Aaron Pressman

Amazon’s Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts

whatever.scalzi.com — The Twitters are abuzz today about Amazon's new "Kindle Worlds" program, in which people are allowed to write and then sell through Amazon their fan fiction for certain properties owned by Alloy Entertainment, including Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, with more licenses expected soon.

Possible wireless cards for next-gen Macs show 802.11ac connectivity

appleinsider.com — Ahead of an expected refresh of Apple's Mac lineup, images of what appear to be the wireless cards that could go into those computers have appeared online with potential support for high-speed 802.11ac connectivity. The images showed up on Monday on TonyMacX86. The card shown in the images is a Broadcom BCM94360CD PCI-E mini custom combo WLAN+Bluetooth card.

Phone Firms Sell Data on Customers

online.wsj.com — Big phone companies have started to sell the data they gather about subscribers' locations, travels and Web-browsing habits, providing a powerful tool for marketers but raising new privacy concerns.

Amazon’s new Kindle Worlds gives authors a way to sell fan fiction without legal hassles

paidcontent.org — 50 Shades of Grey, which started out as Twilight-inspired fan fiction, raised a few copyright questions that didn't stop it from selling millions and millions of copies. But when a work is more directly based on another author's creation - using the same characters and setting, for instance - the legal hurdles can be greater.

Google's Impressive "Conversational Search" Goes Live On Chrome

searchengineland.com — The "conversational search" that Google demonstrated at last week's Google I/O conference is now available to users of its Chrome browser, and it's a significant leap in how we use search engines. I'm 17 years now into writing about search, and I've seen all types of things that have promised to revolutionize the space, especially [...]

Apple Tax Bill Overstated to Investors

online.wsj.com — Apple Inc.'s real tax bill isn't as big as the one it reports to its investors. Among the findings of an investigation by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations are figures that show Apple's reported taxes substantially exceed the sum it actually pays the U.S. Treasury.

HTC in disarray: staff departures, 'disastrous' First, and production problems cloud company's future

theverge.com — HTC CEO Peter Chou The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera.

Olympics - The silver medal

youtube.com — Snippet of Jerry Seinfeld's hilarious stand-up comedy on the Olympics