Tech Biz

Multiple Windows 9 reports have suggested that Microsoft is considering releasing the upcoming platform as a free download to certain existing Windows users. Some said that Windows 8 will get Windows 9 free of charge, while others claimed the company is also considering some sort of special offers for existing Windows XP users. A report Continue Reading →

Another Windows 7 cutoff approaches. After October 31, Microsoft will no longer provide its PC partners or systems builders with copies of Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium or Ultimate to preinstall on new PCs. This means that computer manufacturers will be able to continue to sell their stock of PCs running these versions of Continue Reading →

IBM’s Watson natural language query/cognitive computing prodigy was a huge PR coup for Big Blue. Three years ago, Watson defeated Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings on national TV and beat other challengers like a drum on a subsequent victory tour. (Ask Gigaom’s own Stacey Higginbotham about that sometime.) IBM rode that wave for years to show Continue Reading →

PayPal said today that a subset of North American merchants that accept payments online using PayPal can now accept bitcoin as a payment method, too. Bitcoin acceptance will be limited to those merchants that use Paypal to sell digital goods, such as ringtones, games and media. These sellers will have to sign up with one Continue Reading →

Can’t afford your own 3-D printer? Just head to the UPS Store. UPS announced plans Monday to bring in-store 3-D-printing services to nearly 100 stores across the country, billing itself as the first national retailer to do so. With the UPS system, customers can submit their own designs for objects like product prototypes, engineering parts Continue Reading →

Microsoft has announced a new self-serve program for students at eligible schools that allows them to sign up for a free Office 365 license on their own. The offer is available first in the US and will roll out globally later this year. The new program builds on the Student Advantage initiative that launched last Continue Reading →

It’s still nearly impossible to get HBO, or any other pay-TV channel, without subscribing to a pay-TV package that gives you a bundle of channels, whether you want them or not. But the people who sell you TV are starting to tinker with the model, at least at the margins. Several pay-TV providers, for instance, Continue Reading →

Kickstarter announced several updates late Friday to its terms of use and policies for crowdfunded projects, according to a blog post at the company’s site. The terms of use are not changing much about the spirit of the platform, but the update provides more detailed guidelines for setting expectations, both between Kickstarter and users, and Continue Reading →

  When Alibaba stopped trading its shares on Friday, the Chinese e-commerce company had officially logged the biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in US history, raising $21.8 billion in its first day on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s earnings give it a market capitalization of over $200 billion, “putting it among the 20 Continue Reading →

Data is more powerful in the presence of other data. That is a hard, fast, immutable law. But what do you do when you run out of first party data (the data you collect yourself)? Or, what if you simply don’t have enough meaningful data to build the model you need for your particular program? Continue Reading →