The Gillmor Gang — Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, Frank Radice, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, January 13, 2017. Finally, the reality is upon us, and the Gang had it pretty right from the start. What a difference a week doesn’t make.
Plus the latest G3 surviving Inauguration Day with Halley Suitt Tucker, Elisa Camahort Page, Kristie Wells, Rebecca Woodcock, and Tina Chase… Read More
Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk has advice for prospective buyers hoping their vehicles will be future-proof: Shop elsewhere. Musk made the comment when responding to a Twitter question about the possibility of a paid upgrade path for existing vehicle owners who want the new sensors, computer and other components now shipping in so-called ‘HW2’-equipped Teslas. He also gave us… Read More
Henry Ford famously said that if you asked people what they wanted, they wouldn’t have said “ a car.” They would have said – “a faster horse.” I believe driverless cars are today’s equivalent of faster horses. A continuation of what exists – not a true category break. Predictable but not revolutionary enough. That takes me to Elon Musk, who… Read More
There is something about encryption that brings out the worst in journalists. Because to most of them it is magic, they are always searching desperately for the proverbial man behind the curtain, without knowing what to look for. Which may explain The Guardian’s recent bizarre attack on WhatsApp, which they accused, wrongly, of having a “backdoor.” And the security… Read More
A Whitehouse.gov petition calling for President Donald Trump to immediately release his tax returns has surpassed the 100,000-signature threshold in under a day, garnering a Whitehouse response. It’s not clear that the current administration intends to follow the practice established under Former President Barack Obama, of accepting petitions online, reviewing and responding to… Read More
Never a dull moment in the smartphone wars. This week, Qualcomm started getting serious regulatory heat when the Federal Trade Commission filed charges against the chipmaker, accusing it of anticompetitive tactics designed to shut competitors out from supplying components to handset companies. Apple was one of the few manufacturers mentioned by name in the complaint, and accordingly, the… Read More
The use of music — not as a background mood enhancer, but actually as a director of sorts — will be critical as VR and AR content creators struggle with how to direct the viewer’s gaze in 360 environments. Figuring out music’s role will be key to the mainstream adoption of VR dramatic content. But so far, music is still being relegated to a background mood feature.… Read More
Twitter chief Jack Dorsey today apologized for what he says were technical problems causing some Twitter users to involuntarily follow the @POTUS account as it was handed over to Donald Trump. As Sarah Perez reported here yesterday, Twitter users were bewildered as to why they were forced to follow the Trump @POTUS account, and many accused Twitter of doing the new administration’s… Read More
We’ve entered a new phase in the history of whole-genome sequencing; it has opened the door to understanding our entire world at the molecular level. With this intelligence, we’ll be able to understand, influence and optimize the way we interact with ourselves and our natural world. The promise of genomics is just beginning — we are at the leading edge of an intelligence… Read More
On this week’s episode of Technotopia I talked to Bre Pettis, former CEO of Makerbot and the founder of Bre&Co. Pettis has been thinking about new manufacturing chains, the rise of the local maker, what what happens when a country falls into disrepair. Pettis is an optimistic realist. He’s been watching Venezuela with great interest and has a few pieces of advice for tech folks… Read More
We know there are more men than women in tech careers, and we know there’s a wage gap. But as professionals age, the gender gap decreases. The problem starts when professionals enter the field, and that means factors as early in the process as job posts can influence this trend. That’s right — job posts can launch and perpetuate the wage gap in tech. Here’s how. Read More
As the nation’s capital prepared to celebrate the inauguration of the nation’s 45th President, Senators confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominees for Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Retired Generals James (“Mad Dog”) Mattis and John F. Kelly were approved by votes of 98-1 and 88-11, respectively. Attorney General… Read More
Apple is suing Qualcomm for $1 billion, the hit app Meitu may be collecting too much data, Whitehouse.gov removes LGBT, climate change and more and Kristen Stewart appeared as a co-author on an AI paper. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
A number of Twitter users tonight are claiming their accounts have somehow automatically followed the Twitter accounts, @POTUS, @FLOTUS and @VP – now in the hands of the Trump administration – even though they had never followed the White House accounts, had unfollowed these accounts before the transition, or had the accounts blocked. This appears to be a glitch related to… Read More
You can’t try this at home, even if you wanted to. Today’s premiere of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier exhibit proved there are vivid opportunities for a third kind of virtual reality beyond tethered and mobile: VR installations. Outside the headset, custom art and physical effects set the scene before you enter, deepen the immersion while you’re enveloped… Read More
It’s a wait and see moment for wrist-worn devices. After a few years of betting heavily on the space, this most recent CES didn’t offer much; save for two or three smartwatch announcements, some partnerships and a couple of middling bands, the industry seems to have largely shifted its focus toward the connected home and the seemingly attainable dream of sticking Alexa in… Read More
Who likes gadgets? You do! Here’s a nice one. It’s a cute wireless keyboard with round, friendly buttons and a shiny, happy look to it. It has no agenda but to be pretty and useful. Everything is fine. Read More
2016 was an extraordinary year. A record number of security breaches affected billions of people worldwide, including cyber attacks that dramatically impacted the course of businesses and governments. The Unites States, the world’s most connected nation, and the rest of the world will face a deficit of 1.5 million cyber professionals over the next five years whose jobs are essential… Read More
U.K. startup Lobster is gearing up to scale its user-generated content licensing marketplace, as it closes a £1 million Series A. It’s expecting to have closed out the round next week, with 85 per cent of the funding committed at this point and only its decision on the last few investors outstanding. Read More
Travel tech startup FLYR raised $8 million in Series A funding for technology that predicts the price of airfare by applying artificial intelligence to a database of both open industry data and a proprietary collection of years of past prices and fluctuations. The funding round was led by a Peter Thiel fund, and, according to an SEC filing, Thiel Capital principal Phin Upham was involved in… Read More
