Chinese cartoonist Carol Liu Hong built her studio from scratch, doing post-production work for TV commercials and then, once she broke even, realizing her dream of creating cartoons for Chinese kids.
In the summer of 2010, Signal Snowboards created the Web series "Every Third Thursday" to showcase the company's experimentation with funky concept boards. Think Science Channel’s “How It’s Made” — except with a lot more sass and a funkier setting.
People will go to great lengths to imitate pop culture characters they adore, and Harry Potter fans are no different. Forget the cheesy Halloween costumes and silly accents: Some fans even adopted pet owls after seeing or reading about them in Harry … Continue reading →
Apple Stores are increasingly seen as a sign of affluence, a sign that a neighborhood "has arrived." It turns out that some cities are more anxious to arrive than others, offering Apple sweetheart deals to open new stores — deals … Continue reading →
Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.
A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court's refusal Monday to hear his appeal.
A promotional app for the animated film Madagascar 3, Mad Wig Out, lets you throw rainbow clown wigs on your friends in your iOS photos, and it leads out Fresh Apps for the day. You can adjust your photos, and share them on Twitter and Facebook. Following that is FlySmart, an app that brings you flight information as well as telling you what kind of restaurants and shops you can find in the airports where you’ll be waiting for flights. ...
While the telecommunications industry has advanced to the point where owning a smartphone is like carrying around a personal computer wherever you go, progress is moving more slowly for the actual “phone” part of the handheld device
The Raspberry Pi $35 Linux computer, which is equipped with a 700MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, an SD card slot, two USB ports, an Ethernet jack and both HDMI and RCA outputs, will soon feature support for a camera add-on. The current prototype features a 14-megapixel camera that can be connected directly to the Rapsberry Pi through its CSI pins. The team warns that it ”may downgrade the super-duperness of the camera to something with fewer than its current 14 megapixels before release,” however, in order to “keep things affordable, and a sensor of that size will end up pricey.” The add-on is slated to be released later this year and end-user pricing was not disclosed. A sample of an image taken
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group could command a Facebook-rivalling valuation of $100 billion when it comes to list its shares, possibly by 2015 - but its more immediate challenge is to hang on to top spot in the country's $36 billion e-commerce market. Founded and led by Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba faces increasingly tough competition in its e-commerce stronghold from well-funded rivals 360buy, which is backed by Digital Sky Technologies, Dangdang Inc and Amazon.com Inc. ...
Just before 4:00 a.m. this morning, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral, taking the first privately built spacecraft to the International Space Station. The unmanned mission will resupply the ISS and, if successful, could be the first step to replacing America's Space Shuttle program with private vehicles.
Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 series -- featuring an upgraded cloud computing service -- marks a "rebirth" of its operating systems, chief executive Steve Ballmer said Tuesday.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss took an unexpected detour before his tribute to Steve Jobs at Monday night's Webby Awards, taking a moment to criticize Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin.
Chinese cartoonist Carol Liu Hong built her studio from scratch, doing post-production work for TV commercials and then, once she broke even, realizing her dream of creating cartoons for Chinese kids.
Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 series -- featuring an upgraded cloud computing service -- marks a "rebirth" of its operating systems, chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday.
Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX faces short-term costs from its botched handling of Facebook shares on their first day of trading but the longer term repercussions could be more expensive as it struggles to restore its image. Initially, the exchange said it plans to set aside $13 million to resolve bad trades, and even if all of that was used, the cost would be minimal compared with the $387 million in net income it reported last year. The bigger hit to Nasdaq's business is likely to come from the damage done to its reputation by the stumble. ...
(Reuters) - Facebook shares sank 11 percent in the first day of trading without the full support of the company's underwriters, leaving some investors down almost 25 percent from where they were Friday and driving others to switch back to more established stocks. Facebook's debut was beset by problems, so much so that Nasdaq said on Monday it was changing its IPO procedures. That may comfort companies considering a listing, but does it little for Facebook, whose lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, had to step in and defend the $38 offering price on the open market. ...
(Reuters) - In the run-up to Facebook's $16 billion IPO, Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter on the deal, unexpectedly delivered some negative news to major clients: The bank's consumer Internet analyst, Scott Devitt, was reducing his revenue forecasts for the company. The sudden caution very close to the huge initial public offering, and while an investor roadshow was underway, was a big shock to some, said two investors who were advised of the revised forecast. ...
Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer met Seoul education officials Tuesday to discuss using digital technology in classrooms as South Korea prepares to replace paper textbooks with digital ones.
Motorola recently updated its Android release timeline and revealed that certain devices will remain on Android 2.3 rather than receiving an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The handsets in question are both modern and more than capable of running the latest Android operating system, however the vendor claims the latest software won’t “improve” the devices, and that’s why updates will not be released. Both the DROID 3 and DROID X2 will remain on Android 2.3, despite the fact that both handsets run dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processors and were released not even a year ago. Read [1] Read [2]
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook's lackluster initial public offering performance is a black eye for many on Wall Street and could have ramifications for similar upcoming deals such as an offering by Twitter, but venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are keen to shrug off Facebook's stumble - at least for now. ...
As Yahoo’s struggles continue, the company is looking to cut costs and dig up cash wherever it can. Yahoo announced plans last month to lay off 2,000 workers, or nearly 15% of its staff, and before that it filed a “puzzling” patent lawsuit against long-time partner Facebook. Now, Yahoo will sell half of its 40% stake in China-based retail giant Alibaba. Led by Chinese Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba will repurchase part of Yahoo’s holdings in the e-commerce firm for $7.1 billion as it prepares to take the company public. The deal, which was announced in a joint statement on Monday, will see Yahoo sell half its stake in Alibaba for $6.3 billion in cash and as much as $800 million in new preferred
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX faces short-term costs from its botched handling of Facebook shares on their first day of trading but the longer term repercussions could be more expensive as it struggles to restore its image. Initially, the exchange said it plans to set aside $13 million to resolve bad trades, and even if all of that was used, the cost would be minimal compared with the $387 million in net income it reported last year. The bigger hit to Nasdaq's business is likely to come from the damage done to its reputation by the stumble. ...
Google’s Chrome Web browser has continued to gain market share since its introduction in 2008. Despite surpassing Internet Explorer in select regions and on weekends, Google’s browser has never been able to dethrone Microsoft in global usage share. According to new numbers from StatCounter, however, Google’s browser has finally averaged higher traffic than Internet Explorer for the first time over a full seven-day stretch. From May 14th through May 20th, the Internet giant’s Web browser garnered a 32.76% share, ahead of Microsoft’s 31.94% and Mozilla Firefox’s 25.47% share. At the start of this week, however, Chrome’s share began to slide, falling to 31.88%, just ahead of Internet Explorer’s 31.47% share. Read
The most universal sport in the world dominated social networks Saturday. Soccer (or "football," depending on your preference) teams Chelsea and Bayern Munich battled in Munich's Allianz Arena for the UEFA Championships League trophy.
(Reuters) - Apple has maintained its place as the world's most valuable brand over the past year, leading a group of technology-related companies that dominate the top 10, according to a study published on Tuesday. The iPhone and iPad maker has boosted its brand value by 19 percent in the past year to $183 billion, or 37 percent of its market capitalization, according to the annual BrandZ study by leading brands and market-research agency Millward Brown. ...
There are tons of iPhone games out there with complicated rules, levels, and moves to learn. One game, called Slide, is making learning how to play much easier by having you do something you already know how to do: unlock your phone.
Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones, iPads and Macs, plans to invest $210 million in a new Apple production line in China’s east Jiangsu province in October, according to a report from China Daily. The 40,000 square meter plant will employ as many as 35,800 workers and will be located in Huai’an City. The office of Taiwan Affairs of Huai’an City confirmed that the plant will house a production line for Apple devices and is expected to output between $949 million to $1.1 billion a year. The report did not indicate which Apple products would be assembled at the new plant, however. Read
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