Pinterest introduces new features for business users

Pinterest rolled out free tools and resources for businesses on Wednesday as it continues to explore ways of moving towards monetizing the site.

In what looks like a precursor to the launch of paid products somewhere down the road, Pinterest announced details of new tools for businesses on Wednesday.

“We want to help more businesses provide great content on Pinterest and make it easy to pin from their websites,” the San Francisco-based social networking company wrote in a post on its blog, adding, “Today, we’re taking a first step toward that goal with some free tools and resources.”

Companies are now invited to open a business account on Pinterest – before now there was just one type of account for all users – with its own specific terms and conditions, which mean the platform can now be officially used for commercial purposes. This is certain to result in a boost in interest from businesses, as before now anyone creating a Pinterest account had to agree not to use the site for explicit marketing. This goes some way to explaining why, in a survey conducted over the summer, only seven percent of companies questioned said they had a presence on Pinterest, while 44 percent said they had no interest at all in using it.

Businesses already on Pinterest can easily convert to a business account by clicking on the ‘convert your existing account’ button here.

Features

A Pinterest business account allows companies to sign up with the name of the company (as opposed to first-name-last-name as before) and go through what Pinterest calls “an optimized user flow” that enables new members to verify that the business owns the website on the Pinterest profile so visitors can “more easily find the business they want in search results”.

It also helps users to add a Pin It button, Follow button, Profile widget, or Board widget “to get more engagement from pinners and traffic back to your site.” Holders of a business account will also receive information on upcoming features “that will provide more powerful ways of reaching and understanding your audience on Pinterest.”

Case studies

If a company is in two minds about whether to open a Pinterest account, the social networking firm is encouraging it to check out new pages showing case studies and the like, which explain how businesses are already making use of the site.

Matt Wurst, director of digital communities at digital agency 360i, told Adweek that Pinterest’s launch of business accounts was “a symbolic first step toward understanding the value that brands can have leveraging [Pinterest’s] platform to connect with consumers.”

He added that the move would likely result in the roll out of paid-for options for businesses to highlight their Pinterest profiles and wares to users.

Pinterest has been gathering members fast since it ended its invitation-only model in August. On top of that, the site, which launched in March 2010, broke into the top 50 chart of most visited US websites for the first time in September with more than 25 million visitors during that month, according to research firm comScore.

Visitor numbers have also been boosted with the recent launch of free apps for Android devices and Apple’s iPad.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Foxconn chairman admits it is ‘falling short’ of iPhone 5 demand

iPhone 5 manufacturer Foxconn admitted Wednesday that assembling the lighter, thinner device is "not easy" and as a result the company is having a serious problem keeping up with demand.

With the holiday season fast approaching, we can safely assume that demand for the new iPhone 5 will surge to some degree, though even now it appears that Foxconn, the company charged with assembling the device, is feeling the pressure.

Speaking to reporters after a business forum on Wednesday, Foxconn boss Terry Gou said, “It’s not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand.”

Gou’s comments appear to back up a number of recent reports regarding the production of the latest iteration of Apple’s popular smartphone. Last month an official at the Taiwan-based manufacturer told the Wall Street Journal that the handset was “the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled,” largely because its lighter, thinner design called for more precision from factory workers when putting it together. “It takes time to learn how to make this new device. Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day,” the official added.

Another issue facing the production line is the phone’s susceptibility to damage, with its relatively soft aluminum casing more prone to scuffs and scratches compared to the glass back found on the iPhone 4S. Shortly after the phone launched in September, a number of disgruntled customers took to forums to complain that their new handset had arrived damaged. Following this, reports emerged that Apple executives had ordered a quality-control crackdown at Foxconn in an effort to reduce the number of less-than-perfect handsets leaving plants.

No doubt Apple CEO Tim Cook will be more than a little perturbed by the fact that more than six weeks after the iPhone 5 launched, shipping time on its online store is still showing at between three and four weeks. Demand for the new phone may be healthy, but Cook will want Foxconn to find a way of cranking them out at a faster rate – a solution which could involve the Taiwan-based company outsourcing some of the orders to other manufacturers to help cope with demand.

[via Reuters]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Interest in Pinterest: Virtual pinboard site breaks into top 50 chart of most-visited websites

There seems to be growing interest in Pinterest, with the site appearing for the first time in a top 50 chart for most-visited websites.

Research firm comScore on Wednesday released web activity data for the month of September, with fast-growing social networking start-up Pinterest edging into its top 50 chart of most visited US websites for the very first time.

Coming in at number 50 with over 25 million visitors during last month, the site still has some way to go to catch the likes of Facebook (placed 4th with 150 million visitors), LinkedIn (26th with 39 million visitors) and Twitter (27th with 36 million visitors), but it’s certainly a start.

Pinterest’s entry into the top 50 chart comes a short time after some significant changes at the firm. In August, it ended its invitation-only model, enabling anyone to join. In the same month the site, which allows users to easily share items of interest discovered on the Web by ‘pinning’ images to a board, launched free apps for Android devices and Apple’s iPad.

Google topped comScore’s list, though its 186 million visitors were across all of its sites. The same goes for Microsoft, in second place with 166 million visitors and Yahoo, in third spot with 163 million visitors.

Among news-based sites, the New York Times ranked highest at number 15 with 71 million visitors.

The research firm noted that back-to-schoolers wasted little time in getting down to business, pointing out a significant increase in Web traffic to education-oriented sites.

“Students and teachers were back in the classroom in September, resulting in a surge in traffic to education sites that earned it the number 1 spot on the top-gaining categories chart,” Jeff Hackett, comScore’s executive vice president, said.

With the economy still in a precarious state and many Americans on the lookout for attractive money-saving deals, incentive sites also saw a pick-up in traffic in September, with the category growing by 7 percent to 24.6 million visitors. Zulily topped the category with 3 million visitors, followed by SlickDeals with 2.5 million.

You can check out the full details of comScore’s report here (pdf).

[via Cnet]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Meteor Shower: Scientists and Treasure Hunters Look in California for Debris

Wednesday night

So where did it come down?  People in the San Francisco Bay area are still puzzling over the fireball that went shooting across the sky Wednesday evening, making an audible boom and, perhaps, spreading debris across the suburbs and vineyards north of the city.

Scientists said the object was a meteor, most likely an errant hunk of rock from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, traveling in an orbit that happened to send it tearing into the atmosphere over California.

Astronomers have been trying to calculate its trajectory from eyewitness reports, and there’s been natural disagreement over where any meteorites — fragments of a meteor that survive entry into the atmosphere and reach Earth’s surface — might have come down.  Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in Alabama said he thought most debris would have ended up out in the Pacific.  Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute, a meteor hunter by background, suggested debris may have crashed near California suburbs such as Novato or Martinez.

But in a case like this, calculations only do you so much good.  If you’re interested in meteorites, there is only one thing to do — go out and look for them.

So Jenniskens, according to his office, was out in the field today, looking for shards of rock that, to the trained eye, would likely have been survivors of a trip from space.

His office said he would be organizing people who came on their own to look.  One person, asking not to be quoted since meteorites are Jenniskens’ subject, said this is a delicate issue.  Fresh meteorites are rare — so they have a market value.  So, this person said that Jenniskens, searching in the name of science, may find himself in a race against other meteorite hunters who see the potential for profit.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Apple launches new iPod ad, lots of colors and bouncing

Apple unveiled a snappy new ad for its refreshed iPod devices on Wednesday highlighting the range of colors on offer.

As Apple begins shipping the first batch of orders for its refreshed iPod range of media players to expectant customers around the world, the tech company has launched a new ad called ‘Bounce’ featuring the new devices.

The 30-second slot, posted on YouTube on Wednesday night and set to air on TV, features a bunch of iPods (touches, nanos and shuffles) bouncing around to a funky track called Yeah Yeah by London-based singer Willy Moon. It’s pretty, slick, and quick, and you can check it out below.

Apple unveiled a new iPod touch last month, featuring a larger 4-inch screen identical in size to that of the iPhone 5. Compared to its predecessor, the updated fifth-generation device is slimmer and lighter, and sports a vastly improved 5-megapixel camera. More RAM and a faster processor make for a much zippier device compared to earlier touches, too. It also comes in six colors – no longer just black and white – a feature that forms the basis of the new ad.

The new seventh-generation iPod nano, described as the thinnest nano to date, has done away with the small square design of its predecessor and returned to the longer look of the fifth-generation nano. An extra color has been added to the range, too.

As for the shuffle, three new colors have been added to the range.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

PlayStation Mobile platform is one more confused corner of Sony’s fractured brand

Sony's PlayStation Mobile opened for business on Wednesday, but the platform is representative of the company's problems with clarity.

 

After a year of beta testing and a particularly wise name change, Sony’s PlayStation Mobile platform is now available for the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s Xperia smartphones, and a number of other portable devices that fall under Sony’s PlayStation Certified classification, including tablets from ASUS, HTC phones, and the WikiPad gaming tablet. Much is riding on PlayStation Mobile. Sony needs it to act as a thread binding together its struggling portable gaming business, its faded Xperia brand, and its nascent PlayStation presence in the broader Android market. Sony needs PlayStation Mobile to be Apple’s App Store, and it needs to achieve that goal without the benefit of being identified with specific devices. Will it work?

There are factors working in Sony’s favor. PlayStation Mobile and its games are tied with the Sony Entertainment Network, the home of its entertainment services like Qriocity, and its subgroup, the PlayStation Network. As of March, Sony claimed it had 90 million registered PlayStation Network accounts. While that figure by no means represents individual paying customers—many of those accounts are duplicates or inactive—that’s still a huge audience of users that can seamlessly use PlayStation Mobile without having to set up an entirely new account. A PlayStation 3 owner with an HTC One that wants to play the original Crash Bandicoot only needs to download the app to get going.

Or at least they would have been able to. A huge factor working against PlayStation Mobile is Sony’s decision to bar classic PlayStation games on the platform. The potential to bring games from old Sony consoles to mobile devices could have helped get people interested in the platform. It previously offered a selection of PSOne classics on Xperia phones, and it wasn’t unlikely that it would at some point offer PlayStation 2 games through PlayStation Mobile as well. (It already offers them as PlayStation 3 downloads through the PlayStation Network.) It announced at Gamescom that classic games would only be available on its devoted gaming machines.

Original games, however, are also a problem for the PlayStation Mobile network. A presence on moderately popular Android phones from HTC isn’t enough to make up for the low consumer penetration of PlayStation Vita and the Xperia line. What incentive to developers have to bring their games to PlayStation Mobile? Without decent original games, how will Sony get people interested in buying games from the service?

PlayStation Mobile is out in the wild now, but Sony doesn’t have the software to make it a success. It’s one more example of Sony’s fractious structure. If PlayStation Mobile is to be a success, it needs parity across all platforms.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Nintendo Wii U launch line up includes 23 games on day one

Nintendo finally confirmed the 23 titles in the Wii U launch line up on Wednesday, with impressive support from EA, Ubisoft, and Activision.

There will be plenty to play on November 18^th. Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii U launch line up will include 23 games.

The Nintendo Wii U’s coming out party in New York City earlier this month was surprisingly light on details about the console’s release. Nintendo was clear about the price—$300 for the system with 8GB of memory and $350 for the system with 32GB of memory and a copy of NintendoLand—but concrete information on everything else from the Miiverse online network to what games would be available was scarce. Bayonetta 2, The Wonderful 101—These are exciting games but will they be available on the November 18^th launch day? That Nintendo said 51 games were coming in a “launch window” that extends to March 2013 only confused matters.

Now things are clearer. As reported by USA Today on Wednesday, there will be 23 games available alongside the Wii U on the day it is released. Only three of those games will be Nintendo first party titles: New Super Mario Bros. U and NintendoLand will be available on the first day as promised, and they’ll be joined by the Nintendo published karaoke game Sing Party.

Ports of major publishers’ 2012 games, including FIFA 13, Darksiders II, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will also be available. There are even some 2011 stragglers sneaking in like Warrior’s Orochi 3.

Especially impressive is Activision’s roll out. The publisher has been, to date, cagey about Nintendo’s new system, but all four games announced at the New York event will be rolled out on launch day. Skylanders Giants, Wipeout 3, Transformers Prime, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will all be available, and while only two of those are potential million sellers, it’s still a strong commitment to put four boxed products out simultaneously.

Ubisoft is also going big, with Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013, ESPN Sports Connection, Just Dance 4, Rabbids Land, Assassin’s Creed III, and the promising original ZombiU.

Rounding out the list are Scribblenauts Unlimited, Game Party Champions, and Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition from WBIE, and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 from Disney.

That’s three more retail games than Nintendo had for the Wii launch in 2006, and while Game Party Champions probably isn’t going to rev many engines, it’s an impressive display of quality. That Nintendo will have November’s biggest releases, Assassin’s Creed III and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 available, right alongside their releases on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bodes well for the system.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Windows Marketplace now called Windows Phone Store

Microsoft has rebranded Windows Marketplace as Windows Phone Store, with a refreshed design and improved algorithm.

Amid Wednesday’s Apple hoopla, Microsoft announced a new design and rebranding of Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace. As expected, Microsoft has deployed design and algorithm changes, and rebranded the place as Windows Phone Store.

The rebranding includes updates to core features, and a refreshing, minimalistic redesign that simplifies the store’s look to put it in line with its Windows Metro  Windows 8 design guidelines. You should find the site easy on the eyes.

The search box is one of the more significant updates, and now includes full Bing integration. Searches will allegedly provide “intelligent” results compared to the previous search functionality. For example, you’ll be able find the app you’re looking for even with typos, discover similar apps that won’t necessarily include the same key word as your search term, and find recommend apps in the same genre as your search.

Bing’s intelligence shines the more you conduct searches thanks to its machine learning algorithm. The Bing-integrated Store search engine will, over time, learn and output search results tailored specifically to what it believes you’d like to check out and download.

“We’ve been rolling out a much improved backend for both the Windows Phone Store and Windows Phone Dev Center. The welcome addition of Bing’s search engine is part of this infrastructure upgrade,” Director of Program Management at Microsoft, Mazhar Mohammad, wrote in Microsoft’s blog.

While the major updates revolve around app discovery, Microsoft has also put a focus on curation. Microsoft staffers are curating their favorite apps within the subpage “Spotilight,” under the Apps + Games category. But under the hood, updates to its categories like “New + Rising” will surface top apps based on tweaked metrics that take into consideration how quickly an app is being downloaded. The “Best Rated” category takes into account customer ratings and the frequency of an app’s use. Adding to this, you’ll notice a standalone News section that curates articles related Microsoft’s mobile products that are syndicated from other publishers.

Microsoft has also recognized that many of its users (read: parents) have requested that sexual content be taken off its app store. While Microsoft hasn’t outright banned sex-themed apps (that abide by its guidelines), the company will instead bury such apps, making it that much more difficult to surface those types of apps in the search results. Of course, if you’re searching for the term “sex” then Bing will suggest what you asked for.

Windows Phone Store rolled out first in Australia and New Zealand, and will launch in the rest of the world over the next few weeks.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

‘Stretched’ iPhone? New images suggest taller, slimmer handset, same width

With Apple set to unveil its latest iPhone on Wednesday, new images suggest the Cupertino company is about to introduce a taller, slimmer device, with a widescreen display – imagine a kind of 'stretched' iPhone.

We’re just hours away from Apple’s much-anticipated media event in San Francisco where it’s expected to reveal the latest iteration of its iPhone – but of course, until Tim Cook actually holds up the new device on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Wednesday, the rumor mill will keep on turning.

Prior to the unveiling of a new iteration of a popular device, speculation understandably swirls around how its physical look might alter – will it be bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, thicker, thinner, heavier, lighter? Or, perhaps, pretty much the same?

With the iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple has decided to call it), the latest reports suggest the handset is about to undergo its most radical redesign since coming on the market five years ago.

More information is circulating pointing to a phone that will be both taller and slimmer. MacRumors reader Michael Rou posted a photo (below) on his site showing pre-production cases for Apple’s expected iPhone 5 and iPad Mini devices, made by case manufacturers based on leaked specifications from Foxconn factories in China, where the handset is being assembled. With the current iPhone placed inside the new case, it’s clear that the next version will be taller, though retaining its 2.31-inch width, giving the appearance of a ‘stretched’ iPhone with a widescreen display.

Different images from Know Your Mobile also show a set of cases that are markedly longer than what’s available for the existing iPhone. The photos (one shown below) were obtained from mobile accessories company Mobile Fun. “They’re genuine leather pouches – one of the images even shows the size difference compared to the iPhone 4,” Mobile Fun told KYM. “We’re highly confident that these cases show that the size of the iPhone 5 will be taller than the iPhone 4.”

With the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen starting to look a little on the small side when compared to its competitors’ offerings, there’s little doubt the next version will sport a larger display – the main question has been whether Apple would opt to push the viewable screen to the edges of the current design, or introduce a taller model. Based on all these images, it appears to be the latter.

As for its thickness, iResQ (via tech2) used received parts to build the casing of the next phone, with one of its pictures (below) showing Apple’s next handset to be marginally slimmer than its predecessor, likely due to the incorporation of a new in-cell display, which is thinner than a conventional LCD touchscreen.

Soon the Apple rumor mill will once again rest. All will be revealed shortly. Deep breaths now, Apple fans, deep breaths….

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

What we expect from the true Apple TV

It may or may not emerge at Wednesday’s launch event, but here’s what we expect from a true Apple-branded TV when it arrives.

There is a very good chance we will not be hearing about a television made by Apple this Wednesday. A recent report from Bloomberg pokes a big hole in widespread speculation that Apple will unveil the much-anticipated television during its upcoming event, saying talks between Apple and big media companies have not been going well and claiming an unnamed source “familiar with the company’s plans” stated “Apple won’t be releasing a new TV product this year.”

Then again, Apple has surprised us before. While we agree that Apple needs to crack the big media code to bring a truly revolutionary TV to market, we can’t help but wonder if Apple might surprise us again and unveil a TV product this Wednesday, even without those media-licensing deals in place. And that got us thinking: after all these years of anticipation and subsequent let-downs, what do we now expect from Apple’s elusive TV, anyway?

Revolutionizing the TV

In order for Apple to continue its legacy of single-handedly transforming the industry it enters into, it needs to redefine the way we use our televisions with its new product. A TV that offered the following features and functionality would certainly do that.

Gesture and voice control

Granted, these wouldn’t be considered breakthrough technologies for Apple. Samsung’s top-tier smart TVs offer gesture and voice control for both basic TV functions, such as turning the TV on and adjusting the volume, as well as game control, which can be seen here. But Apple has a big opportunity here. If it can design and implement these features better than anyone else right out of the gate, it will make a big splash in the TV market — and it is poised to do so.

Though we’ve been pretty tough on Siri in the past, we must concede that it is a better interactive voice interface than the sort we’ve seen folded into Samsung’s TVs to date. If Apple polishes Siri up, it could work well enough to help folks warm up to the idea of speaking at their TV. Not only could Siri help with those basic TV functions, but it could be an excellent interface for search and an interesting alternative for app navigation.

We also think Apple has the potential (and resources) to take motion control to the next level. If it were to integrate a motion-control feature similar to Microsoft’s Kinect, users would have a brand new way to play the vast number of games available from Apple’s app store.

Replacing you cable box

The best way for Apple to revolutionize TV is to provide access to all content, from every channel, all in one place. Ideally you would ask Siri to find you an episode of your favorite show and she would return options for streaming content from Netflix, Hulu or live broadcasts. Siri could also be instructed to record certain programs to be watched another time. Here’s the sticking point, though: Big media is reluctant to deal with Apple; a point that really shouldn’t come as a surprise since Apple is known to redefine everything it touches.

What is it that Apple is planning that has the cable companies so nervous? As the Wall Street Journal puts it: Apple seeks to “erase the distinction between live and on-demand content.” It wants to essentially replace the need for a cable box or DVR with its television, and possibly its Apple TV set-top boxes as well. TV shows will be available online within minutes of airing, allowing viewers more flexibility in their viewing schedule. As for recording shows, Apple’s service would bypass the need for a DVR box by recording shows and saving them in the cloud for viewing at any time, with any capable Apple device connected to the Internet.

In doing so, Apple would take a serious bite out of ad revenues, which cable providers are notoriously protective of. This is why Apple hasn’t been getting anywhere with the likes of Comcast, Cox and Verizon. The one noted exception appears to be Time Warner Cable — ranked number four in the US in terms of subscribers — which has been quoted as saying it ‘is not religiously wedded to absolutely controlling the user interface.’ But it will take a lot more than Time Warner’s limited regional coverage to get Apple the kind of distribution it needs to get a foothold in the TV space.

Surround sound

That users will be able to share content and otherwise interact with Apple’s TV using their iOS devices is a given. AirPlay will probably be the portal for that. How it will look and feel, however, remains to be seen. We expect to be able to use an iDevice like a remote control and even “flick” content up to the TV directly iDevice screens.

We are also confident that Apple’s TV, whenever it is released, will feature what the rumor mill has been calling “AirPlay Direct”, a technology that allows sharing media from iDevices to Apple-approved peripherals just like standard AirPlay, but without the need for a Wi-Fi connection. We’ve seen evidence of this technology with our own eyes, and expect it will be announced Wednesday.

What will we call it?

First off, we’re pretty sure Apple’s television won’t be called “Apple TV,’ despite the fact that plenty of news outlets insist on calling it that. Apple already has an Apple TV – it’s a set-top box with plenty of traction and Apple will not be cannibalizing its name.

No, it is far more likely the device would be called iTV; but even that seems too obvious, and a number of other companies already own trademarks on it. What would you call it?

See ya next year?

Assuming the most recent reports turn out to be accurate and Apple doesn’t bow a TV this Wednesday, we are left to wonder how that might impact the future of an Apple-made television. Were Apple to wait another year, it would leave big-name TV companies like Samsung, LG and Sony plenty of time to design and implement the sort of next-generation features we were hoping to see in Apple’s television this year. What, then, could Apple do to revolutionize the TV industry, outside of striking deals with cable companies? Do we really have to sit and speculate for another year?

Guess we’ll find out on Wednesday.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

This userland iPhone 5 video is as close to the real deal as we’ll see before Wednesday

By now even my grandma knows the new iPhone will be announced on Wednesday (and it took me a good half an hour on the phone to explain what’s an iPhone). My point is one of the hottest industry events is just around the corner and the rumor soup has already reached a boiling point. Things get frantic and for the casual reader it gets pretty hard to follow all the rumored leads and suggested features.

It’s exactly cases like this, when there’s nothing better than a nice, fake iPhone 5 ad to get us through the latest rumors in a quick and informative way. And kudos to the author, as this is one nicely done video.

The devil is in the details, as they say. But this guy has taken the extra care to do everything right. There’s no tell-tale YouTube icon on the homescreen and it has been proudly replaced by the latest Passbook app by Apple. Even the date on the calendar shows September 12. Oh, I love this sort of attention to detail!

Now, the point where the video talked about the amount of RAM was where it got a bit overboard for some of us at the office and around the time we saw the new “fingerprint unlocking feature”, it all but lost us. But seriously, it’s a real rarity to see a fake video done so well.

Plus most of the other mentioned specs are real, solid rumors. I guess, we’ll just have to wait patiently and see for ourselves if Apple would have any surprises for us come this Wednesday.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

New Amazon TV ad reveals large-screen Fire tablet and back-lit ‘Paperwhite’ e-reader

An Amazon ad broadcast Wednesday night appeared to reveal a number of products set for launch on Thursday, including a large-screen Kindle Fire tablet and back-lit Paperwhite e-reader.

It looks as if Jeff Bezos and his team are having some fun, teasing TV viewers the evening before a big product launch with an ad featuring, apparently, some or all of its new devices.

Interestingly, a large-sized tablet makes several appearances during the 60-second ad – likely the much-talked about 10-inch Kindle Fire. There even appears to be a shot of someone tapping away on a keyboard connected to the device – could the e-commerce giant be about to unveil a keyboard cover similar to the Touch Cover accompanying Microsoft’s soon-to-launch Surface tablet?

The existence of the Paperwhite e-reader is also apparently confirmed in the ad, with a fleeting shot of someone holding a device with a super-white back-lit screen.

There’s no sign, however, of a smartphone, though the company is said to be in the process of making one.

Broadcast during Wednesday night’s Giants vs Cowboys NFL game, the 60-second ad begins with boxes – lots of boxes (with Amazon printed on them, naturally) – and a voiceover saying, “We’re the people with the smile on the box. We’re the reinventors of normal.”

Various shots of various people with various devices follow – there appears to be a (new) 7-inch Kindle Fire, a larger tablet and a new e-reader. And lots of boxes.

It is of course possible that the ad wasn’t meant as a tease at all but was instead broadcast as the result of a scheduling error. Either way, we’ll all find out on Thursday exactly what the Seattle-based company has up its sleeve.

Digital Trends will be covering Amazon’s media event, which begins at 10.30am PT.

[Daniel Marchena via The Verge]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Facebook-Instagram deal gets green light from FTC

The US Federal Trade Commission announced on Wednesday it had finished its investigation into Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and would not be taking any further action, paving the way for the deal to be sealed.

Facebook’s acquisition of photo-sharing app maker Instagram came another step closer on Wednesday when the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had completed its antitrust investigation and would not be taking any further action.

Facebook said in a statement that it was “pleased” with the FTC’s decision though it gave no indication as to when the deal might be completed.

Back in April, a month before the social networking giant floated on the stock exchange, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it intended to buy Instagram for $1 billion. The deal struck between the two companies meant Instagram would receive $300 million in cash and just under 23 million shares.

Of course, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom had been hoping to see the value of Facebook shares hit the roof after the company went public in May. However, it’s gone the other way, with shares in the social networking company currently worth just half of their original $38 IPO price. This means the Facebook-Instagram deal is currently valued at just over $747 million.

The news in April of Facebook striking a deal with Instagram came as a surprise to many, not least the Facebook board. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly sorted the deal all by himself, meeting Systrom at his Palo Alto home over three days, whittling the Instagram boss down to $1 billion from his original asking price of $2 billion. It’s thought Zuckerberg wanted to act fast in order to stop another company getting in first, with Facebook keen to find ways to increase its presence in the mobile space.

Instagram is a hugely popular free photo-sharing app that allows users to make fast and stylish edits to their snaps before sharing them on the Web. It currently has 80 million users, a figure impressive by any standards, but even more so when you consider it launched less than two years ago.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com