5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Steve Jobs Confirms Discontinuation of iWeb in iCloud Transition
Since last week's unveiling of Apple's new iCloud service and the transitioning of the company's existing MobileMe service into iCloud, many users have been wondering about the fate of some of the MobileMe services that were not mentioned in the transition discussion. In particular, users have been concerned about iWeb, Apple's website creation software included with iLife that can be integrated with site hosting via MobileMe.

2. DIY U: The Future Of Learning [Video]
The future of learning is open--and it's in your hands. This video series, based in part on my book DIY U, explains that while the higher education bubble may be overblown, there is an explosion happening in the edu-world, with technology and openness transforming content, social learning, and accreditation all at once. Part One explains what's happening and why the old models no longer apply.

3. Bunchball raises $6.5M, doubles down on gamification
Bunchball, the social gaming software company, has raised $6.5 million in a new round of venture capital. The San Jose, Calif.-based startup plans to put the funds toward growth initiatives such as hiring, new product development, and international growth, CEO Jim Scullion told me in an interview last week.

4. Sony Knows Cross Game Chat is a Huge Thing
No, Sony is not talking about PlayStation LifeStyle’s podcast, “Cross Game Chat.” Andrew House of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is talking about cross game chat for the PS3.

5. Apple iCloud Not Supporting Windows XP
We strongly suspect all the support Apple has shown the venerable Microsoft OS with iTunes and Mobile Me has mostly been a way of keeping people from buying shiny new copies of Windows 7, but that’s all coming to an end with Apple’s music-streaming iCloud, which won’t be featuring Windows XP support and will need either a Vista or Windows 7 PC to run.

BONUS

6. Use Binder Clips to Replace Broken Keyboard Feet [MacGyver Tip]
They make great cable organizers and phone stands, but the humble binder clip can also fix things that are actually broken, too. In this case, it's those little flip-out "feet" on the bottom of most keyboards. Just take the metal wings off two clips, and replace the feet by squeezing the those wings into their place. If nothing else, it's a lot cheaper than replacing the keyboard.

7. iOS 5 Allows For 1080p Video Exports, Confirms iPhone 5 8 Megapixel Camera
The iPhone 4 features a 5 megapixel camera, and it is capable of recording video in HD at a resolution of 720p, we have been hearing rumors that the iPhone 5 will feature an 8 megapixel camera, possibly a Sony CMOS sensor, which would mean it would be capable of Full HD Video in 1080p.

read more...

5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Juniper: NFC Payments To Reach $50 Billion Worldwide By 2014
We know Google has made a big bet on near field communications (NFC) as a payments system with the launch of Google Wallet, but does the technology have the potential to be the future of how money is transacted? Juniper Research seems to think so. The company is releasing a new report that forecasts that global NFC mobile contactless payment transactions will reach nearly $50 billion worldwide by 2014.

2. Salesforce Invests In Video Messaging Startup (And Skype Rival) VSee
VSee, a video collaboration service provider, has received a capital injection from Salesforce, TechCrunch has learned. The amount was not disclosed, but we’ve been informed that the investment amounted to ‘multiple millions of dollars’.

3. Apple tries to tighten its grip on media with Newsstand
Slowly but surely, Apple is trying to convince more media companies to play in its sandbox, and the latest move is an iBooks-style digital news stand for iPhone and iPad. As part of the raft of new features and services it announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Apple launched the Newsstand — a single interface for all of a user’s subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. Whether the new offering will convince more publishers to sign up and hand over 30 percent of their subscription revenues to the company remains to be seen.

4. Movie & TV streams still missing from Apple’s iCloud
Here’s one feature you won’t find in Apple’s new iCloud service: video syncing. The cloud-based media storage service introduced at Apple’s WWDC conference in San Francisco on Monday offers the ability to sync your personal music library with the cloud without uploading any of the actual files, making it possible to access thousands of songs on any of your devices in a matter of minutes. Apple calls this feature Music Match, and charges users $24.99 per year to instantly access their personal music library online.

5. Apple Didn’t Tell Mobile Carriers About iMessage
When Apple announced iOS 5 yesterday, one of the new apps that was unveiled it called iMessage, it is basically a messaging app that will let you send and receive messages to other iOS devices similar to BlackBerry Messaging.

BONUS

6. RIM acquires Scoreloop to take social gaming to a whole new level
RIM has just announced that it has acquired Scoreloop, one of the pioneers in mobile social gaming.

7. Sorting Through Apple’s Many Announcements
Yesterday, at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Steve Jobs took the stage to reveal what the company’s been up to. Turns out the answer is: a lot.

read more...

5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

Today's Tech Stories I found interesting:

1. Google Wallet
Google is getting into the mobile payment market.

2. Twitter Photo Sharing
Twitter is finally putting a photo sharing service online. But can we expect constant outages with Twtimg as well? One interesting note, especially for developers. Twitter is going to crate it's own version of your stand alone client application. If you rely on Twitter for your core business, expect to be challenged, by the source.

3. Apple iCloud
Apple plans on announcing it's newly minted iCloud (formerly MobileMe), among other new products, at WWDC on June 6th. Expect Twitter and other Interwebs to be inundated with traffic.

4. Craigslist switches to MongoDB
Cragislist is in the process of incorporating MongoDB as it's primary database system. MongoDB is a document style repository versus a traditional relational database.

5. Five Best Set-Top Boxes for On-Demand Video
On-demand video is taking the net by storm. Just look at Netflix, who is now responsible for +20% of all Internet traffic. Gaming consoles are very popular, but boxes such as Boxee and Roku are priced very competitively, and stream the same channels like Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon Video on Demand.

What cool Tech stories have you read today?

read more...