Category Archives: Tech

Snapchat’s Teen Appeal Is Also Its Achilles Heel

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By Robert Hof

You can argue until you’re blue in the face whether or not Snapchat is worth the $3 billion Facebook FB +4.52% apparently offered to buy it. But there’s little argument over why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was willing to pay that much for the disappearing-photo-sharing service: It’s attracting the teens that Facebook is losing.

At least, that’s the conventional wisdom. But here’s the problem: If there’s anything more ephemeral than Snapchat snaps, it’s teen attention spans. Today, Snapchat looks unbeatable, at least for what still seems like a rather narrow slice of social activity. But there’s no reason to think that teens will stick with most any app or service for long–all the less so when it seems that there’s a new hot social networking app every month or so these days.

So I’m betting Zuckerberg is a little smarter than that. What he really wants more than just a surge of new teen blood–as he also showed with his $1 billion purchase of Instagram–is to make sure that Facebook owns the most popular and compelling kinds of social networking as they develop. Snapchat clearly appeals to those who want to exchange bits of themselves in a more ephemeral way than they do on Facebook.

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Apple iPad Mini with Retina display rolled out

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By Rex Crum

Apple Inc. completed rolling out its line of re-vamped iPads just in time for the Christmas and holiday season as the company put the new iPad Mini with Retina display on sale Tuesday morning.

The new iPad mini starts at $399 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage, and goes up to $699 for the 126GB model.

Add another $130 for one that can access cellular data networks in addition to being WiFi capable. The newest slimmed-down iPad model has a 7.9-inch screen, and has two WiFi antennas installed to support stronger performance over WiFi networks.

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Nintendo Wii production has officially ended

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John Callaham

Today marked the end of one of the most successful game consoles in Nintendo’s history. The Wii, which launched in the fall of 2006 with the funny name and the Wii Remote controller, is no longer being made by the company as it tries to made the transition to the more recent Wii U.

Nintendo’s Japanese website has confirmed it has shut down producing new Wii hardware. Nintendo has shipped just over 100 million units of the Wii since its launch, beating the shipment numbers of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. However, both of those consoles are still in production and in theory they could finally overtake the Wii if sales last long enough.

Nintendo had an early success with the Wii; stores all over the world could not keep up with the demand for the first several months after its launch. This was due in part to its low price (just $249 in the U.S) and the fact that the console, at least in some parts of the world, included Wii Sports as a freebie. The game, which also served as a tutorial on how to use the motion-based Wii Remote, became a critically acclaimed title on its own.

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Samsung launches world’s first smartphone with curved screen

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SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Wednesday launched the world’s first smartphone with a curved display, a variant of the Galaxy Note which moves the Asian giant a step closer to achieving wearable devices with flexible – even unbreakable – screens.

Curved displays are on the frontlines of Samsung’s innovation war with rivals such as Apple Inc and LG Electronics Inc, as the South Korean firm seeks to expand its lead in the slowing market for high-end smartphones.

“It’s a step forward for having unbreakable gadgets and flexible devices eventually. But for now, the new phone is more of a symbolic product,” said Hana Daetoo Securities analyst Nam Dae-jong, adding that Samsung did not yet have capacity for large-scale production of curved touch-screens for the new Galaxy Round.

The Galaxy Round is Samsung’s attempt to gauge consumer appetite for curved phones although its lack of other eye-catching features means it is unlikely to be a hit, he said.

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Samsung to Launch Smartphone With Curved Screen

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By Min-Jeong Lee

Samsung Electronics Co. is bringing curves to its smartphones.

At a launch event held in Seoul Wednesday for the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Samsung announced its plans to release a mobile phone with a curved screen in October.

While the company declined to provide details on the phone’s specs, one of its latest patent filings in South Korea suggest the screen could be curved slightly inwards.

Samsung has been busy applying curved designs to its vast array of television models, unveiling 55-inch and 65-inch ultra-high-definition TVs just this month.

Despite the official argument that curves on TVs provide a better viewing experience from all angles, these designs have generally been perceived more as a marketing tactic. Convincing phone users that a curved screen works better could be a tougher sell.

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Microsoft Phone: Nokia Purchase May Save Phone

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By Lacy Langley

Steve Ballmer is resigning as CEO of Microsoft. He readily admits his company reacted too slowly to developments in the mobile and smartphone markets. He also stated that Microsoft phone sales were disappointing. He was addressing a group of Wall Street investors and analysts, and told them that, with hindsight, he realized that the company had placed too much emphasis on its operating system and missed out on mobile phone opportunities.

Microsoft phone

Ballmer said, “I regret that there was a period in the early 2000s when we were so focused on what we had to do around Windows that we weren’t able to redeploy talent to the new device called the phone… That is the thing I regret the most. It would have been better for Windows and our success in other foreign factors.”

However, Inquisitr reports that trying to view the situation from a “glass half full” stance, Mr. Ballmer said that for Microsoft mobile the only way to go is up and went on to say that the company has significant opportunities in the market now, due to its recent acquisition of the mobile phone unit of Nokia. He thinks this will allow Microsoft to speed up development on its Windows Phone platform.

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Grand Theft Auto V Blows All Other GTAs Away

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By Chris Kohler

Grand Theft Auto V skips all of the preliminaries and gets right to the insanity.

Want to hijack a plane in midair? Smoke some dubious weed and go on a very bad trip? Blow up a meth lab? Stop dreaming and start doing. Grand Theft Auto V, to be released Tuesday for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (reviewed), ramps up fast and doesn’t slow down for anyone.

If you don’t like those early hours of other Grand Theft Auto games, where you have to run dinky fetch quests for low-level gangsters for 10 hours before things get interesting, you won’t have a chance to feel that way about GTA V because it’ll have you robbing banks and jumping trains on a dirt bike faster than you can say “not eligible for parole.” I couldn’t really get into previous games in the series, but I can’t stop playing the fifth.


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Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch Features Camera, Voice Function

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By Joshua Sophy

Small Business owners and entrepreneurs on the go already look for mobile devices to make their lives easier.

But in addition to smartphones and tablets, there’s a new gadget in town: the smartwatch. The watch allows users to check updates “hands free” without even touching your phone. Samsung has introduced its version of the smartwatch, called the Galaxy Gear.
Galaxy Gear Introduced as Companion to Note 3

The Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch introduced last week at an unboxing event in Berlin is the next step for these devices.

The new smartwatch was unveiled along with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3, a next generation of the company’s so-called “phablet” device (larger than a standard phone, with features like a tablet).

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Apple Could Put the Final Nail in Nintendo’s Coffin

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By Sam Mattera

The last six years have been terrible for Nintendo’s (NASDAQOTH: NTDOY ) shareholders. After peaking in 2007 with a market cap near $85 billion, Nintendo has steadily collapsed and has now lost over 76% of its value over the last five years.

Unfortunately, this could be the beginning of the end for the once iconic video game company. Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) coming entrance into the video game market, a fairly likely possibility, could signal the end of Nintendo.

Nintendo’s business model is becoming obsolete
Ironically enough, Apple and Nintendo have similar business philosophies. Both believe in marrying hardware with software, and maintaining strong control over their devices. Consumers buy Apple devices to get access to their operating systems (iOS, Mac OS); likewise, gamers buy Nintendo’s consoles to play Nintendo’s games.

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Yahoo unveils new logo

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Yahoo unveils new logo for first time since founding 18 years ago

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — Yahoo has adopted a new logo for the first time since shortly after the Internet company’s founding 18 years ago.

The redesigned look unveiled late Wednesday is part of a makeover that Yahoo Inc. has been undergoing since the Sunnyvale, Calif., company hired Google executive Marissa Mayer to become Yahoo’s CEO 14 months ago.

Mayer has already spruced up Yahoo’s front page, email and Flickr photo-sharing service, as well as engineered a series of acquisitions aimed at attracting more traffic on mobile devices.

The shopping spree has been highlighted by Yahoo’s $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr, an Internet blogging service where the company rolled out its new logo.

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