Google ‘to buy Whats App for $1bn’

Digital Trends reports hearing from an inside source that Google has been in talks to buy the hugely popular messaging app for the past few weeks and the current offer is said to be "close to" $1 billion.

If this sounds familiar, it's because Facebook was rumored to be interested in buying WhatsApp at the end of last year, though the price tag was never publicized for that rumor. If the $1 billion figure is correct, it would put WhatsApp in the same ballpark as Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook last year.

WhatsApp is the most popular of a new crop of mobile messaging apps that some say pose a threat to bigger companies like Facebook and Google. The app, which lets users send messages for free across smartphone platforms, launched in 2009 and has tens of millions of users. It's currently the No. 1 app in Apple's App Store in dozens of countries, according to data from AppAnnie, and it has been downloaded more than 100 million times on Google Play.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Google had approached WhatsApp, though it didn't indicate when or how serious the talks might be.

A rep for Google says the company does not comment on rumor or speculation. WhatsApp did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

 WhatsApp

Apple iPad Mini Review

Apple iPad mini review: One for the road

Introduction

Wait, did hell just freeze over? Maybe a couple of degrees cooler? Rumors of a mini version of the iPad had been laughed at, dodged and denied - not necessarily in that order and often all at once. But here it is - the iPad mini is finally a reality. It caused due measures of excitement and perhaps a bit of disappointment. Yet, in typical Apple fashion, it's an excellent piece of hardware. In short, it's a polarizing device that may as well be the next best-selling tablet.

Apple iPad mini official images

You have to hand it to Apple's R&D team - they know how to design hardware. The iPad mini is super thin and light, with a cool aluminum shell. Sure, they swore they'd never make a 7" tablet and the truth is they still haven't - the 7.9" screen of the mini offers 36% more real estate than the screens of the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

Less bezel on the left and right of the screen combined with the ~310g of weight make it reasonably comfortable to hold with one hand. Apple did make some compromises, which drew a lot of ire. Here's the summarized list of what's good and what's bad about the Apple iPad mini:

Key features

• Compact body: 200 x 134.7 x 7.2 mm
• 7.9" LED-backlit IPS LCD touchscreen, 768 x 1024 pixels; scratch-resistant, oleophobic coating
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity, carrier-dependent hotspot support
• Optional 2G/3G GSM, CDMA, LTE connectivity (data only, separate models)
• Optional GPS with A-GPS support (for the 3G model only)
• Apple A5 SoC, dual-core Cortex-A9 @ 1GHz chipset
• 512MB of RAM
• PowerVR SGX543MP2 dual-core GPU
• iOS 6 with Siri, iCloud support and activation
• 16/32/64GB of inbuilt storage
• Weight of 308 grams (312 grams for the Wi-Fi + Cellular option)
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 16.3Wh battery
• Accelerometer, compass and three-axis gyro-sensor
• Compatible with every iPad and iPhone app without any modifications
• The base version costs less than a SIM-free iPhone 4, only $30 more than iPod touch
• 5MP auto-focus camera
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 1.2MP secondary camera capable of FaceTime calls, 720p recording
• Four and five-finger gestures
• 1080p TV-output with the Apple Digital AV Adapter (purchased separately for $49), 1080p video streaming
• Supports magnetic cases
• Lightning connector
• Stereo loudspeakers

Main disadvantages

• More expensive than 7" Android tablets, only $70 cheaper than iPad 2
• No Retina display, 162ppi only
• Same chipset as iPad 2, now two generations old
• iTunes still required for most of the content uploads
• Reflective screen struggles outdoors
• No standard USB port, Lightning accessories still rare and expensive
• No GPS receiver in the Wi-Fi version
• No memory card slot
• Lack of basic iOS apps - stocks, calculator, voice memos

The disadvantage list may seem longer than usual but most of the items there are general complaints that apply to virtually all Apple products, like the absence of a memory card slot. The way we see it, there are three main problems with the iPad mini - the (relatively) low-res screen, the old chipset and the price.

Apple products have so far effortlessly hit it big with users despite their perceived limitations compared to the competition. The new crop of iPads - the iPad 4 and iPad mini - already sold in the millions.

iPad mini in our office

The software - iOS 6 - should be very familiar to Apple users, but the hardware is new. It's not like the big iPads, which mostly varied in thickness, this one has been designed to comfortably hold in one hand and slip into a coat pocket.

Some analysts have gone as far as to say that the iPad mini will become the iPad - it's highly portable, capable enough and drawing on the vast resources of the Apple eco-system. And if you adjust for the "Apple tax", the mini isn't that expensive.

Jump to the next page to find out just what you're getting with the iPad mini.

FunSlides HD – Create HD Video Slideshows On Your iPad

FunSlides HD is a nice iPad app ($0.99 USD) for taking your pictures and putting them into a video slideshow. You can import pictures from your iPad’s camera roll or take new pictures with the FunSlides HD app. After adding pictures to your project you can add text to each one of them. Once your images are arranged in order and your text has been added, insert the transitions you would like between images. Finally, before publishing your project add a sound track. Your sound track can be one of the stock tracks in FunSlides HD or it can be a file that you import from your iPad. Completed projects can be saved to your iPad, uploaded to YouTube, or shared on Facebook.

FunSlides HD will probably remind some users of Animoto. The key difference between the two is that FunSlides HD allows you to add as much text as you like to each image. Like Animoto, FunSlides HD is nice app that students can use to quickly create short videos about a field trip, a topic they’ve researched, or to tell a story.

iPhone 5 Review : LiquidMetal Concept

We’re expecting waves of rumors and leaks to surface as the official announcement of Apple’s iPhone 5 is expected next month at WWDC. But before the splashes of rumors, you can dream for few minutes while you browse the 2-dimesional creative interpretation of Jon Fawcett on how he imagine what will be Apple’s LiquidMetal-loving  iPhone 5 will look like.

Honestly it seems to be a salty concept, that you would think you’ll take it with a grain of salt easily but beside the mouthwatering aesthetics for this concept, you should take a while what is the LiquidMetal added on its famous moniker. Reports suggests that the next-generation iPhone will be made of LiquidMetal, that “could allow the phone to be more durable. Light like plastic but durable like aluminum, it would also allow the phone to weigh less and have a thinner profile.”

Fawcett’s iPhone 5 LiquidMetal concept will feature dimensions of 4.14″ x 2.25″ with thickness of just 7mm and has a 4-inch widescreen multitouch display, 10-megapixel rear-facing and 5-megapixel front-facing camera, quad speakers, NFC capabilities and much faster processor.

During these days, screen size matters so if the news from Wall Street Journal is true, Apple’s move to produce iPhones with 4-inch screen is a plus for them. Of course, aside from screen, Apple boasts its iPhone products’ quality, well that really counts a lot for consumers but consumers will be more interested on the new iPhone with larger screens.

With all these rumors about the features of the new iPhone, we cannot deny that the release of iPhone 4S still got the market and sold like blockbuster. When it comes to profit and making money, they can still count on the current features of the iPhone 4S. But on the other hand, it seems that iPhone 4 has become one of the commonly seen mobile phones in the market. Other mobile phones was able to catch up with it and its like they are all leveled together.

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Apple’s iPhone is still dominant in the market just like few years back and they can sell it at the same price. Consumers still wants to own an iPhone even if there are lots of newly introduced mobile phones in the market. But consumers cannot deny the fact that iPhone is starting to show its age. We can say that Android phones also have its winning piece in the mobile world because of its new look, larger screens and newer features and this is how they get the attention of many of the consumers.

Apple brand less 'inspiring', survey says

Technology giant Apple is perceived as less "inspiring" than it was three years ago, a brand survey suggests.

The findings will heighten concerns among shareholders who have seen about $230bn wiped off Apple's stock market value since September 2012.

Smartphone rival Samsung is now seen as equally "inspiring" in the US, says the survey by consultancy Added Value.

Analysts fear Apple may have lost its way since the death of its visionary founder, Steve Jobs, in October 2011.

While Apple's brand still scores more highly overall, Samsung's is more consistently appreciated across the world, particularly in East Asia, says Added Value, part of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP group.

Apple's reputation for market-leading innovation took a knock after the iPhone 5 was seen as an iteration of an earlier design rather than a characteristic step-change.

According to research by Gartner, Samsung and Apple now account for 52% of the global smartphone market, but in the final quarter of 2012, Samsung sold 64.5 million smartphones to Apple's 43.5 million.

Similarly, Apple's iPad Mini was a response to rival, smaller tablet computers already on the market, adding to the impression Apple was following, not leading.

Patent battles

In September 2012, Apple's share price topped $700 - a record for the company - giving the tech company a market capitalisation of more than $655bn.

But since then, the price has tumbled, wiping about $230bn off the company's value.

Since 2011, Apple and Samsung have been slugging it out across the world's courts in a series of distracting patent battles.

Apple first sued Samsung in the US for alleged intellectual property infringements. Other court cases have taken place in France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, South Korea and Japan, with no company yet emerging as the clear winner.

Apple may be sitting on a $137bn cash mountain, but unless it can recapture its role as an "inspiring" technology leader and settle its legal battles, the perception may grow that its best days are behind it, analysts believe.

'Bold and exciting'

In its Cultural Traction 2013 report, Added Value analysed the "cultural vibrancy" of 160 brands across 15 sectors, involving more than 62,000 respondents in 10 countries.

The top 10 brands perceived to be the most "visionary, inspiring, bold and exciting" were Google, Apple, Samsung, Ikea, Microsoft, Sony, BMW, Audi, Coca-Cola and eBay.

How to tell which version of Skype is installed on your PC

Follow these simple steps to find out which version of Skype you have installed on your PC:

1. Double click on the green Skype icon in your system tray, or open Skype if it isn’t already running. Click on the Skype Help Menu, and then click About (as pictured below):

2. The version of Skype you currently have installed is shown (in bold):

Why Watching DVDs on Linux is Illegal in the USA

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes unlocking cell phones, ripping DVDs, removing eBook DRM, and jailbreaking tablets illegal in the USA. However, there’s another surprise: simply watching a DVD on Linux is also illegal.

This is why Ubuntu and other Linux distributions don’t include out-of-the-box DVD support, forcing you to run a command that downloads and installs libdvdcss from elsewhere – not the Linux distribution’s software repositories, or they would get in trouble.

If you are an American who’s watched a DVD on Linux, there’s a good chance the DMCA makes you a criminal.

Video DVDs are Encrypted

Playing a commercial video DVD is normally as simple as placing it in a DVD player or a computer’s DVD drive. If it’s a computer, the appropriate software starts up and starts playing it automatically. In an age of DRM-tainted eBooks and other types of files that may not play on all your hardware, DVDs are a convenient way to watch movies without any restrictions.

That’s what it feels like, at least. However, most commercial video DVDs are encrypted using the Content Scramble System (CSS). If you wanted to produce your own DVD player, you’d have to license CSS support from the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA). As part of this licensing scheme, you would also have to implement other copy-protection features, such as the region code system that prevents DVDs purchased in one part of the world from being played on DVD players purchased elsewhere.