The Latest Web Industry News

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  Making Sense Of Google's New Social Stuff: Messaging, Hangouts & Google+

  16th May 2013 19:57

  With a whirlwind of announcements at its Google I/O developers conference this week, Google's vast suite of social products is finally starting to look like it was created by a single company and not cobbled together via a series of haphazard acquisitions. Here are the highlights of what's changed: Hangouts: Google Messaging, Unmessy At Last Google is finally doing something to prune its thicket of messaging products. Let's start with a look at the various chat and messaging products that…

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  Google Is Rebooting Its Troubled Digital Wallet On The Web

  15th May 2013 22:43

  What's in Google's Wallet? Under the Wallet name, Google has been mostly selling failure. It's offered a confusing array of payment services—most notably, a way of paying for items in stores by tapping your smartphone to a device on the counter. That in-store payment service has been, let's say it, an outright disaster. But Google is sticking with Wallet—at least in name—with two new services unveiled Wednesday at Google I/O, its annual developer conference held this week in San Francisco.…

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  Google I/O Keynote: 8 Best Moments In Photos

  15th May 2013 22:14

  Google bombarded thousands of attendees at its I/O 2013 Keynote with enough information to force that hi-res photo of Vic Gundotra's forehead into their dreams tonight. Here are the eight best moments: Google Variant Of The Samsung Galaxy S4 One of the briefer announcements at I/O was the introduction of a variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4 configured with the look and UI feel of a 4.2 Jelly Bean Nexus phone. In a sense, it strips all the Samsung bloatware from the…

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  With New Photos, Search, and Maps, Google's Cloud Gets Smart

  15th May 2013 20:51

  A few years ago, Google's cloud services focused on simply storing and managing objects: email, documents, music, and movies. The 2013 version of Google is now using the cloud to connect and build relationships between them, responding to and anticipating the desires of its users. Google used its I/O keynote to describe how its vast array of servers is now applying intelligence from everything from music to maps. Google drew cheers when it launched a suite of photo-enhancement apps, including…

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  Microsoft's Bing Search Engine Has Learned To Speak Klingon

  14th May 2013 20:40

  A quiet upgrade to Bing's language translator today has added Klingon, in both the Latin and Klingon alphabets.  That's great news if you wanted to ask, "How does one get 'Scroogled'?" in the elegant tongue of Star Trek's most warlike species. The answer, of course, is "chay' Qu' 'SchrooghleD' wej wa'?"  Or perhaps you were wondering the best way to phrase, "How much, in fluid ounces, does Steve Balmer sweat every time he's onstage?" A Klingon would say: "'ar, tlhluID…

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  Square And PayPal Push The iPad-ification Of America's Small Businesses

  14th May 2013 19:28

  Square, PayPal, and Groupon all made news today with the common goal of getting small businesses to junk their cash registers for Internet-connected devices that promise to bring the simple act of settling accounts into the future. Change With Your Coffee I work from home, but every morning I wake up, take a shower and go straight to work from my local coffee shop. About half of those days I stop at the neighborhood ATM kiosk to grab some cash.…

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  Sony Rejects Loeb's Call To Sell Part Of Its Movie And Music Unit

  14th May 2013 19:20

  Activist shareholder Dan Loeb just called for Sony to sell up to 20% of its entertainment division, and Sony has already rejected the offer in a statement provided to USA Today. Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund managed by Loeb, owns roughly 6.5% of Sony, making it one of the company's largest shareholders with a stake valued at $1.1 billion.  By selling 15-20% of Sony Entertainment, Loeb claimed Sony could boost the value of its shares, sharpen the company's overall focus and help revive…

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  Google Combines Free Storage On Gmail, Google+ & Drive: 15GB Total

  13th May 2013 21:45

  Google announced Monday that it has combined its free storage options across multiple apps, making it easier to manage how much space you're using in Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+. Previously users had to separately track the 10GB of free space allotted for Gmail and the 5GB of free space allotted for Drive. Now, they have 15GB of unified space to use among all the Google apps, and any additional storage they purchase can be used wherever it is most needed.  To put these…

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  Beware: We May Be Entering The Age Of Cybersabotage

  13th May 2013 20:35

  Low-level cyberscuffles between nations may be about to escalate into more serious conflicts. U.S. government officials are reporting a new wave of attacks aimed at sabotage within the U.S., apparently originating from somewhere in the Middle East. The New York Times reported over the weekend that saboteurs are using probes to look for ways to seize control of processing plants of mostly U.S. "energy companies" — presumably oil and gas producers. Senior officials with the Obama administration said the attacks…

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  Google I/O: The Developers Guide Of What To Expect

  13th May 2013 19:30

  If you like Google, mobile development and cloud platforms, this is going to be a good week for you. Google will have lots of goodies this week for developers - and consumers - at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. We might see some new hardware, a couple updates to Google’s major platforms (Maps, Android, Chrome, Google+ and Play) and most likely a surprise or two. But, really, the week belongs to the developers. Historically, I/O has been an…