2012

On a bone-chillingly stormy Austin Friday, I escaped into the warmth of the upmarket W Hotel and sat down for an interview with Amber Case, technology anthropologist and founder of the location platform Geoloqi. In between wolfing down a plate of gourmet macaroni cheese, Case explained her fascination with pinball machines and how Geoloqi helped … Read more

One of the intriguing aspects of Facebook Timeline, ever since the initial launch last September, is how it highlights the media you consume. Music you listen to, videos you watch, newspapers and books you read, and (more recently) images you “pin” on Pinterest. Facebook termed the concept frictionless sharing, because it allows you to automatically … Read more

Last month Apple announced iBooks 2, the next generation of its e-book app for iPhone and iPad. iBooks 2 was notable for the launch of a new breed of interactive digital textbooks, designed for the iPad. The books feature videos, photos, diagrams, rotating 3D objects, “Study Cards” for notes and highlights, and more. Among the … Read more

This year’s hottest new online service is undoubtedly Pinterest, the “virtual pinboard” website. Once a social site becomes popular with consumers, brands soon follow. In 2011 brands flocked to Google+ when it became the hot new thing. Now, in 2012, brands are beginning to make their way onto Pinterest. In this post we’ll look at … Read more

Today I visited the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab (ERL) in Silicon Valley and met the lab’s new director, Dr. Peter Oel. Cars are one of the most exciting areas of Internet innovation in 2012, with companies such as Volkswagen, Ford and Mercedes all racing to add network technologies into their cars. Up till now, that’s … Read more

“This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.” HAL; 2001: A Space Odyssey Editor’s note: this is a longer version of ReadWriteWeb Editor-in-chief Richard MacManus’ article for the SAY Media newsletter. The newsletter is delivered weekly and features SAY Media’s take on media, culture, venn diagrams and the occasional Kubrick … Read more

Convergence. Remember that word from the dot com era? Well, it’s back and this time it actually has substance. Convergence in the 90s meant combining old media with new media, a.k.a. the Internet. The 2000 merger of AOL and Time Warner was a failed $200 billion attempt at convergence. But fast forward to 2012 and … Read more

Earlier this week I listed 5 signs of a great user experience in a tech product. One sign is that it changes you. I referred to revolutionary products like the iPhone and Twitter, that modified our online behaviors or habits. This trend is becoming more noticeable with the so called Internet of Things, where everyday … Read more

If you’ve used the mobile social network Path recently, it’s likely that you enjoyed the experience. Path has a sophisticated design, yet it’s easy to use. It sports an attractive red color scheme and the navigation is smooth as silk. It’s a social app and finding friends is easy thanks to Path’s suggestions and its … Read more

Over half of all devices at this year’s CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show, were Internet connected devices. Nearly 60% of those were non-traditional computing devices such as TVs, car devices, refrigerators and washing machines. In fact 90% of the TVs at CES were Internet-enabled. As more and more devices in your home … Read more

More than half of the devices launched at CES earlier this month were connected. That’s according to the GSMA, a worldwide association of mobile operators and related companies. GSMA calculated that more than 90% of TVs at CES, 70% of automotive devices, 44% of healthcare devices and 30% of cameras were connected. GSMA predicts there … Read more

Ever wondered which musician has the fastest growing Facebook Page? Or what TV series? A new beta service called SocialMedia-live is tracking the growth rate of 38 million Facebook Pages, with 2 million of those available to view. It has statistics on total number of likes, fan growth, interesting newcomers and male/female breakdown. These statistics … Read more

As each year passes, the connected car makes more of a noise at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This year several car manufacturers were touting new features, including Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Audi. The term “connected car” refers to the integration of smartphone apps and content into the car. Typically this is done … Read more

It’s not even Day 1 at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, but already we’ve seen a flurry of product announcements. One of the more impressive was from Samsung. Internet TV is expected to be a big trend of 2012 and as the world’s number 1 TV brand, Samsung is a company to watch. Especially … Read more