Tech Giants Stand Up for Clean Energy in the Trump Era
Silicon Valley’s attitude toward Donald Trump on the campaign trail was decidedly less than enthusiastic. Sure, contrarian Peter Thiel stood with the loose cannon Republican candidate, but his politics have always leaned further right than most of his colleagues. The vast majority of the tech world viewed Trump with skepticism, uncertain of what his approach […]
Amazon Aims to Conquer New Markets with Physical Stores
Last week, one of Amazon Prime Air’s drones dropped off a small box of sunscreen at an exclusive robotics conference in Palm Springs. The package was small, but the shipment itself was huge: it was the company’s first public drone delivery on U.S. soil. We are now well on our way to a future where […]
Latest Amazon App Update Brings Alexa to the iPhone
Look out, Siri — there’s a new voice on the iPhone, and its name is Alexa. The Amazon app development team included Alexa as part of the latest update of the online shopping behemoth’s app for iOS, marking the first time the company has directly offered the voice-first service on an iPhone. Before this week’s […]
Finally, A “Turk” That Works for Bootstrapped Startups
Algorithms and machine learning are pretty much a given for serious mobile startups these days. Unfortunately, machine learning takes data, and data isn’t always available — at a startup-friendly price point, anyway. A new startup out of India called Playment aims to solve that problem, and their clever solution deserves a spot in any mobile […]
Immigration Ban is a Disaster for the Tech Economy
On January 27, Trump issued an executive order banning immigrants from select Muslim-majority countries. The shock waves are still rolling through the app development community, creating massive political backlash even from actively non-political tech giants. Critics are quick to suggest that tech companies are simply trying to protect H–1B visa programs. Fair point — H-B1 […]
Amazon and Tesla Pledge to Train Veterans for Tech Jobs
The US Department of Labor has joined forces with Amazon, Tesla, and a handful of other leading tech companies to promote an apprenticeship program for veterans and military families. Amazon alone plans to create over 25,000 positions using the program, playing an important role in creating a job market that doesn’t punish veterans for dedicating […]
Could Tech Automation Disrupt 50% of the Job Market?
50% of jobs, wiped out in twenty years. That’s the figure that pundits have been pushing lately — and while it’s largely based on speculation, the fact is that we’re already losing jobs to automation. Quickly. While it’s often presented as a negative thing or a sign of American failures, let’s be honest: if tech […]
Trump Tech Summit to Include Apple, Facebook, and Amazon
It’s no secret that relations between Trump and the tech industry are, well, “strained.” The media mogul and now president elect has blasted the tech world repeatedly throughout his campaign, ironically using Twitter for many of his most serious allegations. Those allegations have included accusing Sandberg of being too concerned with her ego, pushing a […]
Google Debuts API for Image Recognition Tech
Google recently launched a limited preview for Cloud Vision, an API (application programming interface) for their in-house image recognition tech. The debut opens up huge opportunities for mobile app developers eager to introduce sophisticated image recognition to native apps — particularly for Internet of Things app developers, where real-world interactions are so critical. While the service […]
Startup Dojo-Labs Provides Security Device for IoT Systems
When San Francisco-area mobile app developer and security entrepreneur Yossi Atias noticed his daughter taping over the webcam on her laptop, he was struck by a moment of inspiration. Why, he wondered, is our best option for managing a high-tech problem like systems and security hacking a solution as low-tech as a piece of scotch […]