Apple makes $3m a day from TV and movies
No wonder Tim Cook has escalated Apple’s position on the television market from “hobby” to “area of intense interest” in recent months. New figures from Apple suggest that it’s making at least $3m a day from TV and movie downloads. Read more
(and only one is, can we play with it?)
In a letter to Google chief executive Larry Page, the officials – from the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel, Switzerland and three Canadian provinces – have formally raised their concerns about Glass.
Here are their questions and our brief commentary: Read more
Facebook launched its own Twitter-style hashtag system in an attempt to bolster its fledgling search feature, and raise a challenge to its rival social network that pioneered the use of the # symbol in online communications.
Introducing the marker to Facebook posts will help the company organise comments around certain celebrities or real-time events, like sports games, concerts, or television shows. This way users can search for what other people are saying about the same topic, and advertisers could target ads against real-time trends. Read more
A backlash is brewing against iOS 7’s new look
It was the moment designers and Apple fans alike have been waiting for since October: Sir Jonathan Ive – spiritual heir to Apple’s chief tastemaker Steve Jobs and creator of the world’s finest tech hardware – unveiled his vision for iOS on Monday in San Francisco.
After seven months of anticipation, perhaps some anticlimax was inevitable. But a lot of designers are already taking to the web to voice their dislike of iOS 7’s new look. Read more
Tim Berners-Lee is “deeply concerned” about PRISM
The inventor of the world wide web is not happy with the direction his creation is going.
For several years, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been warning about incursions to the founding principles of the web, from the UK’s Digital Economy Act and SOPA to Facebook’s “walled gardens”.
This week’s reports about the PRISM system, through which the NSA extracts huge amounts of personal information from Google, Facebook, Apple and other internet companies, are “deeply concerning”, he says. Read more
Palantir: Our Prism is not the NSA’s Prism
In trying to reconcile the tech companies’ denials of involvement in the NSA’s PRISM programme and the agency’s presentation that suggests it has “direct access” to their servers, some have looked to private Silicon Valley company Palantir as a possible bridge between the two. Read more
Less than a week after its founder Iain Dodsworth announced he was leaving, TweetDeck has bared its new web-design to the world. Users of the web version and Chrome app will notice that the top bar is now at the side, it’s easier to add new columns and that the overall look has been tweaked Read more
The privacy row over Google Glass has forced Google do an unusually Apple-like thing: block applications.
Despite repeated attempts to reassure the public that Google would not include face recognition in its Glass project without the appropriate privacy controls, the search giant has been unable to silence privacy campaigners or curb the aspirations of third party developers who are keen to exploit the new technology. Read more
KPCB’s 2013 internet trends report from Mary Meeker is, as ever, a densely packed read (117 pages) that’s become essential reference material.
Whilst many of the trends identified are well known – the rise of mobile access to the internet and wearable technology – here are the five standout charts and tables that provide food for thought.
August smart lock wants to be the doorway to your smart home
As the hardware startups battling for a place in your “smart” home multiply, one area has become a key battlefront: the front door.
Lockitron, Kwikset’s Kevo, Kisi and others are already in various stages of development to create door locks that can be opened with a smartphone.
Now a San Francisco startup called August, led by serial entrepreneur Jason Johnson, is hoping to unlock the market with help from its designer co-founder, Yves Behar of Fuseproject. 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.
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