From FT.com February 15, 2012

Last month the European Commission proposed adding a new “right to be forgotten” to privacy law. This deceptively simple idea is a ticking time-bomb in the booming internet economy. It is also essential – both for Europeans and Americans – to protect personal privacy in the age of pervasive social media and cloud computing, writes Richard Falkenrath, cybersecurity adviser and adjunct senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations.

Continue reading: “Opinion: Google must remember our right to be forgotten”

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Posted in Tech |
From beyondbrics February 15, 2012

Venture capitalists have long been touting Russia as the undiscovered market for e-commerce. While the postal system is notoriously bad and Russians have been reluctant to embrace online payments, investors argue that the market simply needs to be consolidated for homegrown versions of Amazon.com to enjoy the success of their western counterparts.

The leader of this consolidation appears to be Ozon.ru – the online book, music and vido seller – which on Wednesday announced it would be acquiring Sapato.ru, a dot-com shoe retailer.

Continue reading: “Russia’s Amazon goes shoe shopping”

Posted in Tech |
From FT.com January 18, 2012

Pinn illustration

The internet industry scored a tactical victory this week with Wednesday’s blackout of sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit, and the White House’s decision to oppose parts of two bills intended to curb the file-sharing of films and copyrighted material. “Piracy rules,” tweeted Rupert Murdoch angrily.

Continue reading: “Halt the Silicon Valley historionics”

Posted in Tech |
From FT.com January 16, 2012

Almost everything about the introduction of new internet domain names stinks of self-interest. Politicians, pornographers, regulators and big business have been dragged into the suffix wars, as Icann – the internet naming organisation – tries to add new tags to the familiar handles in the web’s current system, such as .com and .org.

The whole controversy sounds very Web 1.0. I thought domain-name investment had peaked a decade or more ago, when unlikely sums were spent on generic names such as business.com (once part-owned by the Financial Times). That bubble burst along with many of the dotcom companies.

Continue reading: “Suffix wars are best left to politics and porn”

Posted in Internet |
From FT.com November 30, 2011

The Israeli military’s in-house high-tech research and development unit has spawned a process for coming up with new ideas

When Aharon Zeevi Farkash enters the offices of his company south of Tel Aviv, he needs neither key nor code. As soon as he leaves the elevator, a camera captures his face and body shape, and feeds the information to a computer that recognises his features. The door unlocks.

Should the face recognition software fail, Mr Farkash will be prompted to speak a few words into a receiver. The computer will switch to voice recognition – and unlock the door.

Continue reading: “Israel’s army of tech start-ups”

Posted in Hardware, Software |
From FT.com October 12, 2011

In the titanic power struggle that has been taking shape between the giants of consumer technology, the looming clash between mobile and social has become the most intriguing.

It is almost hard now to remember a time, in the hazy past of half a decade ago, before the iPhone made the digital life a constant accompaniment to analogue existence, or before most people became enmeshed in the web of virtual personal connections that make up Facebook.

Continue reading: “Facebook’s pull is set to split Apple’s app reign”

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Posted in Digital media, Mobile, Social |
From FT.com September 28, 2011

After the spectacular leadership bust-up at Yahoo, co-founder Jerry Yang and Carol Bartz, the just-dumped chief executive, probably don’t make for the closest of boardroom allies. Ms Bartz, you will recall, denounced her former colleagues on the Yahoo board as “doofuses” and attacked chairman Roy Bostock for a lack of class in firing her over the phone.

Five miles east of Yahoo’s Silicon Valley HQ, though, Ms Bartz and Mr Yang still have to make nice. That’s the home base of another troubled tech titan, Cisco Systems, where both are on the board.

Posted in Tech |
From FT.com September 28, 2011

Amazon CEO Bezos holds up the new Kindle Touch at news conference in New York

Amazon has launched a head-on challenge to the dominance of Apple’s iPad by unveiling a low-price tablet computer, in a move set to intensify competition over the way consumers enjoy books, music and video.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, launched a new series of Kindle products in New York on Wednesday, at a media gathering. He began his presentation with the launch of a new eReader -  the black-and-white Kindle Touch priced at $99, as well as a Kindle without a touch interface priced at $79. But the much-awaited direct competitor to the iPad was the $199 Kindle Fire.

Continue reading: “Amazon launches $199 challenger to iPad”

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Posted in Hardware, Internet, Mobile, Software, Tech |
From PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY COLUMN September 15, 2011

steven sinofsky

Here is some unexpected news from the frontline of the tablet computing revolution: the screens full of “apps” that have achieved an almost iconic status thanks to the success of the iPad, may not be the be-all and end-all of touchscreen computing.

The unlikely prompt for this thought is none other than Microsoft. The PC software leviathan has hardly been known for its pioneering ways with computer interfaces, let alone for design flair. Nevertheless, it looks set to add an interesting new twist to tablets.

Continue reading: “Microsoft’s new feel for touch”

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Posted in Personal technology |
From FT.com September 11, 2011

Few sectors are undergoing as rapid an evolution as the telecommunications industry – and the pace of change shows no sign of slowing.
The growth of the internet has driven a surge in data consumption by users of mobiles and smartphones, who have come to expect constant and universal access to digital content.
Continue reading: The Future of Communications report
Posted in Tech |
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