Every week, the news team at VentureBeat brings you a blitz of news day after day, but even for our most dedicated readers it can be a challenge to catch every single story.
So, we’ve decided to pull together a handful of the best stories from VentureBeat this week, just in case you missed them, or want to read them again.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1619904,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"C"}']Google boils down the Captcha to a simple checkbox to prove you’re not a bot
Google has figured out that there’s an easier way to deter bots on the Internet than using twisted text. The tech giant has come out with a deceptively basic alternative to prevent World Wide Web hijinks to the best of its ability. The new standard is … a checkbox. All you need to do is click the box next to the phrase “I’m not a robot,” and poof — you’re good to go. Read more.
Marc Andreessen teaches startups what disruption is really about (in 17 tweets)
You’ve probably heard about “disruptive innovation,” a concept from Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. But prominent Silicon Valley Marc Andreessen wants to be sure that you actually understand disruption — because the term does get thrown around a lot. In his latest onslaught of tweets, Andreessen this morning first quoted from Christensen’s writings and then went on to provide examples. And then he went on to show why people really should be in favor of disruption. Read more.
AI Weekly
The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.
Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.
Why Peter Thiel doesn’t believe in your ‘platform’
SAN FRANCISCO — Peter Thiel spoke today to an audience of entrepreneurs and investors at the Post-Seed Conference, and, as usual, he had some strong advice: “Be scared of platforms.” The billionaire investor’s warning wasn’t so much literal as it was a warning against buzzwords and the idealistic pipe dreams they can represent. Nowadays, everything is a “platform,” but just because a startup calls itself a platform doesn’t mean their product can live up to it. Read more.
Why one of Instagram’s most popular photographers is deleting all his photos
When the post appeared in my Facebook feed the other day, I was shocked. Richard Koci Hernandez, a well-known photographer and an early Instagram fan, announced he was deleting all of his pictures from the photo-sharing service. “On Dec. 6, I am going to permanently delete all the images posted to my http://instagram.com/koci account,” he wrote. Read more.
Why do iOS users buy more stuff than Android users? Because they have more money
The sales numbers for the first big holiday shopping weekend are in, and they show, once again, that iPad and iPhone users buy way more stuff on their devices than Android owners do. There are several explanations for this — one of them being that Apple owners just have more spending money. A research report from Custora shows that the vast majority of mobile shopping purchases from Black Friday through Cyber Monday happened on Apple devices. iPhone and iPad users accounted for 78 percent of mobile purchases, while Android users accounted for only 22 percent, Custora says. Read more.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More