Mobile recap: Windows 10 phone peek; Android Wear shipments, and more for Saturday, February 14, 2015

Mobile recap: Windows 10 phone peek; Android Wear shipments Kevin C. Tofel Feb 14 2015, 5:56am PDT This was the week where mere mortals could get their first look at Windows 10 on a smartphone and I took advantage it. Using a loaner Lumia 830, I ran through the installation process, which requires a Windows Insider account; you can get one here, which […] Read More » If Pinterest hadn’t gone after affiliate marketers, the FTC might have Carmel DeAmicis Feb 13 2015, 3:53pm PDT On Friday, Pinterest banned affiliate links on its site, claiming that they cluttered up people’s feeds with spam. Most media companies called foul, saying that Pinterest was putting its own financial interest above its users, some of whom would lose big streams of revenue without affiliate links. […] Read More » Why it matters that the federal government will accept Apple Pay Kif Leswing Feb 13 2015, 1:31pm PDT Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke before President Barack Obama at a cybersecurity summit at Stanford University on Friday, and he was able to slip a few major Apple Pay announcements into his talk reiterating his commitment to privacy. There were two big Apple Pay developments from today’s […] Read More » Microsoft’s next mobile move may be apps pre-installed on Galaxy S6 Kevin C. Tofel Feb 13 2015, 1:09pm PDT That Galaxy S6 phone Samsung is expected to introduce on March 1 could have one big trick up its sleeve: Microsoft apps pre-installed. That’s the word from SamMobile’s sources, which previously reported that Samsung’s own TouchWiz apps were likely to be unbundled from the new Galaxy […] Read More » MIT uses patent from 1997 to sue Apple over chips Jeff John Roberts Feb 13 2015, 10:38am PDT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a patent lawsuit against Apple and its suppliers this week, claiming that semiconductor wafers found in the company’s computers and mobile devices infringe on a patent obtained by two academics more than 15 years ago. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Boston federal […] Read More » First look at Windows 10 on phones: Clean, elegant and promising Kevin C. Tofel Feb 13 2015, 9:28am PDT Microsoft promised a preview version of Windows 10 for phones would arrive before the end of February and it delivered on that promise earlier this week. If you’ve signed up for the Windows Insider program and have a currently supported phone, you can install Windows 10 […] Read More » David Carr’s death has silenced a unique and powerful voice Mathew Ingram Feb 13 2015, 8:26am PDT David Carr, a former crack cocaine addict who recovered and became the widely celebrated media writer for the New York Times, died Thursday -- and with his passing, the world lost a kind and generous man and a powerful media voice Read More » How NASA uses quantum computing for space travel and robotics Jonathan Vanian Feb 13 2015, 7:00am PDT Quantum computing is still in its infancy, even though the idea of a quantum computer was developed some thirty years ago. But there are a whole load of pioneering organizations (like Google) that are exploring how this potentially revolutionary technology could help them solve complex problems […] Read More » Apple makes iWork for iCloud beta free on Windows, Linux, Chrome OS Kevin C. Tofel Feb 13 2015, 6:42am PDT Add another option to the freely available online productivity software suites: Anyone can sign up for and use Apple’s iWork for iCloud, even if they don’t have a Mac or iOS device. The open access is actually in beta, so to use it, you’ll have to head […] Read More » Tesla charges ahead at the grid storage market Katie Fehrenbacher Feb 13 2015, 6:00am PDT For years Tesla, in partnership with solar partner SolarCity, has been experimenting with selling batteries that can store energy locally at a building, or combined with a solar panel. I was one of the first to report on this, and an early stage of the companies’ […] Read More » Researcher discovers security flaw in Netatmo weather station Stacey Higginbotham Feb 12 2015, 6:50pm PDT The Netatmo weather station, a popular and beautiful connected weather station, apparently sends your Wi-Fi password as well as other device and network information over the internet in an unencrypted format. Johannes Ullrich, CTO at the SANS Internet Storm Center in Jacksonville, Florida, posted a blog […] Read More » Why Elon Musk thinks Tesla will be worth as much as Apple in a decade Katie Fehrenbacher Feb 12 2015, 12:44pm PDT Thanks to a killer 2014, this week Apple became the first U.S. company to be worth over $700 billion. Could a company that makes electric cars ever be worth that much? Well, yes, according to comments made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the company’s earnings […] Read More » Xiaomi is looking to bring everything but its phones to the U.S. Janko Roettgers Feb 12 2015, 11:49am PDT Chinese smart phone maker Xiaomi isn’t ready just yet to sell its phones in the U.S., but the company wants to start selling some of its other products to Americans soon. Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra, vice president of international for the copmany, announced at a press event in San Francisco […] Read More » Why we need social media: Press freedom is still declining rapidly Mathew Ingram Feb 12 2015, 10:11am PDT The latest global index from Reporters Without Borders shows that freedom of the press is in decline in a majority of the countries surveyed -- including the United States -- which makes alternative forms of media such as Twitter more important than ever Read More » It’s official: GM’s 200-mile, $30K electric Bolt car will be produced Katie Fehrenbacher Feb 12 2015, 9:18am PDT Last month GM showed off an electric concept car called the Bolt, which was widely seen as a competitive shot at Tesla’s planned lower cost Model 3 car. Now on Thursday, ahead of the Chicago Auto Show, GM announced that the Bolt, indeed, will go into […] Read More » Why Android Wear shipments aren’t surprising (or disappointing) Kevin C. Tofel Feb 12 2015, 8:28am PDT Wow. There are quite a few people talking about yesterday’s Canalys estimate of 720,000 Android Wear shipments in the last six months of 2014. And most of that talk is ridiculous, with little to no perspective on the market itself. All of the doom and gloom I’m reading about […] Read More » The poor private cloud gets no respect Barb Darrow Feb 12 2015, 7:20am PDT Pity your private cloud, if you have one. If cloud analysts are to be believed, private cloud is losing ground as public cloud providers — chiefly Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft — keep adding features and functions, many of which target enterprise IT buyers. Last […] Read More » White space broadband gets green light in UK David Meyer Feb 12 2015, 3:08am PDT The British telecoms regulator Ofcom has formally approved the deployment of white-space broadband technology in the U.K., following trials. White space broadband uses the empty buffer zones that are placed between TV channels to stop them bleeding into one another. The broadband technology glues together these […] Read More » SiriusXM can fight windfall for ’60s singers, judge rules Jeff John Roberts Feb 11 2015, 2:35pm PDT Music lovers finally caught a break this week as a federal judge ruled SiriusXM can appeal a jaw-dropping ruling that created a new type of copyright royalty, and that could oblige digital media companies to pay the likes of the Turtles additional money for songs they sang fifty years […] Read More » Grocery shopping might be less painful with this smart cart Stacey Higginbotham Feb 11 2015, 1:32pm PDT Cambridge Consultants, a product development group based in the U.K., is showing off a connected shopping cart that can tell a retailer where you are in a store within three feet. The smart carts are equipped with Bluetooth radios and sensors to track the cart’s location […] Read More »