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Friday

Hard-Core And Casual Gamers Play In Different Worlds

Kelly Kelley, who goes by the gaming pseudonym MrsViolence, streams her play nightly for her many fans to watch. Twitch.TV screenshot hide caption

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Twitch.TV screenshot

The Industry

Hard-Core And Casual Gamers Play In Different Worlds

Turnstyle

Among gamers, there's a great schism between the casual players who poke away at their cellphones and hard-core devotees who pound at controllers and keyboards for hours at a time. Game makers are trying hard to target both thriving groups.

Hard-Core And Casual Gamers Play In Different Worlds

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Monday

Is It The End Of The Line For The Landline?

A lineman grounds a line on a replacement pole in McNeill, Miss., after 2012 Christmas day storms downed both telephone and electric power lines and poles throughout the state. Upkeep on traditional landlines is expensive, and some are pushing for relaxing requirements that phone companies maintain these lines. Rogelio V. Solis/AP hide caption

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Rogelio V. Solis/AP

The Industry

Is It The End Of The Line For The Landline?

The U.S. landline network was once the best in the world. But these days, phone companies see them as a burden, an old technology too expensive to maintain. AT&T wants to start replacing the system with cheaper options. Some call it a hasty abandonment of the tried-and-true traditional network.

Is It The End Of The Line For The Landline?

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Friday

Thursday

A prototype of a flexible battery from Imprint Energy, one of 40 companies working on battery technology in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A prototype of a flexible battery from Imprint Energy, one of 40 companies working on battery technology in the San Francisco Bay Area. Imprint Energy hide caption

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Imprint Energy

All Tech Considered

Electric Cars Drive Demand For Cheaper, More Powerful Batteries

KQED

Unlike the technologies in laptops, smartphones and electric cars, the batteries inside them have been slow to evolve. In Silicon Valley, more than 40 companies are working on finding a battery breakthrough. And they're facing international competition.

Electric Cars Drive Demand For Cheaper, More Powerful Batteries

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Friday

Thursday

Nick Bilton On Twitter's Creation Myth & 'Forgotten Founder'

A worker unveils a floor mat bearing the logo of Twitter on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Andrew Burton/Getty Images hide caption

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Andrew Burton/Getty Images

The Industry

Nick Bilton On Twitter's Creation Myth & 'Forgotten Founder'

Thursday's stock darling was an idea that came out of one man's loneliness. Bilton shares details of the betrayals and ousters during Twitter's earliest days.

Nick Bilton On Twitter's Creation Myth & 'Forgotten Founder'

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Tuesday

One Reason Twitter's Confident About Its Ad Possibilities

Twitter announced that it has set a price range for its initial public offering between $17 and $20 per share and hopes to sell 70 million shares. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Industry

One Reason Twitter's Confident About Its Ad Possibilities

The social media giant that made its name on 140-character messages is set to debut on the New York Stock Exchange this week. These numbers help explain why the company is bullish about making millions in advertising.

Wednesday

Tuesday

Etsy's New Policy Means Some Items Are 'Handmade In Spirit'

Rae Padulo creates handmade ceramics, like these holiday ornaments, for her Etsy-based company, mudstar ceramics. She's disappointed with the site's new policy to allow outsourced manufacturing. "There's nothing wrong with factory-made," she says, but "that's not what Etsy started out to be." Courtesy of Rae Padulo hide caption

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Courtesy of Rae Padulo

The Industry

Etsy's New Policy Means Some Items Are 'Handmade In Spirit'

Online marketplace Etsy is a hive for creative vendors selling handmade goods. But the site recently said it will allow sellers to outsource their manufacturing. Some vendors with growing businesses are delighted at this news; others feel Etsy is abandoning its small enterprises.

Etsy's New Policy Means Some Items Are 'Handmade In Spirit'

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Friday

Thursday

A Diagram Of HealthCare.gov, Based On The People Who Built It

An attempt to draw out the various parts of HealthCare.gov's tech system, based on the testimony of its contractors. Elise Hu/NPR hide caption

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Elise Hu/NPR

Policy

A Diagram Of HealthCare.gov, Based On The People Who Built It

We used the testimonies of the biggest contractors involved with the HealthCare.gov application system to create this guide to how the site's various parts work together, and how the complex system for registering you for health insurance is supposed to work.

A Diagram Of HealthCare.gov, Based On The People Who Built It

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Friday

Tech Week That Was: Surveillance Scope, Apple's Retail Hire

Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts is moving to Apple, where she will head the company's retail division. Mark Lennihan/AP hide caption

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Mark Lennihan/AP

The Industry

Tech Week That Was: Surveillance Scope, Apple's Retail Hire

This week's tech news was dominated by revelations about NSA data collection and Apple's hire of Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. And ongoing problems with sign-up for new health exchanges got us thinking about how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs would have approached the project differently.

Tuesday

A Company's Tweets Can Help Make It Creditworthy
Courtesy of Kabbage

The Industry

A Company's Tweets Can Help Make It Creditworthy

Banks use credit scores and similar metrics to assess creditworthiness. A company called Kabbage that lends working capital to small businesses does some of that but also relies on unconventional measures, using real-time data from things like UPS shipments, eBay, Facebook and Twitter.

A Company's Tweets Can Help Make It Creditworthy

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Friday

Monday

Wanted: A New Generation Of High-Tech Aviation Workers

The Wright Brothers Flyer lifts off in Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903. Now 110 years later, a thriving aviation industry is looking to fill jobs in high-tech manufacturing. AP hide caption

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AP

The Industry

Wanted: A New Generation Of High-Tech Aviation Workers

WUNC

Millions of U.S. factory jobs have been lost in the past decade. Now, in North Carolina, high school students are being encouraged to think about taking manufacturing jobs. But this isn't the furniture-making or textile labor of generations past — it's a new kind of highly technical work in aviation.

Wanted: A New Generation Of High-Tech Aviation Workers

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