Should you ever pick up [Steve Wozniak]’s autobiography, you will learn that in the early 1970s when his friend [Steve Jobs] was working for Atari, [Woz] was designing calculators for Hewlett Packard. It seems scarcely believable today, but he describes his excitement at the prospects for the calculator business, admitting that he almost missed out on
Read MoreDan Primack / Axios: After closing on around half of its $250M Fund VIII, August Capital abruptly ended the fundraising and will return the limited partner commitments — Silicon Valley venture firm August Capital held its annual holiday dinner on Dec. 6. The mood was festive, not only because of the season … After closing
Read MoreStu Woo / Wall Street Journal: Some of Huawei’s clients complain Nokia and Ericsson are slow to release telecom gear as advanced as Huawei’s, creating challenges if carriers have to switch — Nokia and Ericsson have been slow to release telecom equipment as advanced as Huawei’s, major wireless providers say Some of Huawei's clients complain
Read MoreThe second episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj criticizes the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Netflix reportedly pulls episode of comedy show to satisfy Saudi Arabia – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe last months before a major tax credit expired should have boosted purchases in 2018. Tesla shares tumble after missed delivery estimates Source: Washington Post Tech
Read MoreMany Chinese cities, among them Ningbo, are investing heavily in AI and facial recognition technology. Uses range from border control — at Shanghai’s international airport and the border crossing with Macau — to the trivial: shaming jaywalkers. In Ningbo, cameras oversee the intersections, and use facial-recognition to shame offenders by putting their faces up on
Read MoreWe were all cryptocurrency and blockchain novices once. We tried to overcome our shortcomings by reading endless mind boggling Telegram chats. But there is a simpler way! Books! Of course, there will always be things for us to learn, but here’s a list of Hard Fork’s favorite educational books about cryptocurrency and blockchain that you
Read MoreFrom the lovable to the practical, robots will be hard to escape at the Las Vegas tech show this year. At CES 2019, robots will be smarter, cuter and cooler than ever – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreA pioneer of computer science for work combining statistics and linguistics, and an advocate for women in the field. Overlooked No More: Karen Sparck Jones, Who Established the Basis for Search Engines Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreThousands of low-wage workers in “censorship factories” trawl the online world for forbidden content, where even a photo of an empty chair could cause big trouble. The New New World: Censoring China’s Internet, for Stability and Profit Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreRoku’s mobile app will introduce video streaming, including its stab at offering premium channels like Showtime and Starz. Roku goes mobile to take on Amazon Prime Video's paid channels – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe price cuts are aimed at counteracting reduced tax incentives in 2019. Tesla cuts US car prices following record production in Q4 2018 – Roadshow Source: CNet
Read MoreChris Welch / The Verge: Roku Channel adds premium subscriptions, with networks including Showtime, Starz, and Epix available on Roku devices and apps, Samsung smart TVs, and more — Pay for everything on one bill with your Roku account — The Roku Channel, which offers free-to-watch, ad-supported movies … Roku Channel adds premium subscriptions, with
Read MoreWindows 10 overtakes Windows 7 amid very slow adoption of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Windows 10 is now most popular PC OS as Windows 7 wanes Source: ZDNet Microsoft
Read MoreInstagram is home to over 800 million users — and more than 1 in 3 American adults have an account on the exploding platform. PostFly helps you harness all that engagement and marketing power automatically. Right now, you can pick up a lifetime of PostFly access at over 90 percent off its regular price, only
Read MoreI hate New Year. I don’t do resolutions and am generally “bah, humbug” about the whole hullabaloo. This year, my curmudgeonly attitude was dramatically amplified by social media in general, and Facebook in particular. And finally, after years of railing against the privacy invasive nature of the machine, I decided to quit. I suppose it
Read MoreA design method is simply a set of steps you can refer to, so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you are trying to solve a similar design problem. Design methods are great. They help define a baseline way of doing something. They help create a shared vocabulary across a team
Read MoreLike many retro favourites, the Game Boy is in no way dead — development continues apace through its many fans.But what about the hardware side? This is a particularly interesting one: [Alex] wondered if a Game Boy could be readily used as a wireless controller. Set out to make it happen, the final product is a
Read MoreWe track the price of major phones over three countries and two years. Why your iPhone or Android phone will get more expensive in 2019 – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreBrian Heater / TechCrunch: Review of Amazon’s $30 Echo Wall Clock: could prove handy, but isn’t necessary, as it is limited to timers and alarms and requires pairing with an Echo device — Amazon gets into the business of time with a $30 Alexa companion — This was the year Amazon went all-in on the
Read MoreAn incomplete Android version is available for some people. Facebook Messenger reportedly tests dark mode in some regions – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreCaring about our online privacy might be popular right now, but on a wider level, it’s not as easy as we think to escape the hole we’ve dug ourselves into. Did you #DeleteFacebook? Shady players can still exploit your data Source: The Next Web
Read MorePeople love their tech, and feel like something’s missing when it’s not there. This is the story of one person’s desire to have the venerable trackpoint in their new keyboard. [Klapse] loves a Lenovo old-style non-chicklet keyboard, so, despite the cost, five were ordered. They very quickly ended up with keys that didn’t work, although
Read MoreAnother year has passed and humanity, for better or worse, remains in charge of the planet. Unfortunately for the robots, TNW has it on good authority they won’t take over next year either. There’s always 2020. In the meantime, here’s what the experts think will happen in 2019: Dialpad, an AI startup created by the
Read MoreShadma Shaikh / FactorDaily: Sensor Tower: by the end of 2018, 44 of the top 100 apps in the Play Store in India were Chinese, with five among the top ten and TikTok taking the top spot — “TikTok is a Youtube killer.” — “Helo is giving ShareChat a tough time and has a higher
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