“Most likely it will be amateur pornographers who make best use of Meerkat’s special features,” observes The Economist drily, ending an analysis of the battle between Meerkat and Periscope. “They have a long history of kick-starting new video technologies.” Indeed. Porn is always at the forefront of technology. But what about sex? Read More

 Here is something to ponder: Silicon Valley will have gotten more work done on its April Fools’ Day jokes tomorrow than Washington has gotten done in the past several years. And that’s scary, for as much as playing PacMan on Google Maps is funny and maybe even endearing, driving on bridges ready to collapse is not. Read More

Giving away music is how you get people to pay for it. That might seem crazy, but its true, though Jay-Z doesn’t want to listen. He just launched a music streaming service called Tidal with Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Kanye, Arcade Fire, and Rihanna as co-owners contributing exclusive content. The goal is to get artists properly paid. The problem is Tidal subscriptions costs $20 for… Read More

 Phones can make us jerks. They let us ignore friends, cancel plans last-minute, and annoy those around us in public. But this month, we got a whole new way to abuse our mobile devices. Unless we can manage how we interrupt each other, it could ruin one of the most promising modern communication mediums: livestreaming. “Josh Constine is live: I’m bored so watch me”… Read More

 Few subjects elicit more skepticism than the so-called “sharing economy.” Kevin Roose argues: “The Sharing Economy Isn’t About Trust, It’s About Desperation.” Catherine Rampell warns: “there’s a dark side to these work arrangements … the shifting of risk off corporate balance sheets and onto the shoulders of individual Americans.” Read More

 In early 2011, Skype bought a mobile video startup called Qik, which had developed an app that let mobile users record and stream videos in real-time which others could be alerted to and then view. If that description sounds similar to the newly hot live-streaming apps Meerkat and Periscope, it’s because the overall concept introduced then is not all that far off from what’s… Read More

 Nintendo’s announcement that it would partner with Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA to create games on mobile devices using Nintendo’s intellectual property sounds like a dream come true, but will probably offer little more than muted nostalgia for retro game lovers. Unless you’re one of the nine people who have never owned one of Nintendo’s fleet of hand-held… Read More

 Traditional technical interviews are terrible for everyone. They’re a bad way for companies to evaluate candidates. They’re a bad way for candidates to evaluate companies. They waste time and generate stress on both sides. Almost everyone, if pressed, will admit this. And yet they persist. I humbly suggest that it is time for engineers to start to flatly refuse to participate in them. Read More

 In late 2014, I finally took the plunge and cut the cord with cable TV, reducing my monthly bill from a big TV, phone and internet bundle to one which now only includes broadband. My “TV” subscription, meanwhile, includes just a handful of services: Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Instant Video. That latter item is actually included with the annual subscription to Amazon… Read More

 There seems to be cool new hardware everywhere I look these days. Swimming drones. Crash-proof flying drones. Creepy robots. Kickstarters like Hackaball, “a smart and responsive ball children can program to invent and play their own games.” Startups like Orion Labs, with their Star-Trek-esque Onyx communicator. Read More

 It’s now been over three months since I’ve adopted the cord-cutting lifestyle, thanks to finally following through on a long overdue New Year’s Resolution. Today, my “TV” diet largely consists of streaming video from the top three services, Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Hulu Plus. I also find myself watching TV from more devices, including iPhones… Read More

 Apple’s new MacBook, which limits input and output to a single USB-C port and a simple 3.5mm audio in/out jack, has been characterized by some as a move that’s antagonistic to the consumer. Critics point to the single port, as well as the performance limitations inherent in using an Intel Core M chipset for power management and fanless logic board design, as causes for complaint,… Read More