THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Instagram announced video sharing capabilities this week at a special event in Facebook’s headquarters, giving Twitter’s Vine a run for its money. Instagram will enable 15-second clips of video (with a three second minimum), a bet on slightly larger content over Vine’s six seconds, and comes backed with 13 different filtering capabilities that work … [Read more...]
Apple was awarded a patent this week for an augmented reality function that can tag objects in a live video stream and present information about those objects in an overlay on the screen, the Apple Insider reported. Published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's U.S. Patent No. 8,400,548 for "Synchronized, interactive augmented reality … [Read more...]
In China, Google’s Android platform truly lives in the wild, wild West. A recent report from the Data Center of China Internet indicated that nearly 35 percent of Android apps secretly steal data unrelated to the functionality of the app, Tech in Asia reported. The center examined 1,400 apps downloaded from a variety of app markets, and found that … [Read more...]
Tablets will make up 35 percent of the $16.4 billion that smartphone apps are expected to earn this year, according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research. By 2018, however, they are expected to dominate as cheaper tablets become available and people start to use them regularly for mobile browsing. Tablet growth is projected to steadily … [Read more...]
Facebook may have thrown its idea for a Facebook phone into the virtual trash bin, but that doesn’t mean the company has abandoned voice. Its latest update for its iOS app allows users in the US and Canada to place voice calls to other users, even if they don’t know the other person’s phone number, providing both are online and have the latest … [Read more...]
Known for its mobile reader, Square now offers merchants a sales system they can actually nail down. Built to use an iPad, its recently debuted Business in a Box for Square Register provides a complete point of sale system that includes everything the average retailer needs to manage commerce, all for a starting price of $299, not counting the … [Read more...]
Step aside USA. China has become the world’s largest smartphone market, surpassing the US for the first time for actively used smartphones and tablets, according to recent data released by Flurry, the mobile analytics firm. Flurry tracked more than 2.4 billion application sessions across more than 275,000 applications around the world. The firm … [Read more...]
ComScore released its Digital Future in Focus report for 2013, revealing that nearly 6 trillion ad impressions were served up the US. What’s more, social media is steadily taking the lead, accounting for 16.6 and will soon surpass portals as the most engaging online activity. Facebook naturally leads this surge, contributing to the largest share of … [Read more...]
Truphone, a UK company that strives to eliminate international calling fees, has raised an impressive $118 million round at a $473 million valuation. The investment round was made by a group of investors led by Roman Abramovich, the wealthy Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club. Abramovich's investment gives him a 23 percent stake in the … [Read more...]
by MATT GALLAGHER, Red Herring Though plenty of Q&A service sites sleep contentedly in the graveyard, ChaCha is thriving alive and strong. The company recently raised a new round of $14 million. The company will use the new funding to expand its mobile and online experience as well as enhance its advertising potential. The round was led … [Read more...]