Radar7 Edition 3 – US special  (Here’s edition 1 and edition 2)

27 Sept 2013

‘Radar7’ is a regular feature where we highlight the top seven pieces of thought-provoking industry commentary that should be on your radar. Here are this edition’s seven picks, this time from our US team…

1. With a Tweet, Twitter Starts a Debate

After the paradoxically ‘secret’ Twitter IPO news went viral, The New York Times examined the IPO market that Twitter is wading into. The “Jump Start Our Business Start-Ups Act” (also known as the JOBS act) offers Twitter a “cone of silence” to avoid disclosing further details as yet, though the article makes observations on the likely steps the company is taking.

 2. Latin American startups and Chilecon Valley: The beginning of a boom

In a must-read guest post on VentureBeat by Ariel Arrieta, the signs of a future start-up boom in Latin America are highlighted and discussed. While Latin American companies often have problems with financial constraints and taxation issues in their own countries, the start-up culture is still booming – with an example of Medellín, Colombia being recently named the most innovative city in the world by The Wall Street Journal and the Urban Land Institute.

3. What do designers think of iOS 7?

This article at The Drum offers a fascinating collection of professional opinions on the pros and cons of the iOS 7 design. The results are very mixed to say the least!

4. Google Is Exploring an Alternative to Cookies for Ad Tracking

While advertisers are beginning to panic about finding alternatives to cookies, this article on The New York Times shows how Google could be working on creating an anonymous identifier that advertisers could use to target ads.

5. Inside DropBox’s Quest to Bury the Hard Drive

This in-depth Wired article examines DropBox’s efforts to position itself as the “mobile era’s answer to the hard drive.” The company’s future goal of powering a “new breed” of syncable apps that would facilitate sharing any kind of data with anyone, across any device, is an ambitious one that, if successful, would arguably place it among other powerhouses such as Apple or Facebook.

6. PayPal and Apple drop mobile payments bombshells

It appears that Bluetooth may be the missing link that enables consumers to pay in stores with their smartphones – this Internet Retailer article examines the recent moves by PayPal and Apple that may see this brought in as a feature in the near future.

7. Investors See Green as Security Moves Into the Cloud

Over at the Wall Street Journal, cloud security startups are in the spotlight. Recent VC investments in startups such as Illumio are drawing attention to the shift away from more “traditional” interest in antivirus software, and increasingly towards mobile and cloud computing.