Tim Bradshaw Yahoo welcomes Tumblr, pornography and all

May 21, 2013 12:28 am by Tim Bradshaw

Yahoo bought Tumblr for its rambunctious community. Despite the coat of paint rapidly applied to its email, homepage and various apps since Marissa Mayer arrived as chief executive less than a year ago, Yahoo was still in need of an injection of youth and energy.

But in solving that problem, Tumblr may have created another for Yahoo. Ad execs and Wall Street analysts alike are voicing concerns about – along with gifs and memes – one of Tumblr’s most popular types of content: pornography. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Internet |

Tim Bradshaw Hardware startups get hardcore at Haxlr8r

May 14, 2013 5:02 am by Tim Bradshaw

This week seems to be maker week in Silicon Valley. In the run-up to Saturday’s Maker Faire in San Mateo are a string of events and conferences for hardware startups and the folk building them.

Kickstarting the week, Haxlr8r – a hardware-hacker accelerator programme that takes ten startups to Shenzhen for three months – held its demo day at the Autodesk Gallery in downtown San Francisco on Monday afternoon. Ten startups pitched their ideas, fresh from the factory floor in China, to a group of early stage investors. Read more

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Posted in Hardware, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Ouya looks beyond Kickstarter for more funds

May 10, 2013 12:56 am by Tim Bradshaw

Ouya, the open-source games console, has become the first Kickstarter tech project to graduate to a more traditional funding scheme – venture capital.

After getting $8m from 63,000 crowdfunders last August, Ouya on Thursday announced it has raised $15m from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Mayfield Fund and Nvidia, to accelerate its plan to attack the mass market. Read more

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Posted in Games, Hardware, Tech, Tech Finance |

Tim Bradshaw Apple’s crucial quarter – live

April 23, 2013 9:02 pm by Tim Bradshaw
This is a Live Blog transcript. Read more

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Posted in Hardware, Mobile |

Tim Bradshaw Facebook subverts Apple and Google’s best assets

April 5, 2013 10:38 am by Tim Bradshaw

Facebook is an incredible innovator, but one of its greatest strengths is its ability to absorb – the less charitable might say copy – its competitors’ best features. We saw it with Twitter and status updates; with Foursquare and Places; with Pinterest and last autumn’s Collections tool; and most recently Snapchat and the Poke app.

That’s fine when startups are nipping at your heels, but does that work when you’re competing against the tech industry’s biggest platforms?

 Read more

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Posted in Hardware, Internet, Mobile, Social, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Rohan Silva, architect of London’s Tech City, to leave Downing St for Index Ventures

April 3, 2013 2:47 am by Tim Bradshaw

The Number 10 adviser behind London’s Tech City project, Rohan Silva, is to leave Downing Street this summer to become an entrepreneur himself.

A champion of innovation, behavioural economics and “open data” in government, Mr Silva confirmed his departure to the Financial Times late on Tuesday night, after reports first emerged on Sky News. Read more

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Posted in Europe, Tech |
From Opinion March 29, 2013

Nick D'Aloisio, who sold his mobile news reader app Summly to Yahoo!

It is the story that became irresistible to investors, journalists and, ultimately, Yahoo: the wunderkind with the killer app who became an “overnight” millionaire. In London, where 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio lives, works and goes to school, his rise has also been seen as a sign that the city can rival Silicon Valley as a centre for tech and innovation.

Of course, the tale of the teenager and Summly, his iPhone newsreader for which Yahoo paid almost $30m this week, is more complicated than that. It illustrates that a catchy idea and a strong, global network are just as important as the underlying technology – if not more so. And it shows that while London is right to be excited about Silicon Roundabout, it remains the precocious adolescent to the Valley’s sophisticated adult.

 Read more

Posted in Software, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Google is working on a smart watch, too

March 21, 2013 11:24 pm by Tim Bradshaw

At the South by Southwest Interactive festival, the annual geek gathering in Austin, Texas, a new Google gadget was the talk of the town – literally. Google’s “talking shoes” crammed a tiny computer, sensors, speakers and a Bluetooth wireless controller into a pair of Adidas that shout at their wearer when they aren’t moving around enough.

Google’s latest venture into wearable technology was more an attention-seeking gimmick than a serious new venture. But with the search giant ploughing significant resources into Google Glass, it’s another indication that Google is serious about moving from the digital to the physical – plans that seem to include a smart watch, too. Read more

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Posted in Hardware, Mobile |

Tim Bradshaw Rovio taps 1.7bn Angry Birds downloads to create “Looney Tunes for the mobile generation”

March 11, 2013 5:12 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Angry Birds developer Rovio has already become the first app maker to successfully transfer its brand from digital to physical, with all sorts of merchandising and toys.

Now the Finnish company is making its most ambitious play yet to become – in its words – a “fully fledged entertainment powerhouse” with the launch of a weekly cartoon series this weekend. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Europe, Games, Mobile, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Former judge, who rebuked Apple, will give evidence for Samsung in patent case

February 28, 2013 7:20 pm by Tim Bradshaw

In a move that has raised eyebrows in legal and technology circles, Samsung has hired a former British appeals-court judge, who reprimanded the electronics giant’s patent opponent Apple last year, to be its expert witness in another intellectual property trial. Read more

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Posted in Tech |
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