Articles
April 26, 2011
Dark Week: Sony and the PlayStation Outage
There is an outage this week, and the outage is the network: the PlayStation Network that Sony took down on Wednesday after detecting an intrusion. The outage is the shock, and the shock is the disclosure: personal data from up to 77 million accounts, exposed in a breach among the largest ever disclosed. The questions began that day: who is inside, what was taken, when will the games come back. The Dark Week is the April 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: the platform that trusted its users, the data that was stolen, the security that every service must prove.
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March 3, 2011
Thinner, Lighter, Faster: Apple Unveils iPad 2
There is a second this week, and the second is the iPad: the iPad 2 that Steve Jobs unveiled on Wednesday. The second is the sequel, and the sequel is the statement: the tablet that made the category, back to defend it. The second is thinner and faster, with cameras front and back, at the same 499 dollars. The press asked this week: can anyone catch Apple? The answer begins now. The second is the March 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: the tablet that became a category, the sequel that became the standard, the race that is only beginning.
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February 10, 2011
Dollar for Dollar: Bitcoin Hits Parity
This week, a digital currency with no issuer and no government reached one dollar for the first time. On Wednesday, February 9, one bitcoin traded for one dollar on Mt. Gox, and the milestone was celebrated across the forums and blogs of the believers. The price had climbed from roughly thirty cents in late 2010. The currency was the creation of an anonymous developer, Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known and an identity unknown. The moment is the February 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: value does not need a government, and the internet's currency grows up quietly, one dollar at a time.
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January 7, 2011
Single Click: Apple Opens the Mac App Store
There is a store this week, and the store is the software: the Mac App Store that Apple opened on Thursday, delivered through the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update. The store is the promise: the desktop that works like the iPhone, the apps that arrive with one click, the updates that install themselves. The questions began that day: would the developers follow, would the big vendors come. The store is the January 2011 story, and the story is the lesson: the Mac that becomes an app platform, the desktop that gets a store, the software that moves to the cloud of clicks.
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December 3, 2010
# The Offer: Google Courts Groupon
There is a courtship this week, and the courtship is the offer: the six billion dollars that Google was ready to pay for Groupon, the daily deals site from Chicago. The courtship is the talk: the reports that ran on Friday, the number that stunned the industry, the price that would have been the largest acquisition Google ever attempted. The questions began that day: why pay so much, why say no, what is local worth. The questions are the December 2010 story, and the story is the lesson: the local Google wants, the list Groupon built, the no that changed the land grab.
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November 5, 2010
# The Controller: Microsoft Kinect Ships
There is a controller shipped this week, and the controller is none at all: the Kinect that Microsoft put on sale for the Xbox 360 on Thursday, the hands-free motion controller that needs no controller, the camera that watches the whole body and answers to a wave. The controller is the story: the launch across North America, the reported half a billion dollar marketing campaign behind it, the gesture that the living room has been waiting for.
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October 14, 2010
# The Filter: Instagram Arrives
There is an arrival this week, and the arrival is the filter: the free iPhone app that appeared on the App Store on Wednesday, the photo sharing that took the camera in everyone's pocket seriously, the square format that made every picture look good. The arrival is the story: the two former Google engineers, the check-in app that became a camera, the tens of thousands of users on day one, the six figures within the week, the million photos that followed. The filter is the October 2010 story, and the story is the lesson: the photo app that arrived, the social network that was born, the camera phone that finally had its moment.
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September 2, 2010
# The Bidding: HP and Dell Fight for 3Par
There is a fight this week, and the fight is the bidding: the two weeks in which Dell and Hewlett-Packard chased the storage maker 3PAR, the offers that crossed in the night, the price that more than doubled, the $33 per share that HP agreed to pay on Thursday, the $2.35 billion that won the prize. The fight is the first great bidding war of the cloud era, and the war is the signal: storage and the datacenter were strategic, the cash-rich technology companies were spending again, the crisis hangover was over. The bidding war is the September 2010 story, and the story is the lesson: the storage maker that became the prize, the commodity hardware that the buyers were trying to escape, the two weeks that changed the price of the datacenter.
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August 19, 2010
# The Security: Intel Buys McAfee
There is a bet made this week, and the bet is the security: the 7.68 billion dollars that Intel promised for McAfee on Thursday. The bet is the biggest deal in the chipmaker's history, and the acquisition is the argument: the security that had to move into the hardware, the antivirus that had to live in the chip. The questions began that day: why would the biggest chipmaker of the PC era buy a software security company, was the premium too high, would the regulators approve. The 7.68 billion dollar bet is the August 2010 story, and the story is the lesson: the security that became the third pillar of computing, the defense that moved beneath the operating system, the deal that changed what a chip company is.
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July 26, 2010
# The Exchange: Bitcoin Finds a Price
On Sunday, in the middle of a quiet July, a programmer who had never met the inventor of Bitcoin launched the first real market for the digital currency, and almost no one noticed. The programmer, Jed McCaleb, built the exchange in a weekend after reading about Bitcoin on Slashdot, and the exchange was called Mt. Gox, a name carried over from his earlier project, the Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange. The exchange is the July 2010 story, and the story is the lesson: the ideas that change the world often begin as weekend projects, crude and unnoticed, built by people the world has never heard of.
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