What’s it like to walk down the street wearing a pair of US$1500 futuristic glasses? What steps is Twitter taking to make sure that little hashtag stays on the corner of your TV screen? Why does YouTube always seem to be buffering? What happened to the Nook? And what exactly is Zuckism?
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Curious? These are some of the questions answered by our round up of some of the top tech stories of the week.
Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make — and break — online video
It’s an annoying fact of life for YouTubers who want to watch but have to wait: those first few seconds before a video starts, or when you see that spinning circle that makes you wonder why you have been cursed with a decrepit connection. But, as Ars Technica explains, the reason for slow video speeds may be more complicated — and more dependent on business dealings rarely discussed openly — than you might think.
The End: Barnes & Noble in Silicon Valley
Facing fierce competition from everyone from Amazon to Apple, it’s not secret that Barnes & Noble’s Nook ereaders and tablets haven’t been doing well… but why? Bloomberg tracks the Nook from its genesis to the recent departure of its CEO, chronicling the ill-timed decisions and how one division lost so much money while others were thriving.
O.K., Glass: confessions of a Google Glass explorer
Wonder what it’s like to be one of the early adopters walking around with a video camera / search engine / innovative gadget on your face? Gary Shteyngart tells of his experiences with Glass, from the day he picked out his new wearable tech to his musings about the intersection between technology and humans in the future.
The user numbers are up, along with daily and mobile visits and the stock price — but Facebook’s still fraught with complaints and privacy concerns. Is Facebook just romanticising the fact that it’s using personal connections to make cash, and how will it continue to convince the millions that it cares deeply about them when it ultimately has to answer to investors?
Twittervision: how video + social media will change Twitter (and entertainment)
From the major ad partnerships to Vine and rich embedded content: Twitter’s been busy making sure its a valuable part of what’s going on on your second screen. Variety chats to the key figures and outlines its major turning points on its path to becoming a digital asset for big media.
