As reported on TechCrunch. by GREG KUMPARAK Let’s say we build a phone, theoretically. We’re not! But if we did, we could get maybe 10 million people to use it. 20 million. That doesn’t move the needle for us. –Mark Zuckerberg, Disrupt SF 2012 With today’s leaks, it’s looking like Zuck was being almost completely honest. Facebook isn’t building a Facebook Phone. They’re letting HTC do it for them. But that’s seemingly not the end goal, here. Don’t…
As reported on Engadget. By Jon Fingas When Michael Dell signaled intentions to take his company private for an overhaul, there were questions as to just what he wanted to do if and when shareholders weren’twatching his every move: was he going to shift attention away from PCs toward the enterprise? There’s no reason to worry, according to a staff memo that his company has published through the SEC. Dell tells his employees that the firm will “significantly increase investment” in…
As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith We might have spent a few hours toying with Samsung’s new mobile hardware, but tinkerers over at XDA-Developers have had enough time to root the Galaxy S 4, already. This means those (very) early adopters can start perusing the inner workings as soon as it arrives on store shelves. There’s a video of the process after the break and you can pick up all the necessary files (and warnings of not…
As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith It might not have the trademark, but that hasn’t stopped Apple shaving the cost of its entry-level iPhone 4 and 4S‘ to something closer to its price tag in North America. The 16GB iPhone 4S is now R$1,699 ($840), down from R$1,999, while the 8GB flavor of the iPhone 4 now rings in at R$1,099 ($544), reduced from R$1,499. According to O Globo, if you’re willing to pay upfront in full (and by phone)…
As reported on The Verge. By Matt Brian April Fools’ Day provides the springboard for companies to make some unbelievable announcements, but for Google and Microsoft, it serves as the perfect time to poke fun at eachothers’ shortcomings. With Gmail Blue, Google is teasing Redmond over a product that doesn’t officially exist yet, while Microsoft goes back to basics to poke fun at its rival’s “vanilla” search engine. “HOW DO YOU COMPLETELY REDESIGN AND RECREATE SOMETHING, WHILE…
As reported on TechCrunch. by JOSH CONSTINE The mainstream has had little reason to care that Android gives developers much more customization freedom than iOS. But if Facebook’s fabled Android homescreen is a hit, the stubbornness of Apple’s closed mobile platform could be framed as a drawback after years of its cohesive design and ease being seen as assets. Cheapness and handset/carrier choice are two of the biggest factors convincing people to pick up Android phones today. There’s…
As reported on TechCrunch. by DREW OLANOFF Vowels aren’t really necessary in today’s digital age, are they? Twitter doesn’t think so, as it announced a new “two-tiered” serviceincluding its free model called “Twttr.” You can only tweet without vowels though. Want the vowels back? Pony up $5 a month. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me. Luckily, Twitter really cares about its users and will offer up the “sometimes Y” free of charge…forever. Also free are…
As reported on TechCrunch. by JORDAN CROOK Bad news, guys. YouTube is shutting down. The platform launched eight years ago, and some of us have gotten so distracted by YouTube videos that we’ve forgotten that the whole thing is actually a competition. Or, YouTube never actually mentioned that it was a competition. Either way, that competition, called YouTube, is coming to a close. To decide who has made the best YouTube video of all time, the…
As reported on TechCrunch. by DREW OLANOFF The Google April Fool’s train continues with the announcement of “Gmail Blue.” Yes, it’s a version of Google’s email service where everything is the color blue. The YouTube one from earlier was OK, and the Nose one was just so-so, but I’d actually use this product if it existed, especially since it took six years to “develop the technology.” Can you imagine something like this actually happening? Some people flipped out…
As reported on Engadget. By Jon Fingas For all the money and effort poured into supercomputers, their lifespans can be brutally short. See IBM’s Roadrunner as a textbook example: the 116,640-core cluster was smashing records just five years ago, and yet it’s already considered so behind the times that Los Alamos National Laboratory is taking it out of action today. Don’t mourn too much for the one-time legend, however. The blend of Opteron andCell processors proved instrumental to understanding energy flow in weapons while…