My feedly account is always filled with the same top tech companies. Sites like The Verge, Mashable, Engadget, ReadWriteWeb, Ars Technica, The Next Web, etc seem to copy each other's topics all the time.
.
I need some variety.
Google, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, are not the only tech companies I want to know about.
<a href="http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/</a><p>"Low-tech Magazine refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution. A simple, sensible, but nevertheless controversial message; high-tech has become the idol of our society.<p>Instead, Low-tech Magazine talks about the potential of past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society. Sometimes, these low-tech solutions could be copied without any changes. More often, interesting possibilities arise when you combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when you apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology. We also keep an eye on what is happening in the developing world, where resource constraints often lead to inventive, low-tech solutions."
A good way to avoid articles on those big companies is to start reading "region specific" startup blogs or "topic specific" startup blogs.
Some of the blogs I follow:<p>by region<p>Arctic Startups (Scandinavia) <a href="http://www.arcticstartup.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.arcticstartup.com/</a><p>Rude Baguette (France) <a href="http://www.rudebaguette.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rudebaguette.com/</a><p>Silicon Allee (Berlin) <a href="http://siliconallee.com/" rel="nofollow">http://siliconallee.com/</a><p>by topic<p>Tnooz (Travel)<a href="http://www.tnooz.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tnooz.com/</a><p>Search Engine Land <a href="http://searchengineland.com/" rel="nofollow">http://searchengineland.com/</a><p>3D Printing Industry <a href="http://3dprintingindustry.com/" rel="nofollow">http://3dprintingindustry.com/</a>
ArabCrunch covers Arab tech startups and tech industry there <a href="http://arabcrunch.com" rel="nofollow">http://arabcrunch.com</a>
also <a href="http://techinasia.com" rel="nofollow">http://techinasia.com</a>
I was going to mention OSNews, but then I realized it's been a while I didn't visit so I went to check it:<p>And this is the current frontpage: Sony, Samsung, QNX, Valve, Microsoft, Linux, Google, Microsoft, Google, Valve, OpenBSD, Apple, Apple/Microsoft, Apple/Microsoft/Google, Apple, Google, Cisco, Motorola, Nokia, Apple.<p>My memory was that it was more of a site about alternative OSes and the like...
<a href="http://thetechblock.com" rel="nofollow">http://thetechblock.com</a><p>There's definitely a good bit of Apple, Google, Microsoft stuff on there, but a lot of the Features come from sources outside of the big blogs. Not all, but quite a few.
I use a heavily personalized Google News - you can always create a custom section starting with "Technology" (can also specify which region), and then apply filter with "-Google -Apple -XYZ".<p>That way, you are not limited by just one blog or site, while also keeping it free from the latest trends of reporting only on big companies.<p>(While I am at that, I also make sure I filter out pretty much all of ZDNet, CNet, InformationWeek and the ilk).
If data and trends on emerging industries, companies, investors is of interest, check us out at CB Insights (www.cbinsights.com/blog or twitter.com/cbinsights)<p>Also check out Quibb, blog of Benedict Evans, Dan Primack's Term Sheet Newsletter
I use newsblur and filter out the names of the companies I do not care about from those feeds, it's still far from ideal but nobody has cracked personalized filtering yet (whoever does will have my money, if I don't end up doing it myself first).