With Valentine's Day just hours away, LinkedIn employees are really feeling the love -- from their CEO.
Chief Executive Jeff Weiner surprised the company's 3,458 full-time
employees Wednesday when he revealed at an all-hands meeting that they
were all getting
iPad Minis.
"Jeff 'Winfrey' Weiner decided to give every [LinkedIn] employee an
iPad Mini
today as a special reward for our recent results," Mike Grishaver, a
product manager who works on the company's marketing solutions team, posted on the business social network.
Employees are getting 32GB iPad Mini models in white or black. Krista
Canfield, LinkedIn's senior manager of corporate communications,
confirmed the giveaway, which she called a "small gesture of the
company's gratitude."
"We wanted to acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of all of our employees in 2012," she said.
Employee enthusiasm trickled over to Twitter, where some wasted no time in tweeting about their new toys.
LinkedIn, currently an object of affection for investors, last week
reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents, revenue
of $303.6 million, and net income of $11.5 million. The results handily beat expectations and the company's share price has been on a run ever since.
The company closed at $157.21 a share Wednesday, up nearly 27 percent from last Thursday's $124.05 close.
Perhaps the reward was in order -- especially since the Minis will give
employees a chance to browse through all that business content LinkedIn
wants to funnel through its network.
Read More...
A few weeks ago, right before the new
BlackBerry 10 phones were announced, I dragged a cameraman to San Francisco's Financial District during lunch hour and asked random strangers to name BlackBerry's best feature. Care to guess what the results of my highly unscientific poll were? Even iPhone and
Android users agreed -- the famed keyboard is BlackBerry's top trait.
Increasingly, we "mobile device addicts" are favoring our smartphones
and tablets over our traditional computers to meet our digital demands.
Trouble is, a lot of us still despise typing on these beloved
touch-screen devices. One Silicon Valley startup has created a new kind
of keyboard that could help reduce typos and other fat-fingered
mistakes.
Fremont, Calif.-based, Tactus Technology
uses microfluidics to make physical keys bubble up from the surface of a
touch screen when you need to type and disappear, when you don't.
Microfluidics may sound foreign, but if you've operated an inkjet
printer you've used the technology.
So how do keys appear out of nowhere? It starts with a panel that has
channels built into it. The channels are filled with a non-toxic fluid.
By increasing the pressure in the channels, the fluid pushes up the
surface of the panel, creating an actual key. What's more, Tactus says
the pressure will be adjustable, so the keys could feel a bit squishy,
like a gel pack or they could be harder, like the plastic keys on a
laptop.
Tactus demo-ed a working prototype for us, but they're still refining
the technology. Right now, there's an audible noise when the keys
appear. It should be silent in the final version. And the surface has to
be rugged. You wouldn't want to spring a leak, after all. Durability
tests are part of that process since Tactus needs to guarantee the
surface can't be punctured by a newly manicured fingernail or a
3-year-old trying to scribble on your smartphone with a pen.
Currently, the technology is limited in that it's a fixed single array.
You wouldn't be able to use the Tactus keyboard in both portrait and
landscape mode, for example. But the goal is to make the third
generation of the product dynamic. "The vision that we had was not just
to have a keyboard or a button technology, but really to make a fully
dynamic surface," says cofounder Micah Yairi, "So you can envision the
entire surface being able to raise and lower depending on what the
application is that's driving it." Meaning it could display a keyboard
when you're typing an e-mail, a number pad when you're dialing a phone
number, and perhaps letter tiles when you're playing Words With Friends.
Tactus says it wants to be in production by the end of 2013 or beginning
of 2014. Executives were mum about which companies they're talking to.
Just one partnership has been announced to date, with Touch Revolution,
a Bay Area company that makes touch displays. Tactus VP Nate Saal says,
"There are more and more touch screens being integrated in devices...
from your mobile phone, cell phone, into refrigerators and appliances
and I think those are all opportunities for Tactus to really improve the
interface and usability of those devices."
Tactus took it's prototype to
CES in January.
Among the attendees who tried out the technology was a man who was
visually impaired. His reaction upon feeling the keys under his fingers?
"Amazing."
Read More...
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina
now starts $1,499, or $200 less than before. The higher-capacity 256GB
version costs $1,699, or $300 cheaper than the original price. The
processor clock speed also gets boosted to 2.6 gigahertz from 2.5GHz.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina
gets a speed boost, with the lower-end version getting its clock speed
bumped up to 2.4GHz from 2.3GHz, and the higher-end version getting
bumped up to 2.7GHz quad-core processor from 2.6GHz, as well as double
the RAM at 16 gigabytes.
The line of MacBook Pros with Retina displays have always been a
higher-end item that fewer consumers could buy. The starting 13-inch
MacBook Pro is significantly less at $1,199. With its own
iPad sales cutting into
Mac revenue, Apple is likely looking to goose interest with a minor price cut and spec upgrade.
Apple also cut the price of its high-end MacBook Air. The 256GB version now costs $1,399, or $100 less than the previous price.
The prices have yet to take effect on Apple's Web site, but will change later today.
Read More...
Google’s executives could soon be enjoying their own private airport
space ahead of winging their way to various far-flung locations around
the world, according to a news release from the Mineta San Jose International Airport (via MercuryNews).
Signature Flight Support, in tandem with a company called Blue City
Holdings which represents Google’s fleet of personal aircraft, will
likely be awarded a 50-year lease on San Jose Airport’s West Side, in
order to build a 29-acre, $82 million facility to house Google’s
executive aircraft and those of other clients.
In the news release, the airport expresses its intent to recommend
that Signature be granted the lease, which will see it construct a
“full-service, world-class fixed base operation” on the site. The
physical facility itself should occupy over 270,000 square feet on the
29 acre plot, according to the proposal, and will include an executive
terminal, hangars for storing aircraft, ramp space capable of
accommodating large business jets and aircraft maintenance facilities.
In exchange, Signature and its partners will pay $2.6 million in annual
rent, a minimum of $400,00 in fuel fee revenues, minimum annual taxes of
$70- to 300,000, around 200 jobs during the construction phase, 36 jobs
directly on premises and around 370 total jobs created.
Google’s fleet of aircraft included eight private jets spread across Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt alone,
according to news revealed back in December 2011, owned and operated by
an independent company formed by the three executives apart from
Google. Google almost definitely has more aircraft than that overall at
this point, and establishing their own close-to-hand place from which to
operate, maintain and store those means of transportation likely just
makes more sense at this point that whatever other arrangements they
previously had in place.
Read More...
Browser maker Opera plans to move to using the WebKit engine, as well
as Chromium, for “most” upcoming versions of browsers for smartphones
and computers this year. Its first WebKit product is likely to be a
smartphone browser for Android — due to be previewed at the Mobile World
Congress tradeshow in Barcelona later this month — with desktop and
other products following.
The initial shift is aimed at increasing its competitiveness on Android and iOS, it said:
To provide a leading browser on Android and iOS, this
year Opera will make a gradual transition to the WebKit engine, as well
as Chromium, for most of its upcoming versions of browsers for
smartphones and computers.
Opera added that working with the open source communities to “further
improve” WebKit and Chromium makes more sense than continuing
to develop its our own rendering engine.
“The WebKit engine is already very good, and we aim to take part in
making it even better. It supports the standards we care about, and it
has the performance we need,” said Opera CTO Håkon Wium Lie in a
statement, adding: “Opera will contribute to the WebKit and Chromium
projects, and we have already submitted our first set of patches: to
improve multi-column layout.”
Writing on the Opera developer blog,
Bruce Lawson said moving to using WebKit and Chromium elements, plus V8
for JavaScript, will also help Opera improve compatibility with mobile
websites: “Consumers will initially notice better site compatibility,
especially with mobile-facing sites — many of which have only been
tested in WebKit browsers,” he wrote.
On the question of why Opera is switching to WebKit, Lawson said the
web is a very different place to when Opera started out in 1995,
competing with Netscape and Internet Explorer. Then it was necessary to
build its own rendering engine to — in his words — “drive web standards,
and thus the web forward”. Today, says Lawson, the web has a worthy,
interoperable standard in HTML5.
“The WebKit project now has the kind of standards support that we could only dream of when our work began,” he added.
Opera’s shift to WebKit is not a huge surprise — the company showed off a WebKit-powered mobile browser called Ice last
month. Ice is part of its experimentation with WebKit, it said today,
revealing it has “several” R&D projects in the works. ”The shift to
WebKit means more of our resources can be dedicated to developing new
features and the user-friendly solutions,” added Wium Lie.
Also today, Opera announced it’s clocked up 300 million users across all its browser products — on mobiles, tablets, TVs and computers.
Commenting in a press release, Opera
Software CEO, Lars Boilesen, said that in the run up to 300 million
users the company experienced “the fastest acceleration in user growth”
it has ever seen. “Now, we are shifting into the next gear to claim a
bigger piece of the pie in the smartphone market,” he added.
Read More...
The iPhone 5 was the first major change to Apple’s iconic mobile device since the iPhone 4. The move to a 4-inch display was the most noticeable change, but there was a number
of small adjustments that made it another hit for the Cupertino-based
company. The same, however, could not be said for the iPad as its
fourth iteration featured no discernable aesthetic difference. That all
may change this year.
In a report from iLounge, Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Horwitz claims to
have seen a “supposedly accurate” physical model of the iPad 5. In his
report, he claims that the iPad 5 will be noticeably smaller than its
predecessors. In fact, the next-generation iPad will be taking a cue
from the iPad Mini by removing the left and right bezels and reducing
the size of the top and bottom bezels to only include enough room for
the home button and camera.
So, when we will see this supposedly redesigned next-generation iPad?
Horwitz says that Apple is targeting an October release after its
previously planned March launch slipped through its fingers. The delay
is welcome, however, as it gives Apple ample time to perfect the newest
iPad into something that may just wow critics after the disappointing
fourth-generation iPad.
The iPad 5 may be the star of this report, but Horwitz adds more
credence to the rumors of two iPhones launching this year. He says that
the iPhone 5S will look much like the iPhone 5, but feature a larger
flash. The other iPhone model coming this year is the same rumored
cheaper iPhone that features a plastic body. It will be sold to
emerging markets like China where most of the population can’t afford
the regular iPhone.
As for that rumored bigger iPhone, Horwitz says that it’s in the
planning stages. He says that it will feature a 4.7-inch display. You
shouldn’t get too excited though as he says it may never come to
market. It’s only experimental for now, and it may just remain that
way.
Read More...
A new report from a Japanese publication named Nikkei claims that
Apple’s iPad sales in Japan this holiday season were beaten by sales of
Google’s Nexus 7.
The report cites a survey from Japanese market research firm BCN,
which contacted 2,400 stores across Japan. According to the survey,
Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, manufactured by Asus, made up 44.4% of of all
tablet sales by volume in December. Apple’s iPad tablets only accounted
for 40.1% of December sales. It should be noted that Amazon’s Kindle
Fire tablets were not included in the survey, “as these devices are
primarily sold online.” The larger retailers surveyed, however, cited
the Kindle Fire as the third best-selling tablet in their stores.
The publication cites the lower price of the Nexus 7 as a large
selling point for the tablet. It also points to the iPad Mini as a
possible factor in Apple’s lower iPad sales, and the fact that Apple
fans may have already bought the newest version of the iPad when it
debuted in November.
Even though the Nexus 7 was able to edge out more sales than the
iPad, sales were up for both and the entire tablet market as a whole.
Nikkei states that tablet sales in 2012 were 2.8 times those in 2011,
with market research firm IDC estimating 2012 tablet sales in Japan to
be 3.6 million units. IDC’s estimate for 2013 is $4.9 million tablets
sold in Japan.
Read More...
Microsoft released its quarterly earnings report yesterday, and there
was a bit of good news for the company’s Windows business. The company
announced that it had sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses and that it was
making more money off of the operating system than last year. Windows 8
is performing worse than Windows 7 and Vista, however, and Microsoft is
putting the blame on its hardware partners.
In a report from The Register, a source close to Microsoft says that
the company is blaming PC makers for the lackluster Windows 8 sales
that the company has seen thus far. Microsoft says its hardware
partners are not following the “clear and specific guidance” it gave on
how Windows 8 hardware should look and operate, specifically the
touchscreen input that it wanted in every machine.
PC makers are reportedly objecting to Microsoft’s accusations saying
that its “guidance” would have led to expensive PCs that nobody would
understand or want. It would have led them to the situation that
Microsoft is in now with its Surface RT tablet – a lot of expensive
product rotting on shelves. The manufacturers also blame the rise of
cheap alternatives, like Android tablets, and a marketing campaign that
didn’t properly explain Windows RT. In fact, the latter is the very
reason that Samsung won’t be bringing its Windows RT tablet to the U.S.
All of this reeks a little of deja vu as Microsoft has occasionally
been at odds with its hardware partners over the decisions it makes. The
most recent was its secret development of the Surface tablet that was a
complete surprise to hardware partners.
It’s not like any of this is going to suddenly destroy the long
standing relationship between Microsoft and OEMs though. Both realize
that they need the other to survive. The PC is still a popular piece of
hardware even if global shipments are falling. Maybe what’s best is
that both parties temper their expectations and aggressively market to
its strongest allies – the power user, enterprise and education.
So, what is Microsoft going to do in response to sluggish Windows 8
sales? The Register’s source says the company will be rebooting the
launch of Windows 8 alongside the launch of the Surface Pro tablet on
February 9. It’s not known what form this “reboot” will take, but it
could very well tie into the rumored Windows Blue launch scheduled for
2013.
It will be interesting to see how much of this pans out in the coming
year. A reboot of Windows 8 this soon after the launch might be seen
as a sign of Microsoft’s admittance that Windows 8 was a “disaster,”
but it could also be the best thing to happen to the struggling
operating system.
Read More...
Your Timeline is most likely getting a fairly significant redesign –
but it’s still unclear exactly when it will launch globally and exactly
what it will look like.
Facebook has been pretty busy testing new Timeline designs as of
late. A new, streamlined one-column Timeline made an appearance for some
Facebook users back in October 2012.
And earlier this month, that test rolled out to users in New Zealand,
Facebook’s favorite testing ground for new products and features.
Today’s new Timeline test is very similar to the aforementioned test, except that it’s been flipped.
Like the other Timeline test floating around, the column that
contains user posts has been expanded. It’s streamlined and
single-column, meaning that ‘message’ style posts will only appear in
one column. And Open Graph actions, friends, and other information is
the only thing that will appear in the other column.
image tiles at the top that allow users to access your photos,
friends, likes, and map have been replaced by tabs for “Timeline,”
“About,” “Friends,” “Photos,” and “More.”
Profile pics have also been moved out of the cover photo a bit. The
stuff that was previously below the profile pic (location, job, etc.)
has been moved to the right.
BUT IT’S FLIPPED!
Posts on the right, Open Graph activity on the left. It’s a bizarro Facebook Timeline.
Read More...
![Microsoft Blames PC Makers For Slow Windows 8 Sales [Report]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uFOPgWQYutf9rUiSWG-5TG_vWSG7DloqCjJLGnDbCLvwoA_cRZ68spMRb55mEOqQaXJ1JMHkaw6BeH-8v6naZn8lFkSKbjc9AlYvLWiz7aYdqaZiyfhCy6Z50LidypwvaaI3R298BG-giMNG7i01x8=s0-d "Microsoft Blames PC Makers For Slow Windows 8 Sales [Report]")
