Zach Miners
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Some Flickr users facing browser support woes
Some Flickr users are reporting problems with the photo sharing site that may be related to what browser they’re using—even if the browser’s up to date.Since late last month, some users have reported problems after seeing a message telling them their browser was unsupported. Some say they’ve lost the ability to do things on Flickr, like comment on or download photos, while others say their photos now appear in lower resolution.On April 21, Flickr began notifying users they would need the latest browser versions. The service supports Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera, but its help page now says Flickr may not work properly on older versions of those browsers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Fitbit’s IPO filing shows a strong pulse
Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers, has filed to go public and revealed some strong sales numbers in its pitch.The company seeks to raise as much as US$100 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday, though the amount is subject to change. Fitbit plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT.”The filing reveals what seems to be a healthy business. The company sold roughly 10.9 million devices in 2014, more than double what it sold in 2013 and more than eight times as many as it sold in 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Fitbit’s IPO filing shows a strong pulse
Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers, has filed to go public and revealed some strong sales numbers in its pitch.The company seeks to raise as much as US$100 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday, though the amount is subject to change. Fitbit plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT.”The filing reveals what seems to be a healthy business. The company sold roughly 10.9 million devices in 2014, more than double what it sold in 2013 and more than eight times as many as it sold in 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lyft turns to Verizon for an edge against Uber
Lyft is looking to better compete against larger rival Uber through a partnership with Verizon Wireless.Lyft’s ride-hailing app will now come preloaded on select Verizon Android smartphones, under a national partnership with the carrier that Lyft is announcing Thursday. The change will go into effect immediately for the newest Android smartphones, Lyft said. It didn’t specify which handsets are included. The partnership does not change the way Lyft’s app works.The deal, the first of its kind between the companies, will get Lyft’s app in front of more potential users. Lyft’s service, which lets people request rides through their smartphones, is currently available in 65 cities across the U.S. Uber is active in more than 300 cities and nearly 60 countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lyft turns to Verizon for an edge against Uber
Lyft is looking to better compete against larger rival Uber through a partnership with Verizon Wireless.Lyft’s ride-hailing app will now come preloaded on select Verizon Android smartphones, under a national partnership with the carrier that Lyft is announcing Thursday. The change will go into effect immediately for the newest Android smartphones, Lyft said. It didn’t specify which handsets are included. The partnership does not change the way Lyft’s app works.The deal, the first of its kind between the companies, will get Lyft’s app in front of more potential users. Lyft’s service, which lets people request rides through their smartphones, is currently available in 65 cities across the U.S. Uber is active in more than 300 cities and nearly 60 countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel increases its hiring among women, minorities
Intel is becoming a little more diverse, just several months after announcing an ambitious plan to add more women and minority workers to its ranks.Since January, roughly 17 percent of Intel’s senior hires were historically under-represented minorities—about double the rate last year. Intel also doubled its senior hiring among women to 33 percent, CEO Brian Krzanich said on Wednesday.More broadly, roughly 41 percent of Intel’s hires for the year so far have been “diverse,” he said, without specifying further. That’s up from about 30 percent a year ago, Krzanich said. He gave the figures during a talk at the Push Tech 2020 Summit in San Francisco, an event focused on diversity issues in the technology industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google extends Android voice search to Zillow, Shazam, NPR
“OK Google, where are the open houses in Chicago?” That’s a question that might yield a useful response for Android users, now that Zillow’s real estate service is integrated into Google’s voice search.Several new integrations hit Google’s voice search system for Android devices on Thursday, which lets people conduct queries orally by first saying, “OK Google.” In addition to Zillow, Shazam, NPR and online radio service TuneIn have been integrated.The integrations require users to have those other apps on their smartphone or tablet. But instead of having to open the apps individually, users can ask their mobile device directly, which, hopefully, will then take them inside the appropriate app with an answer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook change will give you control over data sharing with apps
Users are getting greater choice over what information is shared with websites and apps when they log in using their Facebook ID.A new version of Facebook Login, which begins its wide roll out this week, will present users with a prompt to “Edit the info you provide.” Clicking that will let users grant or deny access to different types of information. The login now also highlights who will see content posted by the app in Facebook, for apps that request the ability to do so.Facebook first announced this system during its F8 developers conference in April 2014. Many of the most popular apps, like Pinterest and Netflix, are already using it and over the next few weeks, Facebook will turn on the system for every app that uses the Facebook Login.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook change will give you control over data sharing with apps
Users are getting greater choice over what information is shared with websites and apps when they log in using their Facebook ID.A new version of Facebook Login, which begins its wide roll out this week, will present users with a prompt to “Edit the info you provide.” Clicking that will let users grant or deny access to different types of information. The login now also highlights who will see content posted by the app in Facebook, for apps that request the ability to do so.Facebook first announced this system during its F8 developers conference in April 2014. Many of the most popular apps, like Pinterest and Netflix, are already using it and over the next few weeks, Facebook will turn on the system for every app that uses the Facebook Login.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Secret, an app for anonymous posts, shuts down
Secret, an app for anonymous posts that initially attracted buzz but drew criticism after a redesign, is shutting down.The company, also named Secret, formally launched its app last year and is said to have raised between US$33 million and $35 million in funding. “After a lot of thought and consultation with our board, I’ve decided to shut down Secret,” CEO David Byttow said Wednesday in a blog post, who noted that the app does not represent the vision he had when starting the company.Secret had attracted over 15 million users, he said in the post. Byttow will spend the next couple weeks winding down Secret, he said. Funding will be returned to investors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Secret, an app for anonymous posts, shuts down
Secret, an app for anonymous posts that initially attracted buzz but drew criticism after a redesign, is shutting down.The company, also named Secret, formally launched its app last year and is said to have raised between US$33 million and $35 million in funding. “After a lot of thought and consultation with our board, I’ve decided to shut down Secret,” CEO David Byttow said Wednesday in a blog post, who noted that the app does not represent the vision he had when starting the company.Secret had attracted over 15 million users, he said in the post. Byttow will spend the next couple weeks winding down Secret, he said. Funding will be returned to investors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Airbnb’s new app for tablets features magazine-style layout
Airbnb has developed a new app customized for iOS and Android tablets in an attempt to give those users a better way to browse its million-plus home rental listings than with the devices’ web browsers.The free app, to be released Wednesday, lets users navigate its content as if they were flipping the pages of a magazine. Airbnb, founded in 2008, already has mobile apps for iOS and Android smartphones.The tablet app emphasizes big, high quality photos of people’s homes arranged on the screen in varying layouts, which can be easily flicked through. With the tablets’ larger screen size, pages for individual listings also feature photos and links to similar listings, resembling the look of a print magazine’s sidebar article. Rotate the tablet from a horizontal to vertical position, and the app’s interface will reorient itself.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Twitter eyeing Apple to help distribute its tweets
Soon, when you do a search on your iPhone for someone’s contact info, a recent tweet from them might also pop up.Twitter is working with Apple to incorporate Twitter content and accounts into Apple’s Spotlight search feature, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. Spotlight search is a feature in Apple’s iOS mobile system, and OS X on Macs, that generates results from content stored on the devices and from other content such as Safari Web results and mail from Apple’s Mail app.Tweets might be next on the list.Costolo did not provide any other details on the status of the talks, beyond saying that such an integration would be geared toward making it easier and quicker to find content on Twitter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Twitter blames weak sales on lackluster ads, drops forecast
Twitter failed to meet revenue estimates for the first quarter, and is lowering its expectations for the rest of the year, due to weaker than expected performance of some of its ads products, the company said Tuesday.Total sales for the period that ended March 31 were $436 million, Twitter reported, up 74 percent from the previous year. Analysts, however, were expecting sales of roughly $457 million, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Financial Network.The company’s stock plummeted by nearly 20 percent toward the end of trading on Tuesday, to around $42. Twitter typically publishes financial data after markets close, but they appeared online, apparently in error, during the trading session.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Twitter blames weak sales on lackluster ads, drops forecast
Twitter failed to meet revenue estimates for the first quarter, and is lowering its expectations for the rest of the year, due to weaker than expected performance of some of its ads products, the company said Tuesday.Total sales for the period that ended March 31 were $436 million, Twitter reported, up 74 percent from the previous year. Analysts, however, were expecting sales of roughly $457 million, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Financial Network.The company’s stock plummeted by nearly 20 percent toward the end of trading on Tuesday, to around $42. Twitter typically publishes financial data after markets close, but they appeared online, apparently in error, during the trading session.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook adds free video calling to Messenger
Users can now place free video calls with Messenger, as Facebook continues to extend the app beyond simple text-based chats.With the feature, Facebook is also taking a jab at competing products like Apple’s FaceTime, Microsoft’s Skype and Google Hangouts. Facebook previously allowed video calling through its site on the desktop, but not within its Messenger app.The video calling feature is available in the iOS and Android Messenger apps. iOS users will be able to video chat with Android users, and vice versa. It began rolling out Monday in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries including Mexico, Nigeria and Uruguay, with availability in more regions slated for the coming months, Facebook said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Starbucks hit by major computer failure
Starbucks suffered what appears to be a major computer system failure late Friday.Stores in Boston, New York, San Diego and other cities appeared to be affected, judging from hundreds of customer and employee posts on Twitter. Some stores are giving away drinks, are only accepting cash, or have closed, according to the messages.In San Francisco, an employee at one store said they were giving away free drinks, though he did not offer many other details. He said he was not sure when service would be restored.Starbucks did not immediately respond to telephone calls and emails requesting comment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google sales hit a speed bump in Q1
Google’s sales rose 12 percent during the first quarter, the slowest rate of revenue growth since 2013, while the amount it charges for ad clicks continued to drop.Total sales for the period ending March 31 came in at US$17.3 billion, missing consensus expectations of $17.5 billion from analysts polled by Thomson Financial Network.After subtracting traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenue paid to partners that distribute its ads, Google’s sales were $13.9 billion, the company reported Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook video is booming, now at 4 billion views per day
Besides connecting with friends, Facebook is fast becoming the place to watch videos. Billions of videos.Facebook is now serving up more than 4 billion videos to its users daily, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday. The figure is striking in part because it’s increasing so fast: In January, Facebook was showing 3 billion videos a day.“Video is a big opportunity for us,” COO Sheryl Sandberg said during Facebook’s quarterly earnings call. Besides being a way for users to share content, it’s a way for marketers to advertise on the site.One reason Facebook’s viewing count is so high is that videos uploaded to Facebook now play automatically. Facebook defines a view as three seconds or more, so people are likely to rack up views just scrolling through their news feed. Still, it’s an indication of how much video is on the site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Mobile ads now generate almost 75 percent of Facebook’s revenue
Facebook continued growing its business with ads placed on small screens last quarter, when it generated 73 percent of its sales from mobile ads.Facebook’s total first-quarter revenue was US$3.54 billion, up more than 40 percent from a year earlier, the company reported Wednesday. That was a bit less than the consensus analyst estimate of $3.56 billion, as polled by Thomson Reuters.With a trove of personal data on its billion-plus members—many of whom now log in from their smartphones—Facebook’s mobile ad business has become a powerhouse.During the quarter, which ended March 31, Facebook grew its mobile ad sales by 59 percent to $2.59 billion. After going public in mid-2012, Facebook faced questions from investors over its ability to grow its business on mobile, but the company eventually dispelled those doubts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here