Microsoft reinvents Hotmail as Outlook

NEW YORK -- Microsoft has decided to radically overhaul the most successful email service in the world. Goodbye Hotmail.com; say hello to Outlook.com.

Over the next few months, a growing number of Hotmail users will be invited to test out a new Web-based email service called "Outlook," named after Microsoft's other popular email brand. Eventually, everyone will be transitioned to Outlook, but Microsoft gave no firm deadline for that to happen.

Hotmail users will be able to keep their @hotmail.com or @live.com addresses, but new users will only be able to choose between @outlook.com or @live.com email domains.

"We thought it was time to push the boundaries of email," said Chris Jones, head of Microsoft's Windows Live division, which includes Hotmail. "We created a new mail service for a modern user experience."

Hotmail, launched in 1996, has just over 325 million users around the globe. That makes it the Web's largest email service, but its lead is shrinking. Google's Gmail now has 298.2 million users. Yahoo Mail is right behind, with 298 million users, according to tracking firm comScore.

Hotmail's newer rivals have blown past its aging feature set.

When it comes to social integration, labels, filters, and user interface, Gmail -- and Yahoo, to a lesser degree -- offer more complete services. The name "Hotmail" even sounds like a relic of the 1990s, in the same way that having an AOL (AOL) email address has become a punch line.

That's why Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) decided to start over.

The first thing users will notice about the new Outlook Web app is how much cleaner it looks than Hotmail or even Gmail or Yahoo. Microsoft claims to have reduced its header space by 60% compared to Gmail, which gets users straight into their email.

Large, clear icons and commands appear only when relevant, and ads are shoved out of the way. They've been eliminated completely from person-to-person emails.

The new user interface is nice, but the biggest changes come in the social aspects and artificial intelligence built into the new Outlook.

Users of the new service can connect with Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), LinkedIn (LNKD) and Twitter contacts to get live social information and photo icons when they're emailing them. Even if a user is not connected on Facebook to their email recipient, Outlook will scan through Facebook's public directory to at least get that person's profile photo.

Users can also IM with Facebook friends right from the mail client. Skype's video chat service, which Microsoft purchased a year ago for $8.5 billion, will soon be integrated as well.

Outlook also brings some smart new features to regular old email.

The service automatically detects and labels newsletters and promotional offers from stores. For emails that Outlook recognizes as an ad, it will add a universal unsubscribe button to the message. Click it, and Microsoft will not only unsubscribe via the retailer, but will automatically filter any future promotions into the trash if that unsubscribe gets ignored.

Another innovative feature kicks in when you're sent an update about a package you've ordered. A button on the top of the message takes you right to the shipment tracking website.

It's clear that Microsoft is going after Gmail users, some of whom are dissatisfied with recent changes to the service's user interface. The new Outlook makes porting over Gmail contacts very easy, and it understands Gmail keyboard shortcuts. You can even keep sending and receiving email from a Gmail address. That option lets Outlook invisibly take over behind the scenes.

Microsoft's goal: To get to 1 billion users around the world.

It's a target that Hotmail wasn't ever going to hit. With a new brand and some impressive features, Microsoft's Web email service might finally be cool again. (CNN.com)

Apple aims for salted earth in Samsung fight

NEW YORK -- As the high-stakes patent trial between Apple and Samsung Electronics moves into its second day Tuesday, one thing is clear: Apple is committed to waging total war. Like the Roman Empire in its victory over Carthage, Apple seems determined to salt the earth so that its competitor can never rise again.

Apple is seeking to have the court case declared "exceptional," a legal standard under which the jury could award treble damages. That's three times the amount of actual, provable damages -- which Apple is claiming run to billions of dollars.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is also seeking to recoup 100% of Samsung's profits from the sales of any products found to be in violation of Apple's patents. Although the bone of contention is the allegedly infringing outward appearance of Samsung's smartphones and tablets -- "trade dress" in patent-law lingo -- Apple says that it is entitled to revenues from the whole enchilada.

It's also seeking a permanent injunction to stop Samsung from selling all infringing products.

Apple partially got its way when Judge Lucy Koh, a former patent lawyer, issued an injunction barring sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet while the trial proceeds. In a second, related case, Koh issued a similar injunction to stop U.S. sales of the Galaxy Nexus smartphone. The Nexus remains on sale, though, thanks to a temporary stay from an appeals court.

Apple's thirst for blood isn't unusual. "You always wage total war in litigation -- that's the way this works," said Harold Edgar, a professor of law and technology at the Columbia Law School.

Apple's accusations -- among them that Samsung practices "a corporate policy of deception" -- provoked a furious response from the Korean electronics manufacturer.

"Apple's overreaching claim for damages is a natural extension of its attempt to monopolize the marketplace," Samsung said in its trial brief. It added that Apple's key design patent "shows little more than a blank rectangle with rounded corners."

Samsung's counter-claim is that Apple should pay Samsung for Apple's use of Samsung's core smartphone technology, including a patented five-step method for "sending text-only emails, sending emails displaying both text and an image, and sequentially displaying images stored on the device."

Should Samsung carry the day on those allegations, Apple would be required to pay Samsung royalties. (CNN.com)

Twitter clocks half-billion users

PARIS—Over 500 million people are on micro-blogging site Twitter and Americans and Brazilians are the most connected, according to a study by social media monitor Semiocast released Monday.

Twitter surpassed the half-billion mark at the end of June, with the United States accounting for both the most users and largest number of “tweets” or short messages of no more than 140 characters posted on the site.

The Paris-based monitor carried out the study by analysing data like time zone, geolocation and language available for the social networking site’s total 517 million accounts.

The US accounted for more than 141 million of Twitter users, with Brazil ranking second with 41 million after seeing its number rise by 23 percent since the start of the year. Japan came in third with 35 million users.

Americans also posted the highest number of Twitter messages, with 25.8 percent of all tweets hailing from the US.

Japan came second accounting for 10.6 percent of all tweets, making Japanese the second most common language on Twitter after English.

The study found Jakarta to be the most active Twitter zone, with 2.4 percent of all tweets originating in the Indonesian capital.

The popularity of Twitter continued to soar in the Arab world following the site’s key role in the “Arab Spring” revolutions last year, with Arabic now the site’s sixth most common language. (Inquirer.net)

Facebook Upgrades Photo Viewing, Sharing

Continuing the super-sizing of photos that began with the introduction of Timeline last year, Facebook on Monday enhanced image-viewing on the platform.

Now, when you click Photos at the top of your Timeline, you’ll be presented with larger pics that fill up the page. Presenting a page full of images will in theory make it easier to share photos. As Facebook’s blog stated on Monday, “With your Facebook photos all in one section, it’s simple to show friends your favorites. Click the star button to make important photos stand out.”

It’s no mystery why Facebook is putting so much emphasis on photos: Pinterest’s popularity has demonstrated a user preference for a more visual experience. Other sites like Quora and Chill.com have mimicked Pinterest’s design. Another major reason is the migration of users to mobile. Since photo-sharing is among the most popular activities on mobile, Facebook spent $1 billion to purchase Instagram and has rolled out its own Instagram competitor, Facebook Camera.

A Facebook rep, however, says the change only affects the Facebook desktop experience; mobile apps won’t be upgraded. (Mashable.com)

You Can Buy This Massive Robot for $1.3 Million

Piloting a giant humanoid robot has only been something you could watch on your television screen… until now.

A team of hobbyists, skilled engineers and robot-lovers in Japan created an honest-to-goodness mech you can actually drive.

A group called the Suidobashi Heavy Industry created the Kuratas, a human-controlled robot. Standing more than 12 feet tall and weighing 9,920 pounds, the Kuratas made its debut this weekend at Wonder Fest 2012, an annual hobby convention in Tokyo, Japan. Unsurprisingly, it was the hit of the show.

The Kuratas features a humanoid upper body and four insect-like legs with wheels. It’s designed to seat one person in its “chest,” which pivots above a waist and has one fully-articulated arm on either side. Pressing a button on the front of the robot opens the driver compartment canopy, allowing you to climb inside its cramped interior. Once inside, the canopy closes and you’re presented with a large LCD display and an array of lighted indicators.

Controlling the robot is handheld through a custom control stick that’s part steering wheel, part puppetry rig. It can be turned to pivot the bot’s waist and steer it when moving — the Kuratas has a top speed of six miles per hour — while a pair of joysticks operates the arms.

Twisting and bending these sticks allows you to control the arms similar to how puppeteers move the elaborate animatronics used in movies. Users can also control the robot’s movements with an app installed on an iPhone.

In addition to its literal pair of arms, the Kuratas is armed with a multi-rocket launcher and two Gattling cannons. The former fires plastic rockets filled with compressed water, while the latter can shoot a terrifying 6,000 plastic BBs per minute when you smile.

The robot is fitted with a Xbox Kinect sensor in order to pick up your gestures and facial expressions, including the one needed to unleash what its creators have dubbed the “smile shot.”

The price of owning the Kuratas starts at a whopping $1.35 million. Suidobashi Heavy Industry set up a web page where you can customize your own Kuratas prior to purchase, including paint schemes, upholstery options and other options. No word on how much shipping will cost.

Goodbye, Gmail Video Chat. Hello Google+ Hangouts

If you enjoy video chatting over Gmail the way you’ve been doing it since 2008, better wave your last goodbyes to your buddy list.

Starting Monday, and continuing over the next few weeks, Google is going to be replacing Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts. “Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-to-peer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Google’s network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality,” reads the explanatory blog post written by the Gmail team.

“You’ll be able to chat with all the same people you did before — and, in fact, with Hangouts you’ll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail, but also if they are on Google+ in the browser or on their Android or iOS devices.”

The search giant is eager to promote the use of its social network, and has in the past attempted to blur the lines between users of Gmail, Google Maps and other Google services. If you’re logged into any of them, the company says, you’re logged into Google+.

Nefarious network-boosting purposes aside, Google Hangouts is clearly a superior technology. In our experience, Gmail video chat had a tendency to stutter and occasionally quit — a quality shared in the past with iChat video, but not with Apple’s Facetime, Skype or Google Hangouts.

Hangouts also scales a lot better, making it much easier to add new people to the meeting. Audio is spectacularly good at long range. It’s likely the best choice for a company looking for a free alternative to Cisco Telepresence, for example.

And then there’s the feature that the Gmail team hints at in its blog — the ability to add moustaches, beards, halos and other personal decorations — not to mention cat and dog masks — which will appear to follow you throughout the chat.

Are you sad to see Gmail video chat go, or excited to see how Hangouts can boost your Gmail experience? Let us know in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Apple Considered Investing in Twitter

Apple isn’t currently in talks with Twitter to invest in the social-networking site, but according to a report from The New York Times, the two companies were previously in such discussions that would value Twitter at more than $10 billion.

“Apple has considered an investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, one that could value Twitter at more than $10 billion, up from an $8.4 billion valuation last year, these people [briefed on the matter] said. They declined to be named because the discussions were private,” the Times reports.

Social media, so far, isn’t in Apple’s wheelhouse, and it’s had fragile relations with Facebook in the past. Things with Twitter, on the other hand, have been a little more friendly. As the Times points out, Twitter’s baked in to Apple’s operating systems.

“Those guys are a great partner,” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said of Apple in a separate interview, according to the Times. “We think of them as a company that our company looks up to.”

In the paired-up world of tech giants and social media, Microsoft and Facebook have each other and Google (which owns Apple’s mobile competitor Android) has Google+. Could Twitter and Apple be the next hot couple? (Mashable.com)

On Reddit, Rapists Say They’re Sorry

A Reddit thread circulating the Internet on Friday tells the “other side of the story” with accounts from rapists.

On Thursday, a Redditor started a thread soliciting comments from rapists by writing, “Reddit’s had a few threads about sexual assault victims, but are there any Redditors from the other side of the story?” According to a Jezebel report, the original Redditor also asked, “What were your motivations? Do you regret it?”

More than 11,000 people have commented on the thread, with votes up and down split nearly even. One of Friday’s top comments came from a self-identified “post-college aged male” who admitted to raping “several women through use of coercion, alcohol, and other tactics over a course of 3 years.” He went on to write that he feels bad and has since changed his ways, adding that he’s now a “fervent volunteer in the community.” Some of the commenters explained that they thought the women they assaulted had “wanted it” or that women need to better protect themselves from uncontrollable men. Other commenters, not surprisingly, were horrified by what they read.

As the day went on the thread was filled with more comments from victims of rape and sexual assault, as well as stories from men who “almost” raped someone.

Reddit has long had a reputation for lacking credibility. For a long time, it’s been filled with memes and other viral content, but lately more legitimate and informed conversations have started on the site.

So will the people who claimed to have committed rape in the past ever be prosecuted due to this thread? Probably not.

Users have a right to free speech but there is a fine line between First Amendment rights and saying something incriminating. For law enforcement to go after people on Reddit who claim to have committed rape, their posts would have to be more factual (with names and dates, for example) to warrant investigators getting subpoenas to look into their backgrounds. As is, these Redditor’s admission are simply hearsay.

Should the commenters who admitted to rape on this thread be investigated by law enforcement? Tell us in the comments. (Mashable.com)

6 Key Software Updates You Should Be Doing

Have you updated the software on your computer?

A recent survey by Skype suggests that 40% of users don’t do so when prompted, with 25% of them not understanding why they should.

Software updates are released for three reasons: to patch a security hole, to fix bugs and to add features.

Security updates are the most important. Periodically, hackers find vulnerabilities in software that can allow accessing your files, tracking what you type and even taking full control of your computer. Timely updates can keep you safe.

How to Check for Updates

Most software now includes the ability to periodically check for updates. Apple’s App Store and Microsoft’s Marketplace check for updates to software purchased through them.

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 can be set to “wake” your computer up at night, even if it’s not turned on, and check for updates.

Apple’s new OS X Mountain Lion operating system does something similar with its “Power Nap” feature that allows downloading and installing updates while the computer “sleeps” in low power mode. Though these options greatly simplify installing updates, many still require your approval, so pay attention and respond when they prompt you.

What Needs Updating?

Any software code on your computer may need an update at some point. But these are the six most important categories:

1. Operating Systems

The operating system essentially controls everything and inevitably offers many vulnerabilities that Apple and Microsoft regularly discover and patch. You should install updates as soon as you see a prompt to do so, or set the computer to install them automatically.

2. Web Browsers

Web browsers are constantly evolving and need to be secure due to their direct access to the internet. Updates for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari are provided through the operating systems update process. Google’s Chrome, and more recently Mozilla’s Firefox both get automatic updates, so no checking is required.

3. Productivity Software

Applications like Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite only occasionally need security updates, but more often need bug fixes that prevent crashes, freezes and commands not behaving the way they are supposed to.

4. Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware Software

New malware, including Trojans and viruses, emerge daily. This is why your anti-virus software should be set to automatically update itself at least on a daily basis.

5. Supporting Software

Packages like Adobe Flash and Reader, Sun Java and Microsoft Silverlight play a supporting role for many applications and file types. Due to their popularity, they are often the target of hackers. It is especially important to update this type of software as soon as you see an alert.

6. Firmware and Drivers

Firmware tells your computer hardware what it can do, and drivers allow the rest of your software to access the hardware. Firmware updates most often expand the capabilities of your hardware. As an example, an Apple firmware update enables the new Power Nap feature. Driver updates most often fix bugs and expand features, such as providing additional display resolutions for larger screens.

(Mashable.com)

Latest Apple Ads Take a Turn for the Worse

Apple’s latest ads premiered Friday in support of the Olympics. The three commercials show a “Genius,” someone you would encounter at your Genius Bar appointment, in other settings where his savvy comes to the rescue.

The Genius helps technologically inept acquaintances understand how simple it is to use the product they’ve recently purchased — but the humor misses the mark.

Instead of showing the simplicity of the operating system, they seem to be emphasizing the ineptitude of those who do not know how to use the machine.

While Mac fanboys can often make Apple seem exclusive, these ads play on that ineffectively by furthering that stereotype. This may have been inadvertent, but is present nonetheless.

Where Apple’s previous ads famously delivered smart, concise quips that allowed users of PCs and Macs to chuckle, their latest are benign and simple instead of inclusive.

By featuring a Genius in these settings, Apple makes it seem as though new customers won’t be able to figure it out once they take their machine home.

Of course, this is only one opinion. Watch for yourself and tell us what you think in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Amazon Sales Tax — What it Means for You

Amazon is backing a bill that would allow states to collect or remit sales tax on items purchased from a small number of large, out-of-state online retailers including Amazon and Overstock.

You already pay sales tax when you shop in brick-and-mortar stores, and now you might pay state and local taxes, too, when you shop online.

“It’s going to feel like a new tax,” Jonathan Johnson, president of Overstock.com told Mashable. “It’s going to feel like businesses are reaching into the pockets of consumers.”

The Marketplace Fairness Act, as it’s called, is backed by Senators Mike Enzi, Lamar Alexander, and Dick Durbin. Amazon is a proponent of the bill, although the company initially opposed the legislation. The constitution allows congress to regulate interstate commerce. This bill would put power into the hands of the states to impose a tax on online purchases or chose not to. Online sellers with less than $500,000 in remote sales will be exempt from collecting these taxes.

Proponents of the legislation say it will level the playing field for brick-and-mortar businesses, which are at a disadvantage because online shoppers can forgo sales tax on a small number of retail websites. Opponents say online retailers cannot enjoy the benefits of collecting state and local taxes when they’re located out of state, in addition to being accountable for adhering to more than 9,000 tax codes across the U.S.

Sales tax is already required on all online purchases in 45 states, according to the official website of the Marketplace Fairness Act. Macy’s, for example, charges sales tax when you buy online because the store is located in 45 states. In the past, Amazon and a small fraction of other online retailers have been able to avoid collecting taxes by having such a small physical presence in the country. But now, Amazon is growing.

Now that Amazon has established a larger presence in the country — with a growing number of distribution centers — it makes sense for the company to publicly express its opinion concerning this legislation. The Wall Street Journal reported the reason for Amazon’s change of heart is due to numerous deals it struck with states where the company plans to open distribution centers, with the states letting Amazon forgo taxes for a period of time in exchange for creating jobs within the states.

When Paul Misener, vice president of Amazon global public policy, testified in November at a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, he said states should have the freedom to make their own revenue policy choices. This would rewrite a decision from a 1987 case Quill v. North Dakota in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided “requiring out-of-state sellers to collect tax would impose an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce.”

“Amazon believes the sales tax issue needs to be resolved at the federal level, and we’re actively working with the states, retailers and Congress to get federal legislation passed now,” Amazon spokesperson Scott Stanzel tells Mashable. “As analysts have noted, we offer customers the best prices with or without sales tax. We collect sales tax or its equivalent in more than half of the areas where we do business, and we are pleased to say we are thriving in those geographies because Amazon offers low prices, vast selection and fast delivery.”

Johnson said Overstock opposes the legislation but is open to a federal solution. Perhaps something that would provide Overstock software to collect state taxes, from which, Johnson points out, Overstock and its employees will likely not benefit from since its offices are located in Utah. Johnson added that he would like to see some sort of protection from lawsuits in case of a glitch in the software.

Johnson and CEO Patrick Byrne wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about how charging sales tax for online purchases based on where the purchasers lives is as silly as a Walmart clerks asking the customer where they will be using an item they’re purchasing.

Consumers can be audited for not paying state sales taxes on online purchases (although that’s highly unlikely) but states are often not able to enforce this. Giving states the option to request that online retailers, such as Amazon and Overstock, add state and local taxes onto purchases being shipped to customers around the country is an efficient way, proponents say, for states to collect those required, but often unpaid, taxes.

David French, senior vice president of government relations at The National Retail Federation tells Mashable the bill addresses a collection problem, not a tax problem.

“It resolves an inconsistancy in the way retail sales are treated,” French said. “Some online retailers — a very small number — enjoy a benefit that is not enjoyed by their brick-and-mortar competitors, while delivering the same products.”

In fact, instate tax collection has been an issue since the 1930s with widely-distributed catalogs. A series of court cases over the years have attempted to solve the problem of interstate tax collection, with the most recent case being Quill Corp. v. North Dakota in 1992. Proponents of the new legislation say the 20-year-old Quill ruling is outdated considering how much consumer habits have changed with the emergence of online shopping.

French said Amazon initially opposed this legislation, but as support for the bill grew stronger and it appeared it was just a matter of time before it would be passed, Amazon jumped on board.

Retailers including eBay and Overstock continue to oppose the legislation.

Brian Bieron, senior director of federal government relations at eBay Inc., made the following statement in response to the House Judiciary Committee hearing the Marketplace Equity Act of 2011 — a very similar piece of legislation:

“Small business retailers using the Internet are entrepreneurs who are creating jobs, serving consumers and creating competition for established retail giants. They should be protected from any new Internet Sales Tax regime so that they continue to advance and grow, and regrettably the Speier-Womack Internet Sales Tax legislation falls far short of an acceptable small business retailer exemption.”

The next hearing will be August 1.

Would paying a state and local tax with online sales change your online shopping habits? Tell us in the comments. (Mashable.com)

iPhone catches fire in 17-year-old’s pocket

Just a week after we reported that an iPhone had overheated, melting a mat, video footage has emerged of an iPhone allegedly exploding in a 17-year-old’s pocket.

Finnish news site Kauppalehti has obtained security camera footage of Henri Helminen leaving a van and walking calmly away as smoke billows from his back pocket, he eventually pulls the smouldering device out of his pocket and throws it to the floor.

Helminen told Kauppalehti: “The phone was working perfectly” before the incident.

These kinds of overheating incidents are frequently the result of a previous knock or liquid intrusion, either of which can disrupt the internal circuitry and cause short-circuits. Ivanov has said she dropped the iPhone 3GS into a swimming pool more than a year before it overheated, but thought she’s solved the problem by leaving the iPhone in a bowl of rice for a few days. (http://www.macworld.com.au)

Trashcan Anticipates Where You’ll Toss Trash, Moves to Catch

The Smart Trashbox is a trashcan on wheels that can catch what you throw away, ensuring your screwed-up paper and empty beer cans don’t end up on the floor.

Created by Japanese modder FRP, it uses Kinect sensors to monitor and track the trash as it is thrown, calculates its trajectory and moves underneath using its motorized wheel base to catch it. You can check out more details and see the trashcan in action in the video. (Mashable & Youtube)

Twitter Apologizes for Massive Outage

Following a lengthy outage on Thursday, Twitter said it is “deeply” sorry for the inconvenience it has caused users.

“We are sorry,” Twitter said via a blog post. “Many of you came to Twitter earlier today expecting, well, Twitter. Instead, between around 8:20 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. PT, users around the world got zilch from us. By about 10:25 a.m. PT, people who came to Twitter finally got what they expected: Twitter. ”

The social network added that the outage came from within its data centers.

“Data centers are designed to be redundant: when one system fails (as everything does at one time or another), a parallel system takes over,” Twitter said. “What was noteworthy about today’s outage was the coincidental failure of two parallel systems at nearly the same time.”

The outage was first noticed at around 11:15 a.m. ET and experienced issues for well over an hour. The platform slowly come back across the U.S.

“We’re aware of the issue and are looking into it,” a Twitter spokesperson told Mashable. “We will let you know when we have an update, and keep an eye on status.twitter.com for updates as well.”

The company also posted a note on its blog informing members of the issue: “Users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter,” it said on the site. “Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue.”

Today’s outage didn’t just take down Twitter.com but also some of its mobile clients. The issue also disabled the t.co URL shortener. (Mashable.com)

Facebook: Sponsored Stories Make $1 Million a Day

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and CFO David Ebersman hosted their first earnings call early Thursday evening.

The three executives spoke primarily about the company’s advertising products, which accounted for 86% of its revenue in the second quarter. Zuckerberg emphasized the need to make ads more social — most ads on Facebook right now are not. He noted that Sponsored Stories, Facebook’s primary “social” ad product, is now generating $1 million in revenue per day, about half of which comes from mobile.

Sandberg added that Sponsored Stories on desktop and mobile were performing much better in terms of engagement than ads displayed on the right rail of the News Feed.

Promising, but remember that Facebook delivers far fewer ads on mobile than through the desktop. Ad impressions still grew more slowly than users over the quarter, as more users shifted access to mobile, Ebersman said. Five hundred and forty-three million of Facebook’s nearly 1 billion users access Facebook via mobile, up 67% from a year ago. Those users are 20% more likely to log on to Facebook on a given day, Zuckerberg said.

During a Q&A with analysts, Zuckerberg rejected the notion of a Facebook phone. “Building out a whole phone wouldn’t really make much sense for us,” he said.

When asked about the company’s plans for Instagram, Zuckerberg noted that “the acquisition isn’t yet complete, “so there’s been no integration… There will be an update when that happens.” He said that most of Facebook’s acquisitions have been for talent, but Instagram was an exception — i.e., Facebook intends to make use of the product itself.

Beyond mobile, Sandberg noted the importance of the small business market: “More than 40% of local business have no web presence at all,” she noted, adding that most local business owners were not “tech savvy.” “Facebook has a huge advantage because those local business owners are using Facebook as users. The product that we want them to use, Pages, is a lot like their own user profile. The leap is smaller.”

Ebersman acknowledge that the company is “disappointed in how the stock has traded thus far.” The stock was trading down 10% to about $24 during the call. (Mashable.com)

Zuckerberg Denies the Facebook Phone. What’s the Evidence?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday in the company’s first-ever earnings call that “it wouldn’t really make much sense” for the social networking monolith to build its own smartphone.

A “Facebook phone” has been rumored for sometime, however — and many analysts regard its appearance as a matter of when, not if.

So what’s the evidence that a mobile device based entirely around the social network is on its way?

Back in November of last year, the scuttlebutt originally reported by All Things D was that Facebook and HTC were working together to develop a phone codenamed “Buffy” that would hit store shelves in 12 to 18 months — as soon as this coming fall.

Buffy was said to run on a modified version of Android, tweaked heavily to revolve more prominently around Facebook and HTML5 support.

Then The New York Times reported this May that Facebook had hired “more than a half dozen” former Apple engineers who had previously worked on the iPhone or iPad to help build hardware for a Facebook phone. Finally, a Bloomberg report earlier this month reiterated much of what ATD reported in November, but pegged the mysterious “Facebook phone” launch to mid-2013.

The anticipation has grown so great that some designers have already began mocking up Facebook phone concepts (see gallery below).

While Zuckerberg denied the logic of Facebook building a phone, there are plenty of reasons why doing so would, in fact, make a lot of sense.

Facebook has been widely criticized for struggling to adapt to an increasingly mobile web, which most analysts see as dominating the emerging wave of digital life. One hedge fund manager recently predicted that Facebook’s mobile sluggishness would lead to the company virtually disappearing by the year 2020.

A Facebook-centric operating system — on a Facebook-branded smartphone — could go a long way toward capturing more mobile users and ad dollars.

So have all the rumors simply been hot air and will Facebook instead focus its efforts on improving a widely maligned mobile app? Or is Zuckerberg simply hedging his bets with some tricky wordplay, and a Facebook phone is in fact on the way? Let us know your take in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Facebook Has 955 Million Active Users — Still Shy of a Billion

Those champagne bottles are staying on ice at Facebook HQ.

The social network has been inching ever closer to the major milestone of a billion monthly active users (that is, folks who log into Facebook at least once a month). In April, as part of an amendment to its IPO filing with the SEC, the company announced it had 901 million monthly active users.

Some observers — and more than a few Facebook employees — had hoped this number would hit the magic billion by the time its second quarter results came out (ie. today). Others, such as Gregory Lyons, a senior analyst at iCrossing, predicted the billion mark would be reached in August. Now it’s looking more like those champagne corks will pop in September, or even October.

Nine hundred and fifty-five million users, of course, is still a superlative achievement. Facebook can also boast that 552 million of them log in every day — up from 526 million in April. The 955 million number also represents 29% growth in users year on year.

When Facebook first filed its IPO paperwork with the SEC in February, the network had 845 million users. It hit the 500 million mark back in mid 2010, hence the tag line for that year’s award-winning movie The Social Network: “you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” The number was out of date by the time those posters hit billboards.

But of course, even 955 million users isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion users. (Expect to see that joke roll out with increasing frequency over the next few months.)

How big can Facebook get? Let us know in the comments if you think the social network will ever hit two billion monthly active users. (Mashable.com)

Game Over, Zynga? Stock Down 40% After Poor Earnings

Zynga reported its second quarter earnings Wednesday and the results aren’t good, falling short of analyst estimates for both revenue and earnings per share.

This is only Zynga’s second quarter as a public company and after tepid first quarter earnings, the company needed a win. That didn’t happen. The stock is down nearly 40% after-hours trades at the the time of this writing.

Looking at the results, its hard to find any bright spots for the social gaming giant.

Revenue was $332 million, up 19% year over year, but falling short of analyst expectations. Moreover, bookings were down 8% compared with the first quarter of 2012.

Zynga also reported a net income loss of $22.8 million, thanks in part to a $95.5 million stock-based expense.

The company reported a diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of ($0.03) for the second quarter and a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) EPS of $0.01.

Zynga also adjusted its outlook for the rest of 2012 in order to “reflect delays in launching new games, a faster decline in existing web games due in part to a more challenging environment on the Facebook web platform, and reduced expectations for Draw Something.”

The Facebook revelation is interesting, as it could indicate either increased competition on the platform or larger monetization problems on Facebook itself.

Facebook stock is also down about 6% in after-hours trades. Facebook announces its first earnings as a public company on Thursday.

What do you think of Zynga’s dismal stats? Has the bubble burst? Let us know in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Google Glass Will Have Automatic Picture-Taking Mode

Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed one of the features of Google Glass — the upcoming headset/eyewear device the search giant is developing — in an email to followers today.

Copying a post he had shared to followers of Project Glass on Google+, Brin said he was trying out a new feature of the product that automatically takes a photo every 10 seconds. Brin said he had the mode engaged while he was driving in Montana, with the device sending all the pics to his Google+ account via instant upload.

Browsing the images later, Brin picked one he thought best captured the beauty of the Montana landscape. The image has just 512 x 384 resolution — less than a megapixel — though that that’s probably not an indication of Google Glass’s capabilities. It could be an aspect of the auto-photo mode, using lower resolutions so storage isn’t taxed that much. Here’s the photo:

In the message, Brin emphasized that Glass allowed him to take pictures as he drove without distraction. He also talked about the vision of Project Glass. “We started Project Glass believing that, by bringing technology closer, we can get it more out of the way,” he wrote. “Whether you’re exploring a new city, hiking in the woods, or playing with your kids — Glass allows you to enjoy and share life’s moments without being tied down by technology.”

It appears only attendees of Google I/O who signed up for Google Glass received the email. On the Google+ post, however, Brin encourages followers to leave a comment and provide feedback on the project. He also promises that Google has some “great things” coming the next few months. He’ll have a tough time topping his spectacular skydive at the I/O conference.

Although it was first reported Google Glass would go on sale before the end of 2012, Brin himself has said it’ll be ready for consumers by 2014. Developers who were interested in receiving one of the prototypes were asked to commit to paying $1,500 for each one, though that figure has no bearing on what the retail price will be.

What do you think of the latest news about Google Glass? Does automatic picture taking sound like a feature you’d use? Share your thoughts in the comments. (Mashable.com)

Justin Bieber, New York Times Invest in Revamped Recommendations App Stamped

Stamped is rolling out on Thursday a dynamic new version of its recommendations app for iPhone and iPod touch devices. The company has also announced a web companion and a new round of financing from some noteworthy names, including singer Justin Bieber, comedian Ellen DeGeneres and The New York Times Company.

Stamped, which is staffed primarily by former Google employees, first launched on the iPhone in November. The app allows you keep track of and share the things you like with your friends, such as restaurants, books, films and other apps. You can also tap into your friends’ recommendations and those of well-known tastemakers, from chef Mario Batali (an advisor to the startup) to Rolling Stones film critic Peter Travers. (For more on how the app works, read our initial review here.)

The startup released an update to the app in March that enabled users to view the recommendations of not only their friends and tastemakers, but also friends of friends and the entire Stamped network. It was designed to provide a better on-boarding experience for first-time users whose friends are not — and might never become — active users of the app.

Shortly after releasing that update, Stamped’s team decided to scrap the entire app and “build something bigger,” Robby Stein, one of Stamped’s three co-founders, told Mashable in an interview at Stamped’s New York office earlier this week. “There’s not one piece of [old] code in the new version,” he said.

The app’s function and aesthetic is essentially the same, but it’s much more dynamic. Previously, recommendations from all of your friends were organized by recency; now they’re categorized and contextualized under “The Guide,” a new vertical that lets you quickly surface suggestions by activity: eat/drink, watch, listen, read and download.

Each recommendation comes with a useful third-party integration: When you explore your friends’ music recommendations, you can play the entire album by logging in with your Spotify or Rdio account. Come across a good restaurant recommendation? Check out the menu, view photos from Instagram (Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom is an advisor to the startup) and book it on OpenTable. You can also add movie and TV shows to your Netflix queue, buy movie tickets through Fandango and purchase books on Amazon.

You can also see how your friends are interacting with your stamps — whether they’re listening to that album you recommended, or checked out the menu for the bakery you stamped last week. That may not sound like much, but it gives the app a lively, social flavor it lacked previously. It’s also easy to spot when a number of your friends want to do the same thing, so that you can suggest you all check it out together.

Stamped has also released a read-only web app that makes it easy for users to share recommendations with friends who don’t use Stamped. Eventually, Stein says, they’d like Stamped users to be able to do everything on the web they can do with the mobile app.

If that’s not enough news for you, the startup is also announcing that it has raised a round of funding from a roster of notable names: Bain Capital Ventures, Google Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, singer Justin Bieber, comedian Ellen DeGeneres, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, The New York Times Company and Columbia Records, among others.

What’s next for this red-hot startup? The team is waiting on feedback from its users to determine the next steps, but did indicate an interest in deepening integration with third-party services like Spotify and Netflix in the future. There’s “no timeline” for an Android app, says Stein, but he imagines it will appear “sometime next year.” The ultimate goal? To become “the central place for reviews,” a service Stein believes could attract 100 million users. How’s that for ambition? (Mashable.com)

Moody’s downgrades Nokia credit rating, outlook negative

HELSINKI—International ratings agency Moody’s on Monday downgraded the long-term debt of Nokia by two notches, to “Ba3″, cautioning the Finnish mobile phone giant would likely suffer even deeper than expected losses going forward.

“Nokia’s transition in the smartphone business will cause deeper operating losses and consequently cash consumption in the coming quarters than we had previously assumed,” the ratings agency said in a statement, adding that the outlook on all of Nokia’s ratings remained negative.

Moody’s had bumped Nokia to “junk” status in June, two months after the two other large ratings agencies, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, but the drop to Ba3 places the Finnish mobile phone maker four notches below investment grade.

Monday’s downgrade came after Nokia last Thursday reported far worse-than-expected second-quarter results, posting a net loss of 1.41 billion euros ($1.74 billion), about four times their loss of 368 million euros during the same period a year earlier and more than double the loss anticipated by analysts.

Nokia, which recently lost its ranking of 14 years as the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, dramatically changed its strategy a year and a half ago, deciding to phase out its Symbian smartphones in favor of a partnership with Microsoft.

But Moody’s said it was disappointed with Nokia’s outlook and cautioned that its new Lumia smartphones, which the company is counting on to help it survive stiff competition from RiM’s Blackberry, Apple’s iPhone and handsets running Google’s Android platform, were loss-making.

The ratings agency also stressed there was no guarantee Nokia’s highly anticipated Windows Phone 8, set to launch later this year, would help it get back in the black.

“A return to profitability in the Devices & Services (D&S) segment on the back of smartphones with the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating systems is by no means assured,” the agency said.

Nokia, meanwhile, said it was disappointed with the downgrade, but insisted in a statement that “its impact on the company is limited.”

“Nokia’s financial position remains strong,” it stressed, pointing out that as of the end of June it had a net cash balance of 4.2 billion euros and a credit facility of 1.5 billion, which it can count on until 2016.

Following Monday’s announcement, Nokia saw its share price drop 3.02 percent to 1.38 euros a piece in afternoon trading on a Helsinki stock exchange down 3.04 percent. (Inquirer.net)

Apple's rivals swoop as iPhone China sales flag

(Reuters) - Apple Inc's disappointing China sales suggest that its customers will not always wait for the next iPhone when rivals such as Samsung have plenty of flashy new models available now, analysts and resellers said on Wednesday.

China is Apple's second-largest market, and its rabid fans have been known to seek out smugglers just to get their hands on the latest gadgets before they officially go on sale in Beijing and Shanghai stores.

But an iPad 3 launch in China last week did not generate the normal buying frenzy, and lackluster April-to-June sales of the iPhone 4S have some analysts questioning whether Apple products are losing their status as the must-have accessory for China's hip and affluent.

"The (iPhone 4S) model is a little bit too long in the tooth when compared to other phones with better specs," said TZ Chuang, a Beijing-based analyst from research firm IDC.

"To put it plainly, consumers are getting a little bit tired of the look of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S."

Apple's sales from greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, totaled $5.7 billion for its third quarter ended June, an unexpectedly steep drop of $2.2 billion from the January-March period.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, told analysts that about half of the quarter-to-quarter decline stemmed from "changes in the inventory channel" rather than weak sales of its iPhone 4S, which analysts took to mean that Apple had built up excess inventory in the first three months of the year.

That extra inventory meant resellers did not need to buy as many iPhones in the April-June period. The iPhone 5 is expected to be released later this year, with enhanced Chinese language capabilities, so that likely contributed to resellers' slower orders of the 4S as well.

Cook also pointed out that iPhone 4S sales were very strong in China over the first three months of this year, so there was probably some drop-off in demand after that period.

SIRI LEARNS MANDARIN

Consumers in China, which has the world's largest number of mobile subscribers, were spoilt for choice with a slew of new phones available over the past few months from brands such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and HTC Corp.

Samsung, which flagged a record quarterly profit of $5.9 billion earlier this month, saw stronger-than-expected demand for its latest Galaxy S III model, while HTC's One X also gained popularity among phone users globally, including the greater China region.

"The S III and One X are outselling the iPhone now because people like their wider screens, better cameras and the apps are pretty good," said a salesperson at an electronics store in Hong Kong that carries phones from Apple, Samsung, HTC and Nokia Ojy.

New smartphones made by China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, ZTE Corp and Xiaomi were also hot sells, in part because the price was right. They are heavily subsidized by China's three telecom carriers.

Apple is expected to release its next iPhone around October, according to sources, about a year after the launch of the 4S, which was a hot seller in the first three months of 2012 and helped to drive Apple's stellar earnings in that period.

There was one hitch for Chinese consumers, however: Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant program that was a popular selling point globally for the 4S, does not speak Mandarin or Cantonese, which are widely spoken in mainland China and Hong Kong.

The iPhone 5 version of Siri will have those language skills, according to sales staff in an Apple store in Shanghai's Pudong financial district, which a Reuters reporter visited on Wednesday. That is one more reason for Chinese customers to hold off until the new phone is available.

"Since iPhone 5 will come out soon, operators don't want to buy in any more iPhone 4S as they will add to the inventory," said Ming Chi Kuo, an analyst from KGI Securities.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in HONG KONG, Clare Jim in TAIPEI and Melanie Lee in SHANGHAI; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Alex Richardson)

After Malware Scare, Apple Makes First Appearance at Black Hat Conference

Apple will make its first appearance at computer security conference Black Hat on Thursday when Dallas De Atley, Manager of the Platform Security team at the company, takes the stage to talk about key security technologies in iOS.

Typically absent for security conferences, the move is a significant one, and one that shows Apple realizes that its operating system is vulnerable and that the company could benefit from the input of a group of people who have the main goal of revealing those vulnerabilities.

The first iOS malware app was confirmed earlier this month. Called “Find and Call” the app would have users upload all of their contact information to a server that would them spam all of their contacts with messages that appeared to come from the victim’s phone.

Hackers have started to pay more attention to the OSX platform. Previously thought to be free from viruses and attacked, Apple computers have started to see a rise in malicious software attacks.

Black Hat has been going on for the past 15 years. The conference brings together thought leaders from different facets of the information security worlds – everyone from corporate and government employees to academic and underground researchers – to help attempt to “define tomorrow’s security landscape.”

Since its initial conference in 1997, Black Hat has expanded its conference from a single event each year in Las Vegas to a series of conferences around the world in locations such as Abu Dhabi, Barcelona and Washington DC.

Microsoft first made an appearance at the conference in 1998, and Google took the stage in 2010. While most of the speakers at the Black Hat conference have a detailed description of their planned discussion topic, Apple’s description merely says it will “discuss key security technologies in iOS.”

The conferences are vendor-neutral and bring together some of he brightest and most prestigious names in the space for briefings as well as hands-on, high-intensity, multi-day trainings provided by some of the most respected experts in the world. Attendees can also receive formal certifications while attending the conference.

What do you think about Apple participating in the Black Hat conference? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Source: Mashable

Rumor: New iPod Touch to Feature Bigger Screen

The new iPod touch, due to be released this fall, will feature a 4-inch screen, just like the upcoming next-generation iPhone, Japanese blog Macotakara reports.

The new device will also sport the A5 processor — the same one that iPhone 4S has — and a case with an aluminum back that’s similar to the iPad’s.

The device will come in white and black, and will also feature a hole on the lower end of its back, whose purpose is unknown.

Of course, though the rumors about it are swirling about, not even the 4-inch new iPhone has been officially confirmed, so take this report with a grain of salt.

Source: Mashable

Mark Zuckerberg’s First Patent Finally Approved After Six Years

The first patent Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg submitted to the US Patent Trademark and Office six years ago was finally approved on Tuesday. He submitted the patent in July 2006.

The patent, called Dynamically generating a privacy summary is described in the abstract:

A system and method for dynamically generating a privacy summary is provided. The present invention provides a system and method for dynamically generating a privacy summary. A profile for a user is generated. One or more privacy setting selections are received from the user associated with the profile. The profile associated with the user is updated to incorporate the one or more privacy setting selections. A privacy summary is then generated for the profile based on the one or more privacy setting selections.

Basically, the patent protects the way a user’s information appears onscreen, including how they view their privacy settings. Initially, the patent was rejected for being “obvious,” but was later revisited and now approved.

Since Zuckerberg filed this first patent, a handful of other patents that the billionaire submitted have been approved. At this point, the patent doesn’t really mean much, according ReadWriteWeb. However, an IPO expert mentioned in the site’s story says Facebook needs as many patents as it can get, especially given its recent legal battle with Yahoo.

Source: Mashable

Apple OS X Mountain Lion Goes on Sale Wednesday

For Mac owners, it’s Christmas in July again.

In its earnings report Tuesday, Apple officially announced that the long-anticipated Mountain Lion, otherwise known as OS X 10.8, would go on sale first thing Wednesday morning — just as predicted.

Costing $19.99, it will be available in the Mac app store only. Anyone who bought a new Mac on or after June 11 is entitled to a free upgrade.

Apple is making a habit of releasing new versions of the Mac OS in July; that’s when we got our first taste of OS X 10.7, known simply as Lion. That, too, was announced on the company’s earnings call and made available the following morning.

Lion is now used by 40% of Mac owners, according to Apple. Some 50% are still using the previous version, Snow Leopard. Lion was criticized by some for being a minimal upgrade that removed some much-loved features, such as replacing the “save as” with the less user-friendly “export.”

Mountain Lion, by contrast, is a significant upgrade that adds plenty of integration with the iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS. Users will see their Reminders, Messages, Notes and other notifications automatically synced between devices.

The upgrade also allows you to post to Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo and other services from within every page and window. At Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers’ Conference, CEO Tim Cook boasted that Mountain Lion added more than 200 new features.

It’s only for current Lion or Snow Leopard owners, however; if you’re one of the few Mac users on a previous version, you’ll have to upgrade to Snow Leopard before buying Mountain Lion. And if you’re on a pre-2009 Mac, chances are your computer won’t have enough power to run Mountain Lion.

Stay tuned for our full Mountain Lion review Wednesday, and let us know in the comments: are you ready to buy?

What's up dock? Apple to shrink connector for iPhone 5

TAIPEI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Apple Inc's (NSQ:AAPL - News) new iPhone will drop the wide dock connector used in the company's gadgets for the best part of a decade in favour of a smaller one, a change likely to annoy the Apple faithful but which could be a boon for accessory makers.

The iPhone 5, Apple's next generation iPhone expected to go on sale around October, will come with a 19-pin connector port at the bottom instead of the proprietary 30-pin port "to make room for the earphone moving to the bottom", two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

That would mean the new phone would not connect with the myriad of accessories such as speakers and power chargers that form part of the ecosystem around iPods, iPads and iPhones, without an adaptor.

That means new business, analysts say.

"It represents an opportunity for accessory vendors," said Pete Cunningham, London-based analyst at technology research firm Canalys. "The iPhone connector has been a standard for a long time now and I would expect the same to be true for a new connector, should Apple change it as expected."

Apple did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.

Tech blogs have long speculated on the demise of the 30-pin connector, which at 21 mm wide takes up a chunk of space, especially as the latest technologies such as microUSB offer more power in less space.

They say that a smaller connector would give Apple more scope for new product designs or a bigger battery, or simply to make ever smaller products.

Switzerland's Logitech (VTX:LOGN.VX - News), one of the biggest makers of Apple speakers, declined to comment.

But some enterprising vendors in China have already begun offering cases for the new phone, complete with earphone socket on the bottom and a "guarantee" the dimensions are correct.

For some in the peripherals industry, the change could open doors to new business.

"iPod docking speaker sales have been declining for one or two years," said an employee of a Hong Kong-based company that designs speakers especially for Apple products.

"My previous factory is a lucky one. They shifted the focus to Bluetooth speakers, which proved a wise decision now," the employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It looks like while iPod speaker sales are going down, Bluetooth speaker sales are going up."

HAPPY TO UPGRADE?

Apple has already said that some users of older models of its Macbook computers won't be able to use the latest operating system to be announced soon, but analysts think it will be kinder to mobile gadget users.

"Apple needs to find a solution not to disappoint their current clients who want to upgrade to the new iPhone but are tied to an expensive accessory that have bought," said Franciso Jeronimo, London-based analyst at technology research firm IDC.

"I believe Apple will come up with some sort of adaptor so the new iPhone can be used with previous connectors."

It could be a difficult change for Apple to manage, even with an adaptor.

"With a smaller connector, what am I going to do with my loudspeaker at home and the fitness pack that I use when I go to the gym? That's the question," said 24-year old Travis Tam, who owns an iPhone 4 and works as an account executive at a social networking company in Hong Kong.

"I feel that the premium gap between the next iPhone 5 and newest Android models is getting much smaller these days. That will mean that details such as having a smaller connector will mean more in whether I will continue to use an iPhone and switch to other Android phones."

A salesman surnamed Chan at an Apple reseller in Hong Kong thought a smaller connector would be a "pain", and would spoil the clean lines and seamless connectivity that is Apple's trademark.

"There are ways around it as some of the speakers have an audio input point that can be connected directly to any iPhone with a earphone jack. It's not a very elegant way of doing things, but it's an alternative," he said.

In the end though, Apple fans are Apple fans.

"I don't think it will stop Apple consumers from buying the new gadgets," said C.K. Lu, Taipei-based analyst at research firm Gartner. "Many companies are interested in developing accessories for Apple because Apple users are more open and willing to buy accessories." (Additional reporting by Tarmo Virki in HELSINKI and Caroline Copley in ZURICH; Writing by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: Yahoo!