sob story

Mahmud Kamani and Carole Kane, the brains behind the recently listed cheap and cheerful fashion website, explain why they are different

Zoe Wood

The Observer, Sunday 22 June 2014

With a cream leather lounger strategically placed under a map of the world labelled “the world is ours”, the Manchester office of Boohoo founder Mahmud Kamani has the menace of a Bond villain’s lair.

Kamani and his business partner Carol Kane are indeed plotting world domination but their weapon of choice is fashion website boohoo.com. With its £8 maxi dresses and £12 jeans the retailer is giving Primark a run for its money as its targets fashion-hungry 16- to 24-year-olds with limited finances. Read more of this post