People Y

Cloud Trailblazers: 10 for 2013

The story of the cloud is often told via hardware and code, but behind the shift in IT are people. We found 10 of them who are rethinking infrastructure. Meet our Cloud Trailblazers.

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Zappos taps Pinterest to boost sales, but its efforts fail

In a move to boost sales through social recommendations, online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, has added a new feature called “PinPointing” that offers recommendations based on Pinterest accounts. Unfortunately, the feature doesn’t work very well yet.

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Google says book scanning didn’t cost authors a single sale

The long-running lawsuit over Google’s decision to scan millions of books could be nearing the end game. Google’s latest filing, in a case poised to redefine copyright law, cites everything from Mad Men to minority rights to argue that book scanning is “fair use.”

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Box embraces Windows Phone

While it’s overstating the case to say that Box has renounced its fatwa on Windows Phones, it is worth pointing out that the cloud storage company now supports the current release of Windows Phone and will support the upcoming Windows 8 Phone as well.

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Our Google I/O live coverage is here

After a month dominated by Apple’s introduction of iOS 6 and Microsoft’s reveal of the Surface tablet, it’s Google’s turn Wednesday at Google I/O 2012 to share a vision of the future of computing, and we’ll be providing live coverage from the keynote here.

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Torvalds shares $1.5m tech prize after split decision

Linus Torvalds, inventor of the Linux kernel and one of the leading lights of open source software, will share Finland’s prestigious Grand Millennium Technology Prize with a Japanese scientist, after the jury took the unprecedented move to split the $1.5m award between the two finalists.

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BetterWorks Cuts Staff, exploring options

BetterWorks, one of the most known startups to emerge from LA seems to have hit an air pocket. The company which was started by super angel, Paige Craig is said to have laid off close to thirty people and is looking at making some dire choices.

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Help! Avanquest builds a panic button for your phone

You’re in danger or about to have a heart attack. Don’t panic! Okay, go ahead and panic, but do it productively. Call 911, send your location coordinates to your loved ones, get your medical records in order. Or better yet, hit this big red button.

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Box will fight Google Drive with ecosystem push

As Google Drive hits the cloud storage market like a gale force wind, Box continues to push itself as the cloud storage supplier for business. Box has refined its API to ease integration with third-party software and allied itself with New York-based incubators.

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The Instagram-Facebook backlash

One of the great things about Instagram is its passionate community. The news of Facebook buying Instagram for a billion dollars is getting thumbs down from the Instagrammers, once again showing that it is people not corporations that control the social networks and how they evolve.

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6 signs Microsoft has got its mojo back

Two star hires and a well-reviewed phone-and-tablet operating system do not necessarily remake a company, but they do ease the perception — prevalent in recent years — that Microsoft is on its last legs. Could the once-dominant software giant be on the comeback trail?

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EMC plan: Let Pivotal be Pivotal

Pivotal Labs will keep on doing what it does best after EMC’s acquisition, according to Pivotal CEO Rob Mee. There has been concern over Pivotal’s future as part of the EMC behemoth, which Rob Mee did his best to alleviate at Structure: Data 2012.

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Startup Cloudwords attacks $30B translation market

Cloudwords’ says its OneTM unified translation management service will streamline the onerous — and very expensive — process of translating software and documentation. The startup sports SaaS cred from co-founder Scott Yancey, who designed the system along with former Salesforce.com CTO Craig Weissman.

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Google Play is the new Android Market

Google has decided to overhaul the way it presents all of its digital content–apps, music, movies, and books–by changing the name of the Android Market to Google Play, in hopes of increasing interest in its content wares and simplifying the experience.

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Caterina Fake’s Pinwheel raised $7.5M from Redpoint

Caterina Fake has launched a new startup called Pinwheel, a sort of “Flickr for places.” The startup has raised a $7.5 million Series A Round from Redpoint Ventures, in addition to funding from True Ventures, Betaworks, Founder Collective, SV Angel, Obvious Corp and other angels.

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99designs sheds light on its cloudy crowdsourcing platform

99designs’ use of Amazon services to run its crowd-sourcing site is seen as a model for how small companies can leverage cloud services. The company’s site claims to handle hundreds of thousands of unique visitors and tens of millions of pageviews monthly.

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Cloud provider Joyent gets $85 million for global expansion

Joyent will use the cash to fund expansion of its cloud services and take on Amazon, the behemoth in that space. The company hosts its own public cloud services and sells infrastructure that customers use to field their own public or private cloud services.

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Yahoo! Here are board members you should get

Yahoo apparently is looking to overhaul its board of directors,. Like me, many critics believe that have been negligent in their duties. I have a handy list of some great corporate leaders who can contribute positively and also help new CEO’ Scott Thompson’s quest for innovation.

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Is Kickstarter the best solution for independent creators?

Since Kickstarter’s launch in 2009, 3,500 film and video projects have been funded by donors — over $35 million has been raised for documentaries, independent features and web series. But what is it about Kickstarter that works, and what should creators know before seeking out funds?

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Electric vehicle racing delivers innovation

Electric car and motorcycle racing can deliver important breakthroughs and innovations for the future of electric vehicles. While it might seem like some of these racing events are frivolous and niche, they’re the ultimate testing ground for cutting edge and high performance electric vehicle technology.

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The downside of Facebook as a public space: Censorship

The removal of the Facebook page belonging to film critic Roger Ebert and blocking of content from a protest group in Britain has raised questions about the site’s censorship of content. We treat Facebook as a semi-public space, but it is controlled by a private company.

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AngelGate Update: What the Web is Saying

Reports about a secret meeting in San Francisco where “super-angels” discussed ways of fighting back against mainstream venture capital funds and holding down startup valuations has sparked some strong reactions, including responses from angel investors Dave McClure and Chris Yeh, as well as VC Fred Wilson.

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Downers Grove Waits Two Years for TheWB Premiere

One of the four series launching today on a redesigned TheWB.com first went into production in November 2007. Shifting corporate strategies, unexpected music clearance issues and technical difficulties kept Downer’s Grove offline until now, but the show’s creators weren’t held back by those delays.

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Yahoo's Big Plan for the Social Web in 2010: Aggregate It

Yahoo wants to aggregate its users’ activities from around the web, something it’s laying the groundwork for with its pre-announced Facebook Connect integration, a key feature called Yahoo Updates, and the unification of all its applications onto a platform layer.

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HipLogic Brings Virtualization to the Mobile Phone

Newly christened HipLogic, which was formerly known as Numobiq, launched its software development kit to bring its virtualization platform to cell phones. The goal is to bring the same level of functionality to millions of other phones as the iPhone has and Android will.

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Dogster Gets Big Eyes

Dogster, the social network for dog owners, has raised $1 million in funding from a strong list of angel investors: Michael Parekh,…

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