Spotify will finally launch in the US on Thursday
American readers – brace yourselves. The most-hyped European music phenomenon since the Beatles has finally arrived. After two years’ wait, Spotify is set to open its doors in the US on Thursday. Read more
Jawbone, the maker of stylish Bluetooth headsets, has announced an expansion of its wearable computing devices to a wristband that monitors your health.
Named “Up”, the new gadget was unveiled by Hosain Rahman, Jawbone chief executive, at the Ted Global conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
Jawbone adds Up wearable health gadget
Jawbone, the maker of stylish Bluetooth headsets, has announced an expansion of its wearable computing devices to a wristband that monitors your health. Named “Up”, the new gadget was unveiled by Hosein Rahman, Jawbone chief executive, at the Ted Global conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Read more
Netflix’s plot-twist in movie rentals
Netflix has always been an interesting case study in how to manage a digital transition – moving its customers gradually over from DVDs delivered by mail to the efficiencies of movies being streamed to TVs and a variety of web-connected devices. The transition became something of a schism on Tuesday as customers were faced with a stark choice of a DVD-only or streaming-only service to avoid a substantial hike in monthly subscriptions that combined both. Read more
An ex-Googler points to cultural flaws
The former employee whose ideas inspired the central feature of Google+ has just revealed why he quit: “Google is an engineering company, and as a researcher or designer, it’s very difficult to have your voice heard at a strategic level.” Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Cloud storage service Dropbox is looking to raise between $200m-$300m in a new round of fundraising, according to TechCrunch. This gives the company a valuation of approximately $5bn, TechCrunch estimates. Read more
Electronic Arts is paying up to $1.35bn for PopCap Games, the maker of Plants vs Zombies, as the console-based publisher expands into the faster-growing casual gaming sector.
The deal to buy PopCap follows its acquisition of Chillingo, publisher of the Angry Birds game, for about $20m last October and a $400m deal to buy social gaming company Playfish in 2009. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
