Facebook wants Instagram.
So, if you're one of the most successful people on the internet, what would you do with a huge war chest that's burning a hole in your back pocket? Well Mark Zuckerberg plans to drop $1Billion, yep with a 'b', on the photo sharing platform Instagram.
The official quote from Facebook is as follows:
"We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."
"We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."
Is this a good thing or will it just ruin the Instagram experience? Hopefully Facebook will manage the app so that it's Instagram with Facebook integration and not Facebook with Instagram features. Are you going to keep using the service or are you going to look elsewhere if things go downhill from now? Let me know in the comments.
RIM to block 'sideloading' in upcoming Playbook update.
RIM, RIM, RIM... When your company's down and looking seriously bleak, they know exactly what to do. Block Android app sideloading!!!! The company must know this move is going to be hugely unpopular because it will limit the apps available to the Playbook to what developers have published in RIM's own app store.
Before this point, if there was an Android app you wanted it was possible to download the converted file and install it to your Playbook via your computer. But, to quote RIM's vice-president of developer relations, Alec Saunders, tweeted that the move was to prevent to app piracy and especially prevent the Playbook entering the 'chaotic cesspool of the Android Market'. However, much truth is in that statement is up for debate but it does feel like a bit of an own goal to limit the number of apps for your platform, especially with the issues Microsoft has been having with Windows Phone 7 lately.
We can expect sideloading to be blocked in an upcoming version of the Playbook OS, widely expected to be call Playbook OS2.1, catchy eyy?
Lenovo announces a new tablet with almost no promotion.
Today Lenovo announced a new ICS packing tablet with very little coverage at all. The device above was announced via Lenovo's Youtube profile with a new video of it in action.
The tablet packs a 9.7" screen with a resolution of 1024x768 complete with in plane switching technology for better viewing angles. So we're not talking Retina display quality here but decent none the less. For those of you with a desire to wield your tablet as your camera you will be disappointed because the device only features a 1.3MP front facing camera and no rear camera, but arguably you don't need one. To make up for this omission Lenovo offers you 4 speakers to give you a genuinely good sound output.
At the moment, there's no word on what processor will be featured but, there will be an array of ports including; MicroSD, microHDMI-out and microUSB, all of this paired with a battery that is rated for 10 hours and crammed into a unibody design that is 8.9mm thick!
There isn't currently any details on pricing or availability but it should be out soonish and given the IdeaTab S2 packs a higher resolution screen. a Snapdragon S4 processor and only costs $349 (£220) this should be one very reasonably priced tablet indeed!
In other news:
- Microsoft quietly buys about 800 of AOL's patents from their Netscape browser, with the deal expected to complete by the end of the year. The patents Microsoft doesn't actually get to call their own, about 300 of them, from this deal AOL will agree to give them non-exclusive access to. All of this for a cool $1 billion, looks like people like splashing the cash today.
- The latest virus, the Flashback malware, infected 2% of Apple's Macintosh computer, or in real numbers about 600,000 computers which were made part of a botnet according to security research firm Kaspersky.
- AT&T have a budget of $150 million for advertising Nokia's latest smartphone the Lumia 900!
