Devolving power: Big batteries threaten big power stations—and utilities’ profits

Devolving power: Big batteries threaten big power stations—and utilities’ profits

Mar 8th 2014 | From the print edition

WHO needs the power grid when you can generate and store your own electricity cheaply and reliably? Such a world is drawing nearer: good news for consumers, but a potential shock for utility companies. That is the conclusion of a report this week by Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, which predicts that ever-cheaper solar and other renewable-energy sources, combined with better and more plentiful batteries, will allow many businesses and other electricity users to cut the cord on their electricity providers. Read more of this post

Why Sony’s pocket analog radio, known by the bland model number SRF-39FP, is the iPod of prison

JANUARY 16, 2014

THE IPOD OF PRISON

POSTED BY JOSHUA HUNT

In early 2005, Josh Demmitt arrived at a federal prison camp, in Sheridan, Oregon, to serve a thirty-month sentence for starting a fire outside an animal-testing facility at Brigham Young University. The nineteen-year-old received a warm welcome from his fellow inmates, who greeted him with coffee and cigarettes, advice on procuring vegan meals, and a pocket AM/FM radio. Read more of this post

Follow SEEK and carsales.com into Asia, Andrew Bassat urges entrepreneurs

Follow SEEK and carsales.com into Asia, Andrew Bassat urges entrepreneurs

Published 07 March 2014 13:04, Updated 07 March 2014 13:17

Jake Mitchell and Madeleine Heffernan

Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat

SEEK chief executive Andrew Bassat has challenged more Australian companies to embrace the risk of expanding into Asia, afterCarsales.com sealed a $126 million foray into the South Korean car classified market. Read more of this post

The Founder Of WhatsApp Posted This Unassuming Note In A Forum Five Years Ago

The Founder Of WhatsApp Posted This Unassuming Note In A Forum Five Years Ago

CAROLINE MOSS TECH  MAR. 7, 2014, 8:06 PM

A few weeks ago, Facebook rocked the tech world with news that it was buying popular chat app Whatsapp for an insane $19 billion dollars. Read more of this post

Wearable tech: the small British companies taking on Samsung and Google

Wearable tech: the small British companies taking on Samsung and Google

Wearable technology has been touted as the ‘next big thing’ in consumer electronics. Sophie Curtis meets some of the British start-ups taking on the technology giants of Silicon Valley. Read more of this post

Auto industry ponders robot-car liability

Last updated: March 6, 2014 7:16 pm

Auto industry ponders robot-car liability

By Chris Bryant in Frankfurt and Henry Foy in London

Who is to blame if your self-driving car crashes? The automotive industry is trying to answer this somewhat futuristic question, according to the chief executive of parts supplier Continental.  Read more of this post

Flickr co-founder launches Findery app to be the “Google of where”

Flickr co-founder launches Findery app to be the “Google of where”

March 6, 2014 4:00 pmby Hannah Kuchler

A Flickr co-founder has been quietly compiling a map of the world’s stories in an attempt to transform location-based apps from drab star-based ratings and recommendations into a lively map packed with history, culture and personal tales. Read more of this post

Once, all you needed to succeed in the music business were a pair of golden ears and some hustle. Now, it also takes mountains of data.

The Sweet, Streaming Sound of Data

By BEN SISARIOMARCH 6, 2014

Daniel Ek, chief of the music streaming service Spotify, which has bought a company that analyzes music consumption patterns

Once, all you needed to succeed in the music business were a pair of golden ears and some hustle. Now, it also takes mountains of data. Read more of this post

Silicon Valley Hears Echoes of 1999

Silicon Valley Hears Echoes of 1999

By Leslie Picker March 06, 2014

Not many executives have seen their companies double in value in one day. Peter Bardwick has seen it twice. Bardwick was chief financial officer of financial news site MarketWatch when it started initial trading on Jan. 15, 1999, at $17 a share. By day’s end it hit $97.50, for a market value exceeding $1 billion. Fourteen years later, on Sept. 20, 2013, Bardwick, now CFO of digital advertising firm Rocket Fuel (FUEL), watched its stock almost double in value on its first day of trading. Read more of this post

EMC, the leader in corporate data storage systems, is trying to repeat the VMware acquisition success with the formation of a new company, Pivotal. Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz Says Companies Must Rediscover Software Development

March 6, 2014, 6:01 PM ET

Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz Says Companies Must Rediscover Software Development

By Steve Rosenbush

Deputy Editor

EMC Corp.EMC +0.04%’s acquisition of software company VMware Inc.VMW -0.85% is among the most successful tech deals of all time. Now EMC, the leader in corporate data storage systems, is trying to repeat that success with the formation of a new company, Pivotal. Read more of this post

EMC, the leader in corporate data storage systems, is trying to repeat the VMware acquisition success with the formation of a new company, Pivotal. Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz Says Companies Must Rediscover Software Development

March 6, 2014, 6:01 PM ET

Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz Says Companies Must Rediscover Software Development

By Steve Rosenbush

Deputy Editor

EMC Corp.EMC +0.04%’s acquisition of software company VMware Inc.VMW -0.85% is among the most successful tech deals of all time. Now EMC, the leader in corporate data storage systems, is trying to repeat that success with the formation of a new company, Pivotal. Read more of this post

Storage Giant EMC Is Structured for Innovation

Storage Giant EMC Is Structured for Innovation

STEVEN ROSENBUSH

March 6, 2014 5:56 p.m. ET

EMC Corp. EMC +0.04% looks the part of the incumbent technology company with everything to lose.

At the age of 35, it dominates the data-storage systems business. Its $23.2 billion in annual revenue and profit margins of 62.3% are inviting attacks by startups eager to disrupt its markets with cheaper and more powerful technology. Read more of this post

A Spanish bank’s purchase of an American start-up raises big questions; Francisco Gonzalez, chairman of Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA and former computer programmer, loves to talk about technology

A Spanish bank’s purchase of an American start-up raises big questions

Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition

FRANCISCO GONZÁLEZ, the chairman of Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, loves to talk about technology. Even as the financial crisis raged, the former computer programmer has talked up the importance of upgrading the bank’s systems. On February 20th, BBVA bought Simple, an American online-banking platform, for $117m, in a deal that hints at the potential for innovators to shake up retail banking. Read more of this post

The future of Wikipedia: WikiPeaks? The popular online encyclopedia must work out what is next

The future of Wikipedia: WikiPeaks? The popular online encyclopedia must work out what is next

Mar 1st 2014 | SAN FRANCISCO | From the print edition

IN 2012, after 244 years in print, Encyclopedia Britannica became online-only. Now a group of German fans of Wikipedia, an online, user-generated encyclopedia, are raising money for a move in the opposite direction. A print version of the English Wikipedia—1,000 bulky volumes and 1,193,014 pages—will be on show at a gathering of Wikipedians later this year. A world tour will probably follow: a global victory lap for the internet’s most impressive crowd-sourced creation. Read more of this post

Peer-to-peer lending: Banking without banks; By offering both borrowers and lenders a better deal, websites that put the two together are challenging retail banks

Peer-to-peer lending: Banking without banks; By offering both borrowers and lenders a better deal, websites that put the two together are challenging retail banks

Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition

SAVERS have never had a worse deal but for most borrowers, credit is scarce and costly. That seeming paradox attracts new businesses free of the bad balance sheets, high costs and dreadful reputations which burden most conventional banks. Read more of this post

TutorABC, an online English-learning platform under Taiwan’s TutorGroup, recently received a combined investment of US$100 million from China’s largest e-commerce group Alibaba, Temasek and Qiming Venture

TutorABC points way for cross-strait internet economy

Editorial

2014-03-06

Shen Pei-hun, CIO of TutorABC, demonstrates TutorMobile on a tablet. (File photo courtesy of TutorABC)

TutorABC, an online English-learning platform under Taiwan’s TutorGroup, recently received a combined investment of US$100 million from China’s largest e-commerce group Alibaba, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and China’s Qiming Venture Partners. Read more of this post

Messenger apps changing mobile game

Messenger apps changing mobile game

BY LEE HO-JEONG [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]

Mar 06,2014

Since last week, the nation’s leading web portal company, Naver (or NHN), has been in the limelight because of its mobile messenger app, Line.  Read more of this post

Google Exec on WhatsApp Deal: $500 Million Per Employee?!

Mar 5, 2014

Google Exec on WhatsApp Deal: $500 Million Per Employee?!

Alistair Barr and ROLFE WINKLER

GoogleGOOG +0.63% was flirting with WhatsApp before FacebookFB -0.27%swooped in and bought the text-messaging service for $19 billion last month. Wednesday, a top Google executive suggested Facebook overpaid. Read more of this post

The acquisition that cost Steve Ballmer his job

The acquisition that cost Steve Ballmer his job

BY NATHANIEL MOTT 
ON MARCH 5, 2014

Steve Ballmer, the former chief executive of Microsoft, fought to make the previously software-focused company into a successful hardware-maker. Under his tenure the company introduced the popular Xbox console, shipped multiple versions of the unpopular Surface tablet line, and acquired Nokia’s phone-making business to finally compete in the global smartphone market. Read more of this post

Investment: A better bubble; The current froth in technology stocks is driven by revenue. That does not make it rational

March 5, 2014 7:49 pm

Investment: A better bubble

By James Mackintosh and Lex reporters

The current froth in technology stocks is driven by revenue. That does not make it rational

In the world of technology stocks, it is February 2000 – at least as measured by the Nasdaq Composite, the index preferred by tech investors. A week ago it hit a level topped only during the final month of dotcom insanity before that bubble burst in March 2000. Read more of this post

Technology companies eye health market

March 6, 2014 6:24 am

Technology companies eye health market

By Andrew Ward

Wellbeing: a contact lens could help patients manage diabetes by monitoring blood sugar levels in the eye

When Google announced a venture last year to engage in “moon shot” thinking on health, wellbeing and ageing, it was mocked by critics as being another sign of the internet group’s overweening ambition. Read more of this post

EBay CEO Reiterates Company Stronger With PayPal

EBay CEO Reiterates Company Stronger With PayPal

John Donahoe, in Interview, Disputes Criticisms by Carl Icahn, Defends Director Andreessen

GREG BENSINGER

March 4, 2014 1:10 p.m. ET

EBay Inc. EBAY -0.34% Chief Executive John Donahoe has battled to revive the online marketplace to take on other giants like Amazon.com Inc. AMZN +2.33% Now, he’s facing a very different foe: activist investor Carl Icahn. Read more of this post

FitBit CEO James Park discusses what’s next for his company following the recall of its Force wearable fitness gadget. Maker of Wearable Gadgets Says Building Hardware Is Hard, ‘Mistakes Can Be Expensive’

FitBit Chief on Recall, What’s Next

Maker of Wearable Gadgets Says Building Hardware Is Hard, ‘Mistakes Can Be Expensive’

TIMOTHY HAY

March 5, 2014 7:36 p.m. ET

Entrepreneur James Park says software can be tweaked but ‘with hardware, you make your bet a year-and-a-half in advance, then you live with it.’ Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

Entrepreneur James Park says he was out-of-shape, hanging out at home playing videogames, when he had the idea to build a new wearable tech device. Read more of this post

How Independent Media Around The World Can Flourish

How Independent Media Around The World Can Flourish

Posted yesterday by Catherine Shu (@catherineshu)

Independent media has historically faced an uphill slog. Before the Internet, organizations had to deal with printing costs and very limited distribution networks. Web 2.0 gave them new outlets, but did not necessarily help publications grow readership or attract sponsors. Read more of this post