RSS

Feeeed is a reader app that goes beyond tracking RSS feeds

In the last 12 months, reader apps have adopted AI to change how users consume news. Instagram co-founders’ now discontinued Artifact introduced AI-powered summaries and headlines. Newer apps li

Housing startup QuintoAndar to open first technology hub outside Brazil in Portugal

The new office will serve as its first in Europe and will be operational in March, initially staffing up to 50 by the end of next year.

Google revives RSS

Chrome, at least in its experimental Canary version on Android (and only for users in the U.S.), is getting an interesting update in the coming weeks that brings back RSS, the once-popular format for

Google’s FeedBurner moves to a new infrastructure but loses its email subscription service

Google today announced that it is moving FeedBurner to a new infrastructure but also deprecating its email subscription service. If you’re an internet user of a certain age, chances are you used

Apple removes two RSS feed readers from China App Store

It looks like Apple is scouring its Chinese App Store for any remaining services that may not sit well with Chinese censors. Two RSS reader apps, Reeder and Fiery Feeds, said this week that their iOS

Mobile gaming is a $68.5 billion global business, and investors are buying in

By the end of 2019, the global gaming market is estimated to be worth $152 billion, with 45% of that, $68.5 billion, coming directly from mobile games.

Carrefour sale shifts the balance of power in China’s new retail battle

Hot on the heels of Amazon’s decision to shutter its local marketplace, Carrefour — another global commerce giant — is switching up its approach to China, and shifting the balance of

Chinese internet giant Tencent suffers a rare profit drop

Tencent, Asia’s most valuable tech firm, delivered a surprise drop in profit on account of lower investment gains. The firm recorded strong growth with revenue up 30 percent year-on-year to reac

Unlock wants to rebuild your feed through a decentralized paywall

The feed has become the all-powerful determiner of success for creators. Facebook, Patreon, Medium and other platforms have amassed considerable power over creation, determining what gets seen, by who

Mobile guru Amol Sarva talks about the future of work

Amol Sarva has done some amazing stuff. The founder of Virgin Mobile, Sarva went on to create the Peek email device created back when cheap, ubiquitous mobile devices were nowhere to be found. Now he

RSS is undead

RSS died. Whether you blame Feedburner, or Google Reader, or Digg Reader last month, or any number of other product failures over the years, the humble protocol has managed to keep on trudging along d

Alas, Digg Reader is shutting down at the end of March

After the death — no, let's not mince words — murder of Google Reader, I tried out a dozen or so other RSS readers to see if I could get a similar experience. Of all the ones I tested, I was very

Tinkerer Jonathan Zufi talks about design and Escape From New York

This week on Technotopia I talked to Jonathan Zufi, creator of the LifeClock One, a replica of the watch worn by Snake Pliskin in Escape From New York. Zufi loves design and his insight on what makes

Author Nick Montfort tells us how to define the future

Nick Montfort is a professor in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing and the author of a new book, “The Future.” His book explores “future makers” – people who create the fu

Writer Tobias Stone talks about the history of the future

Tobias Stone blew up Medium in 2016 with his post about Trump and Brexit. The trained historian and philosopher took the lessons of the past and extrapolated what we can expect to see in the next few

Spotify and Tencent agree to swap stakes in their music businesses

Tencent’s overseas investment splurge continues after the company confirmed a deal with Spotify that will see the duo make investments in each other’s music businesses. Tencent Music Enter

Digital ethicist James Williams talks about the rise of bad social media

James Williams is a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. He studies the ethics of attention and persuasion in technology design and spoke with us about the rise of attention-grabbing a

AI pioneer Chris Boos talks about the future of machine learning

This week on Technotopia I talk to Chris Boos, the creator of a bot that can play FreeCiv, a Civilization clone. His solution demonstrates the power of machine learning and, wildly, has beaten multipl

Tencent’s online publishing arm set to raise $1B in Hong Kong IPO

Tencent’s China Literature, an Amazon-like e-book business, is continuing the trend of Asian tech IPOs after it announced its public listing in Hong Kong will raise $1.06 billion on Wednesday. T

Tencent posts record $2.7B profit as mobile game revenue tops PC for first time

Tencent, Asia’s highest valued technology company, posted a record quarterly profit of $2.7 billion (18.2 billion RMB) thanks to explosive growth from mobile games. The firm’s profit in Q2
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