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"Put up your arms and all your flippers."
Instagram have been doing more than just rolling around in pools of money since their acquisition from Facebook, the exposure to millions upon millions of socially-connected users has its benefits. Last month, the photo sharing website saw a 78-percent surge in unique visitors in the United States.
This surge made Instagram the highest gaining site on the Internet for the month, according to analytics firm comScore. From comScore's reports, Instagram.com had close to 14.6 million unique U.S. visitors in April, which is up from the 8.2 million the month before. Considering that Instagram's bread and butter is from mobile applications for the iPhone and Android, this is a pretty big feat for the photo sharing service.
But, April was a huge month for Instagram: on April 3 they released their long-awaited Android app, and just a few days later Facebook announced they were acquiring the company for close to $1 billion in cash and shares. Both of these events would've triggered a surge in Instagram activity, as seen from the comScore report.
We've surely all read or heard about the IPO from social networking giant Facebook, and how it has been a disaster since day one, but ranked as one of the worst of the decade? Well, according to Bloomberg, it is. Bloomberg have declared it as the worst large IPO of the past decade, based on the first five days of trading.
During an interview on Bloomberg TV, markets reporter Sheila Dharmarajan compared Facebook to four other poorly performing IPOs: Blackstone Group, General Motors, Mastercard and MF Global. Given that these companies aren't just run of the mill small businesses, it's a good comparison to the social networking giant. As the picture shows above, Facebook are in quite the pickle, compared to say VISA who were trading very well after a week.
Continue reading 'After a week, the Facebook is the biggest IPO flop of the decade' (full post)
Foxconn recently inked an agreement with Sony to learn how to make the new touch screen for the Apple iPhone. New reports have surfaced that show that Foxconn wants to completely take over the iPhone manufacturing business. Currently Foxconn's Zhengzhou produces about 200,000 iPhones per day which accounts for 70% of production.
If Foxconn has their way, they would like to double that plant's output to 400,000 a day. With this increase comes the risk of damaging workers' health or having to hire additional workers. It remains to be seen just how Foxconn intends to increase the production of this plant. It's current productions account for 52.7 percent of the total exports of the Henan province.
This is great for Foxconn if they are able to. But it's not the best strategy for Apple. Think about what would happen if there were a fire at the plant and all of a sudden there was no iPhone being manufactured. It's unlikely that this would happen as I'm sure there are plans in place to prevent it, but it shows that Apple shouldn't put 100% of production into one company or factory.
Google is sure throwing quite a bit of money and support at the Project Glass augmented reality glasses. They are trying to cram so much technology into a tiny, and hopefully fashionable, package that they should become every geek's dream gadget. We still don't know much about the project other than it's being publicly tested by Google executives.
We've seen some pictures released that have been taken using the glasses and, to be honest, they aren't that great. Most modern smartphones could easily outpace the resolution and quality, but the glasses do have one advantage: Point-of-view. Pictures can be taken hands-free and are from the perspective of the wearer.
Google has now released a 15-second video that was taken while the user was jumping on a trampoline. This really is where these glasses start to shine. It would have been near impossible to take a video like this without these glasses. The quality of the video isn't stunning by any means, but for users who video blog their lives, these glasses are an invaluable piece of technology.
Continue reading 'Google releases video taken using Project Glass prototype' (full post)
With the SOPA and PIPA protests becoming distant memories, the attacks on internet freedoms have been renewed by Congress in the form of CISPA. There have been no protests like there were against PIPA and SOPA and that has Reddit's Alexis Ohanian concerned. An entrepreneurial group now wants to create the internet equivalent of the Bat-Signal.
The idea is that SOPA-like mass protests could be started at the push of a button when internet freedoms were deemed in danger. Website owners can sign up on the group's website and add a piece of code to their website that can be activated when a political crisis like SOPA rears its ugly head. Owners can also receive the code by e-mail when the signal is turned on.
"People who wish to be tapped can see, oh look, the Bat-Signal is up. Time to do something," says Ohanian. "Whatever website you own, this is a way for you to be notified if something comes up and take some basic actions…If we aggregate everyone that's doing it, the numbers start exploding."
The code can do more than just display a banner. Tiffiny Cheng, co-director of Internet-focused political advocacy group Fight for the Future, explains how it could implement a SOPA-style blackout: "We'll invent something at the time, and it will be some really unified and shocking action. We're creating the tools and the forms of protest that allow for viral organizing. That's how the SOPA protests were able to get started and grow to the level they did."
Ever see a game on Facebook that looks interesting but you don't want to play it because of all the hassle of installing and uninstalling if it's bad? Facebook is looking to change that with a new feature which will allow game developers to demo their wares in the news feed. Developers won't be given any information about the users.
If players like the game then they are able to click through onto the full version. This new feature is great, although I'm not sure that the news feed is a proper location for it. Personally, my news feed is already overflowing with the posts of my friend and the posts of quality content here on TweakTown, so I don't think I want more posts, especially ones that take up a lot of room.
Facebook has provided some examples of games already using the new feature. These games include: Idle Worship, Angry Birds, and Bubble Witch Saga. Developers of these games receive statistics about impressions of the story and how many people use the game contained within. Facebook has provided examples of how current games are using the new feature:
The Computex news train continues to roll as bits and pieces of exciting new hardware comes in.
KingSpec, a SandForce partner is getting a new PCIe product ready for the show. Coming from the new Multicore Series, this PCIe solution has four SandForce SF-2281 controllers and four mSATA slots that may be used to expand the capacity size and controller count.
The details are thin now, but we do know that the maximum capacity is 2TB and the PCIe configuration is 8 lanes. The high number of PCIe lanes will let this product really stretch its legs.
We've reviewed several OCZ RevoDrive products and they were limited by the PCIe 4 lane interface. In theory, the new KingSpec Multicore PCIe could double the performance of the RevoDrive 3!
Sony wants to show you ads while you're playing on the PlayStation. Or at least that's what a new patent indicates. A sharp-eyed person who goes by the handle onQ13 on NeoGAF spotted the patent on Thursday. The patent is titled "Advertisement Scheme for use with interactive content" and appears to stop the game in order to show an advertisement.
In-game advertising isn't a new idea. Many games feature ads in the environment where one would expect them to be. Common locations for these in-game ads are on vending machines or billboards. Never before, however, has a game actually been stopped in order to show an ad. Nintendo does nag users about taking a break every now and again.
Now, advertising is fine when it is paying for things like broadcast TV, but if a user shells out $60 for a game like Call of Duty, I imagine that user is going to be a bit upset. Additionally, if this is used during multiplayer settings, every user would need to be shown the ad at the same time or the game will be broken beyond repair.
This patent does have uses for free games. Similar to how games are ad supported on iOS and Android, free games on PlayStation could become ad supported. But with the multiplayer issue, users could only be paired with other free users or users would have to be limited to only single player play. It is an interesting idea.
Microsoft and Sony aren't saying much about the release dates for their next-gen consoles. Microsoft has let us know not to expect it at E3 this year, but that is about all they are saying. But thanks to the Activision lawsuit, some confidential agreements have been unsealed and given some possible launch time frames.
A little history behind this lawsuit: former Activision developers sued Activision saying they were owed royalties and bonus checks due to the massive success of the Call of Duty series. Activision countered the claims saying that the developers had breached the contract and thus not due any funds from Call of Duty.
The documents unsealed show a high-profile deal between Activision and Bungie, the developers behind Halo. The deal calls for four games to be developed and released starting in fall of 2013. Dudley, of the Seattle Times, has interpreted this information in an interesting way. The theory is somewhat likely. Here is what he said:
Microsoft hasn't said when the next version of the Xbox will go on sale, but the Bungie contract suggests that it could happen in the 2013 holiday season, with "Destiny" as a key launch title. That would be similar to the way Halo was a cornerstone of the first Xbox launch in November 2001.
Additionally, the documents further say that it will be released for the PlayStation 3 successor in the fall of 2014. Of course, the names could change between now and the release.
Amazon has had a feature like this for sometime and it looks as though Apple is finally following suit. It's no surprise that iOS users like to save money just as much as Android users who get this feature from the Amazon app store. The only announcement regarding this is a tweet by Apple, so this could be a one time thing, but I doubt it is.
The tweet by Apple says "Cut the Rope: Experiments is our #FreeAppoftheWeek. Go to the App Store for your free download. tw.appstore.com/uUj" so I'm going to guess it will be a continuous thing going forward. To go along with this, the description of the app says "***FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME***".
The app itself is actually a pretty fun game. I've played it before on a Windows 7 tablet that was running Windows 8. The object of the game is to cut various strings and manipulate objects to get the piece of candy over to the monster. While I'm not sure I would pay for the app, I'd definitely take it if it was free as it is now.
This is one of those moments where you just want to know what a person was thinking. But until someone develops a mind-reading machine, we won't know for sure. As an epitome of United States corruption, ignorance, and waste, the Berkeley, California chief of police sent out ten of his officers to track down his son's stolen iPhone.
Guess what! They didn't manage to find the device even though it had tracking software installed on it. The officers sent to find the device weren't just regular officers, although some were. Michael Meehan, the chief, also sent officers from the drug task force to aid in the search. All of this was over a replaceable iPhone that couldn't cost more than $500.
The hunt most likely cost taxpayers a few thousand dollars. It could have potentially cost even more as only some of the officers received overtime pay for their participation in the search. This truly is an epitome of selfishness. Meehan used his position to do his personal bidding while wasting my taxpayer dollars. As a California resident, I'm not exactly happy with this story. Did Meehan cross a line or was this an acceptable use of money? You be the judge and let us know in the comments.
If you're Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, there isn't much you can't afford. It appears like Microsoft has created a device that is meant for CEOs only, at least for now: "Steve Ballmer has an 80-inch Windows 8 tablet in his office. He's got rid of his phone, he's got rid of his note paper. It's touch-enabled and it's hung on his wall."
The description above was given by Microsoft VP Frank Shaw to Wired. This isn't just a Microsoft play-thing like Microsoft Surface is as they actually plan to offer this to the public. While it's probably not going to end up in many households at launch, Microsoft believes that in 2 years it very well could. As far as calling it a tablet, well, I have to disagree. 80 inches is not a tablet.
"It's not a consumer thing now, but we know historically that that's how all things start," he said. "The idea that there should be a screen that's not a computer, we'll laugh at that in two years." The device is powered by Windows 8 and does appear to be slightly stunt-ish, but I can see the benefits of having a device like that in my office. "It's his whiteboard, his email machine," Shaw said, "and it's a device we're going to sell."
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With under two weeks to the start of E3 in Los Angeles, it's time to see just what you, the reader, want covered the most. A little bit of background on the Electronic Entertainment Expo straight from the horse's mouth: "E3 is the world's premier trade show for computer and video games and related products."
What upcoming products have you heard about that you would like to know more about? Are you interested in games themselves or the hardware that runs the games? Want videos of the games running? Have specific questions for different game studios or manufacturers? E-mail me your requests or post them in the comments.
You have to hurry as the show starts June 5!
Our Download of the Day is CCleaner 3.19.1721.
CCleaner has been updated to version 3.19.1721, and with it has the following change log:
You can download CCleaner 3.19.1721 here.
Thunderbolt has been all out of thunder lately, debuting last year on the refreshed Apple MacBook line up, it now looks like the technology will make a bigger appearance on motherboards later this year. DigiTimes is reporting that it is expected to become one of the key specifications that motherboard makers will be competing with in the second half of this year.
This is thanks to sources from motherboard players, but we all know Thunderbolt will eventually be a bigger thing as time goes on. Thunderbolt supports PCI Express and DisplayPort, allowing a Thunderbolt port to smash through data at high speeds. Compared to USB 3.0, unfortunately, the higher costs stop Thunderbolt's market penetration.
At the moment, Thunderbolt chips are offered only by Intel, with quotes of around $20-$25. This leaves non-Intel chipmakers unable to make much profit from the technology, which leaves us with adapter chips being more popular. We should hopefully see more Thunderbolt-powered products at Computex in just over a weeks time.
Dell is hard at work on their Windows 8 tablet, but as with all Windows 8-based tablets, information on the specs is hard to come by. But, Neowin have gotten their hands dirty and found a slide which shows off Dell's upcoming Latitude 10 tablet.
The Dell Latitude 10 is a 10.8-inch tablet with a 1366x768 resolution, sports Intel's Clover Trail dual-core Atom processor, fingerprint reader, 2GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and of course, Windows 8. What is surprising is that it has a swappable battery, Dell are offering a 2- or 4-cell battery with either 30/60WHr, depending on which battery is installed.
The smaller battery should be good for 6-8 hours of use, with the bigger battery achieving around 10-12 hours. Remember, this is probably just one of many tablets that Dell have in development that will run Windows 8, but it's good to see them finally taking form. Swappable batteries? Very nice change to the tablet world.
If the current Facebook IPO problems weren't enough of the social networking hitting the screens of computers, tablets, smartphones, TVs and more across the world over the past month or so, then this news won't surprise you: Facebook are opening up an office in Dubai next week.
The social networking site is set to pack a bag of tricks and open up its first office located in the Middle East. The company has not listed any details, and won't do so until after the event, but the office would add to its collection of about 30 outputs that are pegged across the world.
The news of an office in Dubai comes just after four days of the site in the public market. Do you think this will help them? Will it calm investor nerves?
If Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Project Glass, and their push toward hardware design and manufacturing wasn't enough, the acquisition of the industrial design firm Mike and Maaike should be enough to convince most people that Google are in it for the long haul.
Who are Mike and Maaike? They're a studio that worked on the very first Google Nexus phone, and bill themselves as "a progressive industrial design studio" who is focused on "functionality, intelligence, and ease" in the design process for the G1. Mike and Maaike have some rather large clients in Belkin, Steelcase, Microsoft and the City of San Francisco.
Google representatives have commented on the purchase, saying that it was a "natural next step" for the company to get "even more serious and to really for for it" when it comes to mobile device offerings sporting their Android OS.
Blizzard community manager 'Nethaera' has posted on the official Diablo III forums, talking about some of the problems and concerns from the Diablo III community, and how the company plan to handle some of the post-launch issues so that players can continue slaying demons and more in Diablo III.
Blizzard have applied various hotfixes to Diablo III since the launch of the game that address gameplay issues, as well as tweaks to improve service stability, and performed occasionally server maintenance when necessary to ensure that in the long-term, players have the best gameplay experience possible. But, the fixes won't stop there, Nethaera has said that sometime next week we should expect a game update in the form of a patch that will address client issues, as well as additional bug fixes.
One of the big shockers from this post is the delay of the real-money auction house. It was previous delayed from May 22 to May 29, but has now been delayed beyond this date. Blizzard want to ensure that everyone has the "smoothest experience possible when the real-money auction house launches", citing that they need more time to iron out the existing general stability and gameplay issues before a feature like that goes live. Blizzard haven't given a date for this yet.
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