Thursday, February 28, 2013

Facebook buys Microsoft ad technology platform

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to buy advertising technology from Microsoft Corp that measures the effectiveness of ads on its website, which should help in its fight with Google Inc for online advertising revenue.

Under the long-rumored transaction, Facebook will purchase the Atlas Advertiser Suite, an ad management and measurement platform that Microsoft took on with its $6.3 billion acquisition of digital ad agency aQuantive in 2007. Facebook did not say how much it paid for the technology.
Unable to make it work for its own purposes, Microsoft wrote off $6.2 billion of the aQuantive deal's value last year.
Facebook has long been dogged by doubts about the effectiveness of its ads and was embarrassed just days before its initial public offering in May when General Motors Co declared it was pulling the plug on all paid advertising on Facebook's network.
Since then, Facebook has introduced a number of tools and partnerships to prove to marketers that advertising on its social network delivers enough bang for the buck.
Brian Boland, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing, said the purchase of Atlas was not a step toward creating a much wider ad network beyond the Facebook site, but analysts believe that is Facebook's ultimate goal.
"Although the statement announcing the deal focused on Atlas' measurement tools rather than its ad targeting technology, we expect that Atlas will soon be using Facebook's data to target sponsorships, in-stream ads, and other rich ad formats across the entire web, and that's big news," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott.
"The question now is how quickly and successfully Facebook can integrate its data with Atlas' tools, and whether they can avoid a privacy backlash as they do so. History suggests they'll struggle on both counts," he said.
Google leads the $15 billion U.S. market for online display ads with 15.4 percent share, according to researcher eMarketer, followed by Facebook with 14.4 percent.
 


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Twitter says goodbye to the pope


For the first time in nearly 600 years, a reigning pope has resigned. And in what might also be a landmark event, Twitter was not flooded with jokes or parody accounts when the announcement was made two weeks ago.
On February 11 @davewiner tweeted, "Perfect storm for Pope jokes. Since he's not dead no one can complain 'You're being insensitive.'"
But in the days that followed, not much surfaced. It was so odd that tweets like this were more common: "Did I miss the memo about no Pope jokes?" tweeted @NouveauBroke.
Although a parody account, @RetiredPopeXVI, did appear, it only has 577 followers and sent out a paltry five tweets.
That all changed on Thursday when Pope Benedict XVI slipped off his red loafers and officially became pope emeritus. Curiously, the Vatican also deleted all 39 of his tweets from the official @pontifex Twitter account. (They are archived here.)
And slowly, the jokes began to surface. Here are a handful we found humorous.

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Yahoo chief bans working from home

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has left hundreds of staff facing the tough choice of relocating from home to Yahoo's nearest office by June - or quitting. Photograph: Peter Kramer/AP

Marissa Mayer has ordered an end to 'remote' work as all staff are told to be in the office as part of a new era of collaboration

Surfing the web from at home might be just what Yahoo's chief Marissa Mayer wants her audience to do – but she has banned employees of the company itself from working "remotely", in an edict sent out last Friday to Yahoo's thousands of staff.
Several hundred staff must now relocate their home offices to Yahoo's nearest office outpost by June – or quit, as the former Google chief gets serious about getting the company's staff back into "meat space" so it can be a contender in the web space.
The memo from human resources chief Jackie Reses – but driven by Mayer – says that "to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices."
But the mood of Yahoo's 11,500 employees – down from 14,100 at the end of 2011 – can be guessed from the fact that the memo is marked: "PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION – DO NOT FORWARD" and that it has been forwarded to the news site AllThingsD by "a plethora" of staff, according to senior editor Kara Swisher, who broke the story.
The memo points out that even those who only work one or two days in the office will have to submit to the new regime. But it seems that what Mayer has in mind is the provision of more water coolers and coffee machines: "Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings," it says. "Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home."
Mayer was hired in secret and took over in July 2012, and soon afterwards announced that she would be having her first child – which was duly born in October. Mayer however eschewed maternity leave to go straight back to work.
Having won a number of awards – including being ranked in the "Top 50 Best Places to Work" by Business Insider in 2013, and "Top 500 Green Companies" by Newsweek in 2010 – Yahoo may find itself winning another, for "biggest group of suddenly annoyed professionals". Although the memo says that "Being a Yahoo isn't just about your day-to-day job", a number are now wondering if it might be exactly that.
One former Yahoo worker commenting at AllThingsD said that working from home made them far more productive than being in the office: "Why? I didn't have to put up with numbskull self-important programmers constantly yakking to each other LOUDLY from the next set of cubicles about non-work-related stuff, and I wasn't being distracted every 20 minutes by some bored soul coming over to my desk to go for coffee or foosball, or just to talk about the spreading ennui of knowing we were working for a company whose glory days were long over."
The UK press office declined to say whether staff here will be affected: "we do not comment on internal matters," a spokesman said.

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HP sells webOS operating system to LG Electronics

Hewlett-Packard Co said on Monday it will sell the webOS operating system to South Korea's LG Electronics Inc, unloading the smartphone software it acquired through a $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in 2010.

LG will use the operating software, used in now-defunct Palm smartphones years ago, for its "smart" or Internet-connected TVs. The Asian electronics company had worked with HP on WebOS before offering to buy it outright.
Under the terms of their agreement, LG acquires the operating software's source code, associated documentation, engineering talent, various associated websites, and licenses under HP's intellectual property including patents covering fundamental operating system and user interface technology.
HP will retain the patents and all the technology relating to the cloud service of webOS, HP Chief Operating Officer Bill Veghte said in an interview.
"As we looked at it, we saw a very compelling IP that was very unique in the marketplace," he said, adding that HP has already had a partnership with LG on webOS before the deal was announced.
"As a result of this collaboration, LG offered to acquire the webOS operating system technology," Veghte said.
Skott Ahn, President and CTO, LG Electronics, said the company will incorporate the operating system in the Smart TV line-up first "and then hopefully all the other devices in the future."
Both companies declined to reveal the terms of the deal.
LG will keep the WebOS team in Silicon Valley and, for now, will continue to be based out of HP offices, Ahn said.
HP opened its webOS mobile operating system to developers and companies in 2012 after trying to figure out how to recoup its investment in Palm, one of the pioneers of the smartphone industry.
The company had tried to build products based on webOS with the now-defunct TouchPad tablet its flagship product.
HP launched and discontinued the TouchPad in 2010, a little over a month after it hit store shelves with costly fanfare after it saw poor demand for a tablet priced on par with Apple's dominant iPad.
WebOS is widely viewed as a strong mobile platform, but has been assailed for its paucity of applications, an important consideration while choosing a mobile device.

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Sony's Xperia Tablet Z Can Really Make a Splash

Sony's Xperia Tablet Z is getting some second looks, with its slim-line design and trove of advanced features -- not to mention its ability to take a bathtub dunking in stride. It's a full-size tablet at 10.1 inches, but it's only a quarter inch thick and weighs just over a pound. It's also PlayStation certified.
 
Sony introduced the Xperia Tablet Z on Monday, touting its thin form factor and powerful components at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Sony has been in the tablet market since 2011, when it introduced the Android-powered Tablet S, but the company now seems to be making a more serious play.
 
 
The 10.1-inch Xperia Tablet Z, which features a sleek design and a water-resistant case, is the world's thinnest tablet, according to Sony, at just 6.9mm. It weighs 1.1 lbs.
Many companies -- including Apple -- have looked to slim down the tablet form factor with 7-inch devices, but Sony is addressing what could be the bigger issue -- namely weight.
"Don't write off the larger sized tablets at this point," said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager for monitors and tablets at IHS iSuppli.
"Companies will continue to address the issue of larger tablets, but Sony has taken the lead notably with weight and thinness. It will all come down to creating a durable product that won't break while you use it," she added.
"It is a challenge at this point as to how you distinguish yourself in this ever more-crowded space," Alexander told TechNewsWorld. "Sony has kept an eye on industrial design -- and the fact that it is dramatically lighter than the competition and water resistant will make it stand out."
 

Features A to Tablet Z

The new Sony tablet is powered by Qualcomm's quad-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro with 2 GB of RAM. It runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1 and will be upgradable to 4.2. It features a scratch resistant 1080p display (1,920x1,200 pixel resolution) -- a plus for viewing full HD videos in all their visual glory. It offers built-in Near Field Communication (NFC) connectivity to other Sony products, including speakers, docks and TVs.
The Xperia Tablet Z supports WiFi, Bluetooth and Mobile High Definition Link (MHL). It includes a gyroscope, accelerometer and GPS. It has a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for HD video chats. The cameras utilize Sony's low-light technology, Exmor R and Superior audio. Sony's camera app is reportedly modeled on the interface for Sony's digital cameras.
This is tablet seems designed as much for use in the home -- notably the living room -- as for on the go. It offers an infrared port that can allow the Xperia Tablet Z to serve as a universal remote, and it features TV SideView, the latest version of Sony's guide to TV shows available on cable, Netflix and other content providers.
"From the looks of the Xperia Z, Sony may finally have gotten it right on the full size tablet front," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "The device is notably lighter and thinner than other tablets, including the iPad."
"Other features -- the waterproof case, SD Card expansion slot and Mini-USB port -- also set it apart from Apple," King told TechNewsWorld.

Targeting the High End

While other companies have catered to the low end of the market, it seems that Sony is clearly aiming at the high end. The Xperia Tablet Z is priced at US$499 for the 16-GB model and $599 for the 32-GB version, which is available exclusively through Sony stores.
"It looks like a solid offering. People will like the thinness and lightness, and it looks pretty well styled and tricked out for $499 and $599," said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.
"The NFC is cool, and the cam is beefy enough," he continued. "The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 is powerful, yet only sips power while delivering LTE and other connectivity -- and lots of pixels on that screen. Android is beginning to make inroads in tablets, and Sony benefits from all development up to this point."


With its lightweight size and thin design, it could be one that makes consumers consider the larger 10.1-inch models, even as Apple and others target the 7-inch market.
"The price is a bit on the high side, but clearly Sony is playing up their well deserved rep for premium-quality design and features being worth extra," said King.
"So far as 10 inch tablets go, it's an area where the iPad remains the clear leader," he acknowledged, "but given the increasing aggressiveness of tablet vendors leveraging Android, the market will become increasingly competitive. Overall, the Xperia Z could be the best tablet Sony has built to date, and one of the best full-size tablets currently available. It'll be interesting to see how the company fares in the coming months."

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Friday, February 22, 2013

Steam Offering Free 'Call of Duty' Play, Discounted Downloads


The newest Call of Duty installment is poised for a big Steam promotion this weekend.
Gamers will have a chance over the next three days to try out Call of Duty: Black Ops II free of charge. Those who want to purchase a downloadable copy, meanwhile, will get a 33 percent discount to $40, or $54 for the Digital Deluxe Edition.
For those unsure about which title to pick, the deluxe edition includes two Nuketown bonus maps (the 2025 version and one plotting the neighborhood's zombies), weapon camo, two player card backgrounds, the official Call of Duty: Black Ops II soundtrack, and the Call of Duty: World at War add-on.
Owners of a Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PC are welcome to join the free weekend, which began today at 1 p.m. Eastern, and lasts through 1 p.m. Sunday. The multiplayer version of Black Ops II will be free-to-play until 4 p.m. Sunday.

Additionally, gamers are eligible for double XP (experience points) until Monday at 1 p.m.
As reported by SlashGear, this is the first time game makers Treyarch and Activision have offered their popular title at no cost. Fans are well-acquainted, though, with the production companies' Double XP weekends, which offer players a chance to boost their progression through the game. This weekend, players will be looking to level up for advancement in the recently released Revolution DLC. The pack, which became available on Xbox Live late last month, can be downloaded for $14.99.
Call of Duty reigned over the video game market in 2012, taking home the best-selling game honor for the fourth straight year, despite a tough 12 months for the industry. Total spending on new hardware, software, and accessories last year dropped 22 percent to $13.26 billion.



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Samsung patent lawsuit would have left blind iPhone users in the dark


Talk about a lack of vision!


A Samsung patent lawsuit that was overturned today in a German court sought to prevent Apple from making it easy for blind iPhone users to access the VoiceOver feature -- a text-to-speech app so essential that the National Federation for the Blind gave it an award.

Tech watchers said stretching the patent battle to such a feature was simply bad business.


The battle revolved around a German patent Samsung holds on pressing a button to activate a text-to-speech feature. To make its phones accessible to blind users out of the box, a triple tap on the phone's only front button launches the VoiceOver feature.

Had the injunction been granted, Apple would have had to come up with some other way to easily activate VoiceOver on iPhones in Germany, said Chris Danielson of the National Federation for the Blind.

“That would have been a real hardship for blind iPhone users,” he told FoxNews.com. “If you can’t see the touch screen, you can’t go into settings and all the other normal things to activate VoiceOver. That’s why Apple included this triple button press; any blind person could pick up an iPhone and interact with it.”

Danielson, who is himself blind, is one of many iPhone users who has come to rely on the feature. His organization awarded Apple the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award for VoiceOver, and for the company's overall efforts to make technology accessible to the disabled. Those efforts have paid off, he said.

Blind people who have them love them,” he said. “There’s quite a lot of enthusiasm for the iPhone among blind people.”

Reached for comment by AllThingsDigital, Samsung defend its right to defend its patents. “For decades, we have heavily invested in pioneering the development of technological innovations in the mobile industry, which have been constantly reflected in our products,” a company spokesman said. “We continue to believe that Apple has infringed our patented mobile technologies, and we will continue to take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights.”

Intellectual property activist turned analyst Florian Mueller of the popular Foss Patents website agreed that Samsung’s efforts to protect its patents may have crossed a line.

“I can't say anything positive about its offensive assertions from a business ethics point of view,” he wrote. “From a certain angle the voiceover patent suit is the worst [such patent lawsuit] because it's an attempt -- thwarted for the time being, but not dismissed forever -- to hold vision-impaired German Apple customers hostage.”

“I don't think Samsung is evil. I really don't. But it should give more thought to the wider implications of its retaliatory actions against Apple,” he said.

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