ReadWrite

Robots Will Never Rule The World—Just Improve It

Anne Balduzzi — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 21:15:00 GMT

Guest author Anne Balduzzi is the founder and CMO of SameGrain, a "privacy first" social discovery platform, and an early pioneer of the Internet, with marketing and product development roles at Apple, Quantum Computer Services (later renamed AOL) and Viewtron. Ray Kurzweil popularized the ...

How Self-Driving Vehicles Will Change Us

Amber Case — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 19:30:00 GMT

Guest author Amber Case is an entrepreneur, author, speaker and researcher who helps Fortune 500 companies design, build, and think through their roadmap for connected devices. She is the cofounder and former CEO of Geoloqi, a location-based software company acquired by Esri in 2012. Tesla ...

3 Barriers To Success For Wearables

Andrew Hooge — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 17:32:17 GMT

Guest author Andrew Hooge is an exercise physiologist, entrepreneur, software developer, author, and a product manager at mobile health-data firm Validic.It’s no secret that wearable devices are poised to explode. According to data from Juniper Research, the market is expected to expand rapidly ...

5 Predictions For The Future Of Wearables

Andrew Hooge — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 23:08:41 GMT

Guest author Andrew Hooge is an exercise physiologist, entrepreneur, software developer, author and a product manager at mobile health-data firm Validic.Human beings have long been fascinated with the notion of people and machines becoming one.Science-fiction author Philip K. Dick played with the ...

5 Things Developers Should Know About Microsoft’s Open-Source iOS App-Porting Tool

Adriana Lee — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 21:16:58 GMT

Microsoft needs developers to build apps for its platform, and its play to get them—by helping coders port iOS and Android apps to Windows—just took a big step forward: On Thursday, the Redmond, Washington–based tech company released its iPhone app porting tool, Windows Bridge for iOS, as an ...

What You Can Learn From This Map Of The Most Googled Republicans

Gregory Ferenstein — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 17:32:42 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.Google Trends has been known to predict stock market trends or hidden racial stereotypes for presidential candidates. ...

What Made Google Great May Be Its Biggest Risk

Steffon Davis — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 22:00:00 GMT

Guest author Steffon Davis is head of product and founder of Curalytics, a social engineering and curation-data startup. Google’s stated mission is to “organize the world’s information,” but when it launched its search engine, it wound up doing more than that. The ranking system ...

14 Big Opportunities In Enterprise Markets You Should Be Seizing

Jesus Rodriguez — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 21:07:50 GMT

Guest author Jesus Rodriguez is the founder of KidoZen.The last few years have brought a new wave of innovation to enterprise software. From companies like Workday and Zendesk redefining traditional business processes to Slack and Box opening new areas of innovation, the enterprise software space ...

Fitness-App Consolidation Continues As Adidas Buys Runtastic

Owen Thomas — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 17:58:36 GMT

Runtastic is the latest indie fitness-app maker to fall under the control of a larger player: Adidas has bought the Austrian startup for 220 million euros (the equivalent of US $239 million). The deal follows Under Armour's aggressive rollup of MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo over ...

What Augmented Reality Is—And Isn't

Kyle Samani — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 21:33:59 GMT

Guest author Kyle Samani is the cofounder and CEO of Pristine, a maker of video-based field-service solutions.Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming hot buzzwords in the tech ecosystem. Giant companies are placing bets and investors are pouring capital into the space.Facebook ...

The Developer Opportunity For Connected Cars In The Here Maps Acquisition

David Nield — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 21:12:14 GMT

Here Maps is one of the best products to climb out of the wreckage of the Nokia that Microsoft left behind, and Audi, BMW and Daimler obviously agree: In an attempt to reduce their reliance on Google and Apple's maps, the German automobile firms have paid some €2.8 billion (or a ...

Apple's Scorched-Earth Advertising Play Could Lobotomize Google

Matt Asay — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 16:19:52 GMT

Apple has an advertising business. But Apple doesn't have an advertising business that it must protect at all costs. Particularly when it can create cudgels to bludgeon Google.The cudgel in question is Apple's new content-blocking software that it's building into iOS 9. The new version of Apple's ...

10 Ways To Test If Your MVP Is Actually Viable

Scott Gerber — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 16:20:03 GMT

Throwing together a minimum viable product, or MVP, is a great way to test your concept and find out what customers really want before you sink more money into the game.However, there's a fine line between tossing something together and a MVP that's too buggy to launch. Finding that sweet spot is ...

Amazon's Awesome Alexa Voice Tech Reaches Out To Other Devices

Adriana Lee — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 22:04:40 GMT

Alexa, the chatty personality that makes the Amazon Echo smart speaker so fun and handy, wants to join more devices. The company announced Friday the launch of its free Alexa Voice Service (AVS) developer preview.AVS was born out of the company’s work on the Echo, which may be Amazon’s best ...

Mozilla Blasts Microsoft CEO For Replacing User Defaults With Windows Apps

Adriana Lee — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 21:08:33 GMT

Looks like Microsoft's Windows 10 debut is a hit: The new version of the operating system, which launched Wednesday, now powers more than 14 million devices, the company says.But not everyone is thrilled with the new software. In an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Mozilla CEO Chris ...

Former White House Advisor Explains Why Bitcoin Should Become Official

Gregory Ferenstein — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 15:00:00 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.Bitcoin, the digital currency infamous for wild swings in value and black market transactions, could have profound ...

Your Shadow IT Department Is Here To Stay

Robert J. Moore — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:00:00 GMT

Guest author Robert J. Moore is the CEO of RJMetrics, a provider of business intelligence to online companies.Much of the growth in software-as-a-service companies is being driven by a “land and expand” strategy: Tools first get used by individuals, then by small teams, and so on up the ...

Google Makes Beta Testing Android Apps Easier And More Open

David Nield — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:00:00 GMT

Google knows a friction-free app testing and submission process can help developers keep decent apps flowing, so it just rolled out a series of improvements to the beta testing process for Google Play apps. Overall, the changes are designed to help developers manage pre-release beta tests ...

After Gender Ratio Stalls, Pinterest Cofounder Promises To Do Better

Owen Thomas — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 17:14:39 GMT

Pinterest, the fast-growing, highly valued Visual Web startup, is far ahead of the Silicon Valley pack when it comes to gender diversity. But it's vowing to do far better on both gender and racial diversity, cofounder Evan Sharp promised in a blog post on Thursday.Startlingly, despite Pinterest's ...

How Amazon's Drone Superhighway Would Work

David Nield — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 16:13:15 GMT

How do we make personal and commercial drones safe? Some of the biggest names in technology put their heads together at a NASA convention in California to address that issue, and Amazon is the first to step up with a detailed proposal. Its idea: build a drone highway in the ...

Here’s Why I Really Bought ReadWrite

Redg Snodgrass — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 21:19:54 GMT

Hi! It’s time for me to speak up and introduce myself. I’m the CEO of Wearable World, the company that bought ReadWrite back in February. To the many who have loved this site for more than 12 years, I’d like to say “Thank you.” Thank you for sticking around and believing in ReadWrite. Like you, ...

The Secret Of DevOps: It's Always Been About People, Not Technology

Adam Jacob — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:55:35 GMT

Adam Jacob is a cofounder and CTO of Chef, an IT-automation company that helps enterprises use DevOps to build and deliver quality software quickly.I have had the privilege of being either physically present or near many of the seminal moments in the evolution of DevOps. My friend and cofounder at ...

Amazon's Marketplace For Startups Looks Great—If You Can Get In

David Nield — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 13:30:00 GMT

Amazon has opened up a new streamlined sales channel for startups called LaunchPad. If you've got something to sell—a recently Kickstarted invention, say—then LaunchPad lets you put it in front of millions of Amazon customers and distribute it through the e-commerce giant's massive pipeline. Your ...

The Best Place For Tech Startups: Still Silicon Valley … For Now

Gregory Ferenstein — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 22:48:43 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.There’s a new global ranking of startup ecosystems, with the top three spots all from America—Silicon Valley, Los ...

4 Tools To Help Startups Hack Their Growth

Yoav Vilner — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:30:00 GMT

Guest author Yoav Vilner is a cofounder of Ranky. Startups in today's increasingly saturated market just can't overestimate the importance of business growth. Technology is a frenzied sector, and founders who want to make an impact often need to prove that their businesses aren't merely ...

Want To Keep Customers? Integrate Tech With A Personal Touch

Scott Gerber — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 22:26:37 GMT

Guest author Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council.It's hard to do personalized customer service at scale. When you're using the technology to streamline the process and save your team time, the sense of personalization is easily lost.You need a strategy to get the best of ...

Windows 10 Suffers Last-Minute Control Panel Bug

Adriana Lee — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:04:47 GMT

With the supposedly polished release of Windows 10 coming in two days, Microsoft should be putting its finishing touches on the operating system. Instead, it’s scrambling to fix a bug in its latest update, sent out through its Windows Insider Program last Saturday. According to CNET, the ...

Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo And Others Push For Accessibility Development

Adriana Lee — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 02:21:28 GMT

For all their rhetoric and idealism about changing the world, consumer-facing technologies have largely failed at least one major set of users: people with disabilities, a segment that represents roughly 1 in 5 people in the U.S.As the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) ...

How Startup Job Titles Got Into Such A Sad State

Tony Stubblebine — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 13:40:26 GMT

Guest author Tony Stubblebine is the CEO and founder of Coach.me, an online productivity community and app.I love the job title "growth hacker." It’s an indictment of the entire field of marketing.How many marketers had to forget to do their job before we had to create a new title to remind them ...

Can You Be The Next Uber? It's Easier Than You Think

Danny Boice — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 22:17:39 GMT

Guest author Danny Boice is the CEO of Trustify, a service that allows anyone to hire a private investigator on demand.Uber is so successful that the name is now synonymous and interchangeable with on-demand marketplaces that overturn the status quo and leverage technology at scale. Uber did not ...

What Startups Can Learn From Jet.com's Awesome Video

Gregory Ferenstein — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 20:43:21 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein. I didn't expect to spend 5 minutes watching a commercial for an e-commerce startup, let alone enjoy it enough ...

Why Apple Won't Allow Reviews For iOS 9 Yet

David Nield — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 19:01:41 GMT

Bugs, incompatibilities and other weird things are so common in pre-release software, they're practically guaranteed—which is why Apple has now blocked iOS 9 beta testers from leaving App Store reviews. Apple apparently wants to nip premature complaints in the bud, which seems very ...

A Nokia VR Headset Could Bring Pros And Cons For Developers

David Nield — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 23:46:12 GMT

According to a Recode report, Nokia may be entering the virtual reality fray with a headset of its own. Its sources peg a product unveiling for the Finnish company next week at an exclusive event in Los Angeles. See also: Virtual-Reality Films Could Put The Whole Industry In The SpotlightFrom ...

This Free Tool Can Tell If Hacking Team’s Exploits Crawled Into Your System

Adriana Lee — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 18:56:55 GMT

This week, IT security software firm Rook Security released a free tool that can sniff out malware leaked from Milan's Hacking Team, a clandestine group that sells surveillance and malignant software to governments, law enforcement and other private clients worldwide.Ironically, the Italian firm ...

The Best Shot At Success For Indie Developers: Go Work For "The Man"

Matt Asay — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 21:10:48 GMT

Yes, there's an app for that. But even if there is, you definitely shouldn't write it. Not if you're an indie developer, anyway. (Or you enjoy poverty.)While it's easy to point to successful mobile apps, for small, independent app makers, these are the exceptions to the rule. See ...

Virtual-Reality Films Could Put The Whole Industry In The Spotlight

Adriana Lee — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 13:00:00 GMT

Virtual reality wants to envelop everyone's eyeballs, not just those of gamers. The nascent industry wants couch potatoes, too.Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR gear maker that has come to embody the current virtual-reality wave, has been lobbying hard to make VR cinema an actual thing. The company ...

10 Things Developers Need To Know About The New iPod Touch

Adriana Lee — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:53:48 GMT

It’s no surprise that Apple’s new iPod Touch is far better than the previous model. Tech moves fast, and it has been three years since the company lavished any attention on this device. The new version brings faster performance and better cameras, without sacrificing battery life or ...

How Eddystone Will Take Beacons Further Than Ever Before

Szymon Niemczura — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 21:44:17 GMT

Szymon Niemczura is the CEO and cofounder of Kontakt.io, a provider of microlocation tools. Kontakt.io is a Wearable World Labs company. ReadWrite's parent company, Wearable World, takes a stake in Wearable World Labs companies.In its new Eddystone standard, Google has offered a complete package ...

Sphericam 2 Wants To Put VR Filmmaking Within Anyone's Reach

David Nield — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 19:36:46 GMT

We know that virtual reality has big potential for filmmakers, and more professional rigs are becoming available to help them make polished VR movies. Now, Sphericam aims to give enthusiasts, hobbyists and other dabblers the same opportunity with a new 360-degree ...

How Small Changes To Google Search Can Punch Your Web Traffic In The Face

Gregory Ferenstein — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 22:21:32 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein. When it comes to optimizing traffic to your website, plenty of reports would have you believe that social media ...

BitTorrent Gives Developers A Cloud-Free Alternative

Richard Procter — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:00:00 GMT

As privacy and security become bigger concerns, developers who want to store users' data securely may be interested in a new API from BitTorrent that offers more options and a lower barrier to entry than its predecessor. BitTorrent is already familiar to many for its peer-to-peer file transfer ...

As Its Enemies Grow, Flash's Days Are Numbered

Adriana Lee — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:14:22 GMT

Update: Firefox pulled support for Flash, but has re-enabled it by default following the release of security patches. For more, see below.On Tuesday, Mozilla and Google stopped Adobe Flash dead in its tracks.In a decision that threatens legions of restaurant websites that inexplicably still feature ...

This New Wi-Fi Tech Uses Proximity To End Waiting In Long Lines

David Nield — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 21:47:05 GMT

There's a new wireless technology in town, courtesy of the Wi-Fi Alliance. The group just announced a new Wi-Fi Aware certification program, which lets wireless devices discover each other, communicate and share basic information directly—no external network or additional hardware ...

How Google's Latest Boosts Bluetooth Beacons

Owen Thomas — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 18:06:42 GMT

Bluetooth beacons, those low-power signals that announce location and other data to nearby devices, have broadcasted more hype than reality. That may change, thanks to a Google-backed initiative called Eddystone.Eddystone, at its heart, is primarily a set of formats—agreed-upon standards for data ...

Why Apple, Google, And Samsung Want To Lock You In With Wearables

Christian Cantrell — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 14:47:32 GMT

Guest author Christian Cantrell is a developer, blogger and science fiction author.Chances are you're either an iOS person or an Android person. Chances are also pretty good that whichever platform you’re currently using, you will remain faithful come upgrade time. Mobile devices, it turns out, are ...

Clinton’s Big, Confusing Speech (Kind of) Takes Aim At Uber and Airbnb

Gregory Ferenstein — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 18:06:42 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.Today, at a speech at the New School in New York City, Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton just laid out her ...

9 Unexpected Pitfalls of Raising Capital (And How to Avoid Them)

Scott Gerber — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 13:00:00 GMT

Guest author Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council.Raising rounds of venture capital is the goal for many companies: An influx of cash is certainly the fastest way to jump-start your growth and start hitting key milestones more quickly. But venture capital isn't a silver ...

Facebook's Gender Equality Update: Why Icons Have Meaning

Adriana Lee — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 13:50:59 GMT

Icons are deceptively complex. The best ones have clean, basic graphics. But even simple outlines can pack a lot of meaning and nuance—particularly when those images depict people.People are tricky. And representing a whole group of them with a single icon can get complicated.For Facebook designer ...

With IBM's Fancy 7-Nanometer Chip, Moore's Law (Kind Of) Continues

Gregory Ferenstein — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:48:09 GMT

This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein. IBM announced a major breakthrough in chip technology today, with a super-tiny 7-nanometer chip. This chip ...

Facebook Adds A Human Touch To The News Feed Algorithm

David Nield — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 19:55:02 GMT

Facebook has announced changes to its iOS app that let users take more control over their News Feed, the central stream of information around which the rest of the service is built. The same changes are coming to Android and desktop Web in the coming weeks.The move is notable because of the way ...