[Phil Lelyveld comment; it isn't clear from the story if this is an actual trend or reporter trying to start one.]
But quickly, almost out of nowhere, we’re seeing an increasing propensity of people to opt out of these powerful trends. And the more people do it, the more acceptable it comes.
On social networks like Facebook and Twitter there is immense, unavoidable pressure to opt in.
But here and there, if you listen closely, you can detect signs of opting out. We all know teenagers who keep their Facebook accounts active, but spend all their time on Snapchat, which doesn’t leave the same digital footprint. And some professionals (ok, me) consciously boycott Twitter for the weekend.
Peer pressure, habit, tradition and marketing simply don’t possess the gravitational force they did in the past.
See the full story here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/16/the-opt-out-economy.html
[Phil Lelyveld comment; because they distribute over IP, they don't have to wait for standards or infrastructure buildout to begin 4K distribution. Like Netflix before them, this could be a serious competitive and strategic alliance advantage.]
“As a premium original content creator, we’re excited about 4K and the future of Ultra HD technology, particularly as we move into drama series next year,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “All of the pilots and series we produce next year will be shot in 4K. That includes our first ever drama series that we will greenlight next year—we think customers are going to love watching these series in the highest resolution ever available to consumers and we can’t wait to deliver it.”
See the full story here: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/amazon-to-shoot-new-tv-series-in-4k-ultra-hd-next-year-16-12-2013/
a leading global provider of office supplies and printing services, today announced that as a result of positive consumer feedback, it is expanding the 3D Systems Cube(R) 3D printing experience to 150 Office Depot stores nationwide.
Store associate will demonstrate the Cube's innovative 3D printing capabilities, allowing shoppers to see the latest technology in action.
The 3D Systems Cube 3D Printer is equipped with a contemporary design, tablet-like touch screen and 16 different color options, including two that glow in the dark. It prints objects up to 5.5" x 5.5" x 5.5" in size. Additionally, the CubeX 3D Printer boasts the largest print volume in its category and offers 18 different color options, including two that glow in the dark. It prints objects in all sizes up to 10.8" x 10.45" x 9.5". The Cube 3D and CubeX 3D printers are available at Office Depot for $1,299 and $2,499, respectively.
See the full story here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/office-depot-expands-in-store-3d-printing-customer-experience-2013-12-16?reflink=MW_news_stmp
Earlier this year 4KTVs hit the market with an MSRP of $5,000 – a little over $6,000, which is a lot of money for a new television in almost every household. With the holiday season ending in about 13 days, these prices are falling dramatically, though they aren’t expected to stay low for a very long time.
That’s because soon more models will be rolling out, in more sizes, offering close to the same features as the ones that are available now. Odds are the newer units won’t have any dramatically new features, but the newer line means higher prices then this year’s current offerings.
See the full story here: http://theslanted.com/2013/12/12308/4k-and-ultra-hd-tvs-prices-plummet-for-the-holidays/
The website Assassination Market, a crowdfunding service that lets anyone anonymously contribute bitcoins towards a bounty on the head of any government official–a kind of Kickstarter for political assassinations. According to Assassination Market’s rules, if someone on its hit list is killed–and yes, Sanjuro hopes that many targets will be–any hitman who can prove he or she was responsible receives the collected funds.
Even setting aside the immorality of killing, doesn’t the notion of enabling small minorities of angry Bitcoin donors to assassinate elected officials sound like an attempt to cripple democracy? “Of course, limiting democracy is why we even have a constitution,” Sanjuro responds. “Majority support does not make a leader legitimate any more than it made slavery legitimate. With this market the great equalising forces of capitalism have the opportunity to work in politics too. One bitcoin paid is one vote closer to a veto of whatever legislation you dislike.”
A few years later, another former Intel engineer named Jim Bell proposed a system of funding assassinations through encrypted, anonymous donations in an essay he called “ Assassination Politics.” The system he described closely matches Sanjuro’s scheme, though anonymity tools like Tor and Bitcoin were mostly theoretical at the time.
See the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/18/meet-the-assassination-market-creator-whos-crowdfunding-murder-with-bitcoins/
The science-fiction-like world of 3D printing is starting to get some very real attention from Wall Street. This week Jefferies initiated coverage on the sector with “buy” ratings on three of its five major players – 3D Systems DDD +3.89%, Stratasys and ExOne – and “holds” on the other two, Arcam and voxeljet. These companies could revolutionize mass manufacturing, Jefferies says, and could even get competition from a bellwether of the traditional printing industry: Hewlett Packard.
See the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2013/12/11/wall-street-says-3d-systems-leads-3d-printing-movement-but-hp-could-become-a-major-player/
[Philip Lelyveld comment: Good grief! Something else William Edward Quigley and I agree on. Hell may be freezing over.]
The problem is caused by the design of the software that underpins Bitcoin. It uses cryptography to allow people to exchange funds securely without trusting each other or needing a third party to oversee the trade. But individual collections of bitcoins are secured using an alphanumeric private key that is impossible to recover or reset if lost or stolen, and is near impossible to memorize.
A private key resides in a simple text file called a wallet file and looks something like this: E9 87 3D 79 C6 D8 7D C0 FB 6A 57 78 63 33 89 F4 45 32 13 30 3D A6 1F 20 BD 67 FC 23 3A A3 32 62. If someone else learns that key or copies your wallet file, he or she can spend your bitcoins; if you lose your key or wallet file, Bitcoin’s cryptographic design makes it impossible to regain access to your bitcoins.
“The hackers figured this out really quickly. I think this is a really bad thing for the bitcoin ecosystem,” said venture capitalist William Quigley at the Future of Money conference in San Francisco on Monday. He believes that bitcoins can’t become more than a plaything for speculators unless tools and companies appear that make it easier to manage and safeguard a bitcoin wallet.
Kenna says the lack of tools to make securing and managing bitcoins easy is hindering the currency’s adoption for payments and other commerce, and that no clear solution seems to be on the horizon. Even so, he remains confident that the potential for making money by selling such services or software means they will soon appear. The total value of all the bitcoins in circulation stands today at more than $11 billion. “This is a tremendous business opportunity,” Kenna says.
Read the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/522411/bitcoins-rise-constrained-by-heists-and-lost-fortunes/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20131211
[Phil Lelyveld comment: Given their previously announced partnership with Google on self-driving cars, Uber will be the new incumbent to either partner with or directly compete against Amazon.]
Uber's network of cars today transports people with a taxi-like service, but in the future, it'll carry more than that, Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said Tuesday.
"We need to stamp out an urban logistics fabric in every city in the world, then it's figuring out other things we can do with that fabric," he said at the LeWeb show here. "It's going to be interesting for us in 2014."
See the full story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57615064-76/get-ready-for-uber-to-hit-overdrive-with-delivery-biz/
Dolby engineers describe the differences in a way that might be called nit-picking. The term nits is industry shorthand for a standard brightness measurement, more formally described as candelas per square meter. A 100-watt light bulb generates about 18,000 nits, Dolby executives say, while a typical TV generates only about 100 nits.
To test the effects of brighter sets, Dolby exposed groups of consumers to what the company describes as a “super-expensive, super-powerful, liquid-cooled TV,” wrote Mike Rockwell, executive vice president of Dolby’s advanced technology group, in a blog post. The test found that 90% of the viewers in the study preferred a TV that could display as much as 20,000 nits.
“This is a pretty fundamental step change from the existing world,” Vlaicu says, “Getting this concept embedded into the post-production world and the broadcast world and the devices requires a lot of details to be figured out.”
See the full story here: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/10/dolby-bets-on-brightness-to-transform-tv/
[Phil Lelyveld comment; it isn't clear from the story if this is an actual trend or reporter trying to start one.]
[Phil Lelyveld comment; because they distribute over IP, they don't have to wait for standards or infrastructure buildout to begin 4K distribution. Like Netflix before them, this could be a serious competitive and strategic alliance advantage.]
[Phil Lelyveld comment: Given their previously announced partnership with Google on self-driving cars, Uber will be the new incumbent to either partner with or directly compete against Amazon.]