Menu

Technology

Amazon's Bezos now fourth-richest in world

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos(Photo: The Guardian)SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon stock rose $23 a share Tuesday, making founder Jeff Bezos worth $2 billion more dollars and hiking his total worth up to $61.2 billion.That put him in fourth place as the world's richest person, according to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Billionaires list.Amazon stock (AMZN[1]) closed at $703.07 Tuesday.It also narrows the gap between Bezos, 52, and number three on the list, investor Warren Buffett, 85.Buffett, the world's third richest person, was worth $67.9 billion on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/27bYrS9References^ AMZN (finance.yahoo.com)...
Read more...

Coming out as a woman in venture capital: opinion

Magdalena Yesil, founder of San Francisco-based investing group Broadway Angels.(Photo: Magdalena Yesil for USA TODAY)It was standing room only at the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco one evening in April.Kate Mitchell, partner and co-founder of Scale Ventures and co-chair of the National Venture Capital Association’s Diversity Task Force, jumpstarted the conversation about why she has taken a leadership role aimed at reducing the gender gap in the technology world. “I decided it was time for me to come out as a woman,” she says. The men roared with laughter, the women nodded in agreement.Like Kate, I’ve been the only woman in the room in venture capital for over a decade. And I’m done blending in.I was the first investor and the first board member of Salesforce.com in 1999. I committed to supporting founder Marc Benioff because I believed that cloud computing would be the way of the future. He wanted to work with me because of my twenty-year track record in technology.For me and other VC women, there’s no longer a reason to neutralize our gender, or keep it under wraps. We are few in numbers – just 6% of VCs according to data compiled by Fortune Magazine[1] – but we make impeccable decisions. We’ve been some of the first behind Tesla Motors, NetZero, F5, DNA Direct, One Kings Lane and Acme Packet, among so many others.Salesforce came in a chapter in my career when I didn’t need to share credit with a co-leader to gain traction or legitimacy. I had already been a serial entrepreneur with two IPOs and an acquisition, and an investment partner at a major venture capital firm. I had a family of young children at home and believed that it was not an oxymoron to be a great mother, a savvy software engineer, a…
Read more...

How to choose between Comcast and Verizon for Internet service

Rob Pegoraro, Special for USA TODAY 11:08 a.m. EDT June 19, 2016 Rob Pegoraro walks a reader through the process of choosing between Comcast and Verizon fios for high-speed Internet service.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)Q. I can use Verizon Fios or Comcast for my home Internet. Which one should I go with if I’m going to stream all the TV I watch?A. This reader in a Philadelphia suburb is blessed with a choice of high-speed Internet providers. Most Americans don’t have that such flexibility: Only 46% can pick from two or more providers offering downloads of 25 million bits per second (Mbps), according to a Dec. 2014 report from the Department of Commerce[1].The two obvious factors to consider are speed and price, but what should be a simple comparison often gets complicated by contract terms and expiring promotional discounts.In Verizon’s case, there’s only one speed available at my reader’s address, a 50 Mbps connection that costs $49.99 a month for the first year, then $59.99 a month for the second. It requires a two-year commitment.Comcast, meanwhile, offers a range of speeds that go as high as two gigabits per second. A 25 Mbps connection costs $39.99 a month for the first year but jumps to $66.95 a month after that. No such math comes with Comcast’s 75 and 150 Mbps plans, which cost $79.95 and $82.95 a month each and have no equivalent at Verizon.None of the Philadelphia firm’s Internet offers involve a contract.For streaming high-definition video, 25 Mbps — the definition of broadband[2] that the Federal Communications Commission adopted in January 2015 — should be sufficiently fast. You’d want at least double that for streaming 4K Ultra High Definition movies or TV shows.Over two years, Verizon’s pricing for 50 Mbps service averages $54.99, barely more than the $53.47 average of the…
Read more...

Meet Apple's 12 best app winners

Student developers at the Apple Worldwide Developer's conference say they're ready to bring Siri to the masses, and make the personal digital assistant more useful. Jefferson Graham reports. Student scholarship winners at WWDC(Photo: Martin Klimek)SAN FRANCISCO - What are the greatest, state-of-the-art apps for Apple iPhones, iPads, TVs and the Watch?Apple this week handed out awards to 12 app makers who are stretching the boundaries in what the company calls its Design Awards. The nods are given to put a spotlight on the best and brightest in app world.We sat down with most of the winners for an extended podcast at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) here to talk about their apps, the state of the app world and their take on new app features that Apple introduced at WWDC. Be sure to listen all the way for the bonus at the end, when we asked each of the developers to name the 5-7 apps they use on their phones every day.First, the winners:--Complete Anatomy[1] is a free app for the iPad, offering 3D visualizations that “utterly transforms the way people can learn about the human body,” says Apple.--Streaks[2] is a $4 to do list for iPhones and the Watch that looks to build good habits into a daily routine. Get notifications about everything for walking the dog to going to the gym.--Zova[3] is a free workout companion, primarily aimed at Apple TV, with high-resolution workout videos.--Frame.IO[4] is a free tool for video collaboration, to offer review notes and feedback.--Ulysses[5] is the most expensive app on the list, at $45, and is a text editor that aims to be a less bulky version of MS Word.--The $2 Chameleon Run [6]game is a race for the iPhone and iPad, but really shines on Apple TV, where you can use the Siri…
Read more...
Subscribe to this RSS feed