See the Instagram photos you’re tagged in with new “Photos of You” feature
Want to see the photos you’ve been tagged in on Instagram? The company plans to announce a “Photos of You” feature on Thursday that will let you do just that. Read more »
Stories for May. 2, 2013
Free Android app turns Nintendo Wii Fit board into a smart scale
Before you spend upwards of $100, $200 or more on a web-connected intelligent scale, you might want to dig around the house for a Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board. With the FitScales Android app, you already have what you need. Read more »
Microsoft: We’ve migrated 300M Hotmail users to Outlook.com
photo: Flickr / ToddABishop
Moving 300 million users from one popular (and often free) email system to another is bound to ruffle feathers. And feathers were ruffled. Read more »
Facebook puts a friendly spin on password security with launch of Trusted Contacts
As the issue of password security and online identity becomes more important than ever, Facebook has re-vamped its password security measures, allowing you to contact friends in case of trouble. Read more »
RapGenius may not have found the future of news, but it has about as much chance as anyone else
photo: Shutterstock / noporn
It may seem like a sideshow, or a service that can only bring noise and chaos to the news, but RapGenius and its approach towards annotation shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand just yet. Read more at paidContent »
Targus aims at Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note 8.0 with new “sexy” case line
When you hear the word Targus, does “understated sexiness” come to mind? Probably not, but the company hopes to change your mind with its new Midnight Collection of cases, first for the Galaxy S 4 and Galaxy Note 8.0. Read more »
Pretty enough for TV? Conde Nast and Wall Street Journal strut for online video dollars
photo: Yuri Arcurs
Traditional media brands are cranking out video content in the hopes of persuading marketers to shift ad budgets from TV to online offerings. But can companies like Conde Nast and the Wall Street journal deliver the necessary quality and audience size? Read more at paidContent »
HTC barely ekes out a profit, expects HTC One to turn fortunes around
Once the brightest rising stars in this new smartphone era, HTC has been falling from grace for nearly two years. The company’s latest quarterly results reflect the situation. Can the HTC One help a turnaround or is there more HTC needs to do? Read more »
One Linux over all: Mark Shuttleworth’s ambitious post-PC plans for Ubuntu
Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth has really big, plans to put Ubuntu on your smartphone, on your tablet and (via OpenStack). What he doesn’t offer is details on revenue. Read more »
Besieged by a changing market, Intel chooses new CEO from the inside
photo: Flickr user huangjiahui
Intel on Thursday named a new CEO and a new president. While both are internal candidates, the new president has experience that should help her face the challenges Intel has in the mobile and data center market. Read more »
Sponsored post: Learn about distributed systems at Basho’s RICON East conference
RICON East is a developers’ conference happening in NYC on May 13-14. Come learn about distributed systems best practices from over 30 industry leaders, including speakers from State Farm Insurance, the Weather Channel, Comcast, MIT, Harvard University and more. Read more »
Former Federated Media CEO Deanna Brown joins e-singles site Byliner as president
E-singles startup Byliner has a new president: Deanna Brown, who was previously the CEO of Federated Media and before that held executive roles at Scripps, Yahoo and AOL. She also founded Inside.com and Gaming Industry News and cofounded CondéNet. Read more at paidContent »
Podcast: Power to the people — and all their connected devices
Want to know what your power company thinks about the internet of things? If you live in Austin, you’ll know exactly what it thinks, but for everyone else my podcast with Austin Energy may still provide some valuable insights. Read more »
Intel banks on enterprise mobile app development again, leading $9M FeedHenry round
Intel Capital and others have put $9 million into Irish outfit FeedHenry, which provides a mobile app development and deployment platform, along with backend-as-a-service, for mostly enterprise customers. Read more »
Skobbler’s online-offline ForeverMap2 app is now available on iOS
The OpenStreetMap-based app, already out there for Android users, can now be downloaded for iPhone and iPad. It’s a consumer play, but also a B2B showcase for Skobbler’s mapping technology. Read more »
Salesforce finally solidifies European data center plans
The UK-sited data center, which should help settle the compliance worries of many of Salesforce’s European customers, will be completed in 2014. The firm is also running a €5 million Innovation Challenge for EU startups. Read more »
Stories for May. 1, 2013
Xeround pulls the plug on cloud database service
Company tells users of its cloud-based MySQL database service to move their instances by May 8 or else. (May 15 for paying customers.) Read more »
Zynga and NewSchools Venture Fund create accelerator for educational gaming startups
Zynga is partnering with NewSchools Venture Fund to launch an accelerator program for educational gaming startups. Read more »
YouTube users now watch 6 billion hours of videos a month
Boy, people really do like watching YouTube videos: The service now streams more than 6 billion hours of video every month. Read more »
MapR releases M7, its commercial HBase distro
photo: Shutterstock / concept w
MapR on Wednesday released its commercial version of HBase called M7, the first such product on the market, that the company claims is bigger, faster and better than the open source version. Read more »
First in flight: Maryland professor’s robot bird good enough to fool the real thing
Attack of the flying robot bird: it can dive and roll and looks so realistic that other birds have attacked it in flight. Read more »
Another WARN class action suit for cleantech, this time for Coda Automotive
Here’s the details of the class action lawsuit filed against Coda Automotive that I referenced yesterday: it’s a complaint that Coda Automotive allegedly violated the WARN Act, that requires large employers to give employees 60 days written notice of mass layoffs. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks closes its first quarter as a public company
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks held its first earnings call as a public company on Wednesday, and delivered a flat quarter. It’s a hard knock life in the hardware biz. Read more »
Watch your data caps: Kaleidescape starts offering Blu-ray-quality movie downloads
Want to legally download Blu-ray quality copies of Harry Potter movies? Owners of Kaleidescape systems can do so today – but should watch their data caps. Read more »
iPad is top selling tablet, but Android now most common tablet OS, says IDC
Tablet sellers had a really good first quarter. As a result, Apple’s overall share of tablet sales is slipping. Read more »
Facebook beats revenue estimates for Q1 earnings with $1.46 billion, misses on profit
Facebook announced its first quarter earnings on Wednesday, with investors looking to see growth in the company’s mobile ad revenues. Read more »
Skinny RFID tags could soon show up embedded in paper
photo: Thinkstock
Two new developments in RFID research could pave the way for tags that are thinner, cheaper, and more versatile. Read more »
“With this nomination and appointment, when I depart in mid-May, I'll be leaving a revitalized FCC in great hands."
— Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the FCC
More offline Chrome apps arrive: Chrome Web Store previews Packaged Apps
Google has long been pushing for more offline and even native-like apps for Chrome OS and the Chrome browser. Now it’s taking the next step: Highlighting these Packaged Apps in the Chrome Web Store. Read more »
Precog launches with a plan to simplify analytics on unstructured data
Analytics startup Precog is on a mission to make analytics on unstructured data as simple as possible with a new line of targeted appliances. Read more »
With Dailymotion out of reach, what’s Yahoo’s next move in online video?
Yahoo is passing on the opportunity to buy a stake in the video site Dailymotion after regulators stepped in to alter the deal. So which company should the internet giant buy instead? Read more »
What’s trending on Twitter among African Americans? The Root’s new tool will tell you
News site The Root has rolled out a page that shows the most popular tweets and trends among black Americans, who are heavy Twitter users. Read more at paidContent »
With MetroPCS, T-Mobile could help Apple reach 9 million new potential iPhone buyers
It may not be the iPhone 5 they buy — the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S may prove more attractive — but that’s OK. Read more »
Company behind ‘digital pill’ with embedded chip raises $62.5M
photo: GigaOM via Thinkstock
Proteus Digital Health, the maker of an ingestible sensor that can be used to track whether patients have taken their medication, has raised $62.5 million from investors, including Oracle. Read more »
Four ways data scientists are using digital art to humanize data
The growing pains of big data were apparent at the Data 2.0 Summit on Tuesday in San Francisco. Here is a selection of visualization tools that came up at the meeting. Read more »
The data-driven security analyst
How do large data volumes and increased automation change the role of the security analyst? Find out in our next GigaOM Research live analyst webinar, sponsored by Click Security. This free webinar takes place on May 14, 2013, at 10 a.m. PT. Read more »
Newspapers need to stop lying to themselves — and to advertisers — about their circulation
photo: Shutterstock/Donskarpo
A trade group says that newspapers like the New York Times have seen large increases in circulation, but that’s partly because they are allowed to count their readers multiple times. The industry needs to do better. Read more at paidContent »
Electric car maker Coda files for bankruptcy
Electric car company Coda Automotive has filed for bankruptcy, following slow sales and lawsuits. It’s the latest electric car startup to struggle and falter. Read more »
Guess who went public? T-Mobile completes MetroPCS deal
T-Mobile’s deal to join with MetroPCs closed and on Wednesday morning, the newly combined company started trading on the NYSE under the ticker TMUS. Read more »
With hundreds of customers, Asana now seeks enterprise adoption
photo: Jordan Novet
Asana wants to help people around the world become more productive and efficient. New features for larger businesses and teams give Asana better credentials for enterprise adoption. How many enterprises will bite? Read more »
