Twitter To Buy Flipboard For More Than $1 Billion

Rumors have begun to circulate that magazine style newsreader Flipboard has been in talks to be bought by Twitter in an all-stock deal valued at over $1 billion. Flipboard says that it has 100 million activated users while others say that the bloom is off the rose and growth has slowed. 

While it might seem that there isn't much about Flipboard that fits with Twitter, the latter could use Flipboard's news collection technology to give its members a varied selection of headlines for their timelines.

One area where Twitter can improve Flipboard is with advertising. Flipboard has just started down the path to monetization and Twitter has more experience in this area. According to reports, Flipboard has received $160 million in funding from venture capitalists with the latest round done at a valuation of $800 million. The company is said to have garnered $50 million in revenue last year. 

Twitter, which has 302 million users, could be making the purchase in order to get Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue back on board. McCue was a Twitter board member from 2010 to 2012, but resigned when competition between the two apps started growing. Sources are saying that talks between Twitter and Flipboard have cooled off for the time being.

Flipboard originally launched for the Apple iPad in 2011, the app became available for the iPhone. Flipboard is now also available for Android and Windows Phone users.



Source: www.recode.net

FTC Fines TracFone $40M Over False Advertising

TracFone has agreed to pay customers $40 million to reimburse them for what the FTC labeled as deceptive advertising. From 2009 to 2013, TracFone advertised "unlimited data" plans for $45 per month. Despite the promise of unlimited monthly data, TracFone throttled customers who surpassed 3GB of data and cut off entirely some customers who surpassed 5GB of data. "The issue here is simple: when you promise consumers 'unlimited,' that means unlimited," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. 

TracFone began to disclose the data limits and throttling policies in 2013, but the FTC said, "In many cases, the disclosures were in very small print or on the back of packages or cards where consumers were likely to miss them." Millions of customers were throttled, according to the FTC. TracFone will refund an unknown number of customers $40 million and more clearly spell out its network management policies.

Life With Your LG G3 Is About To Get Sweeter

LG USA took to Twitter yesterday, teasing Android 5.0 Lollipop will be hitting LG G3's in the US soon. Specific details outlining the "coming soon" update have yet to be announced. Meanwhile, lucky LG G3 owners in the US can look forward to a sweet treat in the near future.

Source: LG USA Mobile via Twitter

Microsoft Reveals Windows 10 Details

Microsoft today offered an early first look at its forthcoming Windows 10 operating system, which will run on PCs, tablets, and phones. Microsoft said it is taking a new, more user-centric approach with Windows 10. It is incorporating the feedback it received about Windows 8/8.1 and is making sure to add user requested features, such as the old Start menu. The company now views Windows more as a service and it will provide continual updates. 

Microsoft said Windows 10 will be a free upgrade during its first year of availability, for example, to all devices running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1. Windows 10 for PCs and tablets will gain features from Windows Phone, including the Action Center and Cortana, Microsoft's voice activated personal assistant. Windows devices with screens 8 inches and larger will include the "desktop experience." Smaller devices will have an altered experience more suited for phones. A rough build of the phone centric version of Windows 10 features a revised settings menu that has new graphics. 

Windows 10 also allows users to move the keyboard around on the screen if they so wish. The entire Windows 10 platform will include Skype more firmly entrenched across apps. Furthermore, full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that closely match the desktop variants will be included in Windows Phone 10. 

All Windows 10 devices will have a new Outlook client, which has been revised with the Word engine. Other major app rewrites include the calendar, photo gallery, and Internet Explorer, which is based on Project Spartan, a complete overhaul of the browser. Lastly, the entire platform will more broadly support Xbox gaming, including PC to Xbox play. Microsoft said the first preview of Windows 10 for phones will be available to "insiders" beginning in February.

Source: Microsoft News

“The Interview” Hits Netflix On Saturday, At No Additional Cost

Still Haven’t seen The Interview yet? Well nows your chance, It’s coming to Netflix on Saturday and will be available to subscribers to stream for no additional cost.

Netflix announced today that the highly criticized Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy will be available to U.S. and Canadian subscribers starting on Saturday.

The terms of the deal were not announced, Sony announced today that The Interview brought in $40 million from on demand rentals and another $6 million from theaters.

The Interview was already available from various sources including YouTube and Amazon, but both services required users to rent the movie. Now it’s available to all 39 million Netflix subscribers free of charge.

SpaceX Officially Announces Google Investment

Google is leading a billion dollar financing round with Fidelity, giving the two companies collectively almost 10% of SpaceX.

"They join existing investors Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn. Google and Fidelity will collectively own just under 10% of the company. "

Details about the investment were not outlined about Google’s involvement in SpaceX, but a report earlier this week claimed Google’s investment will “support the development of SpaceX satellites that could beam low-cost Internet around the globe to billions who don’t have it.”

Prior to the news of Google’s involvement, SpaceX announced its new idea to launch communication satellites that could help increase Internet speed and create access to the over three billion people who don’t have reliable access to high-speed Internet. The project aligns nicely with active Google X projects such as its balloon based internet project dubbed “Loon” attempting bring Internet access to those that don’t have it.

Source: SpaceX

Google Glass Graduates, Leaves Google X Labs

Google Glass team announced that Glass is “graduating” from Google X labs the experimental unit of Google. 

The Explorer program will officially end on January 19, and the group that was responsible for developing Google Glass will now report to Tony Fadell, the man in charge of Nest.

Additionally, email's went out to Explorers, stating that further development will cease for existing versions of Glass while the team continues working on the next version. Support will still exist for those who need it, though.

It’s possible that given the timing of this announcement Google will have something concrete to announce at Google I/O later this year.

Source: Google Glass Google+

AllCast Now Available For iOS Devices

AllCast recently brought its media-sharing app to the iTunes App Store. AllCast lets iOS device owners cast content from their camera roll, Google Drive (Google+, Picasa), or DropBox on their iPhone or iPad to an AppleTV, Chromecast, FireTV, Roku, or Xbox. AllCast also supports music casting, though the files must be stored locally on the iPhone or iPad. AllCast duplicates some of the features of Apple's own AirPlay. 

AllCast is free to download from the iTunes App Store. AllCast is already available to Android devices.

Click the respective links to download AllCast for Android and iOS. Drop us a line in the comments, let us know what you think.

Google Updates Google Translate With Real Time Translation

Google has announced updates to its Android and iOS Translate apps that make having real-time conversations between two different languages much easier. First, Google Translate now lets users instantly translate text using the camera. When the camera is pointed at signs or text in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish, it will instantly overlay the words in English (and vice versa). Previously, users had to take a picture to get text translation. 

Now translation occurs in real time. Furthermore, Google has improved the performance of its real-time conversation mode, which allows two people to speak directly to one another using different languages. The app can recognize when two different languages are being spoken and translate them back and forth during a face-to-face conversation. Google said the new versions of Google Translate for Android and iOS should arrive in the next few days. Google pointed out that this is the first time it has offered some of the advanced features camera and spoken translation to the iOS app. 

Google Translate is free for Android and iOS by clicking the respective links.

Source: Google

TCL Communications To Revive Palm Under Alcatel OneTouch Brand

TCL Communications, the parent company of Alcatel OneTouch confirmed to Phone Scoop that it has acquired the Palm brand and plans to revive the failed tech company. 

In a statement to Phone Scoop TCL CEO George Guo stated "We are interested in the brand because we believe the brand has value," "It was once a very strong brand and there are many fans of this brand around the world, including people at TCL." TCL intends to resurrect Palm with new hardware, software, and services but not on its own. 

TCL has asked the developers community to contribute ideas for potential new devices, operating systems, and apps. It will commit engineers and its manufacturing resources to the project, but hopes much of the research development will come from the developers community at large. 

TCL said it hasn't worked out the details of how this community driven revival will function, but it is confident it can restore luster to the brand. "Palm was an original pioneer and we want to keep it that way. We want to attract the people who have ideas on how to revive the Palm brand in a meaningful way." Guo shot down the idea of using webOS, which is owned by LG, and ran on the Palm Pre, Pixi, and other phones. "We are open to all ideas, but probably not webOS," said Guo. "Palm built by Palm fans is the intent." TCL expects to eventually offer both Alcatel and Palm branded products in the US. 

TCL said it couldn't comment on the terms of the acquisition. It will provide more details as they are developed.