Would Apple really stick a USB port on an iPad?, and more for Thursday, March 5, 2015

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 » New Relic drafts former Oracle exec to lead biz dev Barb Darrow Mar 5 2015, 6:00am PDT New Relic has named John Gray, a former long-time channel exec for Oracle, as its new SVP of business development. Gray, who was most recently at LivePerson, brings long experience dealing with channel partners in the hotly contested enterprise software arena. New Relic, already a hit […] Read More » Sponsored post: Smart Analytics – data visualization works smarter so you don’t have to Matt Quinn, CTO, TIBCO Mar 5 2015, 5:55am PDT At TIBCO, we believe just visualizing data isn’t enough. Embedded deep in the brains of data scientists lays a knowledge set that can truly benefit any one of us who has ever struggled with the dilemma of which graph to choose for a given data set. […] Read More » As growth slows, Opower looks beyond energy efficiency Katie Fehrenbacher Mar 5 2015, 5:00am PDT Opower has long been the energy software player to beat. But almost a year after it went public at $25 per share on the New York Stock Exchange, the company is faced with the task of continued substantial growth as new competitors emerge. The company’s shares […] Read More » The Hadoop wars, HP cloud(s) and IBM’s big win Barb Darrow Mar 5 2015, 1:39am PDT If you are confused about Hewlett-Packard’s cloud plan of action, this week’s guest will lay it out for you. Bill Hilf, the SVP of Helion product management, makes his second appearance on the show (does that make him our Alec Baldwin?) to talk about HP’s many-clouds-one-management […] Read More » Vivaldi browser’s latest features include “fast forward and rewind” David Meyer Mar 5 2015, 1:07am PDT Ordinarily I wouldn’t be writing multiple stories about technical previews of a new browser, but Jon von Tetzchner’s new Vivaldi keeps coming up with surprises even before it hits the beta stage. Vivaldi’s second technical preview, released Thursday, adds expected features such as bookmarks, but it […] Read More » Data might be the new oil, but a lot of us just need gasoline Derrick Harris Mar 4 2015, 5:25pm PDT One of the biggest tropes in the era of big data is that data is the new oil — it’s very valuable to the companies that have it, but only after it has been mined and processed. The analogy makes some sense, but it ignores the […] Read More » Stephen Wolfram writes nifty IoT data store for his nifty software stack Stacey Higginbotham Mar 4 2015, 3:58pm PDT One of the challenges associated with the internet of things is figuring out where to put all that data. If you have dozens of connected devices talking to the cloud (and that is a big if) you’ve got to think about where that data lives, how […] 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 » 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 » Lyft may not deliver on some of its $1,000 sign-up bonuses, angering drivers Carmel DeAmicis Mar 4 2015, 12:05pm PDT Remember the seemingly-too-good-to-be-true $1,000 bonuses that Lyft promised to new drivers and those who recruited them? Well, it turns out they may actually have been too good to be true. New drivers who applied to join Lyft in light of the reward just received an email from the […] Read More » Product Hunt is using its megaphone to tackle startup depression Carmel DeAmicis Mar 4 2015, 11:34am PDT It’s no secret that Product Hunt is the Pied Piper of startup land. Founders would probably follow the company anywhere, since the so-called Reddit for new apps and gadgets gives them exposure to media, investors and potential users. Now, Product Hunt is using this influence for a social […] Read More » Why it makes sense that Huawei could make the next Nexus Kif Leswing Mar 4 2015, 9:15am PDT Here’s an interesting rumor out of China: iSuppli researcher Kevin Yang posted on Weibo on Wednesday that Huawei will be making a Nexus device this coming fall. The post has since been deleted. Huawei isn’t a household name in the United States, but it actually makes a good deal […] Read More » AMC, IFC and Epix go live on Sling TV Janko Roettgers Mar 4 2015, 6:00am PDT Don Draper, meet Sling TV: The recently launched online TV subscription service started to carry AMC and IFC as well as the Epix family of movie channels Wednesday, which means that Sling TV subscribers can now tune in live for episodes of shows like The Walking […] Read More » If you thought cloud competition couldn’t get hotter, think again Barb Darrow Mar 3 2015, 7:04pm PDT Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has opened a data center hub in Silicon Valley, adding yet another gigantic player to a growing, but already hotly-contested cloud computing market. Aliyun, Alibaba’s cloud computing arm, has been likened to Amazon.com’s Amazon Web Services unit and you can bet that , as well as […] Read More » FCC official says Google, Facebook had little say on net neutrality Jeff John Roberts Mar 3 2015, 4:15pm PDT The FCC’s landmark decision on net neutrality has produced all sorts of speculation about the degree to which well-known tech giants shaped the outcome. Gawker, for instance, claimed that Americans can thank a benevolent Facebook-Google cabal for the open internet rules that were passed last Thursday. The Wall Street Journal, on the other […] Read More » Decade-old FREAK bug leaves Google and Apple device users vulnerable Jonathan Vanian Mar 3 2015, 3:47pm PDT A team of security researchers unearthed a decade-old vulnerability called the FREAK (Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys) attack, which impacts Google and Apple device users who may have visited websites, including Whitehouse.gov and NSA.gov, according to a Washington Post report. One of the researchers who spotted […] Read More » AT&T’s privacy plan may be short-lived and may not even be as bad as we think Stacey Higginbotham Mar 3 2015, 3:26pm PDT AT&T hit a nerve with its privacy-eroding Internet Preferences Plan, which lets customers surf the web at gigabit speeds but also lets the telecom giant see what sites they visit in order to serve up relevant ads. AT&T’s plan may be short-lived, however, if the FCC takes action under its new […] Read More » Google Contacts gets a long-overdue update Kif Leswing Mar 3 2015, 2:36pm PDT Google announced Tuesday that it’s releasing a preview of its new Google Contacts app, which can be accessed now. If you use Gmail, you use a form of Google Contacts, although it’s hardly a perfect system. Previously, Google’s contact app was a mess: It threw people you’ve emailed […] Read More »