What user-created content for virtual reality will look like, and more for Thursday, February 19, 2015

What user-created content for virtual reality will look like Signe Brewster Feb 19 2015, 6:30am PDT Facebook is working on apps for virtual reality, chief product officer Chris Cox said at the Code/Media conference Tuesday. And Facebook is confident users will eventually get busy creating their own content. “You’ll do it, Beyoncé will do it,” Cox said during the event. It’s likely […] Read More » Microsoft adds digital ink and search in OneNote for iPad Kevin C. Tofel Feb 19 2015, 6:06am PDT Did someone declare this to be “let’s all make the iPad better with stylus support” week and not tell me? First we had Astropad, a $50 app that turns Apple’s slate into a graphics tablet, and now Microsoft is bringing of digital handwriting support to the iPad. announced the […] Read More » IFTTT launches 3 new apps to create an easy button for the web Stacey Higginbotham Feb 19 2015, 6:00am PDT For the last few years If This Then That (IFTTT) has been the place to go if you wanted to customize your web experience. It was a simple way to make complex interactions between web services a reality. But now, the five-year-old company has launched three new […] Read More » Sponsored post: The IT guide to private PaaS ActiveState Feb 19 2015, 5:55am PDT Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) enables developers to write applications in any language, in a consistent environment, and deploy to production themselves. But what about IT? Does PaaS help them or is it just another system to manage? IT departments typically do not achieve the full potential of their […] Read More » Visa expands its online payments service Checkout to 16 countries Kevin Fitchard Feb 19 2015, 5:00am PDT After seven months of testing Visa Checkout in the U.S., Canada and Australia, the financial giant has decided to bring the online payments service to 13 additional countries in 2015. Checkout allows you store your credit card details into a kind of cloud wallet and then […] Read More » Katy Perry lawyers try again, file trademark claim for Left Shark Jeff John Roberts Feb 19 2015, 4:20am PDT What happens when the unstoppable force of an internet meme meets the immovable object of a celebrity’s lawyers? We could find out as Katy Perry lawyers try anew to claim the flash-in-the-pan phenomenon known as Left Shark. In the latest turn of fate for Left Shark, […] Read More » NSA-linked Sqrrl eyes cyber security and lands $7M in funding Jonathan Vanian Feb 18 2015, 9:01pm PDT Sqrrl, the big data startup whose founders used to work for the NSA, plans to announce Thursday that it is shifting its focus to cyber security with a new release of its enterprise service. The startup is also taking in a $7 million Series B investment […] Read More » The platform-publisher race is heating up and LinkedIn is gaining Mathew Ingram Feb 18 2015, 2:15pm PDT Social platforms like Facebook and Snapchat are trying hard to become publishers or to host content from media companies, but one of the platforms that has been quietly doing this for years now -- and continues to grow that side of its business -- is LinkedIn Read More » Astropad turns your iPad into a graphics tablet for your Mac Kevin C. Tofel Feb 18 2015, 10:49am PDT For years there have been options to add a drawing pad and stylus to a computer, a way for graphic artists to create digital media and drawings. Turns out if you have an iPad, you have another option. Astropad is an app that lets you draw […] Read More » US to auction 50,000 more bitcoins from Dread Pirate Roberts Jeff John Roberts Feb 18 2015, 9:29am PDT Want to be the next Dread Pirate Roberts? You can get started by buying 50,000 bitcoins once owned by Ross Ulbricht (aka the Dread Pirate), who is awaiting sentencing on a litany of charges related to his operation of the Silk Road, a defunct drug marketplace. […] Read More » Microsoft embraces Python, Linux in new big data tools Barb Darrow Feb 18 2015, 8:00am PDT Continuing its quest to make Microsoft Azure comfy for the non-Windows world, Microsoft just launched a preview of its Hadoop-based cloud tool (HDInsight) that runs on Linux. It’s also making its Azure ML machine learning service widely available now with new support for Python as well as the already-planned support for […] Read More » Lose something? Here’s a $49 cellular tracker with no monthly fee Stacey Higginbotham Feb 18 2015, 7:16am PDT The Bluetooth tracker to help people stop leaving their wallet or purse behind has become almost ubiquitous, as has the GPS-based tracker for things that people have deemed a little bit more valuable, such as fleets of cars or even pets. But for those of us […] Read More » It’s arrived: The evolution of clean power & data centers Katie Fehrenbacher Feb 18 2015, 5:00am PDT The world’s largest internet companies are turning to clean power to run their data centers like never before. This month we saw huge clean power deals from Apple, including big solar projects planned in California and Arizona, and a big wind buy from Google to provide local power […] Read More » Private cloud? Public cloud? Rackspace erases the difference Barb Darrow Feb 17 2015, 5:50pm PDT Rackspace is going to stop distinguishing between the money it makes from public cloud and what it derives from “dedicated” cloud, a category that encompasses a bunch of options. Well that’s one way to sidestep the whole “is private cloud dead?” debate. The move may show a fanatical obsession on managed cloud […] Read More » Ray wants to be the last remote control you’ll ever buy Janko Roettgers Feb 17 2015, 5:15pm PDT David Skokna wants to simplify TV, one button at a time. That’s why Skokna and his team at Ray Ventures are introducing a remote control to replace all other remote controls this week. The Ray Super Remote, as the $200 device is being called, combines the […] Read More » Man-made DNA can now store data for millions of years Signe Brewster Feb 17 2015, 4:43pm PDT Swiss scientists have discovered encasing DNA in glass and chilling it down can preserve data encoded in it for millions of years, moving them closer to an entirely new, and better, way to store the world’s information. Researchers first turned data into DNA and then retrieved it two years ago, […] Read More » Autodesk is now selling an open-source 3D printer Signe Brewster Feb 17 2015, 2:42pm PDT Autodesk’s first foray into hardware is here: The Ember 3D printer is now available for anyone to order. At $5,995, the printer isn’t exactly a steal. Autodesk more so built it to be the perfect exhibitor for its open-source Spark 3D printing software, which is currently in beta. […] Read More » Play on: The iPad gets an official Google Play Music app Kevin C. Tofel Feb 17 2015, 1:18pm PDT Given that iOS has iTunes with its own Radio software, there might not be a ton of widespread interest in Google Play Music for iPad owners. I actually do use Google’s music service on a daily basis — mainly because it integrated Songza’s playlist function — so I’m […] Read More » Pushbullet is quietly becoming a universal message app interface Kevin C. Tofel Feb 17 2015, 12:18pm PDT Back in November, Pushbullet added a way for Android users to send and reply to texts from the Chrome browser, with messages actually being initiated from a connected phone. Last month, Pushbullet arrived for Mac OS X and iOS. Now, the company has become more of […] Read More » Apple monitor under fire for $2.6M bill, “roving inquisition” Jeff John Roberts Feb 17 2015, 11:57am PDT The lawyer overseeing an Apple antitrust order is a political hack who has run roughshod over the judicial process during ten visits to the company’s Cupertino headquarters, a Wall Street Journal editorial charged Tuesday, and he should pay back the $2.65 million he has already charged the company for a court-ordered […] Read More »