Author: Frank Catalano

Amazon takes stake in major Indian grocery chain, signaling worldwide brick-and-mortar ambitions

by Frank Catalano on September 21, 2018September 21, 2018 at 7:59 amComment

Whole Foods may have been just the start. Amazon and a Mumbai-based private equity firm, through an investment entity, is acquiring a company in India that operates 523 supermarkets and… Read More

What’s not to ‘like?’ Amazon tests machine-learning driven Scout instant recommendation engine

by Frank Catalano on September 19, 2018September 19, 2018 at 12:34 pmComment

It’s a moment familiar to many Amazon shoppers: search or browse, and you’re presented with an overwhelming array of product choices. Sometimes, you freeze. But we all know how to… Read More

Amazon to move past Microsoft for No. 3 spot in advertising revenue, new study finds

by Frank Catalano on September 19, 2018September 19, 2018 at 10:31 amComment

Amazon is on track to displace Microsoft in U.S. advertising revenues this year, joining Google and Facebook as one of the top three digital ad publishers. That’s the conclusion of… Read More

Microsoft launches ‘groundbreaking’ Flagship School initiative with 17 schools globally

by Frank Catalano on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 at 1:54 pmComment

Microsoft is deepening its efforts in education by literally getting in on the ground floor. On Tuesday, it launched its Microsoft Flagship School Program, announcing partnerships with 17 schools around… Read More

Tech Moves: OfferUp hires its first CFO from eBay Americas; Porch adds CMO and two VPs; and more

by Frank Catalano on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 at 8:29 amComment

OfferUp has named its first chief financial officer. The Seattle-based mobile ecommerce marketplace announced Tuesday that Rodrigo Brumana is joining the company as CFO, an appointment the company says is… Read More

Video

Amazon reportedly investigating alleged incidents of third-party sellers paying employees to delete reviews and share secret sales data

by Frank Catalano on September 17, 2018September 17, 2018 at 7:28 pmComment

How much would it be worth to a third-party seller on Amazon to be able to have negative reviews deleted? Get internal sales volume and buyer habit statistics? Or even… Read More

Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff to buy Time magazine for $190M

by Frank Catalano on September 16, 2018September 17, 2018 at 10:50 am1 Comment

The venerable newsmagazine Time, a nearly 100-year-old media institution, is about to have new owners — Marc Benioff, Salesforce chairman and co-CEO, and Lynne Benioff, his wife. If the proposed… Read More

Washington STEM gets $75K SAP Concur grant to expand ‘career connected learning’

by Frank Catalano on September 13, 2018September 13, 2018 at 10:24 amComment

Education nonprofit Washington STEM is receiving a $75,000 grant from SAP Concur to help it expand student opportunities to explore STEM careers. The Seattle-based organization announced Thursday that it’s been… Read More

KEXP returns to Seattle airwaves after 11-year-old digital memory card takes station down

by Frank Catalano on September 11, 2018September 11, 2018 at 4:05 pm 8 Comments

After a Tuesday morning drive that was a morning dry for KEXP‘s traditional radio listeners, the Seattle station is back on the air with its over-the-air signal. But not before… Read More

Seattle’s KEXP broadcasts dead air during morning outage, but station’s digital signal stays alive

by Frank Catalano on September 11, 2018September 11, 2018 at 1:40 pm 3 Comments

If a tech-friendly streaming station goes off the radio airwaves, does anyone in a tech-centric city notice? Seattle nonprofit indie and alternative rock station KEXP suddenly went fuzzy and silent… Read More

T-Mobile signs $3.5B deal with Ericsson for 5G network hardware and software

by Frank Catalano on September 11, 2018September 11, 2018 at 8:04 amComment

T-Mobile and Ericsson announced a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar contract for Ericsson to provide both hardware and software for T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network deployment. The two companies say the deal is worth… Read More

New Common Sense Media survey finds more positives than negatives in teen use of social media

by Frank Catalano on September 9, 2018September 10, 2018 at 10:48 amComment

Yes, teens use social media more often than ever. But the positives appear to outweigh the negatives, according to a national survey released Monday by Common Sense Media. “Many of… Read More

Video

How to survive the election: 5 tips for online news consumers from digital media experts

by Frank Catalano on September 8, 2018September 8, 2018 at 12:49 pm 2 Comments

OK, digital denizens, this one’s on you. The primaries in the U.S. are done next week. The general election lies ahead. You live in a democracy. You need solid information to… Read More

Podcast

Behind the scenes at Cinerama: Landmark movie house becomes an international pop culture draw

by Frank Catalano on September 3, 2018September 3, 2018 at 9:00 am 8 Comments

You may think of Seattle’s Cinerama theater as just a cool place to watch movies. Yet for some, it represents an international pilgrimage. “Earlier this year we had someone who… Read More

Teachers and parents want more help with school technology, Microsoft and DreamBox surveys find

by Frank Catalano on August 29, 2018August 29, 2018 at 7:43 am1 Comment

Two different surveys, released by Microsoft and DreamBox Learning, find both parents and teachers would like to see more support for tech in classrooms — just in time for back-to-school.… Read More

Smart speaker sales take off globally, but consumer appetite for novel uses is fickle

by Frank Catalano on August 25, 2018August 25, 2018 at 9:46 am 2 Comments

While the quarter-by-quarter battle for smart speaker market share gets all the attention, the longer-term struggle to change consumer behavior has just begun. There is little question that smart speakers… Read More

‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ comes to iPad, as education features expand to mainstream version of game

by Frank Catalano on August 20, 2018September 6, 2018 at 11:49 am 2 Comments

Just in time for back-to-school, “Minecraft: Education Edition” is coming to Apple’s iPad. And also for the first time, a set of features created for the Education Edition has been… Read More

Podcast

How this workshop creates some of the world’s top sci-fi and fantasy writers, inside a Seattle house

by Frank Catalano on August 14, 2018August 14, 2018 at 5:56 pmComment

This and every summer around the first of August, 18 students leave a house in Seattle’s University District, after an intense six weeks in a crucible of creativity. Graduates over… Read More

Video

Listen up: Digital audiobooks now the ‘fastest growing format’ as tech and titles improve

by Frank Catalano on August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 at 10:55 am 2 Comments

If your idea of a good time reading is to do it with your ears, you’re in good company. Digital audiobooks are outpacing even ebooks in sustained growth. Long gone… Read More

Video

A nerd’s tour of the Seattle Art Fair: Fighting robots, animated neurons, and flying art debris

by Frank Catalano on August 5, 2018August 8, 2018 at 1:22 pmComment

You might be forgiven if you thought the fourth annual Seattle Art Fair would have a lot of expensive, big-name art. Yes, there is sculpture by Pablo Picasso, lithographs by… Read More

Video

More than paint on a wall: Hands-on with VR and AR in art museums from Chicago to Seattle

by Frank Catalano on July 28, 2018July 28, 2018 at 7:15 am 3 Comments

The stereotypical stuffy art museum experience is a thing of the past. At least, it can be if you don’t mind using a smartphone or VR headset to enhance your… Read More

Is your private online content really private? Not if you do something stupid

by Frank Catalano on July 14, 2018July 14, 2018 at 10:53 am1 Comment

It doesn’t matter if it’s on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. The biggest, most preventable threat to the privacy of your online content may be your own stupidity. As more… Read More

From virtual reality to ebooks, the future of digital media in schools is a total toss-up

by Frank Catalano on June 30, 2018June 30, 2018 at 7:02 amComment

The future of content in education is … robots? Well, not really. But it was easy to get that impression if you were walking the exhibit hall at the huge… Read More

Harlan Ellison, fiction writer well-known for Star Trek’s ‘City on the Edge of Forever,’ dies at 84

by Frank Catalano on June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 at 3:23 pm 2 Comments

Speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison, perhaps best known to the general public as the writer of the well-regarded original Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever,” has… Read More

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and tech’s battle for the hearts and classrooms of teachers

by Frank Catalano on June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 at 12:11 pm 4 Comments

If the ISTE 2018 exhibit hall was a high school, then Google and Microsoft were the enthusiastically competitive drama and glee clubs, Apple was the cool kid having a smoke… Read More

Podcast

How science fiction can predict the future and help tech innovators make better decisions

by Frank Catalano on June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 at 10:40 am1 Comment

Organizations may do better in planning for the future by thinking less like business leaders and more like science-fiction writers. That’s the idea behind the Seattle startup Scout, a subscription… Read More

Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, ‘book stuffing,’ and the darker side of being a digital content consumer

by Frank Catalano on June 23, 2018June 23, 2018 at 10:49 am 10 Comments

Convenience. Portability. Access. All are reasons that consumers have embraced digital content. The ability we have to rapidly find an unimaginable variety of reading, viewing and listening material, and easily… Read More

Seattle Symphony to create new performance space for 360-degree shared virtual experiences

by Frank Catalano on June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 at 12:17 pmComment

Announcing what it’s calling “the only known space of its kind,” Seattle Symphony is detailing plans for a new venue that can morph from traditional concert performances into a 360-degree… Read More

Video

Former Amazon devices executive Ian Freed launches Bamboo Music skill for Alexa

by Frank Catalano on June 19, 2018June 18, 2018 at 8:44 pmComment

Kids and their parents are getting a new way to use Amazon Echo devices for learning about music. And it’s coming as an Alexa skill from the person who once… Read More

Microsoft buys edtech startup Flipgrid and makes the video discussion tool free for all schools

by Frank Catalano on June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 at 6:00 amComment

Microsoft has acquired education technology startup Flipgrid, Inc., and immediately announced that the subscription social learning platform will be free to all educators. Flipgrid, based in Minnesota, makes a video… Read More

Articles by Frank Catalano

Top Stories from Frank Catalano

Behind the scenes at Cinerama: Landmark movie house becomes an international pop culture draw

Latest from Frank Catalano

Amazon takes stake in major Indian grocery chain, signaling worldwide brick-and-mortar ambitions

What’s not to ‘like?’ Amazon tests machine-learning driven Scout instant recommendation engine

Amazon to move past Microsoft for No. 3 spot in advertising revenue, new study finds

Microsoft launches ‘groundbreaking’ Flagship School initiative with 17 schools globally

Tech Moves: OfferUp hires its first CFO from eBay Americas; Porch adds CMO and two VPs; and more

Amazon reportedly investigating alleged incidents of third-party sellers paying employees to delete reviews and share secret sales data

Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff to buy Time magazine for $190M

Washington STEM gets $75K SAP Concur grant to expand ‘career connected learning’

KEXP returns to Seattle airwaves after 11-year-old digital memory card takes station down

Seattle’s KEXP broadcasts dead air during morning outage, but station’s digital signal stays alive

T-Mobile signs $3.5B deal with Ericsson for 5G network hardware and software

How to survive the election: 5 tips for online news consumers from digital media experts

Behind the scenes at Cinerama: Landmark movie house becomes an international pop culture draw

Teachers and parents want more help with school technology, Microsoft and DreamBox surveys find

Smart speaker sales take off globally, but consumer appetite for novel uses is fickle

‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ comes to iPad, as education features expand to mainstream version of game

How this workshop creates some of the world’s top sci-fi and fantasy writers, inside a Seattle house

Listen up: Digital audiobooks now the ‘fastest growing format’ as tech and titles improve

A nerd’s tour of the Seattle Art Fair: Fighting robots, animated neurons, and flying art debris

More than paint on a wall: Hands-on with VR and AR in art museums from Chicago to Seattle

From virtual reality to ebooks, the future of digital media in schools is a total toss-up

Harlan Ellison, fiction writer well-known for Star Trek’s ‘City on the Edge of Forever,’ dies at 84

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and tech’s battle for the hearts and classrooms of teachers

How science fiction can predict the future and help tech innovators make better decisions

Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, ‘book stuffing,’ and the darker side of being a digital content consumer

Seattle Symphony to create new performance space for 360-degree shared virtual experiences

Former Amazon devices executive Ian Freed launches Bamboo Music skill for Alexa

Microsoft buys edtech startup Flipgrid and makes the video discussion tool free for all schools

HACKtheMACHINE

Wonder Women – Best Practices from Puget Sound’s Top Women in Business

Startup Grind Seattle Host Jesse Proudman CEO Founder Strix Leviathan