The new Microsoft under Satya Nadella is still looking good on Wall Street

 Almost three years ago, Microsoft named Satya Nadella as its CEO. Since then, Microsoft has reversed its fortunes and returned to being a growth stock after stagnating for nearly a decade — and 2016 was not an exception to that. Indeed, as Microsoft continued its transition to cloud-based services and adopting multiple platforms, as well as taking big bets like buying LinkedIn for… Read More

iPhone 7 was a top holiday gift, but Apple Watch is fading

 More iPhone 7 devices were unwrapped over the 2016 holidays compared with Google Pixel smartphones, according to new data released by analytics service Mixpanel. Specifically, in the first few days after Christmas, the number of unique iPhone 7’s increased by 12.7 percent, compared with an 8.5 percent increase for Google’s newest flagship. And when comparing iOS to Android devices… Read More

After arriving at 100th railway station in India, Google’s WiFi is set to hit another 100 in 2017

 Last September, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a fairly ambition plan to bring free WiFi to 400 railway stations across India, a goal that would cover 10 million passengers a day, by the company’s count, making a small but meaningful impact on the estimated one billion-plus people in the country who aren’t connected to the internet. In January, the roll out started, bringing… Read More

You can now register to find out when Super Mario Run hits Android

 Nintendo gave Apple a timed exclusive with Super Mario Run, but ‘timed’ means that it was bound to arrive on Android sooner or later. Now, Android users can register in the Google Play Store to get notified when it is actually available, much like iOS users could prior to the game’s launch on Apple’s mobile devices. The Play Store entry for Super Mario Run features a… Read More

Twitter introduces 360-degree video live streaming

 Twitter is taking another step into getting into live video by introducing 360-degree live streams through Periscope. Anyone on Twitter and Periscope can watch 360-degree live video, though currently only select partners can go live in 360 via Periscope, the company announced in a blog post. While it’s only available for a limited number of partners for now, it makes sense that Twitter… Read More

Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe

 The direction you look could one day control your VR or mobile experience thanks to Facebook and Oculus’ latest buy, The Eye Tribe. Oculus confirms to me that this is an official acquisition.The startup has developed a $99 eye tracking device developer kits for computers, and software that can bring gaze-based interfaces to smartphones and potentially virtual reality headsets. Basic… Read More

Facebook & Google dominate the list of 2016’s top apps

 Mobile applications from Facebook and Google dominated the new list of the year’s top apps released today by Nielsen. Not surprisingly, Facebook again grabbed the number one spot on the list, with more than 146 million average unique users per month, and 14 percent growth over last year. In fact, Facebook scored several spots on the top 10 chart, thanks to Messenger (#2) and Instagram… Read More

Fitbit gets another holiday bump and much-needed breathing room

 The holidays have come and gone and — as usual — Fitbit got a bit of a lifeline. Once again, everyone is buying Fitbits for gifts. We won’t know exactly how many, but if you just take a quick look at the download charts, Fitbit hit the top off the App Store (even in the presence of the gargantuan promotions of Super Mario Run). In fact, it looks like it’s a pretty… Read More

After having its infrastructure shuttered, CyanogenMod will live on as Lineage

 The days leading up to the holiday have been a real roller coaster ride for Cyanogen fans. Yesterday, Cyanogen Inc. unceremoniously pulled the plug on its support for CyanogenOS in a short post declaring that “all services and Cyanogen-supported nightly builds will be discontinued” by the year’s end. In a post today titled “A Fork in the Road,” the team behind… Read More

Dutch regulators order T-Mobile to stop offering free music streaming over net neutrality concerns

 T-Mobile’s no-data-charge-music-streaming-thing has been going strong since 2014 here in the States, with the company adding services to the offering one by one. The Netherlands version of the promotion ran into significant headwinds this week, however, as regulators at the Dutch Consumer and Markets  (AFM) officially ordered the carrier to stop offering the “zero rating&#8221… Read More

Cyanogen failed to kill Android, now it is shuttering its services and OS as part of a pivot

 It’s been a rocky few months for Cyanogen, the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of its CEO and parted ways with another co-founder — now it is shutting down its services and nightly software builds on December 31. Read More

Now Snapchat has “Filter Games”

 Snapchat wants you to play with your face, not just take pictures of it. New Selfie Lens filter games are starting to appear to users, creating an addicting new Snapchat feature that also inspires competition between friends and could become a powerful ad revenue driver. Snapchat confirms this is the launch of a new, native games feature. Back in March, Snapchat tested a limited run of a… Read More

Twitter overcharged video advertisers, issues refunds

 Now it’s Twitter copying Facebook…but in the worst way. Following several embarrassing disclosures of inaccurate metrics by Facebook, today Business Insider’s Alex Heath broke news that Twitter overcharged some advertisers. Between November 7th and December 12th, a source tells BI that video ad buyers were overcharged up to 35%. Twitter apparently informed these… Read More