Samsung has announced that it will be releasing a Galaxy S5 smartphone around April. It will also unveil a second generation Gear smartwatch, which will have improved features and design.
Lee Young Hee, executive vice president for the mobile sector of the business told Bloomberg in an interview: “We’ve been announcing our first flagship model in the first half of each year, around March and April, and we are still targeting for release around that time,” Lee said. “When we release our S5 device, you can also expect a Gear successor with more advanced functions, and the bulky design will also be improved.”

Apparently Samsung is also exploring the possibilities of using eye scanner technology for the first time in its devices, in a bid to compete with its rival, Apple.
Currently one in every three smartphones sold globally is a Samsung branded handset. To keep up with the competition, Samsung is adding new features and models to its family of devices. The new S5 and wearable device will debut at the same time because this boosts sales of tablets too.
Lee Young Hee has also said that the company will announce at least one other wearable device this year but didn’t give any further information on what it would be or when specifically.
As for the S5, Samsung are keeping pretty tight lipped on specific features. “Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology,” Lee said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “We are studying the possibility but can’t really say whether we will have it or not on the S5.”

When Apple released the iPhone 5S and 5C back in September, sales of the Galaxy S4 slowed down. Lee thinks that consumers may have been a little disappointed with the S4 because it hadn’t changed much from its predecessor, the S3.
“When we moved to S4 from S3, it’s partly true that consumers couldn’t really feel much difference between the two products from the physical perspective, so the market reaction wasn’t as big,” she said. “For the S5, we will go back to the basics. Mostly, it’s about the display and the feel of the cover.”
Analysts think this is going to be a difficult year for Samsung, especially when it comes keeping pace with rivals.
“The release of the S5 will be very important to Samsung,” Lee Seung Woo, an analyst at IBK Securities Co., said. “Competition is going to intensify, and it’s not going to be an easy year for the company.”

IMAGE via: Oneclickroot
SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2014/01/samsung-planning-release-s5-april/

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The rumors are in: Microsoft is planning to unveil Windows 9 around April 2015 but will announce the release at its Build 2014 developer conference. This will be part of the company’s Threshold plans, says Paul Thurrott, all part of the many updates expected from Microsoft.

Although we don’t know what changes will be made to Windows 9, it is likely that the company will use the branding in order to shift attention away from the negativity surrounding the Windows 8 operating system. Reportedly, ‘Metro 2.0′ will be inside the new OS and this could be the thing to improve Microsoft’s app world and tile design. There has also been a rumor that the ‘Start’ menu will be back for Windows 9 but it could be that we see that sooner as part of the Windows 8.1 update later this year.

Microsoft is apparently in the last stages of planning for Windows 9 and work will probably start once the announcement has been made at the Build 2014 developer conference, no doubt once it has created some hype around the new OS by revealing some of the planned changes.
The hype will certainly be welcome and coupled with some innovation, hopefully Microsoft can make a success of Windows 9, perhaps where Windows 8 failed. Although there will be a Windows 8.1 update, it seems that all focus is pointing towards a new future in Windows 9.

IMAGE & SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2014/01/windows-9-will-april-2015-says-microsoft/

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We all really wanted was to be able to swim and breathe underwater without the assistance of any heavy equipment..
Well now be excited, Here is a device named Triton.

Produced by a South Korean designer Jeabyun Yeon, Triton is a mask that acts like a fish gill, extracting oxygen from the water so the user can continue to breathe underwater. Yeon hopes that this will change how people feel about water.

There are two arms which come out from the side of the mask; it is these that act like gills, delivering oxygen. The arms have a scaly look that conceal small holes where water is sucked in as the swimmer takes a breath. Inside there are chambers which separate the oxygen and then release the liquid. The user bites down on the plastic mouthpiece to keep Triton in place.
It is all powered by a micro battery that can charge up to 1,000 times quicker than a normal battery.

Yeon hopes that one day this product will replace the complicated and bulky equipment needed for scuba diving. However for now Triton is still in the concept stage so is not yet available for order. 

IMAGE & SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2014/01/breathe-water-without-oxygen-tanks/

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Google has announced that it is buying the connected device company Nest. Employees were informed by email and that was followed by an official press release. Google has reportedly offered Nest $3.2 billion.

Google’s CEO Larry Page said in a statement: “They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right now–thermostats that save energy and smoke/CO alarms that can help keep your family safe. We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!”
The founders of Nest, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, will be joining the Google team. Fadell has expressed his excitement at working with Google, saying “With their support, Nest will be even better placed to build simple, thoughtful devices that make life easier at home, and that have a positive impact on the world.”


Co-founder Matt Rogers, was one of the first engineers to work on the iPhone team at Apple and was responsible for the iPod software development.
Google has been trying for some time now to put together a connected home device but with attempts such as ‘Android At Home’, it’s never been able to pull it off. The benefit of Nest is that it has already developed well-designed and connected home devices. Google will now be able to build on those in the future.
As well as Nest’s expertise and quality products, the company brings to Google 100 granted patents and another 200 which are on file with the U.S. Patent Office, plus a further 200 ready to file. Nest has faced strong competition and some patent disputes from rival manufacturers like Honeywell and BRK. Google will no doubt be a supporting force in helping Nest fend off the competition.

Nest will continue to operate as its own brand and because it was already quite successful and renown by consumers for design, it is unlikely Google will want to interfere too much. There have apparently been some infrastructure issues caused by failed firmware upgrades so Google will no doubt be able to help there.
Of course this acquistion does throw up some concerns over security, with some questioning what will happen once Google have information about your life at home.
To the question ‘Will Nest customer data be shared with Google?’, Nest answered with “Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.”
I can’t hep but feel the question was avoided with such a vague answer. People certainly have a right to be concerned, especially  now we know about the NSA’s mass collection of data.
The deal is still awaiting regulatory approval and so hasn’t been completed yet.

CONTENT SOURCE AND IMAGE VIA: http://techbeat.com/2014/01/google-acquires-nest-3-2-billion/

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BANGALORE: Facebook has acquired Bangalore-based start-up Little Eye Labs making it the social networking giant's first acquisition in India. Little Eye is a tool that helps Android app developers to measure, analyze and optimize their apps. 


It helps visualize the app's behavior and estimates the app's power, memory and network data consumption trends. The entire LittleEye Labs team will move to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, where they would leverage the social networking giant's infrastructure to improve the performance of their apps. "Little Eye Labs will join forces with Facebook to take its mobile development to the next level! This is Facebook's first acquisition of an Indian company, and we are happy to become part of such an incredible team," the company said in a note on their website. 

The Bangalore-based startup was founded in May last year by four programme analysis geeks -- Giridhar Murthy, who worked at Apple earlier, Kumar Rangarajan, who has worked at IBM and HP, Satyam Kandula, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and ex IBMer Lakshman Kakkirala. 

This has been a fun and exciting journey. We're eager to be working alongside the incredible team at Facebook and together, we'll continue on our mission of building awesome analysis tools to aide in the development of brilliant apps," said Rangarajan, the CEO of Little Eye. The company has raised seed funding from from GSF Superangels and Venture East Fund. Rajesh Sawhney, founder of GSF Accelerator, added, "Acquisition of Little Eye Labs by Facebook is a transformative deal for not only the Indian startup ecosystem but also for the whole of the emerging world. This validates GSF's core tenet that Indian product start-ups are now ready for a global play." 

Subbu Subramanian, engineering manager in Facebook said, "I'm excited to announce that we're acquiring Little Eye Labs.This is an opportunity to welcome some of the industry's most- talented engineers to our team in Menlo Park, California. At Facebook, we remain focused on producing useful and engaging mobile apps. The Little Eye Labs technology will help us to continue improving our Android code base to make more efficient, higher-performing apps."


[IMAGE Via thetechnews]
SOURCE: www.timesofindia.com/tech/tech-news/internet/Facebook-acquires-Bangalore-based-startup-Little-Eye-Labs/articleshow/28544130.cms

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IBM has purchased high-speed data transferring company Aspera. The hardware and software giant announced today in a press release that they acquired the company for an undisclosed amount. Aspera created and then patented a technology called fasp, an acronym that stands for fast, active, secure protocol. This technology speeds up the time it takes for data to flow over networks and even when file sizes are colossal. Users can ascertain how fast data gets moved and how the bandwidth is allocated. The company says fasp is faster than WAN acceleration software and hardware.

Video encoding company Zencoder, provided a case study for Aspera and they spoke about transfer rates to a cloud of more than 500 megabits per second.  That technology should assist companies and governments decrease the amount of time it takes to move data up to an external cloud, or from one cloud to another.  IBM has been throwing internal resources at security issues that stem from the batch of data across clouds.  Interestingly, through the Aspera on Demand service, Aspera has been pushing data to three of IBM’s competitors in the public cloud market, including IBM Enemy; Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Windows Azure and the Google Cloud Platform.  Whether or not this pattern of business practice still stands after the completion of the deal remains to be seen.

 Also, some companies don’t want to wait until the end of the financial quarter to understand how much money they’ve been making and how much of their stock has diminished. Aspera could assist data transfer more reliably and quickly, ensuring that powerful processing systems, can deliver comprehensive results that much faster than before.  And by receiving faster insights into operations and providing real-time data views of a company’s operations, a firm can better develop their growth potential.


[IMAGE via Infotechlead]
SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2014/01/ibm-acquires-aspera/

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The phrase “Google it” has become part of our common language, proving just how much of an impact Google has had. Forever moving forward, the company is always planning the next big thing and earlier this month at the LeWeb conference in Paris, Engineering Director for Google, Scott Huffman, outlined the company’s plans for the future of search.

Google knows that things don’t stay the same forever, with peoples’ expectations changing and evolving. According to Huffman, the company want to move away from the traditional looking search results and create something that looks smarter and that actually looks more like a personal assistant. In fact, Huffman even said that in his view Google’s goal is to create the ultimate personal assistant. He said in the future searching will be about making  “all your tasks as you go through the day simpler and quicker.”

The company want to create a search experience that more resembles interaction and conversation. It has been working on a type of back-and-forth conversation for a while and with the use of Knowledge Graph, Google is improving at finding out what its users’ intentions are. The combination of voice recognition and the fact that Google Now can handle 38 languages and knows more than 18 billion facts along with the connections, is what will build the Google Search of the future.
Taking the concept even further, it could be that any interactions will not neccessarily need a screen. Huffman feels that the car is a fantastic opportunity for the new style Google Search. He also thinks it would work well in a living room, where microphones and speakers could wait for your “ok Google” command.
Huffman stressed that for all of this to work, the ultimate assistant needs to do more than converse and that’s where Google Now plays its part. Knowing your habits, preferences and reservations, which can be discovered through a Gmail inbox, is what will create the ultimate personal assistant.
At the moment Google is working on how to build on top of this platform and is looking at how to overcome “lots of tricky questions”. It could be that we see it opened up for developers but however Google achieves the ultimate Search, the future certainly looks interesting.

[IMAGE & SOURCE via: http://techbeat.com/2013/12/google-plans-to-turn-search-into-a-personal-assistant/]

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Ford is working on a vehicle that could make all of us forget everything we ever thought we knew about cruise control. And, if everything works out the way Ford hopes, this car could know more about driving on the road than you could ever hope to know. And it will do a whole lot more than just control your speed as you cruise.

The vehicle above is known as the Automated Fusion Hybrid Research Vehicle. Hopefully Ford will come up with a more catchy name when the car is ready for a wide release.
This isn’t just any Ford Fusion, though. Those 4 things that look like big microphones on top of the car? Those are infrared light sensors that allow the car to scan anything and everything around you. In fact, they scan the road 2.5 million times a second. The sensors read the road data much like dolphins and bats interpret sound waves. When all is said and done, the car can see a 3D image of everything going on around your vehicle. It probably sees more than you do. And, should it see you approaching something a little too quickly, it can slow down and even stop the car, preventing you from getting into a collision.

[IMAGE via Techbeat]
CONTENT SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/12/self-driving-car-ford/

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If you like the original Cut the Rope, you are going to love this! Your favourite green monster Om Nom is back in Cut The Rope 2 and obviously he is still hungry for more candy.  Software developer, ZeptoLab, on Thursday, gave iPhone and iPad gamers a treat by releasing Cut the Rope 2 exclusively in the Apple App Store for iOS devices. The $0.99 game features 120 levels of rope-cutting joy. Android users need not worry as they are not far behind, as Zeptolab said it will be available as a free-to-play title on Android early next year.

ZeptoLab said in a statement, “The sequel to the physics-based phenomenon takes Om Nom out of the box and into the world for the first time, introducing five new locations and characters, each with unique game mechanics that help Om Nom in his pursuit of candy…The new characters interact with Om Nom and their surroundings, creating a totally new experience for Cut the Rope.”
The new characters, known collectively as the Nommies, have extraordinary powers to help our hungry green hero satisfy his sweet tooth. For the first time, players can move Om Nom around the screen with the help of these Nommies. For instance a helper named Roto, carries Om Nom through the air to the finest candy-catching locations whilst Lick can make small bridges with his tongue to help Om Nom achieve his goal.

Players can also accumulate items to access hidden levels, use power-ups such as candy rain and balloons and they can also customize the game by selecting different types of candy and accessories for Om Nom.
ZeptoLab CEO Misha Lyalin said, “This is the first true sequel to Cut the Rope…We’ve shaken up the formula and really wanted to push the envelope on what today’s mobile platforms can offer. The new gameplay elements, design and graphics will thrill Cut the Rope fans and attract a new generation of players.”
In addition to the release of the game, ZeptoLab has begun a new season of its animated series Om Nom Stories. Season 3 has just debuted on YouTube, featuring Om Nom and the Nommies. Head over to YouTube and check it out.

IMAGE & SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/12/cut-rope-2-released-ios/

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According to researchers at Spiderlabs, criminals have scooped up more than 2 million passwords for sites such as Facebook, Yahoo and search engine giant Google, but it appears that the data was stolen via malware-infected machines rather than a direct hack of their systems.

Trustwave‘s SpiderLabs delved into source code from the Pony botnet and made some staggering discoveries.  The botnet managed to steal credentials for; 1.58 million websites, 320,000 email accounts, 41,000 FTP accounts, 3,000 remote desktops and 3,000 secure shell accounts.

Further research into the domains from which those passwords were stolen, Facebook was the most popular; it accounted 57 percent or 318,121. Yahoo came in second with approximately 60,000, followed by Google Accounts (54,437), Twitter (21,708) and Google.com (16,095). And professionals were also made unsecure, as also on the list was LinkedIn with 8,490 passwords stolen.

Worryingly, payroll provider ADP also had 7,978 passwords stolen, which Trustwave said was surprising.  “Facebook accounts are a nice catch for cyber criminals, but payroll services accounts could actually have direct financial repercussions,” the firm wrote in a blog post.

The Pony Botnet used a reverse proxy to avoid being detected and it continued the scam as long as possible.  Trustwave said, “Outgoing traffic from an infected machine only shows a connection to the proxy server, which is easily replaceable in case it is taken down…While this behaviour is interesting in-and-of itself, it does prevent us from learning more about the targeted countries in this attack, if there were any.”
Trustwave also didn’t have more details about how passwords were obtained but the data however revealed, that many people need to create better and more complex passwords. Almost 16,000 accounts used “123456″ as their passwords, and 2,212 used the word “password” and 1,991 used the word “admin.” Trustwave says overall, only 5 percent of the 2 million passwords are what they consider to be excellent (passwords that use all four character types and are longer than 8 characters).
With organised criminal activities on the rise and the use and misuse of social media such as Facebook and Twitter becoming so prevalent in today’s world, it does make good sense to use excellent passwords to secure your data, doesn’t it?

[IMAGE via techbeat]
CONTENT SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/12/pony-botnet-steals-2-million-passwords/

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In a recent blog post, Amazon Web Services VP and distinguished engineer James Hamilton praised Facebook’s decision to work with a utility in Iowa on a new data center that is powered solely by a nearby wind farm.
 
Hamilton thinks that Facebook’s model is setting a good example because it doesn’t need the data center operator to build its own clean power but rather leaves the power development in the capable hands of the utility. He also thinks it a good idea that the data center be located in an area where wind power is more economical.

So how does this stack up against other companies’ clean power facilities? Well, take for example Apple’s facilities in Maiden, North Carolina. Although a very impressive display, the facility has consumed a huge amount of land, with 171 acres being cleared of all trees in order to provide green power; ironic wouldn’t you say! And despite the fact that solar power is a good source for major data centers, it is less practical for the majority of smaller facilities, especially if they are located in a densley populated urban area.

Another popular “green” approach is the use of fuel cells to power data centers but the challenge here is that not all are powered by bio-gas and instead rely on non-renewable energy, leading them to receive criticism over a lack of efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Hamilton gave four reasons why he feels that Facebook have the right solution:

1. No clear cutting was required to prepare the land for generation and the land remains multi-use
2.  It’s not fossil fuel powered
3. The facility will be run by a major power generation operator rather than as a sideline by the datacenter operator
4. Far more clean power is being produced than will be actually used by the datacenter so they are actually adding more clean power to the grid than they are consuming by a fairly significant margin.

He finished by saying: “Hats off to Facebook for doing it clean data center energy right.”

[IMAGE via TeachBeat]
CONTENT SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/12/facebook-wins-support-wind-powered-data-center/

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The most important factor is loading the web page or blog faster for a blogger for SEO. Every webmaster try to improve his blog loading speed so that he can more blog visitors and readers. Search engines too consider the load time for a blog as a ranking factor specially Google.
 

Do you want your readers come or bookmark your page, then you should definitely concentrate on speeding up your blog. Most of the users won`t like such sites which take more time to load. Let us how these tips will help in reducing your blog loading time.

1. Template   

Choosing the better template that loads faster and having low file size. Don`t go for stylish templates which loads for more time this will download pages slowly while viewing each post.

2. Images  
Use the optimized or less size of images that can be JPEG or PNG, so that they can load fast. Optimized images help in making your blog post load fast as the HTML text appears on the page.

3. No Background
Don't ever use the background Images that would be really responsible for slow loading. Always try to background CSS colors instead of Images.

4. Java Script
Avoid using Java Script code in your blog template as it decrease the optimal blog speed. Blogger recommend Google/Blogger widgets instead of third party Java Script codes. Make sure that you put all the Java Script at the bottom of the blogger template.
 
5. Number of Posts on home page
Blogger has been introduced few tips to make your blog load fast i.e., decreasing the number of posts to 5-7 with read more option.
 
6. Widgets  
Don't use more number of widgets on your blog, so that it look too bad for the traffic or visitors that reach your blog.

7. Ads 

Most of the beginners will add more advertisements generally on their blogs.
Always add only 3 or 4 ads on your webpage and not more, See that the advertisements help your blog look professional. 

8. CSS 
Use more part of CSS than HTML to add any effects on your blog. This will make your blog look professional as css effects load more fast.

Optimized your blog with all tips and followed than use these Tool to know how much does your blog has scored.

Google speed cheker tool>>>

[IMAGE via wpbriefly ]

SOURCE: http://www.teckop.com/2013/06/best-tips-to-reduce-your-blog-loading-time.html

Google Speed Checker Tool

Google Speed Checker Tool

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It is amazing what has been achieved with the use of 3D printing technology, yet researchers have never managed to print a battery, that is until now.

Thanks to new types of ink and tools, it is possible to create 3D printed lithium ion cells. Materials scientist Jennifer Lewis from Harvard University, has developed a technique using a series of “functional inks that can solidify into batteries and simple components, including electrodes, wires and antennas.” In effect they are suspensions of nanoparticles of the desired materials (like lithium for batteries), which float in a binder.

High-pressure extruders are used to deposit the functional inks with great accuracy, forcing the ink out at room temperature. It dries very quickly, forming components at such a rate that it is possible to create a simple battery in a matter of minutes.

Technology Review explains why this is such a useful development: “Her printed lithium-ion batteries are as tiny as one millimeter square but perform as well as commercial batteries, because Lewis can render microscale architectures, and position structures with 100-nanometer accuracy, to mirror the structures of much bigger batteries.”

So these 3D printed batteries have the potential to replace current conventional cells but take up far less space. That is definitely an advancement.

[IMAGES via TechBeat]
CONTENT SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/11/harvard-scientist-creates-first-3d-printed-battery/

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Looking for GUITAR CLASSES in Kundapura?? Click here 



It's always been a tough job for amateur guitarists to tune their Guitar accurately. Even with a Guitar tuner app sometimes it’s really hard to get it perfect. But now, a device has been created for even the most tone deaf of all guitarists, and I have to admit, the Roadie sounds almost too good to be true.

That’s A Guitar Tuner, Right?

As you can see in the above image, the Roadie fits within the palm of your hand and also fits snugly over each string peg.
The Roadie connects with your phone or tablet via bluetooth, and every time you strum a string it sends a signal to the Roadie. Once it receives the signal, it automatically tunes that string to your desired setting. It is quick and painless, and removes the error factor from manual guitar tuning. It also removes the time factor from tuning it yourself as it can tune it within mere seconds. The Roadie app includes several different tunings and even allows you to create your own tunings. Best of all? The Roadie app will be completely free.
The Roadie is unique in that it is helpful to new guitarists and professional guitarists all the same. It doesn’t matter your skill level – the Roadie will tune whatever guitar is placed in front of it.

The Roadie is currently funded by Kickstarter, and expects to begin shipping the products in June of 2014. They have already exceeded their original goal of $60,000 and have 39 days to go in their fundraising campaign.

[IMAGE & CONTENT SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/11/tiny-roadie-will-tune-guitar/] 

Looking for GUITAR CLASSES in Kundapura?? Click here

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Instagram has finally released a native app for Windows Phone.
The new Instagram app has most of the great features that iOS and Android users have come to appreciate. All the photo filters are there and you are able to see your feed, complete with all of your friend’s snaps and “heart” and comments too.  However, all is not rosey in the Instagram world as a few things are peculiarly absent.  The most important of which is the fact that the Windows app cannot take photos or upload video from within the app?

Windows users can still upload photos from their camera roll and Instagram for Windows Phone will launch the native camera app to take new photos.  Currently, there is no option for video, but apparently it is all in the pipeline. As Instagram has finally made the leap over to Windows Phone, we should all be grateful, even if the app is still ironing out the flaws.

Main Features Include:

100% free custom designed filters: XPro-II, Earlybird, Rise, Amaro, Hudson, Lo-fi, Sutro, Toaster, Brannan, Inkwell, Walden, Hefe, Nashville, 1977, and others.
Video recording with breathtaking cinematic stabilization
Linear and Radial Tilt-Shift blur effects for extra depth of field.
Instant sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and Foursquare
Unlimited uploads
Interact with friends through giving & receiving likes and comments
Full front & back camera support
And much much more…
You can get Instagram for Windows Phone at the Windows Phone Store.

[IMAGE via TechBeat]
SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/11/instagram-finally-released-windows-phone/

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Latest reports say that the owners of the ever so popular photo messaging service Snapchat, have refused an acquisition offer from the social media giant Facebook.  This offer would no doubt have turned Evan Spiegel and his colleagues into extremely wealthy people.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources close to the company, the social network has offered approximately $3 billion to purchase Snapchat, that is more than double the amount Yahoo paid for Tumblr earlier this year.  Facebook are not the only interested party in this matter as several other companies want to either acquire or invest in the service. For example, China’s Tencent Holdings, the owner of WeChat, proposed to lead a funding round that would value Snapchat at $4 billion.

 
Snapchat was developed back in 2011 by a group of Stanford University students.  The service allows users to take photos and record videos that will be deleted several seconds after they have been viewed by the recipient.  The company currently produces no revenue, but it has attracted a huge member base, and is especially popular among teenagers and this is the bait; the group of young teenagers with what seems like a limitless amount of cash to spend, which advertisers are willing to pay high stakes for. Only a few months ago, in July, a report in New Statesman valued Snapchat at $860 million.
One of the main reasons for the swift climb of the Snapchat service, appears to be ‘sexting’, this is a practice of sending and receiving sexually explicit images that more than often involve varying degrees of nudity.  This is, unfortunately, especially widespread among younger users of Snapchat. Developers, however, insist that the functionality of the service has not been adapted to enable or encourage sexting?
In the short space of time from July until now, Facebook has offered the founders $3 billion in cash, if successful; this would be the social network’s leading acquisition by a long stretch, almost tripling the amount it paid for Instagram last year.
But according to the sources, the 23-year-old CEO, Evan Spiegel, is trying to hold off on any strategic moves until early next year, hoping that the user base of the company will keep growing, thereby increasing its worth.  Rumour has it that Facebook had already approached Snapchat previous to this deal, offering around $1 billion for the messaging service, although Snapchat has not issued any comments on the report.
Unprofitable but popular messaging and social services with strong mobile support, have become a key target for investment in the last year. Last week’s Twitter IPO has valued the company at more than £11 billion, while Pinterest’s recent financing round had amplified its value to approximately £2.4 billion.

[IMAGE via TechBeat]
SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/11/snapchat-refuses-facebooks-3-billion-offer/

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Firefox fan? Resident of the United States? Sorry, but it’s not looking good for you if you’ve been waiting for Firefox phones to come to the country. Although Mozilla has previously stated that Firefox phones were going to be released in the US, the most recent developments point to the company backtracking on its word.

Straight from the mouth of Mozilla Executive Chair Mitchell Baker: “Currently, there are no plans to launch in the US.” This was said directly to Paul Sloan, editor-in-chief of CNET.
As things look, Mozilla is focusing their marketing efforts on developing countries. This does make sense, especially with the competition being very fierce in other areas. Many developing countries are being “ignored” by the major phone  With developing countries serving as emerging markets, smartphones priced just right would be very welcome indeed.
Then again, just because a gadget is not being made officially available in a certain country does not mean that consumers can’t still get their hands on a unit. No matter what kind of gadget, you can always find something for sale online. As a matter of fact, Firefox phones have been found on sale in the US vie eBay in the past. For sure, this is going to happen with the “no official US release” stance that Mozilla is now taking.

With Apple and Samsung dominating the market and engaging in a seemingly never ending game of go at each other’s throats, consumers will definitely favor a lower cost alternative from another reliable player. Especially if you’re not really keen on paying an arm and a leg for a smartphone.
How about you, what smartphone do you currently use? Are you looking forward to the Firefox OS phone to give Android and iOS a run for their money and giving consumers a viable alternative?


[IMAGE via TECHBEAT]
SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/11/firefox-phones-will-available-us/

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The time has come round once again for Google to release its latest Chrome Web browser.  The new Chrome Stable browser is known officially as Version 31.0.1650.48 and it is available for free to download for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame, according to a recent post by Anthony Laforge of the Google Chrome team, on the Google Chrome Releases Blog. The 31′st Version of Google’s Chrome web browser has been officially released with a number of fixes and user improvements.

A total of 25 security fixes are included in the latest version, wrote Laforge.  These fixes address a wide variety of issues in the browser’s code. Also included is a Flash Player update to Version 11.9.900.152.  Now that this latest Stable version of Chrome has been released for users, Google continues to labour on the next beta release, Version 32.
One new feature being introduced into Version 32 beta is the ability for users to quickly get a warning on their browser tabs when there is a page that is producing disruptive sounds via a video clip or other content, according to a post by a Google software engineer, Yuri Wiitala, on the Google Chrome Blog.  “Have you ever shuffled through your tabs to figure out where that sound or music is coming from?” wrote Wiitala. “We hear you! With today’s latest Chrome Beta release, you can now visually scan your tabs for a speaker icon to quickly find the offender.
Chrome will also indicate which tabs are currently using your Webcam or are being cast to your TV.” The alert will display a small icon on the affected browser tab to let users know which tab is playing the unwanted sound at that moment, wrote Wiitala. The sound alert is also activated for Webcam sounds and Webcasting volumes.

Also of note in the beta 32 release is a new feature for Windows 8 users that allows better management of multiple Chrome windows at the same time, while accessing Chrome apps using an integrated app launcher, wrote Wiitala. Additionally, the latest beta 32 version includes a Safe Browsing alert that pops up to warn users before they are about to or download a malicious files visit a suspect Website.  The latest beta version now includes automatic blocking of malware files, according to Wiitala.
The beta Version 32, officially known as Version 32.0.1700.6 for Windows, Mac and Linux, also includes a number of new extension APIs and apps as well as a host of fixes and aimed at increasing performance and stability, according to a post by Karen Grünberg, a member of the Google Chrome team, on the Chrome Releases Blog.  As part of the introduction of Stable Version 31 and the beta Version 32 of Chrome, Google has introduced the latest Developer channel edition of Chrome, which is Version 33. By working on multiple browser versions simultaneously, the next versions are in the pipeline for future stable releases.

So what are you Chromesters waiting for?  Time to download and upgrade!

[IMAGE via TechBeat] 
SOURCE: http://techbeat.com/2013/11/chrome-31-browser-released/

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