Following Facebook’s acquisition of the mobile messaging app, a WhatsApp-heavy edition of Boot Up
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| Facebook and WhatsApp, together. Photograph: DADO RUVIC/Reuters |
How Google blew its chance to buy WhatsApp >> Business Insider
Google CEO Larry Page blew his chance to buy WhatsApp.
Page was willing to pay more than the $19bn Facebook paid for WhatsApp, according to a new report from Amir Efrati and Jessica Lessin at The Information.
But WhatsApp’s founders turned down Google because they believed the only reason Page was bidding on WhatsApp was to keep it out of Facebook’s hands.
Android 4.4.2 problems persist as Nexus users call for Android 4.4.3 >> Gottabemobile
One of the biggest problems that we’re seeing right now, amongst Nexus 5 users, is one that affects calls. According to several Nexus 5 owners, the device won’t ring when users call the phone. Users are reporting that while connecting to LTE or Wi-Fi, the Nexus 5 often times does not show an incoming call. Users state that switching to 3G fixes the issue but clearly, that fix is less than ideal.
Nexus 7 2013 owners are dealing with slow charging issues, issues that seem to have followed them to Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Some users are saying that while using the official charger, the Nexus 7 can take up to eight hours to charge which clearly isn’t efficient or normal. This is a problem that affected owners of the original Nexus 7 after Android 4.2 Jelly Bean arrived last year.
Facebook WhatsApp buy triggers unexpected BlackBerry boost >> SlashGear
The Canadian firm’s share price is up more than 5-percent today - and was up more than 9-percent in after-hours trading yesterday - as investors question whether BBM might be the undervalued star of BlackBerry’s portfolio of services.Is BBM the jewel in sliding BlackBerry’s Crown?
Xbox One Media Remote coming in early March for $24.99 >> Polygon
The Media Remote provides Xbox One users with a way to control playback of video content, such as Blu-rays and streaming video, without using the console’s controller.Wasn’t that what Kinect was meant to do?
Pressure grows on Almunia over Google deal >> WSJ
Vanessa Mock:The European Union’s antitrust chief Joaquín Almunia is facing mounting pressure to reconsider aspects of this month’s settlement with Google.
In recent weeks, other members of the European Commissionincluding Viviane Reding, Michel Barnier and Günther Oettingercomplained in closed-door meetings that Mr. Almunia announced the Google settlement without fully consulting them beforehand, EU officials said. Now, the competition chief has been asked to appear before a European Parliament committee to explain the commission’s deal with the search giant.
Mr. Almunia earlier this month announced a landmark deal with Google to address concerns over its abuse of dominance in Europe, where it enjoys a market share of over 90%.
In a letter to Mr. Almunia, two lawmakers dealing with antitrust issues at the parliament said they were ‘unsettled’ by reports of disagreement among the bloc’s 28 commissioners over the settlement and by the “serious criticism from several industry stakeholders and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Fleksy Opens Its iOS SDK For All Developers, Requires Zero Lines Of Code To Implement >> TechCrunch
For users, all that’s required is that they have the app installed on their phone one time, and then a Fleksy button pops up next to the “Cut, Copy, Paste” buttons that come up when you tap in any text field, so long as the app you’re using has integrated Fleksy using the SDK. Settings, dictionaries and other options including color choices are shared across apps, meaning it feels like the Fleksy keyboard is an OS-level feature, despite the fact that it still has to be built into each app individually because of Apple’s restrictions on third-party keyboards.It’ll be interesting to see how long Apple lets something like this fly, it it ever becomes popular.
Microsoft SkyDrive relaunches as OneDrive from today >> Recombu
For the most part it would appear pretty much unchanged from its previous life under the SkyDrive name, but the team behind it are promising a bigger, better experience than ever before.So short of a BSkyB forced name change, the all new OneDrive is business as usual.
HTC looking to dominate wearables with three devices >> TechRadar
The second smartwatch is based around Google Now and will have an AMOLED screen, while a third wearable - a smart wristband - will have a thin touchscreen display, activity tracking features and a music player, so by the sounds of things it will be gunning for the Fitbit Force and the Nike FuelBand SE.Google Now might finally bring a much needed injection of intelligence to the smartwatch.
European Space Agency: PLATO will seek out ‘ADVANCED LIFE forms’... ‘SLIME’ >> The Register
There’s a lot of hype in this subject, a lot of irrational exuberance. Popular media have characterised our understanding as better than it actually is. They’ve been able to generate excitement that creates a positive connection between the astrophysics community and the public at large, but it’s important not to hype conclusions too much at this point.Quite, but it’s still exciting to imagine the possibility of Earth-like planets ready for colonisation.
Google offered to buy WhatsApp for $10 billion >> Fortune Tech
Jessi Hempel:$10 billion.
Two separate sources have told me that’s how much Google offered to purchase WhatsApp. The bid did not come with promise of a board seat, unlike the Facebook agreement.
Google declined to comment, during a conversation with a Fortune colleague.
Leaving Google >> Tim Bray
As of March 17th I’ll be an ex-employee. It’s an amicable separation in the face of irreconcilable differences: I wouldn’t move to California and Google wouldn’t open a Vancouver office. I haven’t decided what to do next.Bray did a lot of work on Android and then identity.
Exclusive: the rags-to-riches tale of how Jan Koum built WhatsApp into Facebook’s new $19bn baby >> Forbes
Parmy Olson:[Koum’s childhood] house had no hot water, and his parents rarely talked on the phone in case it was tapped by the state. It sounds bad, but Koum still pines for the rural life he once lived, and it’s one of the main reasons he’s so vehemently against the hurly-burly of advertising...A fantastic profile of the people behind this phenomenon. A must-read.
[Co-founder Brian] Acton invested in the dotcom boom, and lost millions in the 2000 bust. For all of his distaste for advertising now he was also deep in it back then, getting pulled in to help launch Yahoo’s important and much-delayed advertising platform Project Panama in 2006. “Dealing with ads is depressing,” he says now. “You don’t make anyone’s life better by making advertisements work better.” He was emotionally drained. “I could see it on him in the hallways,” says Koum, who wasn’t enjoying things either...
Fortunately WhatsApp was gradually bringing in revenue, roughly $5,000 a month by early 2010 and enough to cover the costs then. The founders occasionally switched the app from “free” to “paid” so they wouldn’t grow too fast. In Dec. 2009 they updated WhatsApp for the iPhone to send photos, and were shocked to see user growth increasing even when it had the $1 price tag. “You know, I think we can actually stay paid,” Acton told Koum.
Cost of replacing credit cards after Target breach estimated at $200m >> WSJ.com
The Consumer Bankers Association, a retail-banking trade group, estimates the cost of card replacements for its members to have reached $172m, up from an initial finding of $153m. The association says its member banks have replaced about 17.2m cards at a cost per card of $10. That includes the cost of the card, the mailing and distribution costs as well as the cost of hiring extra customer-service employees.EMV (aka chip & PIN) isn’t due to arrive in the US before 2015.
Separately, the Credit Union National Association has raised its estimate of the breach’s impact on credit unions to $30.6m from an original estimate of $25m.
This phone is great, till it’s time to add apps >> NYTimes.com
Farhad Manjoo tries out the Nokia Icon, and finds its apps lacking:Other Google services, including YouTube, are available through so-called unofficial apps created by programmers who aren’t associated with Google. The Windows Phone Store is clogged with these unofficial apps, and many aren’t quite up to snuff. The YouTube app created by Microsoft is barely worthy of the name. It simply opens up the video site in your Windows web browser; I found it mostly worked, though slower and without much of the design polish of the official YouTube apps found on iOS and Android. Other unsanctioned apps are disastrous. The unofficial app for the house-sharing service Airbnb the only Airbnb app I could find is in French.He too thinks Microsoft should create an AOSP-based “Windroid” phone.
But wait, there’s less. Windows Phone doesn’t have access to almost all the latest games that crowd the most-popular list on the iOS App Store and it lacks some of the most creative and useful apps by start-ups (like the credit-card reader Square).
Four numbers that explain why Facebook acquired WhatsApp >> Sequoia Capital
Those less familiar with WhatsApp and its wonderful product will marvel at how a young company could be so valuable. Many of those people will be in the U.S. because there’s no other home grown technology company that’s so widely loved overseas and so under appreciated at home. WhatsApp reminds us of other companies that we partnered with like PayPal, and YouTubewhose founders chose a similar path to Jan and Brian. Today PayPal and YouTube are both household names around the world. Tomorrow the same will hold true for WhatsApp.Sequioa Capital was the only company that got the chance to make an investment in WhatsApp.
How the iPad may help soften the decline of the download >> Music Industry Blog
Mark Mulligan points to a survey of 1,000 people in the UK which found that 32% of iPad owners are Android phone owners (48% in the case of the iPad mini):Because an iPad customer is also inherently an iTunes user significant opportunity exists for content providers. For all Google Play’s valiant efforts - and extensive marketing spend - no one else manages to get people to buy music downloads the way Apple does. More Android customers becoming iTunes users via the iPad presents the opportunity to grow the installed base of music download buyers. And there are encouraging indicators: only 26% of iPad customers do not buy music, compared to 49% of all consumers and 47% of overall Android smartphone users.• You can follow Guardian http://www.techblown.com/
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