FTC’s Brill sees consumer consent as key for health, finance apps, and more for Friday, March 6, 2015

FTC’s Brill sees consumer consent as key for health, finance apps Jeff John Roberts Mar 6 2015, 6:30am PDT When normal people use a new app, they don’t wade through hidden service terms. Many just click “OK” and hope for the best. This might be fine for a game of Candy Crush, but it can be risky in the case of apps that monitor things like your bank account or […] Read More » Apple finally joins the Dow, AT&T out Kif Leswing Mar 6 2015, 6:25am PDT Apple, the world’s most valuable company, will be calculated in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index starting later this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The move has been a long time coming, and was likely made possible by last year’s 7-for-1 stock split which significantly reduced […] Read More » Decentralized webmail contender Mailpile scraps beta, takes break David Meyer Mar 6 2015, 6:25am PDT When I wrote about the decentralization movement a year back, one of the big pro-privacy hopes was Mailpile, which is ambitiously trying to build a user-friendly yet rock-solid encrypted webmail system with a hybrid desktop/in-browser approach. On Friday, Mailpile’s Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson announced the rejection of […] Read More » The music industry’s broken business could change in 2015 Jeff John Roberts Mar 6 2015, 5:00am PDT The music business has been screwed up for a hopelessly long time, but change is afoot: Congress, courts and the Justice Department are all poised in coming months to shake up how companies and consumers pay for music. The big question, though, is whether this flurry of activity […] Read More » Strange bedfellows: Amazon sets up shop on Alibaba site Barb Darrow Mar 6 2015, 4:46am PDT Amazon.com has opened an online presence on rival Alibaba’s Tmall superstore, according to Reuters and other outlets citing an Alibaba spokesman. and are both prodigious online retailers and rivals and both are eying the other’s turf. Earlier this week Aliyun, Alibaba’s online services arm, opened a cloud data center in Silicon Valley, […] Read More » Hands on with Sony’s Project Morpheus virtual reality headset Signe Brewster Mar 6 2015, 3:45am PDT The big guns are coming for virtual reality, and they know what they are doing. A hands-on demo with Sony’s Project Morpheus proved it really is a comfortable, stylish and mighty option among the growing number of VR headsets. I’m already hungry for more time on […] Read More » Google and Apple may be forced to pay more tax in Russia David Meyer Mar 6 2015, 1:48am PDT Russian authorities may start trying to extract more tax from foreign tech firms such as Google and Apple, according to a report by Vedomosti. There appear to be a couple elements to this push. Firstly, the Russians have taken note of recent changes in the European […] Read More » Full duplex may be the next breakthrough in mobile networking Kevin Fitchard Mar 5 2015, 3:38pm PDT Stanford startup Kumu Networks didn’t receive much notice at Mobile World Congress this week as the giants of the mobile industry revealed their plans for 2015, but it did get the attention of two rather important mobile carriers. At their separate booths, Telefónica and SK Telecom […] Read More » Review: Mophie Juice Packs for iPhone 6, 6 Plus Kevin C. Tofel Mar 5 2015, 12:40pm PDT To many iPhone owners, Mophie’s Juice Packs are the standard when it comes to handset battery cases. No, Mophie isn’t the only company in this market, but over the past few years, its Juice Pack line has become popular as a way to both protect an iPhone and […] Read More » Watch Hilary Mason discredit the cult of the algorithm Stacey Higginbotham Mar 5 2015, 12:15pm PDT Want to see Hilary Mason, the CEO and founder at Fast Forward Labs, get fired up? Tell her about your new connected product and its machine learning algorithm that will help it anticipate your needs over time and behave accordingly. “That’s just a bunch of marketing bullshit,” […] Read More » The Apple Watch will tell you if your train is running late Kevin Fitchard Mar 5 2015, 11:11am PDT Apple and its developers are announcing a lot of apps being retooled for its new smart watch, launching next week, but one particular app caught my eye. Crowdsoured public transit app Moovit says it will have an Apple Watch-optimized version of its app ready when the […] Read More » Meerkat founder: “The novelty of livestreaming wears off” Carmel DeAmicis Mar 5 2015, 10:10am PDT Video livestreaming app Meerkat is the tech world’s latest darling, but its co-founder isn’t so sure it will outlast the hype. If you missed the initial Meerkat news wave, here’s a quick overview: It lets you livestream video of whatever you’re doing from your phone whether you’re […] Read More » Airbnb open sources SQL tool built on Facebook’s Presto database Derrick Harris Mar 5 2015, 9:13am PDT Apartment-sharing startup Airbnb has open sourced a tool called Airpal that the company built to give more of its employees access to the data they need for their jobs. Airpal is built atop the Presto SQL engine that Facebook created in order to speed access to data […] Read More » Upcoming Gigaom Event: Taking a closer look at artificial intelligence Gigaom Mar 5 2015, 8:55am PDT Perhaps we knew that the ethics debate of Artificial Intelligence was coming all along with directors like James Cameron and Neill Blomkamp’s visions playing out as worst case scenarios on the big screen. Yet today’s debate revolves around the concerns of well-respected AI masterminds like Stephen […] Read More » With Dropbox Groups, businesses can finally sort folders based on departments Jonathan Vanian Mar 5 2015, 7:00am PDT Dropbox is rolling out a new feature called Groups and a related API that should make it easier for businesses to manage all of their content stored in Dropbox, the file-sync-and share company is set to reveal on Thursday. The new feature is now available for […] Read More » Would Apple really stick a USB port on an iPad? Kif Leswing Mar 5 2015, 6:41am PDT Yesterday’s Bloomberg report on big iPad delays seems to have gotten a few people in Apple’s supply chain talking. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal and Digitimes both followed up with their own stories on the rumored “iPad Pro” with a 12.9-inch screen. However, some of the details in […] Read More » Why a new 12-inch MacBook Air could debut alongside Apple Watch Kevin C. Tofel Mar 5 2015, 6:18am PDT A 12-inch MacBook Air is in production for the second quarter of this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. That leads to a question about Apple’s “Spring Forward” press event this coming Monday: Will Apple introduce a new laptop alongside its Apple Watch? There’s little doubt plans to reveal […] Read More » Sounds as if the big iPad isn’t launching any time soon Kif Leswing Mar 4 2015, 3:17pm PDT An unannounced Apple product has been delayed, according to Bloomberg, which is reporting that production of the long-rumored 12.9-inch iPad is scheduled to start in September. This news makes it even unlikelier that Apple will introduce its “iPad Pro” at its Apple Watch event in San Francisco […] Read More » The NBA and Lean In Foundation are partnering to promote gender equality Carmel DeAmicis Mar 4 2015, 3:02pm PDT What do LeBron James and Sheryl Sandberg have in common? They both are standing behind a new public awareness program telling men to split household chores and help with kids’ homework, among other actions. It’s the “Lean In Together” movement and it’s about motivating men to make sure […] Read More » Samsung’s Gear VR slated for full release by the end of the year Signe Brewster Mar 4 2015, 12:33pm PDT While Oculus is still “baby stepping” out its app store for the Samsung Gear VR, Oculus CTO John Carmack said the company plans to do a broad release of the virtual reality headset during Samsung’s next product release cycle — presumably the Note release event in September. […] Read More »