YouTube Turns 8
Let’s celebrate 8 years since YouTube came to our media space. YouTube now averages 100 hours of video every minute and has one billion visitors to the site per month. YouTube was acquired by Google in October 2006 for $1.65 billion.
Yahoo To Buy Tumblr For $1.1 Billion
Yahoo has agreed to buy the popular blogging service Tumblr for about $1.1 billion in cash. This purchase surpassing Facebook’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram last year.
Currently Tumblr host 180 million blogs and 217m global users in the past month.
Microsoft To Reveal XBox Infinity On May 21
Microsoft is planning to show off their new Xbox Infinity console on May 21st with new design and interactive features at a special event held at its campus in Redmond.
It has been rumoured that the next console from Microsoft will be branded XBox Infinity. Microsoft has bought XBox8 domain name. The Xbox Infinity branding or Xbox∞ looks like an inverted 8 of Windows 8. Microsoft will reveal all on May 21st.
Google Glass Privacy: I Am Recording You
Eight members of Congress officially demanded Google CEO Larry Page to address a range of privacy concerns about Google Glass.
Here is the content of the letter sent by the congress members:
We are curious whether this new technology could infringe on the privacy of the average American. Because Google Glass has not yet been released and we are uncertain of Google’s plans to incorporate privacy protections into the device, there are still a number of unanswered questions.
The team behind Google Glass defended it against privacy worries in a Google I/O by saying if you are recording from the glass you have to stare at the object. Charles Mendis, an engineer on the Glass team said “If you walk into a restroom and someone’s just looking at you — I don’t know about you but I’m getting the hell out of there.”
Google Maps New Features Leaked
Google accidentally leaked out the new features of Google Maps during Google I/O this week. The new features are new graphics and dynamically learning maps that change to your needs the more you use them. Other features are smarter search, integration with Google Earth and Flight Search as well as a way to compare multiple modes of transportation.
Google Celebrates Atari Breakout With Easter Egg Image Search
Type in Atari Breakout into Google Image search and you will see the results show up with a game similar to Breakout, which requires the player to demolish brick walls with a ball. Google is commemorating the 37th birthday of classic Atari game Breakout with this easter egg.
Sony Xperia Waterproof Up To 5 Feet
Good news to divers Sony’s Xperia ZR will be waterproof to 5 feet. The 4.6-inch Android smartphone will feature a Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core 1.5GH CPU, 2GB RAM, LTE, NFC, a 4.6-inch 720p OptiContrast OLED screen and a 13-megapixel Exmor RS image sensor. No pricing yet.
Samsung Breakthrough 5G Barrier And Available In 2020
Samsung announced that they have made a key breakthrough in developing 5G mobile technologies that provide data transmission up to several hundred times faster than the current 4G technology. It has the ability to download up to tens of gigabits per second when it arrives in 2020.
Apple Rumoured To Enhance AppleCare
Apple is looking to enhance AppleCare for iPhone, iPad, and iPod repairs. Apple employees will now attempt to repair the devices themselves and return a customer’s fixed-up device to him or her. This is done instead of exchanging with a new product. These in-house repairs will reportedly allow Apple to save approximately $1 billion each year. Apple is also rumoured to extending its free phone support for Apple devices from its current policy of 90 days to one year
NASA Astronauts Fixed Ammonia Leak Via Spacewalk
US astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy have replaced a pump on a spacewalk to fix a leak of ammonia from the International Space Station’s cooling system. It took them 5 hours to replace a 60-pound pump box which NASA suspected was the source of the leaking ammonia coolant.
