Posts Tagged ‘Technology’
Welcome to Larry Page’s Flying Car Factories
A summer 2016 cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek on Larry Page’s secret flying car skunkworks with my pal Ashlee Vance.
Read MoreGrading the Kindle Fire as Amazon’s Tablet Turns Two
Two years ago, Bezos introduced the original Kindle Fire at one of those stereotypical press confabs in New York City. That first device was in many respects a dud. Now Amazon is taking on Google and Apple in the tablet market.
Read MoreAmazon Unveils New Kindle Readers
For the last six years, Amazon has constructed a nearly unbreakable hold on the digital-reading market, thanks in part to the company’s Kindle e-readers—and its ability to weave together attractive new features that broaden the reading experience.
Read MoreWhy Hasn’t the Web Changed the Real Estate Business?
The Internet has eliminated travel agents, decimated classified ads, depressed stock brokers, and taken the swagger out of car dealers, but it hasn’t dented the fortunes of real estate brokers.
Read MoreBattered Dreams, Battered Dreamliner
The grounding of the Boeing 787 was in many respects inevitable for a project marked by narrowed visions and provides a dispiriting example of the shrinking tolerance for risk among corporate executives and government regulators.
Read MoreFlight of the Warbots
AeroVironment was founded in 1971 by Paul MacCready, a legend in aerospace engineering and meteorology. MacCready obsessed with unconventional planes that flew without conventional fuel. In 1977 he created the Gossamer Condor, a pedal-powered craft made of piano wire, Mylar, and old bike parts. Now his company is a leader in unmanned aerial vehicles.
Read MoreHacker vs Hacker: the HB Gary Story
The HB Gary saga—involving a high-powered Washington (D.C.) law firm, the Justice Dept., and the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks—hasn’t just been entertaining geek theater but a rare look into the esoteric realm of cyber-security.
Read MorePart 2: An E-Commerce Empire From Porn to Puppies
In 2008, Alex Becker helped me with a followup story into a man named Richard Gordon, who had ties to Stickam and the Japanese pornographers and also to politics, Christian philanthropies and a “charity” called the SPCA International. Here’s that second story in the New York Times, which caused the American Bible Society to not…
Read MorePart 1: Accuser Says Web Site Has X-Rated Links
In July 2007, Alex Becker emailed me with a story to tell. He claimed that the social network Stickam, which catered to American teens, was secretly owned by a Japanese pornography company. I visited him in Los Angeles, where I met his wife and friends. They snuck me into the Stickam headquarters on the top…
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