Friday’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Google Now and speech recognition get big updates in Android 4.4 KitKat: Over the past year and a half Google’s steadily added new features and cards to its predictive search assistant, Google Now. With Android 4. – by Dante D’Orazio – http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/31/5051458/android-kit-kat-bring-big-updates-to-google-now-and-speech-recognition

Google’s Nexus 5 with KitKat available today, starting at $349: hands-on impressions: Google’s Nexus program has a simple goal: make the best, purest, most perfect Android phone. And, beginning with last year’s Nexus 4, Google did all that at a remarkable price, charging with no strings attached what most carriers and manufacturers would charge with a two-year contract. – by Dieter Bohn – http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/31/5049068/googles-nexus-5-with-android-kit-kat-available-today-starting-349/in/4815723

Be like Gillette: Why software is the razor blade of hardware companies: The most successful hardware companies are the ones that look a lot like Gillette. Consider Dropcam, for example. – by Devindra Hardawar – http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/31/be-like-gillette-why-software-is-the-razor-blade-of-hardware-companies/

Twitter Introduces Fine-Tuning Options To MagicRecs Recommendations Via DM: Twitter did an interesting thing this morning with its @magicrecs recommendation service. It introduced a text-based menu system that you access via DM, which lets you tune the recommendations that you get via push notification or message. – by Matthew Panzarino – http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/twitter-introduces-fine-tuning-options-to-magicrecs-recommendations-via-dm/

Networked Intelligent Bicycles Are Transforming Urban Riding – ReadWrite: The world’s first open source piece of hardware was the bicycle, according to the Open Source Hardware Association. To be more precise, it was the draisine, introduced as a two-wheeled human-propelled walking machine in 1817. – http://readwrite.com/2013/10/31/bicycles-intelligent-network

Coast Guard visits mysterious ‘Google barge’: Natalie DiBlasio hosts NewsBreak covering the ‘Google Barge’ mystery. SAN FRANCISCO — The Coast Guard on Wednesday visited the mysterious “Google barge” floating in San Francisco Bay, but the agency would not reveal anything about the tech giant’s hush-hush vessel. – by Michael Winter, USA TODAY – http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/30/coast-guard-visits-mysterious-google-barge/3318347/

Google Fiber app gains new DVR features, now on iPhone and iPod Touch: For the lucky few who’ve signed on to Google’s Fiber TV service, you’re about to get a few more goodies coming your way. – by Nicole Lee – http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/30/google-fiber-app-dvr-iphone-ipod/

Hyperloop Startup Lands Major Partners and Unveils Official Name: The idea for the hyperloop has been floating around since 2012, back when Telsa and SpaceX founder Elon Musk first came up with the next-gen transportation concept. – by Adario Strange – http://mashable.com/2013/10/31/hyperloop-startup-lands-major-partners-and-unveils-official-name/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.