60133163
submission
redletterdave writes:
OpenStack makes its money primarily by offering service to corporate customers that run their businesses on Red Hat's version of the Linux operating system. But it stepped into an open-source buzzsaw earlier this week when an internal Red Hat document surfaced that suggested the company is trying to block its Linux customers from using competing (i.e., non-Red Hat) versions of OpenStack. Exactly what Red Hat is up to isn't fully clear. Its rivals worry that it's disadvantaging other OpenStack providers by tying support of its Linux systems to use of Red Hat's OpenStack implementation. But it's also still possible, if increasingly unlikely, that Red Hat is simply making clear that it won't support rival OpenStack setups—saying, in effect, that its customers are free to do what they want, but that Red Hat won't help out if those OpenStack deployments go awry.
60094573
submission
redletterdave writes:
When my best friend upgraded from an iPhone 4S to a Galaxy S4, I texted her hello. Unfortunately, she didn't get that text, nor any of the five I sent in the following three days. My iPhone didn't realize she was now an Android user and sent all my texts via iMessage. It wasn't until she called me about going to brunch that I realized she wasn’t getting my text messages. What I thought was just a minor bug is actually a much larger problem. One that, apparently, Apple has no idea how to fix. Apple said the company is aware of the situation, but it’s not sure how to solve it. One Apple support person said: 'This is a problem a lot of people are facing. The engineering team is working on it but is apparently clueless as to how to fix it. There are no reliable solutions right now — for some people the standard fixes work immediately; many others are in my boat.'
60007869
submission
redletterdave writes:
The other shoe has dropped for Square. The once-hyped mobile payments company is killing off its Wallet payments app and replacing it with a new app called Order, which will allow users to order food and beverages ahead of time at their favorite cafes and restaurants. For entrepreneurs, the concept of a mobile wallet seems so logical that the payments industry looks like it's ripe for disruption. If everybody is always carrying around a powerful computer in their pockets, it's natural to consider loading payment information onto that secure device as an alternative to cash or plastic cards. The problem comes when this logical entrepreneurial spirit merges with an industry segment that is classically illogical. The payments system in the United States is a mess of entrenched interests, fragmented business opportunities, old infrastructure (like point-of-sale systems), back room handshakes and cut throat competition. This behavior is not going to change any time soon, which means mobile wallets like Square are going to continue to struggle—at least until a more legitimate, easy-to-use and cost-effective solution comes along.
59972417
submission
redletterdave writes:
Any artist that's ever dealt with copyright will tell you one basic fact: Copyright is the most confusing, convoluted and capricious aspect of intellectual property rights ever created. You thought patents were bad? Delve into the world of copyright and just wait for your head to explode. This is what makes the imbroglio between Oracle and Google over the use of copyright in Java such a hard case to understand. It could, however, set a dangerous legal precedent for software development for years to come.
59830961
submission
redletterdave writes:
Apple Inc. is reportedly closing in on a deal to buy Beats Electronics—specifically, the company's headphones and streaming music service—in what would be the Cupertino company's largest deal to date.
59829509
submission
redletterdave writes:
OMsignal is coming out with a line of performance-oriented athletic clothing with built-in sensors. It starts taking orders on its website Thursday, with a basic kit including a shirt and an attached module selling for $199. (By themselves, shirts will sell for between $100 and $140.) It plans to ship the shirts this summer. The shirts are a smart approach that may prove superior to both the familiar chest strap and newer, less proven technologies like the optical heart-rate monitors increasingly common in devices like the Mio Alpha and the Samsung Gear Fit. OMsignal CEO Stephane Marceau visited ReadWrite recently to show off the shirt and explain the technology and fashion sense behind it.
59623825
submission
redletterdave writes:
Apple's next-generation in-ear headphones, called EarPods, may be able to capture data from our bodies. A rumor on the Secret app suggested this possibility, but Apple's patent portfolio reveals the company has been working on systems that could "be used to monitor user activity, such as during exercise or sporting activities... and facilitate sensing of other user characteristics (e.g., biometric data), such as temperature, perspiration and heart rate." Considering how iOS 8 will reportedly support a new slew of health applications, it would make sense for Apple to build these smart EarPods: Physicians have tried to develop similar in-ear monitoring systems that can inform doctors about cardiovascular risk factors, which would allow them to provide vital preventative care. The science is there. Researchers believe the ear is the "[ideal] location for an integrated wearable vital signs monitor ... for both physiological and mechanical reasons.” Unfortunately, a health-oriented in-ear solution has never been perfected, especially at a mass scale. One reason why: Fitness devices are sexy, and send the message that you're into exercising and taking care of yourself. Medical-device manufacturers have never been known for their fashion sense, and a health-oriented device sends the message that you've got a problem. Apple’s proven design sense and marketing skills would avoid these problems handily.
59547265
submission
redletterdave writes:
April was the national commemorative month for all kinds of things, including poetry, welding and soy foods. But it was also National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Unfortunately, the recognition of this month for distracted driving was a hallow gesture—just like the half-hearted attempts at developing apps that prevent cell phone use while driving. After a week of trying to find an app that prevents me from all cell phone use from behind the wheel entirely, I’ve given up. The Distracted Driving Foundation lists about 25 apps on its website—there are a few more on Apple's App Store—but I couldn’t find a single one that was easy to use. Most were either defunct, required onerous sign-up processes, asked for subscription plans, or simply didn't work as advertised.
59546943
submission
redletterdave writes:
Who cares about a new logo, right? PayPal’s rebranding could be perceived as an exercise in corporate self-congratulation, the eBay subsidiary breaking its virtual arm patting itself on the back. Admittedly, PayPal CEO David Marcus has moved quickly on many fronts to fix PayPal's problems, from its needlessly complex application programming interfaces to its user-surly customer service. But logos in the digital age aren’t just a matter of the sign at company headquarters; everyone from app developers to online merchants to physical retailers like Home Depot and Jamba Juice to everyday eBay sellers display the PayPal logo to indicate they accept PayPal for payment. As PayPal mounts an aggressive push to refresh existing services and roll out new ones, the old logo was holding it back, Marcus told ReadWrite in an interview.
59504801
submission
redletterdave writes:
Nokia is heading in a new direction without its mobile-phone division. The man charting it: Rajeev Suri, whom the Finnish tech company appointed as its CEO on Tuesday. Suri, the former head of Nokia’s networks division, will serve as the company’s CEO starting May 1. He will take over duties from company chairman Risto Siilasmaa, who has served as acting CEO since September, and succeed former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who joined Microsoft (along with several other company executives) when the company purchased Nokia’s devices and services division last September in a deal worth roughly $7.2 billion. So where does Nokia go from here? Suri will have to focus on Nokia's remaining products and services—namely, its lucrative network-equipment business and its Here location-services division, which makes navigation apps for consumers and licenses maps data to other businesses.
59211373
submission
redletterdave writes:
In just two months since Facebook dropped $19 billion to buy WhatsApp, the five-year-old mobile messaging app on Tuesday announced its its active user base has grown to more than half a billion people. This is not the first time that an app has seen a major pop in users after it was acquired by Facebook: When Facebook bought Instagram in April 2012, the service boasted some 30 million users. In one month after the deal, Instagram gained 20 million new users. By July, Instagram grew to 80 million active users. WhatsApp seems to be having a similar growth spurt, gaining roughly 25 million users each month since the Facebook deal was announced.
59209261
submission
redletterdave writes:
Apple on Tuesday announced the OS X Beta Seed Program, which allows anyone to download and install pre-release Mac software for the sake of testing and submitting feedback before the public launch. Until Tuesday, Apple charged users $99 a year to test out new OS X software—doing so required a paid-up developer account. (Testing new iPhone software still requires a separate developer account for another $99 a year.) Now, much the same way new OS X software is now totally free to download, it's also free to try out. All you need is an Apple ID to sign up.
59012969
submission
redletterdave writes:
Microsoft has a long history of data, providing data management tools to front-office workers (Excel) and back-office database administrators (SQL Server), consumer-facing services like Bing and Hotmail, not to mention its new work with Hortonworks to offer Hadoop. But now, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants to make a foray into Big Data—and if there's any company that could make Big Data accessible to rank-and-file employees, it's Microsoft.
58952543
submission
redletterdave writes:
Cortana, a new feature in Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, is both a search engine and a helper, just like its counterparts: Apple's Siri and Google Now for Android. Cortana—who says she's female, though not a woman—is Microsoft’s attempt to counter Google's domination of Web search on smartphones while also serving as its counterpoint to the cheeky and informative Siri on the iPhone. In this way, Cortana—like almost everything in Windows Phone—emerges as a combination of iOS and Android features embellished with some of Microsoft's own unique elements.
58904343
submission
redletterdave writes:
Amazon Web Services gives developers access to massive computing capability. Now hackers have found ways to hijack some accounts and use that power to make money on someone else's dime. In addition to developers' usernames and passwords for their accounts, AWS uses "access keys" that are easier to include in software. And that's the problem—developers include these keys in their software, including copies of the software they store in public source-code repositories like GitHub. As a result, hackers can rent computing power from Amazon on others' accounts, racking up thousands of dollars in charges on servers in Amazon data centers as far away as Tokyo, São Paulo, Sydney, and Singapore.
