Pulse for Web
* Pulse, the mobile news reader co-founded by grad students Aksay Kothari and Ankit Gupta, is coming to the desktop. Earlier this morning, the startup launched an HTML5-based version of their reader geared for larger screens. “People who have been using Pulse on their mobile devices have been like, why I can’t use it on my computer?” Kothari told Fortune. Pulse now reports over 15 million users, with 250 million-plus stories read through its app across devices every month.
A makeover made in Google’s image [THE WALL STREET JOURNAL]
“I want you thinking about users,” Ms. Mayer has repeatedly said to Yahoo workers, according to people who have interacted with her. While it is the early days in Ms. Mayer’s tenure, her near-singular emphasis on products and users is a departure from her predecessors. Scott Thompson, who quit Yahoo in May after five months as CEO, wanted the Sunnyvale, Calif., company to expand its e-commerce business and exploit its user data to benefit advertisers.
ThinkPad celebrates 20 years, announces Windows 8 ThinkPad Tablet 2 [ABCNEWS]
The ThinkPad Tablet 2 runs Windows 8 and will be coming out at the end of October when Windows 8 is finally out. The tablet is aimed, like most ThinkPads, at the professional set. It has a 10.1-inch screen and while it’s only 9.8 mm thick it still has room for a full USB port on its edge. Inside it has a brand new Intel Atom processor and runs Windows 8 Pro, so it will be able to run all older Windows applications. (Windows 8 tablets based on ARM processors will only run new apps made for Windows 8). But while the tablet has a lot of new features, it has one that has been a staple of ThinkPad tablets for years: a stylus.
Dorsey and Schultz spill the beans on Starbucks partnership [WIRED]
In other words, Starbucks won’t be rolling out thousands of iPad-powered registers or an army of those darling little Square card readers. You’ll still be able to pay at the counter just like you do today, using cash, a credit card or your Starbucks gift card at the register you always have. The difference is that now you’ll also be able to pay with Pay with Square, the startup’s mobile app. Also, Square will manage and take “full responsibility” of every debit and credit card transaction performed in the stores, said Schultz.
Google goes back to the drawing board for Nexus Q [THE NEW YORK TIMES]
Though Google was hardly betting the company on the Q, the failure reveals deeper challenges for the Internet search giant as it tries to move into two new areas: hardware and social technology. Though the hardware for the Q, which Google built in a factory in San Jose, Calif., has for the most part been well received, early users say the device simply does not do enough. And for what it does, at $299, it is too expensive.
