As the iPad turns four, the tablet faces an existential crisis

As the iPad turns four, the tablet faces an existential crisis

BY JAMES ROBINSON 
ON MAY 9, 2014

Last month, the iPad turned four-years old. Throughout the device’s short lifespan, Apple has remained the king of the tablet market. As evidence, consider that 77 percent of all web traffic on tablets comes from iPads. This is a dominant position for Apple to find itself in, given that Googleonly has 67 percent of the desktop search market. Read more of this post

Is It a Good Time to Invest in China Music Market?

Is It a Good Time to Invest in China Music Market?

by Tracey Xiang – May 8, 2014

Mason Xu witnessed the rapid growth in China movie market in the past several years. After leaving Bona Film Group, a local movie distributor, as CFO in 2012, he co-founded a PE fund as CEO to make investments in movie industry. Now he argues, at a recent event, it’s time to make investments in China’s music industry which will take off like how movie industry did several years ago.

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As big ad deal falls apart, firms start thinking small

As big ad deal falls apart, firms start thinking small

9:58am EDT

By Jennifer Saba, Kate Holton and Pamela Barbaglia

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – The collapse of the $35 billion merger of New York-based Omnicom with France’s Publicis is likely to lead the world’s biggest ad agencies to think small as they try to counter the challenge from internet giants like Google. Read more of this post

THE TRUTH ABOUT APPLE: Steve Jobs Left Tim Cook Quite A Few Problems

THE TRUTH ABOUT APPLE: Steve Jobs Left Tim Cook Quite A Few Problems

JAY YAROW

MAY 3, 2014, 9:32 AM

A lot of people — myself included — have been critical of Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.  Read more of this post

Alibaba Investors Will Buy a Risky Corporate Structure

Alibaba Investors Will Buy a Risky Corporate Structure

By STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF

MAY 6, 2014, 7:46 PM 5 Comments

Shareholders have been willing to take a lot of risk in their lust for Internet initial public offerings, but Alibaba’s I.P.O. may take that risk to a whole new level. The reason: Investors in the offering won’t have title to most of Alibaba’s Chinese assets because of Chinese prohibitions on foreign ownership. Read more of this post

Using Microsoft Products May Be Unethical for Universities

Using Microsoft Products May Be Unethical for Universities

By Adam Fish on 06:09 pm May 08, 2014

Universities and researchers all over the world have a problem with Microsoft. It’s not just that the company forces expensive and dated software on customers. Using products like Microsoft’s e-mail service Outlook is potentially in breach of the ethical contracts researchers sign when they promise to safeguard the privacy of their subjects. Read more of this post

For Wearable Computing, Software Must Be King

For Wearable Computing, Software Must Be King

By NICK BILTON

MAY 7, 2014, 4:25 PM 14 Comments

Over the last few years, we have heard that there will be wearable devices for almost every part of the body, from face to feet. But people have paid little attention to the software that accompanies these gadgets. Read more of this post

Shocking no one, frothy food startups hit a five year funding high

Shocking no one, frothy food startups hit a five year funding high

BY CARMEL DEAMICIS 
ON APRIL 14, 2014

There may be skeptics out who think food startups are just restaurants with investment funding. Chipotle meets Kleiner Perkins. Unoriginal and doomed for failure. Read more of this post

Rich Start-Ups Go Back for Another Helping

Rich Start-Ups Go Back for Another Helping

By DAVID GELLES and MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

April 13, 2014

Quora, a question-and-answer website, didn’t need to raise money. It had barely touched $60 million in venture capital that it accepted just two years ago.

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A manufacturing future that hums (rattles, hisses) along; Fortune visits Shapeways’ New York factory to check in on the three-dimensional printing revolution

A manufacturing future that hums (rattles, hisses) along

April 14, 2014: 12:57 PM ET

Fortune visits Shapeways’ New York factory to check in on the three-dimensional printing revolution.

By Alex Halperin

FORTUNE — Every day, the young, bearded, and tattooed team at the Shapeways factory in Long Island City, Queens gather to eat together, as if they lived in a 19th century company town. There aren’t many dining options in the industrial area in which they work, so they order takeout pizza or food from FreshDirect and convene. Their routine is fitting: Shapeways, a three-dimensional printing company, tips its hat to the industrial past even as it seeks to reinvent manufacturing. Read more of this post

How Zuck met Oculus: The story behind Facebook’s big bet on virtual reality

How Zuck met Oculus: The story behind Facebook’s big bet on virtual reality

By Erin Griffith April 14, 2014: 9:27 AM ET

CEO Brendan Iribe recounts the steps leading up to the $2 billion deal.

FORTUNE — Mark Zuckerberg’s acquisitions have a formula: They never, ever leak because they come together quickly. Facebook’s (FB) $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, for example, was reportedly sealed over chocolate-covered strawberries on Valentines Day, and the deal announced four days later. One month after that, Facebook’s $2 billion deal for Oculus VR was solidified over dinner at Zuckerberg’s home. Within the week, the deal was done. Read more of this post

Why Amazon Is Copying Zappos and Paying Employees to Quit

Why Amazon Is Copying Zappos and Paying Employees to Quit

by Bill Taylor  |   2:05 PM April 14, 2014

Last week, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos released his annual letter to shareholders. As is the case every year, it is a tour de force of ideas and initiatives about the customer experience (Amazon Prime), disruptive technology (Fire TV), fast-growing product initiatives (Amazon Web Services), and strategic consistency. (As he does every year, Bezos attached his first letter to shareholders from back in 1997 to underscore the company’s long-term commitments.) Read more of this post

How the internet is making it harder to read books

How the internet is making it harder to read books

April 8, 2014

Michael S. Rosenwald

Claire Handscombe has a commitment problem online. Like a lot of internet surfers, she clicks on links posted on social networks, reads a few sentences, looks for exciting words, and then grows restless, scampering off to the next page she probably won’t commit to. Read more of this post

Is Film the End of the Road for Small Cinemas? As Studios Shift to Digital Distribution, Theaters Struggle to Pay for Upgrades; A Bake Sale in Berwick

Is Film the End of the Road for Small Cinemas?

As Studios Shift to Digital Distribution, Theaters Struggle to Pay for Upgrades; A Bake Sale in Berwick

ERICH SCHWARTZEL

April 14, 2014 8:15 p.m. ET

When Renee DiAugustine-Bower’s grandfather died in 2013, she took over the one-screen movie theater he’d operated in their small Pennsylvania town for decades. She also inherited a looming need to shell out $60,000 for new technology or be forced to close the theater’s doors. Read more of this post

Leaner and More Efficient, British Printers Push Forward in Digital Age; Despite steady declines in revenue, automation has allowed big printing companies to produce magazines and other publications quickly and at less cost

Leaner and More Efficient, British Printers Push Forward in Digital Age

By GEORGI KANTCHEVAPRIL 12, 2014

PETERBOROUGH, England — At a media conference a few years ago, the editor of The Guardian newspaper, contemplating the future of print, recalled his paper’s installation of its newest presses in 2005. Read more of this post

The weekly email Popbitch has used a business model others are now catching up to, but it has entered new waters with an iPad magazine for $2.99 an issue.

A Gossipy Newsletter Aims Higher

By RAVI SOMAIYAAPRIL 13, 2014

LONDON — Every Thursday the Popbitch newsletter, written in a typewriter font redolent of the early Internet, lands in the inboxes of hundreds of thousands people in Britain and around the world. Read more of this post

Bend It, Charge It, Dunk It: Graphene, the Material of Tomorrow

Bend It, Charge It, Dunk It: Graphene, the Material of Tomorrow

By NICK BILTON

APRIL 13, 2014, 11:00 AM 35 Comments

I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.

No, fans of “The Graduate,” the word isn’t “plastics.” Read more of this post

The power of the US cable barons must be challenged; No one in Washington seems to have the will to stop industry moguls from tightening their grip on the internet

April 13, 2014 5:23 pm

The power of the US cable barons must be challenged

By Edward Luce

No one in Washington seems to have the will to stop industry moguls from tightening their grip on the internet Read more of this post

This Is How Jan Koum Introduced WhatsApp To The World Back In 2009

This Is How Jan Koum Introduced WhatsApp To The World Back In 2009

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