I had a two-city, four-airport week: I spent Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening in Boston for the cable industry’s INTX show, flew to SFO that night and spent Wednesday through Friday at Google I/O before flying home Saturday morning. I am seriously exhausted… so it’s not optimal timing that I’m writing this from Dulles. Why? I was invited to moderate a panel at the Connected Conference in Paris later this week (and on the side, meet a bunch of French startups the government wants to show off). I haven’t been to my family’s one-time expat home in 25 years, so this would have been difficult to turn down. But I did think about that.
5/16/2016: Beyond Television: Extending the Media Brand Across the Digital Forever, INTX
I moderated this discussion with BET’s Kay Madati, Fusion’s Jigar Mehta and Scripps Networks Interactive’s Vikki Neil about how cable networks are trying to connect with current and potential fans outside the big screen. I may be a cord cutter, but I do have one of Alton Brown’s cookbooks and I often turn to Fusion’s tech coverage, so I guess I’m an example of successful beyond-television marketing.
5/17/2016: What to Expect from Google I/O 2016, Consumer Reports
My debut piece for CR (no subscription required to read it) was a preview of Google I/O’s expected news that I think mostly holds up.
5/18/2016: Live at Google I/O, Jefferson Graham
Right after I picked up my press badge, I ran into Jefferson and a few other USAT pals, and he elected to do a Facebook Live stream on the spot.
5/18/2016: Cable operators are trying to fix the single biggest problem with their apps, Yahoo Finance
I wrote a reality-check piece about the cable industry’s “but we have apps!” response to the Federal Communications Commission’s “unlock the box” proceeding. The cable operator that now seems most far along in providing TV apps that can take a cable box’s place without compromising on major features? Comcast.
5/18/2016: Google just made it clear that it’s trying to catch up in 3 big areas, Yahoo Finance
This recap of the keynote that opened up I/O disappeared sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon due to a publishing glitch nobody noticed at the time. Sorry for the mess!
5/19/2016: Google just revealed it’s ‘bringing the Play Store to Chromebooks’, Yahoo Finance
The news that Chrome OS laptops and desktops shipped in the last two years will get a free update opening them up to the Play Store’s catalogue of 1.5 million Android apps may have been the biggest consumer news out of I/O.
5/20/2016: Google: 3 steps you should take now to secure yourself online, Yahoo Finance
Like at last year’s I/O, Google’s security chief Stephan Somogyi gave a great presentation about the state of security that I judged worth a writeup.
5/22/2016: 6 big changes coming to Android phones, USA Today
My last I/O post broke down the changes coming to the next major Android release. I wound up finishing it on my Android phone–an excruciating experience–after my laptop ran out of battery on Caltrain on the way into San Francisco.
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