Imagine taking the entirety of the world’s digital information – about 1.8 zettabytes, according to Harvard bioengineer Sriram Kosuri – and storing it on materials weighing only 4 grams. It’s not only possible, but the technology has been around for billions of years: DNA. Kosuri and geneticist George Church, both researchers at Harvard’s Wyss...
Daily Archives: August 18, 2012
Judge rejects Facebook ad settlement, cites $10 million lawyer pay-out
Facebook and class action lawyers thought they had a deal over “Sponsored Stories,” a type of advertising in which Facebook had users endorse products without their permission. But a federal judge has now kiboshed the $20 million settlement that would have resolved the matter. In an order handed down in San Francisco on Friday,...
Payment Data Is More Valuable Than Payment Fees
We are in the midst of a great revolution the payments space: anyone with a phone can now accept credit cards; online-to-offline commerce is allowing online payment for offline purchase and significant friction is being removed from the consumer purchase experience thanks to mobile. All of this innovation (read: competition), combined with government intervention,...
Hands on: Mac and iOS task management with Things 2
A long time ago, I used Things by Cultured Code to track my to-do items. Having a day job and a freelance business I required something other than a slip of paper to manage them. Things had an uncluttered interface and relatively uncomplicated nature of adding tasks and reminding me of upcoming due dates. I’d...
Drought in FarmVille: Zynga’s destructive downturn
What a difference a year makes. In August 2011, social gaming and in-app purchase godfather Zynga was riding high. It had come off of one of the highest profile IPO filings just a month previous, and its play on secondary markets was signaling a valuation near or above $20 billion. In addition, Zynga’s strong...
Weekly Wrap-Up: Twitter API Change, RIP Adobe Flash On Android, 5 Reasons Why Web Publishing Is Changing (Again)
What do Twitter’s API changes mean for developers and users? Adobe no longer offers flash for android devices. And why web publishing is changing — again. After the jump read about this week’s top stories on some key topics that are shaping the web – Location, App Stores, and Real-Time Web – plus highlights...
How mobile data is making us question everything
FreedomPop wants to create a social mobile-data network, where access is a secondary business consideration to services. GSM Nation plans to build a business around the idea that any customer should be able to pick any device, not just from a carrier’s limited portfolio. Republic Wireless is challenging the notion that mobile data plans...
Spy Shots Of iPhone 5 Parts Show Some Big Changes Are Coming (AAPL)
Apple’s next iPhone is widely expected to have a smaller dock connector that’ll help the device maintain a thinner profile. We’ve seen numerous leaks about this before, and now 9to5 Mac has gathered a few more photos of next-generation iPhone components. The photos clearly show a nine-pin dock connector and room for a headphone...
Who you will meet at The Next Web Conference Latin America 2012
Setting up a conference for the first time in a country you know little about can be as nerve wracking as it is exciting. As the last weeks approach you can’t help but wonder if the equipment you’ve rented will arrive, if the conference venue really exists and whether or not Patrick and Boris...
Here’s How Apple’s Epic Patent Case Against Samsung Will Finally End
Associated Press/Getty Images Samsung Executive Choi Gee Sung and Apple CEO Tim Cook Arguments in the patent battle of the century between Apple and Samsung will come to an end next week after a judge strongly urged the tech titans to make “peace” and settle the case. With both sides so heavily invested in...