How Big Data Became So Big
THIS has been the crossover year for Big Data — as a concept, as a term and, yes, as a marketing tool. Big Data has sprung from the confines of technology circles into the mainstream.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/business/how-big-data-became-so-big-unboxed.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
CIA Declassifies Amazing 1972 Spy Satellite Capsule Deep-Sea Rescue
It’s a plot worthy of a Hollywood action movie: 40 years ago, the U.S. Navy carried out a daring mission to retrieve a top-secret film capsule that had settled more than 16,000 feet underwater on the ocean floor. At the time, the expedition was the deepest undersea salvage operation ever attempted.
http://mashable.com/2012/08/13/1972-spy-satellite-capsule/
The iPhone Has Passed a Key Security Threshold
Less than a month after Apple first shipped the iPhone in June 2007, a group called Independent Security Evaluators documented deep security design flaws in the device. Apple’s most embarrassing flub: every iPhone application that Apple had written ran with so-called root privileges, giving each one complete control over the entire phone. Hackers found bugs in those apps that could be used to take over the phone from the inside. Apple didn’t fix the design flaw until January 2008.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428477/the-iphone-has-passed-a-key-security-threshold/
Kim Dotcom promises that disruptive new music service, Megabox, will launch this year
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has dropped the biggest hint yet that his disruptive new music project is on schedule to launch before the end of the year, according to a tweet from the German, who US authorities accuse of copyright infringement, fraud and racketeering.
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/08/13/kim-dotcom-promises-disruptive-new-music-service-megabox-will-launch-year/
For Jennifer Sultan, a Dot-Com Bust
OF the five members of a purported crime ring who appeared in court last month, Jennifer Sultan could not help but stand out. She seemed to have little in common with those said to be her accomplices: among them, a police officer charged with stealing his colleagues’ guns to support a painkiller habit and two unemployed young men from Brooklyn and Queens charged with selling guns and drugs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/nyregion/for-jennifer-sultan-a-dot-com-bust.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Apple has licensed design patents to Microsoft: executive
Apple Inc licensed its prized design patents to Microsoft Corp but with an “anti-cloning agreement” to prevent copying of its iPhone andiPad, an Apple executive said on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/13/us-apple-samsung-idUSBRE87C0SC20120813
App.net passes $500,000 funding goal in quest to do Twitter the right way
Dalton Caldwell’s ambitious attempt at a new kind of social network has just achieved its no less daring goal of half a million US dollars in pledged funding. The requisite threshold for funding App.net was crossed some 38 hours in advance of the midnight PT deadline that its developers had set for Monday, August 13th. It took 7,372 backers to collect $500,050 of pledges, with the price of membership varying from $50 for a basic Member account to $1,000 in the Pro Tier.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/12/3237820/app-net-funding-goal-reached
Google: Many Popular Sites Will Escape Pirate Penalty, Not Just YouTube
Google says that YouTube isn’t going to somehow solely escape its new “pirate penalty.” Any popular site may be OK, as the penalty works off of more than pure copyright infringement reports. Nuances in calculating the penalty should save popular user-generated content sites, the company said.
http://searchengineland.com/google-many-popular-sites-will-escape-pirate-penalty-130289
Facebook Is The Ant; Zynga Is The Grasshopper
Facebook and Zynga have experienced similar roller coaster-like devaluation from their peak stock valuations, and they’ve been partners for years, which is why MarkZ and MarkP often get lumped together in the same sentence by fearful investors whose stock is underwater: “Facebook and Zynga (insert analysis here).”
Such bundling masks a deeper structural truth. The reasons that the two companies have tanked in the market could not be more divergent, and more indicative of the character and strategic vision of the startups’ respective founders. Forget any analysis that lumps the two companies together, and instead find lessons in Aesop’s fable that are important to every startup founder.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/11/facebook-is-the-ant-zynga-is-the-grasshopper/
AOL Bets Big on Web Video News With HuffPost Live (and on Tape)
After a very long drum roll, the Huffington Post launches HuffPost Live, its streaming Web video news operation, this morning.
If you’ve watched the streaming video that other newspapers and Web sites have put out, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect at 10 am Eastern today: Something that approximates the form of cable news, but with Webbier sensibilities and production values.
http://allthingsd.com/20120813/aol-bets-big-on-web-video-news-with-huffpost-live-and-taped/
Twitter acquires IP, staff of iOS A/B testing company Clutch.io for its ‘Growth and International’ team
Twitter has acquired Clutch.io, a company that builds an iOS framework for A/B testing, the process of quickly testing the effectiveness of one design or feature vs. another. The company made the announcement of its acquisition by Twitter in a blog post.
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/08/13/twitter-acquires-ios-ab-testing-company-clutch-io-growth-international-team/
