New Technology News

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

IntoNow — the second-screen app that Yahoo bought in the spring of 2011, just twelve weeks after its launch — is being shut down by its parent company. As of last week, IntoNow was taken off the Apple App Store and Google Play, and an email sent to users notified them that the app would stop working as of March 31.

For those who might have forgotten, IntoNow was one of the many second-screen TV apps that popped up in the early part of the decade, offering users the ability to “check in” to the television shows they were watching, and share their viewing habits with others on social networks that people actually used, like Facebook and Twitter.

(The idea was as preposterous then as it seems now, but thanks to the relative early success of Foursquare back in those days, eager app makers were trying to get people to check into every damn thing.)

IntoNow had at least a technological advantage over the other social TV apps out there, in that it had built-in auto content recognition (ACR) technology — which generally meant that it knew what you were watching before you did. It could, in a sense, identify what you were watching and check you into that program automatically.

That had lots of awesome implications for people who cared about stuff like advertising, because suddenly marketers could know with some certainty what shows people were watching while tooling around on their mobile phones and tablets, and hey — wouldn’t it be great if brands could serve up the same ads on the iPad that they were watching on the TV?

Consumers were understandably less enthused about that prospect, which is probably why none of the social TV apps out there have ever gone anywhere, IntoNow included.

The app itself is being shut down, but its technology lives on. Yahoo notes in a statement that apps like Yahoo Smart TV, and the new Loops feature in the Yahoo Sports iOS 7 app, will continue to leverage IntoNow’s ACR feature.

And let’s not forget probably the most important thing Yahoo got out of the acquisition was former IntoNow CEO Adam Cahan, who has been bumped up the ladder as part of Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo. He’s SVP of Mobile and Emerging Products at the company, helping to manage its portfolio of mobile apps and identify hot young startups for Yahoo to acqui-hire.

Anyway, for those of you who haven’t yet given up on the whole “second-screen thing,” there’s still hope. i.TV, which acquired social TV app maker GetGlue at a fire-sale price late last year, relaunched the thing with a new name — tvtag. Consider it the circle of life, or whatever.

Yahoo statement on the shutdown below:

As part of our ongoing efforts to sharpen our focus, IntoNow will no longer be available for download in iTunes or Google Play as of January 24, 2014. Additionally, as of March 31st the IntoNow app will no longer

operate. The core IntoNow technology will live on through other products and apps, like Yahoo Smart TV and the new Loops feature in the Yahoo Sports iOS7 app.

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Yahoo Is Shutting Down IntoNow, Nearly Three Years After Acquisition

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IntoNow — the second-screen app that Yahoo bought in the spring of 2011 , just twelve weeks after its launch — is being shut down by its pa...

B1 Archiver is one of only a few archiver managers for the Linux platform that is reliably simple to use. Simplicity is a key trait that distinguishes the B1 Archiver from other Linux compression tools. In the category of smart-looking and simple archivers, one of my favorites is PeaZip. B1's GUI adds a new dimension that redefines ease of use on the Linux desktop, though. A second reason for archiving with B1 instead of other compression tools is its greater compression ratio.

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With B1 Archiver, No Need to RTFM

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B1 Archiver is one of only a few archiver managers for the Linux platform that is reliably simple to use. Simplicity is a key trait that d...

PRISM. Net neutrality. Patent reform. The government’s hand in tech has perhaps never been stronger, and the tech matters that have arisen in the last year affect everyone. It’s always a good idea to watch the President’s State Of The Union, but if you’re someone who even remotely cares about technology, this year’s is one you should make an effort to tune into.

Fortunately, they’ve made it pretty darn easy to watch this year, even for those of us who ditched the cable box ages ago.

The State Of The Union is scheduled to start at 9 P.M Eastern/6 P.M. Pacific.

There are two English-language versions of the stream: one “enhanced” version with all sorts of stuff (read: lots, and lots of tweets) tossed up on screen, and one standard, less-noisy stream. I prefer the latter, so I’ve embedded both.

Enhanced stream:

Standard stream:

If you’re tempted to hit that play button before the show starts, it’ll work — but don’t expect much more than a static slide for the next few hours.

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Here’s Where To Watch Obama’s 2014 State Of The Union Online

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PRISM. Net neutrality. Patent reform. The government’s hand in tech has perhaps never been stronger, and the tech matters that have arisen i...

When Opera’s desktop browser moved to Google’s Blink rendering engine last year, it also dropped a number of features, including bookmark syncing and its bookmarks bar. The company brought back syncing after a short while and with today’s launch of Opera 19, it is also finally bringing back the bookmarks bar.

What the browser is still missing, though, is a regular bookmarks menu. #facepalm

Unsurprisingly, Opera’s user base was anything but happy when the bookmarks menu and bookmarks bar suddenly disappeared. Opera argued that its switch to the new engine also meant building a new native user interface, so it only launched with a basic set of tools. Given that early versions of Opera featured everything from multi-pane browsing to sidebar tabs and lots of other goodies, the new version came as quite a shock to Opera’s small but dedicated user base.

Over the last few versions, the team has been adding new features again, though given that the company seems to be de-emphasizing the desktop browser, it remains to be seen if it will ever get back to being as feature-rich as it used to be.

With this update, Opera is also adding support for more extensions. In total, the Opera extensions gallery now features over 700 plug-ins.

The only other new feature in this update is the ability to turn any image into a browser wallpaper for your theme.

Opera was always a very capable browser, but it stood out from the competition because it offered so many built-in features. At some point, it even included a built-in web server, though nobody ever figured out what to do with that. Now, it’s a very stripped-down version of its former self and it remains to be seen if that will help it gain new users in the long run.

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Opera 19 Brings Back Bookmarks Bar, Adds Support For More Extensions

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When Opera’s desktop browser moved to Google’s Blink rendering engine last year, it also dropped a number of features, including bookmark s...

The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — christen the maiden voyage, or shakeout cruise, of Newtek’s new TriCaster 860. The learning curve is intense, but the results are worth it. Hope you enjoy the show. Recorded in HD but not yet released in that format.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take note of the passing of Pete Seeger, a national treasure and family friend. As a child my rot hers and I sat in thrall as he and the other Weavers played in our living room in Woodstock. My dad was a good friend of Pete, but isn’t that the way everybody who came in contact with him in his long and exhilarating life. A time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die

A time to plant, a time to reap

A time to kill, a time to heal

A time to laugh, a time to weep

@stevegillmor, @scobleizer, @kteare, @kevinmarks

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

Live chat stream

The Gillmor Gang on Facebook

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Gillmor Gang: Turn Turn Turn

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The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — christen the maiden voyage, or shakeout cruise, of Newtek’s...

Today is a big day for 3D printing: Patent #US5597589 is set to expire and will open up the possibility for makers to use laser sintering – essentially shooting a laser at a layer of nylon powder – in cheaper devices, essentially opening the technology to the small maker.

The patent is fairly clear on what exactly sintering is. It describes an “apparatus for selectively sintering a layer of powder to produce a part made from a plurality of sintered layers and the apparatus includes a computer controlling a laser to direct the laser energy onto the powder to produce a sintered mass.” This means anything that shoots a laser at and powder could run afoul of this patent much as Form Labs bumped up against 3D Systems’ stereolithography patent.

Most larger “professional-quality” printers use laser sintering and you can create homogenous, solid-looking objects with stable structures using the technique.

Does this mean we’ll have sintering printers in our homes next year? Possibly, but given the materials needed and the components involved I could see prices going down but not dropping until mass acceptance of 3D printing becomes the norm. FDM printers that deposit layers of plastic is still the cheapest method but sintered parts are almost seamless, creating a cohesive whole that is very useful in prototyping and engineering. In short, however, it’s a great day for makers.

via 3Dprint

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Cheap Laser Sintering Printers Are Coming Thanks To The Expiration Of A Key Patent

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Today is a big day for 3D printing: Patent #US5597589 is set to expire and will open up the possibility for makers to use laser sintering –...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer offered some brief comments about the departure of COO Henrique De Castro during today’s earnings webcast.

The company announced earlier this month that De Castro, who joined Yahoo from Google in 2012, was leaving. The move that was widely seen as a firing resulting from De Castro’s difficulties turning around the ad business. (In today’s earnings report, Yahoo said sales and display advertising declined 6 percent year-over-year.)

When asked about the departure, Mayer said, “Ultimately, Henrique was not a fit” for a company: “It was a conclusion we tried very hard to avoid.” She added that there are no plans to replace him — instead, she touted the strength of Yahoo’s sales team and said this gives her “the opportunity to be much more involved” on the revenue side of the company.

During the call, Mayer also shared details about early traffic to Yahoo’s new tech and food sites.

Update: One of the analysts on the call asked for more details, and Mayer replied, “Out of respect for Henrique, I’d rather not comment on the past and on his performance, but rather on what we’re going to do going forward.” She reiterated her plans to work more closely with the sales and the media teams, and to create “a more flat organization” overall.