Speaking on stage at Internet Week New York, Digg CEO Andrew McLaughlin revealed that his company’s upcoming Google Reader replacement will not be a separate app, and will simply be called “Digg Reader.” McLaughlin made it clear that users will ”have one download, which is Digg, and the current Digg will have added onto it reader capabilities.” Unsurprisingly, McLaughlin says Digg is “aiming to build something that’s very clean, very simple and very fast.” He called the upcoming Digg Reader a “production tool,” which will offer ways to ”sort and rank” content (an alternative to a relentless chronological scroll) so you can quickly look at the top things and move on. Digg will meet its goal of launching Digg Reader by the end of June More specifically, the upcoming service will include features like the ability to sort by popularity, but will not focus on discovery or social features for now. According to McLaughlin, users know which feeds they want to follow. Digg Reader will let you manage those feeds and read them in “a really clean, uncluttered way, with a lot of speed and performance.” As for Reader’s development progress thus far, McLaughlin shared that his company moved Digg Reader onto production servers this past Monday and that Digg will meet its goal of launching it by the end of June. In reference to the challenge of building such a tool, McLaughlin says ”the amount of computing power that you have to throw at it is pretty daunting.” Digg’s engineers spoke to Google Reader’s former developers and Bloglovin’s programmers to prepare themselves for this development sprint. McLaughlin appears to be focusing his team’s efforts on iOS and the Web, but the company is “doing Android off to the side.” McLaughlin also shared that Digg and the recently acquired Instapaper will not be combined, at least for the moment; he argued that the notion of reading something later serves a separate function. The talk, dubbed “Life After Google Reader” also featured Bloglovin CEO Mattias Swenson, Buzzfeed’s Rob Fishman, and yours truly as moderator. When asked if Digg Reader will compete with services like Bloglovin, McLaughlin said it was possible, but that the target demographics are very different. This made the talk quite interesting, as Bloglovin and Digg are tied closely together through Betaworks.
Read More...

Foursquare and Gnip on Thursday together announced a partnership that will see the former’s check-in data distributed to the latter’s clients. Foursquare is giving Gnip a real-time feed of the places where its users are checking in, which will naturally be anonymized for privacy purposes. So what data exactly will Foursquare give to Gnip? Three separate pieces: Each check-in’s location (for instance, Stop & Shop). The time and date of the check-in (April 30, 2013 at 11:03pm GMT) . The gender of the person checking in (male). Again, the check-ins are not tied to individual users. The technical-looking output looks like this: Foursquare says it regularly gets requests from people who want to use its data for research. The company has worked with select academic institutions and press outlets on data research projects in the past, which it says have “shed new insight and to effect positive change in how the real world works.” The Gnip partnership goes further. For those who don’t kow, Gnip is an aggregation company that provides data from dozens of social media websites via one API. Foursquare will be joining Gnip’s growing list of premium publishers, including Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, Disqus, IntenseDebate, StockTwits, and Estimize. Gnip says it is offering both the full firehose and filtered access of Foursquare’s data. Foursquare envisions market research companies using it to get a realtime pulse on holiday shopping trends, and social media marketing agencies tracking the impact of a national chain’s Super Bowl campaign. Gnip says retailers will be able to study the results of local advertising campaigns, financial analysts will have another valuable data point to forecast seasonal sales, and real estate development groups will be able to better understand where they should develop new locations. Researchers will be able to use it for various purposes, including, according to Foursquare, “better understanding a neighborhood’s evolution as the types and popularity of local businesses change.” That’s the type of findings we’d love to hear more about. “We are capturing this amazing signal about what millions of people are doing in the real world at every moment of the day in cities all around the globe,” Blake Shaw, Foursquare’s data scientist, told Gnip. “We have seen that when we aggregate check-in patterns across many individuals, we can measure features of cities at a higher resolution than was ever possible before. I think this data can act almost like a ‘microscope for cities.’” It’s thus no surprise Gnip seems quite positive about the partnership: “With more than 35 million registered users, nearly 4 billion total check-ins, and over 75 million API calls a day, Foursquare is the location layer for the Internet, helping to connect people with places around the world.” Top Image Credit: Andrew Beierle
Read More...

Storify, a service that helps users curate social media posts around a particular topic, has partnered with Adobe’s Typekit. This move helps Storify users better customize their stories so that they blend in with the look and feel of the site where it will be embedded. To implement the service, users can input their Typekit Kit ID into their Storify account in the Embed Style settings screen. Once done, they will have access to Typekit’s complete library of fonts to manage what’s displayed for headlines and body text. It’s important to note that not everyone will have access to this feature. Storify says that users must be signed up for a Business account, a plan it launched last month. Geared towards journalists, agencies, and bloggers, it’s not surprising that the company integrated with Adobe’s service. After all, these users are perhaps more likely to be interested in aggregating content to share. Among Storify’s customers are CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Photo credit: Thinkstock
Read More...

Box, a company that provides cloud storage and file syncing services to consumers and enterprises alike, has announced the acquisition of Folders, an iOS client for viewing and managing files across Box, Dropbox and Google Drive. This news comes just two weeks after Box picked up Crocodoc, a startup which specialized in HTML5-powered document viewing products, for a mix of cash and stock. In today’s reveal, Box detailed that both Folders and Crocodoc were acquired to enhance “the Box user experience.” More specifically, Box shares that France-based Folders founder Martin Destagnol has already “spent the last few weeks working closely with our iOS development team on scoping the next generation of Box for iOS, which will deeply integrate the Folders technology.” In other words, if you’re curious about the next iteration of Box’s iOS app, Folders in its current form (pictured below) should serve as an accurate preview of what’s to come. Box VP of Engineering Sam Schillace shares went on to say that Destagnol’s “work on Folders will be integral to the next-generation of Box on iOS.” Schillace believes that both the Folders technology and Destagnol’s expertise will help Box “improve how people collaborate and engage with their content on Post-PC devices. In the near term, Box for iOS will become cleaner, faster and more beautiful throughout 2013.” Box has clarified to TNW that “the Folders app will not launch or be a standalone product.” Instead, Box users will see its technology and IP be directly integrated into the company’s upcoming iOS app. Image credit: Digital Vision / Thinkstock
Read More...

Six years ago, Facebook unveiled its Platform service to allow third-party developers to integrate its social graph into their apps. Today, the company has revealed its enormous growth: 550 million people are having social experiences each month and more than 1 billion stories are being shared daily. It also shared insights into Platform’s future and how Parse will be integrated. At a whiteboarding session, Facebook’s Director of Developer Relations, Doug Purdy, shared a brief history about the Platform. Originally called Facebook Canvas, the service was intended to help the company create a developer ecosystem. Purdy believed that applications and its experience focused around the user was much better than if it was just focused on the technology. Facebook launched the product to allow third-party developers to tie back into Facebook so that stories and memories can be shared on a user’s Timeline while also integrating data from the social network into their apps. In the end, Purdy spoke about the future of Facebook Platform and what users and developers could come to expect within the next couple of years. It’s clearly apparent now that Platform has seen incredible success in its short six year history. However, to enhance the social experience, Facebook says that it’s focusing on four key areas: Identity Purdy says that Facebook is focusing on ways to bring content and data that users care about into third-party apps and back in order to create a much more personalized experience. The company hopes to achieve this primarily through improvements in its Login with Facebook protocol. Last April, the company launched some updates whereby users were able to better manage what is being shared both with Facebook and also with third-party apps. This recent Login update was said to be well-received by both users and developers. In the end, Facebook says it’s about giving users more control and trust. Open Graphs Facebook says that a lot of its focus will be around the Timeline where it’s believed to have a home for third-party app activity. Users can see the updated timeline now whereby any activity from services around movies, Pinterest, books you read, music, and check-ins, are now displayed on the Timeline. Purdy tells us that because people are living their lives on their mobile device, it’s natural for content to be shared from apps to Facebook. Additionally, he said that it’s an “awesome” surface for discovering things that people are doing. Ads Simply having an app isn’t enough — it’s about promotion. Facebook has set out to support developers that tie in to its Platform. It was at this point when Purdy highlighted the company’s mobile app install ads, which it launched in October 2012. App Services In an area where Facebook’s acquisition of Parse comes into play, the company is looking to help app developers create a cross-platform experience, so that it’s not only available on Facebook, but also iOS and Android devices. The company shared that while it’s helping to create more cross-platform apps, but also allow users to interact with services across any devices. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Read More...

Google on Thursday announced a very interesting integration between its main search service and Google+ Photos. The company now lets you find your photos both on Google+ and Google Search just by, well, searching for them. Assuming you’re signed in, all you have to do is search for “my photos” on google.com or directly on Google+. Yet this goes further than just serving you a list of all your photos; Google says it has now also started using computer vision and machine learning to understand what you’re looking for. Google lists a few examples of possible queries that work, such as sunsets, food, and flowers. To find the last one, all you need to type in is “my photos of flowers” and you should get back something similar to this: The word “photos” is key here. You can search for your own photos as well as those of your friends: “my photos from new york last year” or “matt’s photos of food.” What’s amazing here is that these results are not being served based on tags, captions, or other ways to denote what is in a given photo. Google is analyzing the content of all your photos and deciding which ones are relevant to your query. From our tests the computer vision part works pretty well, and Google will of course be constantly improving it via the machine learning component. This particular feature doesn’t have a beta tag or anything of the sort, so we can assume it’s ready for mass use. Still, this is definitely a feature that will be far from perfect for a long time. The more queries Google receives from users, however, the better it will become. It’s just too bad that the technology is limited to Google+. Hopefully Facebook is paying attention. This is just as, if not more, interesting than Graph Search. See also – Google’s new Google+ photo features: 15GB full-size storage, Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance and more and Google+ app for Android updated with new photo-editing features, related hashtags and locations area Top Image Credit: Kimihiro Hoshino/Getty Images
Read More...

Got a question for Kathryn? Use the chat feature above to get it answered live. Kathryn Minshew is the CEO & Founder of The Muse, a career platform and job discovery tool serving more than 4 million professionals worldwide. Kathryn has spoken at MIT and Harvard, appeared on CNN and Fox, and contributes on career and entrepreneurship topics to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. She was recently listed in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Media for the second year in a row and Inc.’s 15 Women to Watch in Tech. Before founding The Muse, Kathryn worked on vaccine introduction in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and previously at the management consultancy McKinsey & Company. You can follow her on Twitter, where she is @KMin. #StartupLab is a free virtual mentorship program created by The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of hundreds of America’s most successful young entrepreneurs. #StartupLab takes YEC’s mission to help more people start successful businesses to the next level by offering millions of entrepreneurs direct access to YEC members through interactive video chats, email lessons and a library of how-to articles, videos and eBooks. Whether you’re just starting up, a current business owner, or you run an organization that supports entrepreneurs, sign up for #StartupLab today for real-world advice from some of the coolest entrepreneurs on the planet.
Read More...

Just two days after the stable version of Chrome 27, Google has announced the release of Chrome 28 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The biggest new feature is the addition of a notification center, although it’s only available on Windows for now. “We’ve designed these notifications to be beautiful, useful and engaging,” Google says. They can be formatted to display text and images, as well as include actions directly inside the pop-up. Here’s an example:
Read More...

Startup Weekend and The Startup America Partnership have announced a new partnership that will see a new umbrella brand and organization come to fruition, as it looks to support “the creation of vibrant entrepreneurial communities around the world.” Backed by the likes of the Kauffman Foundation, Gates Foundation, Google For Entrepreneurs and Microsoft Bizspark, Startup Weekend is a non-profit organization that supports the development and expansion of entrepreneurship through events in 400 cities around the world. Started by AOL co-founder Steve Case, Startup America pitches itself as a national movement of founders, specialists and other useful resources aimed at giving startups a leg-up to access services they need to grow. It was launched at the White House in early 2011. The resulting company, UP Global, will be based in Seattle, and will bring together Startup Weekend’s other assets which include its month-long startup accelerator NEXT, as well as its email newsletter StartupDigest. With the launch of Up Global, however, this won’t lead to the demise of the Startup Weekend and Startup America brands – both will be kept going. Only last month, Google partnered with Startup Weekend to launch an updated five week curriculum for NEXT, designed to teach startup founders how to engage with new customers, investors, partners and potential employees. It’s difficult to see how this new tie-up won’t cause a little confusion though, given this is another new brand being brought into the mix alongside the existing ones. But it should prove mutually beneficial, with Startup America’s money and prominence helping to support Startup Weekend’s global events. We’re told that the UP Global platform will be a “positive force for entrepreneurship in Europe.” “Startup communities are truly driven by their leaders, and we’ve shown that we can provide useful tools and frameworks for those leaders to foster sustainable early stage ecosystems, ultimately leading to the creation of more meaningful and persistent firms,” says Marc Nager, President of UP Global. Feature Image Credit – BRUCE WEAVER/AFP/GettyImages
Read More...

Apple will continue its long-standing tradition this year of holding its keynote address on the first day of Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), according to All Things D. That’s right, the technology giant will take to the stage on June 10 to show delegates all of its refreshed, tweaked and brand new hardware and software at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The contents of the keynote haven’t been disclosed – no surprise there – but you can bet your bottom dollar that Apple CEO Tim Cook will make an appearance, as well as Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive. Apple has a lot to prove this year and rumors have already been circulating about iOS 7, the new version of its popular mobile operating system, as well as a smartwatch, Apple TV and some form of new, on-demand music streaming service similar to Rdio and Spotify. “We look forward to gathering at WWDC 2013 with the incredible community of iOS and OS X developers,” says Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller said last month. “Our developers have had the most prolific and profitable year ever, and we’re excited to show them the latest advances in software technologies and developer tools to help them create innovative new apps. We can’t wait to get new versions of iOS and OS X into their hands at WWDC.” Regardless, TNW will be at WWDC in full effect to cover all of the latest announcements as and when they happen. Google set a pretty high bar when it unveiled a revamped Google+ and Google Maps experience, as well as a new Samsung Galaxy 4 running stock Android and its own music streaming service, called Google Play Music All Access. The ball is in your court, Apple. Related: Apple announces WWDC 2013 for June 10-14th to talk future OS X and iOS, tickets on sale April 25th,10am PT Image Credit:  Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Read More...

Google on Thursday announced Gmail users will soon be able to search for relevant emails, Google Drive files, Calendar events, and so on. The feature, which shows results as you type, is rolling out to US English users “over the coming week.” Until now, Google has been running a trial of the feature. The company has now apparently deemed the test a success, and is thus ready to push it out, at least stateside. Here’s how it looks: As you can see, results in the Google search box feature not only the usual email messages, but also information that Google considers to be relevant, as well as content from other Google services. We can presume that the company will continue to expand the list beyond just Google Calendar and Google Drive. More to follow.
Read More...

Anyone with even the remotest interest in the natural world will know all about the Galapagos Islands – they played a pivotal part in Darwin’s theory of evolution. With that in mind, Google is now bringing panoramic images of the Galapagos Island to Street View, via a partnership with Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Parks Directorate (GNPD). The images aren’t yet available, but the Internet giant has given a glimpse of what we can expect when they’re pushed on to Google Maps later this year. Take this, for example, which shows a giant tortoise crawling along a path in front of a Googler as she collects imagery with the Street View Trekker: “Our 10-day adventure in the Galapagos was full of hiking, boating and diving around the islands (in hot and humid conditions) to capture 360-degree images of the unique wildlife and geological features of the islands with the Trekker,” explains Raleigh Seamster, Project Lead, Google Maps. “We captured imagery from 10 locations that were hand-selected by CDF and GNPD. We walked past giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies, navigated through steep trails and lava fields, and picked our way down the crater of an active volcano called Sierra Negra.” It seems that Street View will also be getting underwater imagery of the Galapagos Island too, as Google partnered with Catlin Seaview Survey to collect underwater panoramic photos of areas being studied by CDF and GNPD. “This imagery will be used by Catlin Seaview Survey to create a visual and scientific baseline record of the marine environment surrounding the islands, allowing for any future changes to be measured and evaluated by scientists around the world,” explains Seamster. “We hope this Street View imagery not only advances the important scientific research, but also inspires you to learn more about this special place.”
Read More...

Microsoft on Thursday announced significant improvements when searching with Bing News: trending topics and related individuals. The company also revealed it has expanded its articles index size from weeks to years. The first feature, lets you explore people, places, and things “in a visual and easy-to-use carousel format,” according to Microsoft. Starting today, when you search for a notable person in current events, you’ll not only see news results from across the Web, but also a visual carousel which shows you important and timely topics related to the person you’re searching for. Here it is in action (as a sidenote, Microsoft’s Bing team has had a Taylor Swift obsession for years): Microsoft says that building this browse-able news experience requires “a deep understanding of current events, the people that matter and how relationships between these two play out in public life.” Since it has already done the work, the company also now displays related individuals on the right-hand side: More broadly, however, Microsoft has revealed it has significantly expands its news articles index. Previously, it contained about two weeks of news. The company wouldn’t say how much bigger exactly the index is now, but it did say it has data that spans “several years.” This means when Bing News can’t find anything regarding your query in recent articles, it can look through its index and still bring you relevant articles. While most news searches are undoubtedly in regards to recent events, past stories can still be informative even if they’re not current. While we doubt many will now start using Bing News over Google News, it’s starting to become a valid alternative. It’s about time: Microsoft may have arguably managed to get Bing to match Google in certain types of searches like images, but the news section never really competed at all. We’ll soon see if these changes will change that. See also – Microsoft’s Bing adds Facebook commenting and Like actions to its social sidebar and Microsoft kills Bing Deals and launches Bing Offers in the US, aims to aggregate more local deals on one site Top Image Credit: Griszka Niewiadomski
Read More...

Microsoft has clarified that the next iteration of Kinect, the motion tracking peripheral unveiled alongside the Xbox One earlier this week, will be coming to Windows next year. We had previously known that the device would eventually be supported by Windows, but didn’t know when. Unfortunately, Microsoft is keeping quiet in regards to how developers will actually be able to take advantage of the new Kinect; the firm simply stated that it will share more details at its BUILD conference next month. Microsoft did share a number of potential use cases with us, however. The company highlighted how Kinect for Windows could be used in particular for “interactive displays in retail environments,” rehabilitation and fitness applications, as well as education and training software. The company clarified that the existing Kinect sensor serves retail environments well, but that HD video will “make this a lot better,” especially for augmented reality displays. Microsoft also shared that the rehabilitation and fitness use case is “most exciting for us.” The company stated that the “need for extremely high precision human tracking is critical,” and the next generation Kinect features a whole new level of fidelity to make this possible. New Kinect, new The new Kinect offers an ultra wide-angle 1080p HD depth camera, which should offer professional recordings and video calls for apps such as Skype, as well as improve its sensitivity and practicality in small living rooms. The device captures RGB color video at around 30 frames per second and comes with a few interesting parlor tricks, such as the ability to monitor the user’s heart rate. Kinect has always been an input device for the Xbox first and foremost, but it’s a fairly unique piece of hardware that has also attracted the attention of the modding community. Who knows what Microsoft has planned this time around. Perhaps it will simply sell the peripheral separately and let developers do as they please, as before. Or, there’s a chance that the company will integrate it somehow with Windows 8, introducing a new user interface similar to Leap Motion. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Read More...

Ridesharing startup Lyft has announced a $60M Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz, on the same day it celebrates its one-year anniversary. In honor of the occasion, the company tells us that it is now giving an average of 30,000 rides per week. A lot has changed since the company, famous for transporting people sporting pink mustaches, first launched in San Francisco. Since then, it has expanded to several other cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago. We spoke with Lyft co-founder and Chief Operating Officer John Zimmer, who tells us that the company realized with each new market, it would grow faster in the first 12 weeks than in the previous market. Originally known as Zimride, the company legally changed to Lyft following its launch in Chicago. While things seem to be going well with the company, it’s facing some major obstacles in its path. Perhaps the biggest hurdle is the regulatory one. Just like competitors Uber and Sidecar, Lyft has been the recipient of cease and desist letters and is facing scrutiny by various regulatory bodies. On the other hand, it’s also facing stiff competition, especially from Uber which is working on implementing a rideshare service soon. That being said, investors do not appear to be deterred by the battles Lyft is facing. The company just raised $60 million from not only Andreessen Horowitz, but also investments from previous investors like Founders Fund and Mayfield. Zimmer tells us that it will use the new investment to build out “a world-class team” and continue to grow in the areas of operations and engineering. Additionally, Lyft will use it to expand to other markets, including those around the world, not just in the US. When asked about specifics, Zimmer said that his company has a “long list of cities” that it hopes to launch in over the next 12 months. Zimmer says that Lyft went with Andreessen Horowitz because of the firm’s experience. He believes that the team there is made up of ‘real operators’, many of whom have built businesses themselves prior to being an investor. Now, Lyft will be able to tap into the VC firm’s list of advisors like former Washington, DC mayor Adrian Fenty, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and tech veteran Ken Coleman. These resources could help Lyft navigate not only its regulatory waters, but also help it expand internationally. With the addition of its $60 million investment windfall, Lyft has raised a total of $82.5 million from fbFund, K9 Ventures, Floodgate, Mayfield Fund, Founders Fund, Keith Rabois, and now Andreessen Horowitz. Photo credit: Thinkstock
Read More...

LoyalBlocks, a New York City-based startup hoping to make waves with its automated loyalty app, has secured $9 million in Series A financing from General Catalyst Partners with participation from Founder Collective and existing investor Gemini Israel Funds. LoyalBlocks’ mobile marketing platform basically enables small businesses to create location-based loyalty clubs. Wanna check in? Simply walk in By setting up an “automatic zone” at their local shops and franchises, brick-and-mortar merchants can have the (branded) loyalty app installed by their customers automatically triggered whenever they visit. This way, users don’t have to remember to bring their traditional loyalty cards, and they can receive rewards from the places they frequent simply by walking through the door. LoyalBlocks is available for iOS and Android. General Catalyst’s Adam Valkin, who is joining the company’s board of directors, commented on the reasoning behind the investment: “The fact that two billion people will soon carry smartphones fundamentally changes the game for businesses trying to attract and retain customers. What we’re seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg. LoyalBlocks is the first company to introduce an automated loyalty application and combined with its rich product suite and impressive momentum in the market, it has the potential to become a market leader in loyalty management solutions.” LoyalBlocks claims thousands of businesses are already using its platform, with hundreds of new merchants signing up every month. The company doesn’t specifically target large stores, although some franchises of major chains have already expressed interest in working with the startup. Top image credit: Thinkstock
Read More...

A new piece of Android malware has been discovered that can intercept your incoming text messages and forward them on to criminals. Once installed, the trojan can be used to steal sensitive messages for blackmailing purposes or more directly, codes which are used to confirm online banking transactions. The malware in question, detected as “Android.Pincer.2.origin” by Russian security firm Doctor Web, is the second iteration of the Android.Pincer family according to the company. Both threats spread as security certificates, meaning they must be deliberately installed onto an Android device by a careless user. Upon launching Android.Pincer.2.origin, the user will see a fake notification about the certificate’s successful installation but after that, the trojan will not perform any noticeable activities for a while. Here are a few screenshots: The malware is loaded at startup via CheckCommandServices, a service that runs silently in the background (right-most screenshot above). It will then connect to a remote server and send over the following information about the mobile device to those behind the attack: handset model, device’s serial number, IMEI, carrier, cell phone number, default system language, operating system, and availability of the root account. The threat then awaits instructions that contain commands in the following format: command:[command]. Doctor Web has found criminals can send the following instructions to the trojan: start_sms_forwarding [telephone number]— begin intercepting communications from a specified number stop_sms_forwarding — stop intercepting messages send_sms [phone number and text] — send a short message using the specified parameters simple_execute_ussd — send a USSD message stop_program—stop working show_message—display a message on the screen of the mobile device set_urls – change the address of the control server ping – send an SMS containing the text ‘pong’ to a previously specified number set_sms_number—change the number to which messages containing the text string ‘pong’ are sent. The first one allows attackers to indicate the number from which the trojan should intercept messages, meaning this can be used for targeted attacks to steal specific messages. The third one from the bottom shows the criminals have planned for changing servers in case they believe the current one will be shut down. Although Doctor Web doesn’t say so, the good news here is that Pincer2 is not likely to be very prevalent. It has not been found on Google Play, where most Android users should be getting their apps, and appears to be meant for precise attacks, as opposed to being aimed at as many users as possible. In short, this malware threat isn’t one that you will likely be hit with, but it is an interesting example of how Android malware is evolving. Our advice is the same as always: only install apps that you know are safe. Top Image Credit: Flavio Takemoto
Read More...

Google on Thursday announced plans to beef up the encryption of the connections made to its services. The company is aiming to upgrade all of its SSL certificates to 2048-bit keys by the end of 2013. Google will also be changing the root certificate that signs all of its SSL certificates, since it also still uses a less-secure 1024-bit key. The company says it will begin switching to the new 2048-bit certificates on August 1, giving itself a solid five months to “ensure adequate time for a careful rollout before the end of the year.” That’s still over three months away, but Google is announcing its plan now because it knows some configurations will require extra steps to avoid complications. The company specifically mentions client software embedded in devices such as some phones, printers, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and cameras. As a result, client software that makes SSL connections to Google (usually in the form of HTTPS) must adhere to the following requirements: Perform normal validation of the certificate chain. Include a properly extensive set of root certificates contained. Support Subject Alternative Names (SANs). For the second point, Google offers an example set in its FAQ which should be sufficient. That being said, the firm warns the contents of the list may change over time, so clients should make sure they have a way to update it themselves as changes occur. Last but not least, Google notes clients should, but are not required to, support the Server Name Indication (SNI) extension as they may need to make an extra API call to set the hostname on an SSL connection. If you’re not sure your client is using SNI, test it against https://googlemail.com — this URL will only validate if you are sending SNI. Again, most will not be affected by this change. If you think you will be, however, you’ll want to read over the more technical details in this document: How to Use X.509 Certificates and SSL For Secure Communications. Top Image Credit: Miguel Saavedra
Read More...

Three months after launching in beta, TechStars grad Bondsy is releasing its self-titled iPhone app to the public with the goal of helping friends “trade things you can’t put a price on.” Bondsy first made its debut on stage last year during TechStars NY’s demo day. At the time, the startup was pitched as “the social network of things” — a highly vague, but also quite accurate description. You’ll see why shortly. Like submitting an item to Craigslist, Bondsy lets you sell, trade or give away just about anything. The key difference, of course, is that with Bondsy, you’re dealing solely with friends. Aside from making the entire process significantly less uncomfortable, trading with friends opens up an entire world of opportunities. Founder Diego Zambrano says he’s seen everything from apartment rentals for cash to playdates with fernando the dog in exchange for ice cream. Everything from services to like-new, used and found items are fair game. And without restrictions, Bondsy becomes an entertaining way to foster deeper connections with the people you know. As Zambrano puts it, “when you aren’t forced to pay with money, things get a lot more interesting.” If your interest is piqued, try out the app for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments below. ➤ Bondsy
Read More...

Onavo, a startup that offers five apps across iOS and Android to help users track and compress the amount of data they use on the Internet, as well as protect their information online, has published new data today revealing the most popular video games being sold on the App Store. To help users catch the biggest data-hogging culprits on their mobile devices (and for the entire service to work really) Onavo requires users to send them information about their data consumption habits. That gives the company some pretty accurate and valuable metrics on mobile app usage, which has resulted in Onavo Insights. The company’s latest study, released today, examines a plethora of video games downloaded and played by iPhone owners during April 2013, with a sample size that was “well into the millions,” according to the company. The results found that arcade games garnered the highest market share in the App Store, with 66 percent of gamers downloading and playing titles such as Subway Surfers and Sonic Dash. The action category, which featured mammoth hits Temple Run and Clash of Clans, followed at 57 percent. Rounding out the top four were puzzle games and word-related games with a 49 percent and 42 percent market share respectively. These figures represent not only what gamers are interested in playing, but also the types of games being created by both independent and large-scale developers alike for iOS. After all, if there’s only a smattering of racing games available in the App Store, it should come as no surprise that gamers are spending less of their spare time playing them. The flip side to this argument is, of course, that developers arguably create video games based on what players are interested in. The eruption of Temple Run, for example, triggered a wave of other ‘endless runner’ titles trying to capitalize on Imangi Studios’ success. Data related to user engagement, or the amount of time gamers spent playing each game over the four-week period, shows a rather different story, however. So-called ‘dice’ games, which represent various casino activities such as slot machines, came out on top with more than 10 days played on average. It’s a little worrying, but plays into the belief that any form of gambling can be highly addictive for some players. Simulation cranks in at second place with 9.3 days per month, on average, which again makes sense given the time-sink nature of something like The Sims 3 or hyper-realistic flight simulators. Casino is also in the top five genres here, but of note is ‘arcade’ all the way at the bottom. This ‘hero to zero’ trend can be attributed, at least in part, to the short gameplay sessions and ‘pick up and play attitude’ which titles such as Ridiculous Fishing thrive on. It’s not to say that players don’t enjoy them – not by a long shot – but it does highlight the varying play styles pioneered by these different genres. Retention, last but not least, points to the lasting appeal of games in the App Store. It’s an important metric which often highlights the underlying quality of a game such as Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies. Here dice games continue to come out on top, while kids titles and role-playing games (RPG) follow in second and third. The high placing of RPGs is perhaps expected, given the longer campaign length of something like Final Fantasy IV or The World Ends With You: Solo Remix. Genre popularity will no doubt fluctuate from month-to-month, but it’s always valuable to take a snap-shot of current consumer trends. Gaming is one of the most popular and successful sections of the App Store,and shouldn’t be underestimated as a contributing factor to the continued success of the iOS platform. Image Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service. 
Read More...

TaskRabbit, a task and errand service, has launched a new offering for businesses interested in prolonged hiring of temporary workers. It’s part of the company’s TaskRabbit for Business solution and is intended to not only hire workers, but also handle all the regulatory and compliance issues involved. With 35 percent of its revenue coming from businesses, TaskRabbit sought to find new ways to appeal to this audience and noticed that many were using the service to hire receptionists to try out. It turns out that the hiring managers weren’t satisfied with the temp agency market. This isn’t a new product per se, but an evolution of its existing one. Last February, TaskRabbit launched a dedicated business product it calls TaskRabbit for Business. It now has more than 16,000 businesses signed up and actively using it. Today’s announcement is still the same product, but with a new offering. Victor Echevarria, TaskRabbit’s Head of Business Development, says,”We’ve learned that many businesses are frustrated with the current temping solutions, which often prove slow, expensive, and inefficient. Hiring managers are tired of spending enormous amounts of time sifting through online classifieds and job boards and completing the endless paywork associated with W-2 employment.” TaskRabbit gives hiring managers numerous tools to aid in their pursuit of a temp worker. From starting the hiring process, companies can input the position that they’re looking for — by default, TaskRabbit has included the four most common jobs it has seen in its system: administrative, data entry, sales support, and customer service. Of course, if a company is hiring for something beyond these job types, they can be entered into the system. Other job details that can be modified include the dates needed, the location, and specify whether the worker will be classified and paid as a temp (W-2) or contractor (1099). Companies can also specify the rate that the worker will be paid. From here, TaskRabbit offers a template description for the role, although hiring managers have the option to craft their own. Workers who apply will need to submit a personalized cover letter and then affix their LinkedIn profile. TaskRabbit tells us that if an applicant doesn’t have a LinkedIn account, they will be prompted to create one first before being able to submit their application. Workers can also input their own amount that they wish to be compensated for the work. Just like a traditional temp agency, TaskRabbit will process all of the paperwork associated with W-2 or 1099 employment. It also takes care of payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, and even unemployment insurance. The hiring company will only need to approve a TaskRabbit’s application and tell them what to do on day one. In return for managing all of the logistics, TaskRabbit is charging businesses a 26 percent fee of the employee’s pay, much lower than traditional agencies, which Echevarria estimates is between 40 to 60 percent. TaskRabbit reveals that it is now on-boarding 1,000 users every month, with more than 11,000 to date. It is currently live in nine cities in the US and is looking to expand internationally this year — London will be its first non-US city. Photo credit: Thinkstock
Read More...

At this rate, Yahoo is gonna be clean out of cash as it has made yet another acquisition. As first spotted by TechCrunch, the target this time is gaming platform PlayerScale, which provides backend services for game-developers via its Player.IO product. Unlike other recent acquisitions, the good news for gamers here is that PlayerScale is staying put – it’s not being shuttered by Yahoo. In the announcement message today, Chief Executive Jesper Jensen calls the acquisition the “the next big step toward our goal of building the best possible gaming infrastructure platform.” He says: “Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. Our platform will continue to support the same great games that you love playing today … and in fact, it will only get better from here! Our goal has always been to help developers build the best possible games, without having to worry about building and scaling the infrastructure required to operate today’s biggest successes. In working with the folks at Yahoo!, it has become clear that we share this passion.” PlayerScale’s technology provides the infrastructure for developers to easily integrate payment systems and other key social and data-based features into their games. Acquisition spree This news comes just a few days after Yahoo snapped up Tumblr for $1.1 billion but, although Tumblr will continue to exist for its millions of users, the same can’t be said for it myriad of other recent acquisitions. Yahoo recently snapped up to-do list app Astrid, which was preceded by personalized recommendation startup Jybe, as well as news summary app Summly. Then, earlier this month, GoPollGo was bought and closed, as was MileWise on the same day. PlayerScale was founded in 2011, and today it claims to power 4,000 games, built by 2,600 developers and played by more than 150 million people, with 400,000 new users jumping on board each day. “In the last four months alone, we have increased our daily user growth rate by almost sixty percent,” says Jespen. “With Yahoo’s backing, we can crank out awesome products and improvements to our platform faster than ever before. We will continue to support our existing product and deliver new services to help you grow and manage your success in cross-platform gaming — whether it’s casual, social or mobile.” There’s no word yet on how much Yahoo is paying for PlayerScale, or indeed how it will leverage its technology, but online and mobile gaming is big businesses, and Yahoo is continuing its push to reinvent itself as a digital powerhouse through placing its proverbial fingers in multiple content pies, including news, travel, blogging and gaming. Yahoo already offers a gaming portal of its own, so it would make sense that it would be looking to open up its platform to make it even easier for developers to build money-making games for Yahoo’s growing range of online and mobile products. Feature Image Credit – Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Read More...

Los Angeles-based fashion commerce company JustFab (formerly known as JustFabulous) is expanding its operations in Europe by acquiring membership-based shoe shopping site The Fab Shoes. Launched in early 2012, The Fab Shoes is essentially a members-only fashion sales club that targets women interested in buying affordable but trendy shoes and accessories by personalizing style recommendations. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the deal gives JustFab an extra 500,000 members (actually more than 573,000 according to The Fab Shoes’ website) in Spain and France, bringing the total tally to 15 million subscribers worldwide. JustFab will make its official debut in France and Spain in July 2013, the company said, after which The Fab Shoes will cease to exist. JustFab already boasts operations in Germany and the UK, where it has 1.5 million members, and is looking to explore more markets across Europe and likely Asia down the line. Almost a year ago, JustFab raised no less than $76 million to push its business into new areas and develop its catalogue. Earlier this year, it used part of the proceeds of the financing round to acquire children’s fashion and personalized e-commerce service FabKids, and now it has followed up with the purchase of The Fab Shoes. The freshly acquired company’s team will stay on in a variety of roles at JustFab. The Fab Shoes had raised some seed funding according to CrunchBase data, but never disclosed how much. JustFab has raised well over $100 million in funding but generated almost as much revenue in 2012, with 2013 looking to be “another high-growth year” according to co-founder and co-CEO Adam Goldenberg. “We continue to surpass our goals, month after month,” Goldenberg said. “With more than 13 million members in the US and Europe growing at such a fast pace, we are on track to reach $250 million in revenue by the end of this year.” Part of the plan to pull this off is to expand into new fashion categories later this year – JustFab says its priority is to “dress its members from head to toe”. I will not be telling my wife. Also read: Online fashion retailer Spartoo bags $32.6m Series C round to boost its European expansion Rocket Internet-backed online fashion store ZALORA goes full throttle, raises $100 million round Image credit: Thinkstock
Read More...

Twitter is partnering with more than a dozen new broadcasters and publications to launch Twitter Amplify, a new program that gives brands the opportunity to publish real-time, in-tweet video clips to their followers. Twitter plans to use this service to nurture the bewildering amount of tweets being sent by users while they’re watching their favorite TV show, movie or a high-profile event such as the Super Bowl. By showing footage in-stream, users are more likely to share these clips with their own followers and persuade new people to tune into the live broadcast. The company has already partnered with ESPN and Ford Fusion to bring American football fans instant replays, accessible from within a tweet, during every college football game. A few months later, during March Madness, Twitter teamed up with Turner Sports, the NCAA , AT&T and Coke Zero to offer the same in-tweet video clips – but this time for professional basketball highlights. Roy Hibbert’s BIG block. One of the nicest you’ll see #NBARapidReplay – on.nba.com/Z4vJmb — NBA (@NBA) May 19, 2013   Twitter is currently offering in-tweet videos for ‘Rapid Replays’ through various accounts owned by Sony Pictures, Sprint and Taco Bell. The potential is huge, both for sports fans and broadcasters looking to engage with their followers. Twitter is therefore looking to expand beyond sports highlights and announced today that the service will be available to a more diverse selection of partners, including BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel. “We think these types of two-screen sponsorships are a win-win-win,” Glenn Brown, Director of Promoted Content and Sponsorships at Twitter said. ”Users receive spectacular, timely content that rounds out their TV experience or reminds them to tune in. Powered by Promoted Tweets, broadcasters reach new audiences and open up new business lines. Brand advertisers get, for the first time, an integrated cross-platform tool for reaching the social conversation wherever it happens.” The new companies involved in the scheme include: A&E (@AETV) theAudience Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) Clear Channel (@ClearChannel) Conde Nast (@CondeNastCorp) Discovery (@Discovery) Major League Baseball (@mlbdotcom) National Cinemedia (@NCMonline) New York Magazine (@NYMag) PGA Tour (@PGATOUR) PMC (@Variety) Time Inc. (@Time_Inc) VEVO (@VEVO) Warner Music (@warnermusic) WWE (@WWE) VICE (@VICE) The launch of Twitter Amplify follows a new Twitter Card category, called Lead Generation, which will allow brands and businesses to request basic contact information from their followers. When a user expands the tweet, they’ll be able to see a description of the offer, as well as a small button underneath that enables them to instantly send their name, Twitter handle and email address to the brand or business in question. Twitter is clearly targeting advertisers and marketers, both directly and indirectly, in a big way right now. Monetization, it would seem, is top of the company’s agenda.
Read More...

AT&T revealed today that it has exclusive rights to stock the new Samsung Galaxy S4 in Aurora Red, a new color variant announced earlier today when the smartphone passed 10 million global sales. The device will be available to buy both in-store and online from June 14, although pre-orders are opening on May 24 (tomorrow). The 16GB model will cost $199.99 on a two-year contract, the same as the existing color variants, Black Mist and White Frost. The Samsung Galaxy S4, unveiled in March, is currently going head-to-head with the HTC One, and will also compete with the next iPhone that will inevitably be released later this year. The device has a premium 5-inch 1080p display, set at an impressive 441 ppi. Under the hood is a quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 processor, bumped up by an additional quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 chipset. That’s an insane amount of processing power, to put it mildly. Alongside the aforementioned 16GB of internal storage is a microSD card for extra memory, and the device runs on the latest version of Android (version 4.2.2) with Samsung’s TouchWiz skin slapped on top. The Galaxy S4 also has a mighty Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery, which should do a pretty decent job of counterbalancing the smartphone’s power-hungry processors, and 2GB of RAM handling multiple apps and tasks. The device hit 10 million global sales today, breaking the milestone within one month of its initial launch. That’s twice as fast as the Galaxy S3, which took two months last year.
Read More...