Archive: Tech

Entries in this category going back awhile
 

SpaceX launches - and lands - a rocket

spacex-landing.jpg On the third try, SpaceX brings back the Falcon 9 and lands it on a pad at Cape Canaveral. Video inside.

Amazon opening a real bookstore today in Seattle

amazon-books-store.jpg Twenty years later, Amazon has decided what it really needs is a physical, brick and mortar retail store to sell books.

Computer science now the top major for women at Stanford

stanford-students-file.jpg In the heart of Silicon Valley, a milestone has been reached. Plus more progress at Harvey Mudd.

Uber gets almost-green light to pick up at LAX

LAX-terminal2-parking.jpg The City Council says OK but there are some official hurdles still to jump.

Can LA County solve America's voting problem?

ballots-received-laco.jpg Los Angeles is getting credit for trying to fix the technology side of the old-fashioned and embarrassing way that the U.S. conducts elections.

BuzzFeed releases long-discussed news app

buzzfeed-news-app-grab.jpg "We know a lot about the 25 million people who visit BuzzFeed News each month," says the site. "We know young people are into news."

Hyperloop hoop

hyperloop-hoop.jpg Looks as if the Hyperloop engineers have made themselves at home in the Arts District.

Dave Goldberg's legacy in the music business

dave-goldberg.jpg The Survey Monkey chief executive who reportedly died outside the U.S. while on vacation with his wife -- no details have been released -- was a pioneer in bringing digital music to the Internet.

Tech website Gigaom shuts down immediately

gigaom-grab.jpg "Business, much like life, is not a movie and not everyone gets to have a story book ending," founder Om Malik posted.

Jeb Bush's LA tech guy resigns over smarmy digital past

ethan-czahor-twitter.jpg "While Ethan has apologized for regrettable and insensitive comments, they do not reflect the views of Governor Bush or his organization and it is appropriate for him to step aside."
internet-service-grafic.jpg A new report concludes that LA "has among the slowest, most expensive internet services in the industrialized world."

Hang in there, the Apple hype is almost over (this time)

apple-com-grab-9914.jpg Walt Mossberg, the former Wall Street Journal tech columnist now writing for the start-up Re/Code, sort of parodies the hype and sort of joins in outside the Apple store in downtown Palo Alto.

LA Times reporter says au revoir to Silicon Valley

sock-puppet-obrien-crop.jpg Silicon Valley "is one of the most amazing places on the planet," says Chris O'Brien on his way to three years in France.

New LA Times tech editor will work from Bay Area

Russ Mitchell will guide coverage of Silicon Valley and tech companies, and write for the paper's Tech Now blog.

Zócalo Book Prize to Ethan Zuckerman

rewire-cover-zocalo.jpg "Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection" is in the view of the judges 2013’s most illuminating and compelling nonfiction book about community and human connectedness.

Deluxe Laboratories to close Hollywood film processing shop

deluxe-film-lab.jpg Deluxe has been a major player in the production of movies on film and in digital post-production. But film is fading away.

Dawn Chmielewski leaving LAT entertainment and tech team

dawn-chm-twitter.jpg Chmielewski will join ex-Wall Street Journal tech writers Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at Re/Code.

Garcetti appoints a city innovation technology chief

peter-marx-meg.jpg Peter Marx has been vice president of business development at Qualcomm Labs and vice president of the technology and digital studio at Mattel.

Gender and the female journalist who dares read the Internet

Nasty online bullying of women affects many people who you know. When it's aimed at journalists, it seeks to intimidate and silence.

Turns out Uber can cost its victims more than a limo ride

metro-cab-taxi-lao.jpg Uber charged a woman $357 for a Saturday evening ride from the Westside to Hollywood. But it's an app so it must be cool, right? Taxis are looking better.

Siri versus Hawaiian pidgin (video)

siri-pidgin.jpg Breaking my posting fast with a short video.

New York Times writers can now say 'email' and 'website'

nyt-newsroom.jpg The Times updates its style guide to the use of tech terms and more. The stylebook itself may become public.

Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher split with WSJ

walt-mossberg-twitter.jpg Mossberg and Swisher say they will continue writing about tech after the contract for AllThingsD runs out at the end of the year. No details, however.

About Musk's Hyperloop? Hiltzik's not buying it

hyperlooptube-sf-la.jpg There's no evidence that it would be cheaper than the California high-speed train, and plenty of reason to believe it would cost more. And besides, why spend $68 billion to subsidize the transport of the few who need to get from the East Bay to the West Valley in half an hour?

Silicon Valley, then and now

palo-alto-dt.jpg In the opening of a piece that is mostly about Silicon Valley techheads venturing into politics, the New Yorker's George Packer describes the changes being wrought in San Francisco and the peninsula communities south of the city by the new wealth of Silicon Valley's current occupants. Interesting, stark contrasts observed by a local.

Our Malibu beaches series becomes an app

malibu-trespass-sign.jpg Jenny Price's posts revealing the secrets of how to get onto Malibu beaches despite the efforts of residents to keep you out have been some of the most popular entries ever at LA Observed's Native Intelligence blog. Now she's turning Malibu's hidden beaches into an iPhone app.

Aaron Swartz, tech prodigy was 26

aaron-swartz-boingboing.jpg Aaron Swartz, who as a teenager helped create RSS, then went on to become a folk hero for Internet users who believe information should be free online, was found hanged in his New York City apartment. He had faced a federal trial on charges of wire fraud and computer fraud in connection with the downloading of millions of documents from an MIT database.

Vice magazine claims to be traveling with McAfee

mcafee-guatemala-vice.jpg A crew from Vice posted photos this morning reported to be of on-the-run former tech pioneer John McAfee and his 20-year-old girlfriend from Belize, Sam, meeting with a lawyer in Guatemala City.

LA Times hires an Apple reporter in Silicon Valley

The newest technology business reporter at the Times is Chris O'Brien, who comes from the San Jose Mercury. The memo to the newsroom from Business Editor Marla Dickerson.

McAfee tale just gets weirder

mcafee-sam.jpg Former Silicon Valley software millionaire John McAfee remains at large and wanted for questioning about a murder in his adopted country of Belize. But Monday was a busy day on his blog, where claims to be keeping an eye on his home and the movements of police and news media while in disguise and a fugitive with his young girlfriend Samantha.

City Hall workers told to stop watching Olympics on the net

olympic-gymnast.jpg All that live streaming on the job threatens to melt down the city's computer system, so please stop, LA's chief technology officer pleads.

David Brancaccio gets another 'Marketplace' show

brancaccio-apm.jpg Many of us still remember David Brancaccio as the host of LA-based "Marketplace," and now he will be host of "Marketplace Tech Report." He'll be doing the tech report from New York City.

Schwarzenegger speaks up for Venice's fear of Google

where-are-we-venice-boardwa.jpg Arnold tells the New York Times' Adam Nagourney that he understands why the bodybuilder community fears being pushed out of Venice by the Google hordes. The company's expansion plans may include the building that houses Gold's Gym. "As soon as I walked in, they said: ‘You heard about Google?'"

Microsoft makes media line up in Hollywood

microsoft-line-wsj.jpg Today's oddly timed and poorly choreographed reveal by Microsoft of a new tablet computer took place at the Milk Studios in Hollywood.

What new device will Microsoft announce in LA today?

xbox-dashboard.jpg Most media outlets that have written stories pegged to Microsoft's plans for a secretive, 3:30 p.m., invitation-only presser in Los Angeles agree that the subject will be a new tablet computer. But the real story is in the details.

Zuckerberg updates status to 'Married'

zuckerberg-married-timeline.jpg Instead of the Saturday graduation party they thought they were attending, invited guests at Mark Zuckerberg's home in Palo Alto saw the Facebook founder and his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, get married.
santa-monica-sidewalk-meter.jpg The city bills the new parking meters as smarter and cooler. For drivers, though, they foretell some expensive lessons in how you can't cheat technology. Get ready for more tickets.

Watch an iPad get made in the Chinese factory

foxconn-schmitz.JPGMarketplace Shanghai Bureau Rob Schmitz got inside the giant Foxconn complex in China where Apple's devices are made. First off, he says, don't call it a factory.

Harvey Mudd turns around ebb in female computer scientists

maria+klawe+skateboard.jpg The president of the college gets credit for drawing more women into computer science, the main STEM field where they were most obviously lagging.

Video: Be careful who you give an iPad

German dad helps out with the cooking.

Video: A better day to be at the Apple store

Maybe it's just me, but I'd prefer to be there on the day the hula flash mob drops in.

Familiar reporter uncovers lies about Apple

cathy-lee-china-mktplace.jpg Rob Schmitz, the "Marketplace" correspondent in Shanghai who is being hailed today for debunking "This American Life's" big January report on working conditions at plants Apple uses in China, used to be the Los Angeles reporter for KQED and "The California Report."

Video: Sheriff shows off new high-tech patrol car at CES

Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is in Las Vegas talking up the electronic features of a black-and-white developed for the county by Raytheon.

Rocket Video's manager mourns loss of the store

In a piece titled My Store Just Died, Jeffrey Miller writes at Zócalo Public Square about being manager of "the last great independent video rental store in the city of Los Angeles."

BlackBerries working again, or so they say

As of 1:43 p.m., Blackberries in L.A. are texting and beeping again. But it was tense there for awhile.

LA Observed on KCRW: Nerds and surfers in the blue sky metropolis

The line of California nerd-dom remains unbroken from Howard Hughes and hotrodders to Steve Jobs and the aerospace engineers who made surfing culture possible.

Steve Jobs was no friend of journalists

time-jobscover.jpg James Rainey visits the less appealing side of Steve Jobs, plus biographer Walter Isaacson on the late Apple co-founder.

Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford

On life and death, among other topics.

Kevin Mitnick's book lands

kevin-mitnick-twitter.jpg Mitnick is, I think, the most famous or notorious computer cracker (and hacker) to come out of the L.A. area.

Science writer Thomas Maugh retiring from L.A. Times

latentrance.jpg The current wave of departures from the Los Angeles Times newsroom isn't nearly over.

Why one journalist won't buy another Mac *

Dan Gillmor typically buys a new computer every year, and loves his MacBook Air.

AP updates its Steve Jobs advance obit, Apple not happy

The Associated Press made calls to some top executives in Hollywood looking for quotes to freshen up the prepared obituary on Apple's Steve Jobs.

Reporter posts AOL 'request' to be nicer to movie *

jake-alexia.jpg File this in the corner of your mind where you're a least a little concerned about editorial standards at the new AOL.
New at LA Observed
Clinton fundraises in LA
kermit-la-brea-closer.jpg Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
porter-ranch-sign.jpgThe natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Wet coyote
wet-coyote-vdt.jpgSpotted between the storms at Here in Malibu.
Performing arts with cheer
guys-dolls-kevin-parry.jpgDonna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
Junkyard down
upick-firetruck-560.jpgAfter 53 years, Sun Valley's Aadlen Brothers and U-Pick Parts cleans out. Photos