The Latest Web Industry News

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  There's Already A GitHub For Business, And It's Called "SlideShare"

  9th May 2013 18:44

  SlideShare, a hub for online presentations that LinkedIn acquired a year ago, just crossed a milestone: Its users have uploaded a total of 10 million presentations. And in the process, it's become an indispensable resource for what some say is a big challenge: helping businesspeople communicate and explain the value of what they do. Andrew Dumont, the director of business development at SEOmoz, a search-marketing software company, wrote in a blog post that technical types often don't value the contributions of…

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  Amazon Reportedly Working On A 3D Smartphone

  9th May 2013 18:33

  The Amazon smartphone is a rumor that just will not die. Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is working on building two smartphones — one of which would be a high-end device with 3D visual capabilities where images would appear to float above the screen without the need of 3D glasses. Users could reportedly control the smartphone via eye movements, perhaps similar to the facial-tracking features of the Samsung Galaxy S4.  [See Also: Where Does Amazon Fit in the Game…

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  Cloud Jargon Unwound: Distinguishing Saas, IaaS and PaaS [Infographic]

  8th May 2013 22:43

  As cloud computing dominates more and more aspects of the tech world, similar-sounding but confusingly different something-as-a-service acronyms keep piling up. You've probably heard of SaaS (Software as a Service), since it applies mostly to cloud services delivered to end users.  But what about IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)? Even many tech professionals can't explain the differences without babbling incoherently.  Fortunately, this new infographic from IaaS provider ProfitBricks does a good job of explaining the differences and…

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  How Google Is Throwing Sand In Apple's Face

  8th May 2013 16:04

  Guest author Derek Brown is a technology executive and analyst who blogs at One Blind Squirrel. Yesterday at the playground, Google threw a handful of sand in Apple’s eye. With a subtle, yet powerful update to its Gmail for iOS app, links to YouTube, Google Maps and Chrome now go directly to those relevant apps (if installed), instead of the mobile web. In my view, this is an absolutely brilliant backdoor play through which Google can not only neutralize Apple, but…

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  The Internet May Not Be Doing Our Brains Much Good [Video]

  8th May 2013 15:30

  Working on the Internet every day, you start to have certain suspicions about how it affects the way you think and process information. Turns out, there's something to that. Readers of Nicholas Carr's 2010 book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains will certainly confirm this. While the Internet is a fantastic tool to conduct business and communicate with friends and colleagues, the constant distractions can and do have an interruptive effect on how we think and…

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  Dear Nintendo: Give Me Super Mario On My iPhone Already

  7th May 2013 20:55

  Dear Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata,  I write to you not as a know-it-all tech analysis pontificator or even a hardcore gamer. I'm just a guy who spent his childhood Saturday afternoons hunting for 8-bit Warp Whistles and Tanooki Suits in Super Mario Bros 3 for Nintendo. And I have a simple idea.  As you know, Nintendo hasn't been doing so well lately. Your recently-revealed plans to bring smartphone-style apps to the Wii U represent a step in the right direction.…

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  OpenStreetMap: The Maps In Your Apps Are About To Get A Lot Better

  7th May 2013 19:26

  On Tuesday, OpenStreetMap significantly lowered the barrier to creating fully share-able map data. With the launch of a new editor for the open source mapping platform, its freely available mapping data will be improved upon even faster, leading to more accurate and detailed mapping information in the many apps and services that reply on it. Starting today, anyone who wants to update OpenStreetMap can use iD Editor as one of their tool choices, alongside the existing Potlatch 2 in-browser editor. Both editors…

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  Twitter Lawyer Tapped As First White House Chief Privacy Officer

  7th May 2013 18:57

  The White House tapped Twitter legal director Nicole Wong as its first chief privacy officer, CNET reported. Wong, a Silicon Valley legal veteran, had only been at Twitter about six months; she was previously at Google for eight years. It's not entirely clear what the White House chief privacy officer will do. Cabinet-level CPOs are generally tasked with ensuring that their departments follow federal rules for the handling of personal information (see, for instance, these authority and responsibilities of the Homeland Security…

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  Adobe Just Killed Your Ability To Pirate Photoshop

  6th May 2013 22:24

  Well, it was fun while it lasted. Countless students, artists and overall cheapskates who have long enjoyed using Adobe's Creative Suite software without paying for it will soon have to pony up. Adobe is formally moving the latest versions of Photoshop and related design and production software to the cloud — specifically, to Adobe's newly dubbed "Creative Cloud" — where they will only be available via monthly subscription.  It's a smart business move for Adobe, who stands to receive a…

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  Surface Will Top iPad? What The Heck Is Bill Gates Smoking?

  6th May 2013 21:37

  In a CNBC interview interview aired on Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates suggests that Windows 8 and Microsoft's Surface tablet line could ultimately dethrone Apple's iPad from its global tablet crown because iPad "users are frustrated."  Yikes! I guess Gates has access to the really good stuff. Office Should Be Everywhere Last month, I took Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to task for delaying the arrival of Microsoft Office productivity suite on devices running Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating system. I was hoping…