Amazon, Forced to Collect a Tax, Is Adding Roots
At the moment, it is little more than dirt and gravel. But a sunbaked field at the edge of this farming town will play a significant role in one of the most ambitious retailing ventures of the era: the relentless quest by the online mall Amazon.com to become all things to all shoppers.
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A million-square-foot warehouse stocking razor blades and books, diapers and dog food will soon rise on this spot, less than a mile from the highway that will deliver these and just about every other product imaginable to customers 85 miles away in San Francisco. It is hundreds of miles closer to those consumers than Amazon’s existing centers in Nevada and Arizona.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/technology/amazon-forced-to-collect-sales-tax-aims-to-keep-its-competitive-edge.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
IBM Boosts Social Network With Feed for Facebook, Twitter
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), the largest computer services provider, has bolstered its social networking tool for companies by integrating e-mail and adding a news feed with Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. (FB)
The enhanced product, called Connections, enables streaming from social networks alongside business capabilities, such as document authorization, reporting expenses and reviewing e- mails, IBM said in a statement today. The Armonk, New York-based company is also adding more tools to the mobile version of the service, including location tracking, said Alistair Rennie, general manager of social business.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-12/ibm-boosts-social-network-with-feed-for-facebook-twitter.html
New app MindMeld heralds the era of anticipatory computing
Shouldn’t computers know what you need without you having to tell them? A new app from Expect Minds and serial entrepreneur Tim Tuttle called Mindmeld hopes to think ahead and help us overwhelmed humans deal with more and more data.
http://gigaom.com/2012/09/11/new-app-mindmeld-heralds-the-era-of-anticipatory-computing/
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff drops bomb on Box and Okta
Chairman and CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff was the epitome of mellow on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt today, leaning back with a foot over one leg, casually chatting with Michael Arrington and talking about his trip to Hawaii, red-soled shoes, and philanthropic work.
Towards the end of the innocuous, albeit interesting conversation, Benioff dropped a bomb: Salesforce is launching its own versions of enterprise products Box and Okta at the Dreamforce conference next week.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/11/salesforce-chairman-marc-benioff-drops-bomb-on-box-and-okta/
Microsoft patent application shows Holodeck-style “immersive display”
A newly published patent application shows Microsoft potentially planning to take console gaming beyond the barriers of the TV screen by projecting a “peripheral image” around a room, providing a 360-degree view of a virtual scene.
Microsoft’s patent application for an “immersive display experience” was published by the US Patent Office last week after being filed back in early 2011. It describes a standard video game system with a connected “environmental display” capable of projecting a panoramic image that “appears to surround the user.”
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/09/microsoft-patent-shows-holodeck-style-full-room-immersive-display/
Google Fiber announces qualified areas tomorrow, snags ABC channels including ESPN, Disney
The official list of the first “fiberhoods” Google’s Gigabit internet + TV service will be available in doesn’t come out until tomorrow, but it’s already looking like an even more attractive option thanks to a few newly announced channel additions. The team’s blog post lists several ABC channels that will be available on the HDTV service, not the least of which is sports giant ESPN, along with ESPN2, Classic, Goal Line, Buzzer Beater, Deportes, ESPNews, Longhorn Network and ESPNU. We’ve confirmed ESPN3 is also included, while WatchESPN and WatchDisney mobile access is planned for the “near future.”
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/google-fiber-tv-abc-espn-disney/
iPhone 5 with LTE, new iPod touch, and iPod nano leaked through Apple search results
We’re just a few hours away from Apple’s event, but it looks like iPhone 5 will be the name of the company’s new flagship phone. 9to5Mac discovered that a search on Apple.com clearly reveals PR and product pages for the iPhone 5, though the links themselves are still dead. While it’s not exactly surprising to see the iPhone 5 name after Apple tipped it on its event announcement last week, it’s still a bit of a shock to see a company that’s so focused on secrecy let these details leak out ahead of time.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/12/3320358/iphone-5-name-leak-apple-search-results
Apple enhances iOS 6 multitasking with new background navigation updates
As new iOS devices become more powerful and sophisticated, Apple is likely to continue to evolve the platform’s multitasking features, as exemplified by Maps’ new background direction updates.
Apple’s strategy of taking its Maps solo in iOS 6 was initially described in Apple wants to wipe Google off the map with iOS 6, while a second segment detailed how the company will be levering vector graphics to greatly improve the Maps experience in iOS, a third segment outlined how Apple is adding 3D Flyover features to displace Google’s Street View, and a fourth described its new navigation features.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/11/apple_enhances_ios_6_multitasking
Google: 500 million Android devices activated
Google won’t be able to compete with the attention lavished on Apple for the launch of the sixth-generation iPhone, but it did announce the notable milestone late tonight of half a billion device activations.
“Today is a big day for Android… 500 million devices activated globally, and over 1.3 million added every single day,” said Hugo Bara, Android’s director of product management, in a Google+ post. It’s not clear how many devices are replacing older ones, though.
Barra said in June at the Google I/O show that 400 million Android devices had been activated and that the rate was 1 million per day.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57510994-94/google-500-million-android-devices-activated/
