ATN - Top News

Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs biopic, jOBS, to begin filming in original Apple garage

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:21:50 GMT

If you're interested in the upcoming Ashton Kutcher movie version of Steve Jobs' life, it is set to begin filming in June. The first place that filming will take place is the original "Apple Garage", as well as in the actual house in Los Altos where Jobs grew up.

The movie also has its own website: www.thejobsmovie.com.

Here is the film's synopsis according to the site (which sports the tagline "Get inspired.":

"JOBS" is the incredibly powerful and true story of the visionary who set out to change the world, and did.
The film chronicles Steve Jobs' (ASHTON KUTCHER) transformation of character from the enthusiasm and self-discovery of his youth, to the personal demons that clouded his vision, and finally to the ultimate triumphs of his later life. Steve changed the way we see the world today through his relentless drive, passion, persistence, and the force of his will, and it is through these qualities that we draw inspiration from his life.
Dark, honest, and uncompromising, "JOBS" plunges into the depths of Steve Jobs' character, uncovering his motivations, his gifts, his flaws, his failures, and his successes. An immensely private tale spanning four decades, "JOBS" is an intensely character-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is a personal tale.
An rousing narrative of Steve Jobs' days, "JOBS" pulls no punches and does not speculate, only telling the candid account as seen through his eyes, emotions, and ingenuity. The life of Steve Jobs.

The movie is set to be a dark depiction of the "30 most defining years of Steve Jobs' life", seen through the eyes of his friends and colleagues.

There is another movie in the works, based on Walter Isaacson popular biography. We reported yesterday that Sony has brought on Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as an advisor for the Aaron Sorkin written flick.

Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs biopic, jOBS, to begin filming in original Apple garage

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:16:51 GMT

If you're interested in the upcoming Ashton Kutcher movie version of Steve Jobs' life, it is set to begin filming in June. The first place that filming will take place is the original Apple garage, as well as in the actual house in Los Altos where Jobs grew up.

The movie also has its own website: www.thejobsmovie.com:

The movie is set to be a dark depiction of the "30 most defining years of Steve Jobs' life", seen through the eyes of his friends and colleagues.

Your moment of Apple zen: Remember the things that Steve told us

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:01:50 GMT

We realize that some of you may have had your fill of Facebook news today, so this is a perfect time to break out some zen thinking thanks to the master of Apple himself: Steve Jobs.

This cool site called SteveTold.Us depicts a very relaxed Steve Jobs with an overlay of his best quotes. Simply refresh the page and you'll find some new words of wisdom:

There's nothing more to the site than that, but as usual, the words of Steve Jobs still resonate like they always did. Give the site a go and get yourself some knowledge like this gem:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

SteveTold.Us

Tumblr is now available in Portuguese for Portugal and Brazil, its second largest community

Fri, 18 May 2012 21:28:50 GMT

Tumblr is now available in Portuguese for Brazil and Portugal, the company announced on its staff blog today. According to the startup, this means that its platform is now available in 11 languages.

To switch to a new language, all you have to do is to go to your Preferences page and adjust your settings. Besides its interface, the startup is also launching two new staff blogs, respectively managed by its teams in Portugal and in Brazil.

More to follow, please refresh for updates.

Apple sends out reminder to developers that Mac apps must be sandboxed by June 1st

Fri, 18 May 2012 21:19:50 GMT

Apple has sent out an email to members of its Mac developer program reminding them that the deadline to implement sandboxing in their apps is still June 1st.

As a reminder, the deadline for sandboxing your apps on the Mac App Store is June 1. We ve made the process easier with new sandboxing entitlements and APIs now available in OS X 10.7.3 or later and Xcode 4.3.2.
If you have an existing app on the Mac App Store that is not sandboxed, you may still submit bug fix updates after June 1. If you have technical issues that prevent you from sandboxing your app by June 1, let us know.

There are quite a few instances of Mac App Store apps already having implemented sandboxing in their apps. Password helper 1Password (which implemented it last September) and image editor Pixelmator among them.

Apple had previously set the sandboxing deadline for March 1st. By that time, developers that wished to continue selling their apps in the Mac App Store would need to abide by new rules that severely limited the areas of a computer that an app had access to. It later extended it out to June 1st.

Many developers, like Manton Reece and Daniel Jalkut, have recently expressed their dissatisfaction with the limited entitlements offered by sandboxing on the Mac.

Both Reece and Jalkut expressed their feelings that the current freedoms that developers have to access OS X are too limited and its not enough to have faith that Apple will make changes. We can only make decisions based on what entitlements and APIs are there today, said Reece And today it's not enough.

Apple clearly wants the Mac App Store to be the primary way that people download apps on their Mac, but it also wants sandboxing to be the foundation of a more secure OS X.

Windows 8's desktop UI changes unveiled

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:48:50 GMT

If you have been following Windows 8 for any amount of time, you must have run across the Building Windows 8 Blog, the official organ of the Windows team. It is not for massive, Internet-bending pieces of non-fiction that pack in enough context that by the time you emerge from them, you don't know your middle name.

Today, another installment was delivered. In a stunningly large entry, Microsoft wrote much on Windows, its UI, and what Windows 8 will look like. The important parts of it relate to tweaks coming to the Windows 8 desktop UI. The desktop UI is what you currently use in Windows 7, if you were confused.

We're going to quote extensively in this post, as there isn't much of a better way to convey what Microsoft is up to, and not muddle it. To wit, here is the issue that needed to be solved, as stated by Microsoft:

We spent a lot of energy carefully considering how substantially to update the appearance of the desktop in Windows 8. We looked at many, many pictures, and considered hundreds of designs. Our primary goal was to bring visual harmony to Windows, while still preserving much of the familiar feel of the Windows 7 desktop and not sacrificing the compatibility of existing apps.

That seems reasonable enough. Here's Microsoft's solution:

[W]e decided to bring the desktop closer to the Metro aesthetic, while preserving the compatibility afforded by not changing the size of window chrome, controls, or system UI. We have moved beyond Aero Glass flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back distracting gradients.

So, Glass is out, and flat is in. That's roughly what we expected. Here's the shot that Microsoft shared from its blog post, that is well worth looking at:

Frankly, I love it. But I'm a Windows fan, so my take is probably pretty tinted. Microsoft calls the final product the application of the "principles of 'clean and crisp,'" when it came to "updating window and taskbar chrome." Microsoft promised more in the coming ~~release candidate~~ Release Preview of Windows 8, which will drop in early June.

Windows 8 continues apace, and as it comes more and more into the fore, I have to admit that I like its visual design more and more.

Microsoft wins US import ban on Motorola's Android devices

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:38:50 GMT

The US International Trade Commission today ordered an import ban on Motorola Mobility Android products, agreeing with Microsoft that the devices infringe a Microsoft patent on generating meeting requests from a mobile device.

The import ban stems from a December ruling that the Motorola Atrix, Droid, and Xoom (among 18 total devices) infringed the patent, which Microsoft says is related to Exchange ActiveSync technology. Today, the ITC said in a final determination of violation that the appropriate form of relief in this investigation is a limited exclusion order prohibiting the unlicensed entry for consumption of mobile devices, associated software and components thereof covered by claims 1, 2, 5, or 6 of the United States Patent No. 6,370,566 and that are manufactured abroad by or on behalf of, or imported by or on behalf of, Motorola.

ITC rulings such as this one are subject to a 60-day Presidential review period, during which time time Motorola is required to post a bond of 33 per device entered for consumption. Motorola is on the verge of being acquired by Google, with the acquisition having been approved by every jurisdiction except China.

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And, Now, If Facebook's Bankers Can't Hold The IPO Price, Stock Will Crash To Low $30s...

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:37:50 GMT

Facebook and its bankers priced today's IPO perfectly.

This morning, when the stock finally started trading, the fair-market price for the stock was about $40--just a couple of dollars north of where the deal priced.

This modest increase meant that Facebook didn't make the expensive mistake that most companies make, which is to let their bankers price the IPO too low and then see a huge IPO "pop." Although these "pops" are often viewed as a sign of a successful deal, they're anything but. They're merely a sign of that the IPO was underpriced: The company and its bankers give pots of free money to IPO buyers for doing nothing more than placing orders. (See: "Congratulations, LinkedIn, You Just Got Screwed!")

To illustrate this, imagine selling your house to a real-estate broker today for $1 million only to have the broker turn around and sell it to a buddy tomorrow for $2 million (a huge "pop"). If that happened to you, you'd feel like a moron. You'd also feel ripped off. And that's exactly what happens with IPO pops.

The ideal IPO is priced just below the market value, just as Facebook's was. This meant that Facebook and its selling shareholders got nearly full value for their shares.

It also meant, importantly, that individual investors who bought the stock after it started trading didn't get stuck buying it at a truly ludicrous price--say, $70. (At $40, Facebook's stock was merely very expensive, not absurd).

And it also means that Facebook won't have to try and fail to live up to a preposterous price.

So the deal was priced well.

But by the end of the day, the broader market, and Facebook's stock, were breaking down.

In the last 15 minutes of trading, Facebook's stock threatened to break through the IPO price of $38. At that point, as they always do, the company's underwriters stepped in to buy shares, trying to keep the stock above the IPO price. And, as they did earlier in the day, they succeeded. The stock closed just above $38.

If the broader market continues to deteriorate, and there's no excellent Facebook news over the weekend, Facebook's stock will likely make another run at $38 on Monday. And, once again, the banks will likely buy humongous amounts of stock to try to keep the stock above the IPO price.

But, if the selling pressure becomes too intense, the banks will give up--and let the stock fall to wherever the new market price is.

And because the banks probably artificially propped the stock up at the end of the day today, there may well be a gap between the true current market price and the price at which the bank-supported stock closed.

So that means that anyone who still owns Facebook might be in for a rude awakening if and when the stock cracks the IPO price.

But doesn't that mean that the deal was overpriced?

No.

The market value for Facebook's stock for most of today was ~$40. It wasn't just the company's banks that were buying it at that level--nearly 600 million shares changed hands. That's more than the entire amount of stock sold in the IPO.

So anyone who doesn't think Facebook is worth $38--a conclusion that would beg the question why they bought it--could have gotten out today with a gain.

Companies and underwriters do not owe investors a positive return for buying IPOs. And trading stocks is a risky business. So no one should feel that, if Facebook's stock does "break" the IPO price, investors got screwed. (No one forced them to invest. And lots and lots of people warned that, even at the IPO price, Facebook was very expensive.)

In any event, Monday will be interesting.

As I've said frequently over the past few weeks, Facebook's current business does not support the IPO valuation. To justify that valuation, Facebook will have to roll out products and services that we haven't seen yet. So it will be interesting to see whether investors are as committed to the "long term" as they were when they also hoped that Facebook's IPO might deliver an IPO "pop" for the ages.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Is Muppet Bait

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The Financial Times predicts more digital subscribers than it sells print copies by end of year

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:18:52 GMT

By the end of the year, the Financial Times could have more digital subscribers than it sells print copies, FT.com's managing director Rob Grimshaw predicted this week during an on-stage interview with NewsCred's CEO Shafqat Islam as part of the Internet Week New York.

According to Grimshaw, who has been heading the newspaper's digital operations for the last four years, the FT currently has a whopping 270,000 online subscribers - almost as high as its 310,000 print copy circulation, which it may soon exceed. As we previously reported, the FT's digital subscription revenue is also on course to overtake its ad income in 2012.

So how did the FT manage to build such a solid digital user base and to monetize it? It all comes down to swimming against the tide. Not only did the newspaper venture earlier than others into online content, but it also took a bold approach by betting on subscriptions, rather than free content. "In a world where advertising won't pay the bills, you have to try other things," Grimshaw said.

On the other hand, its decision to go for quality over quantity helped it build an online product that readers are willing to pay for. As a matter of fact, its total paying audience is now bigger than it has ever been, Grimshaw pointed out.

Still, online media isn't only about content, and technology also plays an important part. It also turned out to be one of the FT's main assets, thanks to digital innovations that paid off. While its decision to opt for HTML5 was quite bold, its web app has drawn no less than 2m users in only ten months.

However, Grimshaw didn't hide that bypassing Apple and its Newsstand wasn't an easy decision. But, when Apple tried to change its relationship with publishers and become an intermediary between media outlets and their readers, the Financial Times progressively realized that its only option was to do without Apple.

While Grimshaw acknowledged things may be different for an independent developer, he insisted that established media outlets shouldn't underestimate the power of their own brand - or overestimate app stores and digital newsstands. The New York Times, for instance, doesn't need Apple either for people to know it exists. As for The Financial Times, it decided that it would rather cut ties with the company than lose its valuable direct relationship with its customers.

Still, HTML5 represented a big challenge. Despite the fact that the FT had hired some of the best developing talent by acquiring the London-based studio Assanka, it decided to keep negotiating with Apple for a few months.

However, it only took three months for the test results to be good enough to convince the FT that HTML5 would be a viable solution. As for Assanka, it has recently rebranded as FT Labs, which shows its integration to the newspaper's online strategy.

Since then, the app has been performing extremely well, Grimshaw said. The numbers speak for themselves, but it is particularly interesting to see that the FT didn't have any discoverability issues. "It is actually easier to promote outside of Apple," he explained. Search remains a key traffic driver, while the newspaper's social presence also drives additional page views and engagement.

Here's the full interview:

In Its First Acquisition as a Public Company, Facebook Buys Social Gifting App Karma

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:53:50 GMT

That newfound cash is burning a hole in Facebook's pocket.

After raising upwards of $15 billion dollars in its first day as a public company, Facebook has acquired social gifting app Karma and all 16 of its employees.

The app is designed to help Facebook users find reasons to give one another gifts, identifying birthdays and special occasions.

It's an acquisition, not an "acq-hire." So interestingly enough, the service will stay up and functioning, Karma said on its company blog. As Karma put it, "The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force."

Facebook makes acquisitions all the time, but it's rare that it keeps the service up and running afterward. Instagram is the only previous example. Some services like FriendFeed are still alive, but only in maintenance mode.

It's also yet another mobile acquisition, coming directly after the acquisitions of Glancee and Lightbox. As many have pointed out, Facebook has a weak mobile experience; it seems the company is wasting no time in beefing it up.

We've been really impressed with the Karma team and all they accomplished in such a short time," a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD in a statement. "This acquisition combines Karma's passion and innovative mobile app with Facebook's platform to help people connect and share in new and meaningful ways."

Snapped up relatively quickly after being founded in June of last year by the creators of Tapjoy, Karma's background is well-pedigreed; the app was funded by Kleiner Perkins, Obvious Corporation, Sequoia Capital and Felicis Ventures.

Facebook makes its first post-IPO acquisition announcement with social gifting app Karma

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:33:51 GMT

Just after it closed its first day of IPO very close to the opening day price of $38, Facebook has made its first acquisiton with the social gifting app Karma. We got a notice in our inbox from the app with the message below, apparently the service will stay up and running in 'full force'.

We founded Karma with the goal of adding the sentiment and meaning back into gift giving. That's what Karma is all about. That's what the Karma team set out to achieve.
Over the last year, we ve built a new e-commerce platform from the ground up. We ve been honored to partner with amazing brands to create a curated catalog of products. We made those products instantly giftable in a brand new way. And we harnessed the power of Facebook's social network to ensure you never miss a chance to show someone you care. The phenomenal response and feedback we ve heard from customers has more than exceeded our expectations. And we re just getting started today we take social gifting to the next level.
We re thrilled to announce that Karma has been acquired by Facebook. The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force. By combining the incredible passion of our community with Facebook's platform we can delight users in new and meaningful ways. As we say only good things will follow.
Simply put, together we can celebrate life's important moments in ways we could not before. A word of heartfelt thanks to our partners, customers, and our incredible team for helping us share Karma with so many people.
Sincerely,
Karma Co-founders Lee & Ben

CHART OF THE DAY: Why Facebook Never Fell Below $38 Per Share

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:27:51 GMT

After a white-knuckle final 20 minutes of the day, shares of Facebook managed to just keep one nostril above $38, the level where the IPO priced last night.

Why did it never fall below $38?

Basically, because the underwriters of the IPO (Morgan Stanley, et. al.) bid heavily right at $38 to make sure there was no chance that selling pressure would drive the stock lower than that level. It would be an embarrassment if their clients lost money on their first day of the IPO.

The below table gives a good look at what's going on.

On the left side, you see the "bids" that are in the market for the stock. Those are the offers to buy. On the right you see the "asks", which are asking prices by sellers.

Note that next to each bid or ask there's a "size" which is the size of the offer to buy or sell.

Note two things: At the top of the left column, you see lots of bids at $38.00 on various trading platforms. (The BATS exchange, Arca, etc.). What's more, the size of those bids are HUGE. Hundreds of thousands of shares compared to relatively tiny asks and bids everywhere else.

So basically, there were really big, honkin' buyers ready to stand and protect $38, no matter what.

(Thanks to Twitterer @bourbon_meyer for the chart)

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Facebook's first day marked by a thundering unch, ending essentially flat after dull launch

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:24:50 GMT

It was the crazed IPO that wasn't. Following pricing discussions that went to the wire last night, it appears that the gurus behind Facebook initial public offering got at least on thing right: the price.

Or, they mostly did. Twice today Facebook fell to the $38 mark, only to be assisted by its underwriters. According to the Los Angeles Times, this is how it worked:

The underwriters averted a potential debacle by scooping up shares of the company during the Nasdaq debut. This propped up the stock, keeping it above the $38 offering price through most of the day.

Similar trading action occurred at the end of the day. And, as the stock spent a large chunk of time at $38.00, and $38.01, it seems fair to assume that the underwriters were again at work, ensuring that their new offering did not lose ground.

The stock ended up with a gain of less than 1% on the day. You can track it in after-hours trading here.

Some had expected a massive pop on the stock, and are now bemoaning its rather tame launch. However, this first day of trading may do much to hush those who are busy making money crying ~~wolf~~ bubble. Then again, probably not.

You can find all our Facebook IPO coverage here.

19-year-old girl in Egypt invents a spacecraft propulsion device

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:16:53 GMT

A 19-year-old Egyptian university student called Aisha Mustafa has invented a propulsion device intended to offer spacecrafts a new method and cheaper means of energy consumption.

The propulsion device promises chances of using quantum physics and chemical reactions in artificial satellites, instead of the current radioactive-based jets and ordinary rocket engines.

Mustafa's device is based on a scientific mix between quantum physics, space technology, chemical reactions and electrical sciences.

Mustafa said the inventions generates energy for space vehicles from electric energy formed by Casimir-polder force, which occurs between separate surfaces and objects in a vacuum and by the zero-point energy considered as the lowest state of energy.

The device uses reflective panels for additional force which resembles photovoltaic solar cells.

At present, artificial satellites, spacecrafts and space vehicles depend on rocket gas engines that use forced gas at a supersonic speed, or chemical reactions rockets propelled by solid or liquid fuels such as radionuclide or petroleum. Others use electrically propelled probes, which depend on thrusting force via accelerating ions.

The physics student at Sohag University told EGYNews agency she has patented the device with Egyptian Academy of scientific Research and Technology (ASRT).

The invention is related to a hypothetical concept of a jet propulsion called Differential Sail , theoretically created by NASA's retired professor Marc G. Millis - who led NASA breakthrough propulsion physics project.

Dr. Ahmed Fikry, Mustafa's supervisor, said the invention would be highly beneficial in several fields and areas of industries once adopted.

The 19-year-old says she aims at testing her invention at major scientific research organisations hence the possibility of applying it in upcoming space missions.

The new invention, analysts say, is expected to make space travels, easier, cheaper and faster in future.

This story originally appeared on HumanIPO.

Facial detection cameras ready to creep out San Francisco bar patrons

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:01:50 GMT

SceneTap uses facial detection technology to output stats on bar attendance.

On Friday afternoon, about 20 bars around San Francisco are set to have special "facial detection" cameras turned on as part of a new smartphone app by Chicago-based startup SceneTap.

The cameras, which are mounted above the door of their client bars, scan patrons faces as they enter and exit the bar. The company's software then immediately determines whether the person is male or female, and counts how many of each are in the bar, divides that by the known capacity of the bar, and then outputs something like: "Crowd: >90% full | Women: 58% | Men: 42%."

San Francisco bar patrons are unlikely to know that their faces are being scanned, however the company has only put SceneTap stickers in the windows, but does not explain to customers in an obvious way what exactly is going on.

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Facebook underwriters buying shares like crazy to hold the $38 IPO Price In The Final Minutes Of The Day

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:52:50 GMT

Facebook underwriters buying shares like crazy to hold the $38 IPO Price In The Final Minutes Of The Day.

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Twitter chooses NASCAR as first sports league partner, launches new interactive product

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:42:50 GMT

During a live press conference today, NASCAR announced that it is now the first professional sports league that Twitter has partnered directly with.

The partnership will allow Twitter to bring fans of the drivers closer to the action by promoting the #NASCAR hashtag, which will also be promoted on hashtags and at venues.

Twitter is also launching a new product on June 10th that will show a stream of NASCAR related content along with editorial commentary from the company itself.

This is a developing story, please refresh for more details.

Mobile Marketing Set to Create Havoc and Opportunities

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:39:53 GMT

Procter & Gamble should be kicking itself for not developing a mobile operating system when it had the chance: More people worldwide own mobile phones than toothbrushes. Get ready for a tsunami of mobile marketing and commerce to crash on the shores of retail.

The beauty of mobile devices from a marketing perspective is that you can reach consumers at a more personal level right in their pockets. The Holy Grail of marketers used to be a home telephone number and address. Direct mail and telemarketing, despite being some of the most hated forms of advertising, are historically effective. Now mobile takes marketers closer to consumers than direct mail ever will.

But mobile isn't just one marketing channel. It's several. Think about how you use your smartphone. You use apps, you search the Net, you visit websites. You text friends and family.

The challenge for global brands in mobile is finding relevancy to the various activities a consumer may be performing at any given time. The misconception is that mobile is a new marketing channel, when in reality it is several new channels, all with vastly different implications for brand marketers, said Jeff Peden, CEO of Boston-based local advertising startup Crave Labs.

The trend toward mobile marketing and commerce is significant, and it's only going to grow. According to research firm Deloitte, 19% of merchants said they plan to invest $100,000 or more on mobile platforms. The money will go toward building apps, delivering through the various marketing channels that mobile affords and providing services for other businesses. About 22.5% of businesses are seeing the most traction in business-to-business mobile solutions while 33.7% are gaining mobile momentum in the business-to-consumer sector. Overall, 37% of enterprise companies have seen significant impact on their top and bottom line revenue through mobile.

Reaching consumers is a big part of the game, but it is only a start. The goal is to generate transactions. This is where relevance comes in. How do marketers achieve relevance through mobile?

Tying into the context of the consumer (location, time of day, et cetera) improves relevancy in these cases," Peden said. "In the case of search, brands should be directing consumers to the closest place of action, turning that immediate local intent into a physical transaction. In other modes, such as gaming or video, the content of an ad has to be just as rich and compelling as the app in which it's running."

These observations aren't just theoretical. Nearly 29% of consumers who research a product in a retail location through a smartphone end up purchasing that product online. Mobile commerce is expected to be a $163 billion market by 2015. Companies that focus on mobile solutions for consumers will reap the greatest reward. Procter & Gamble could sell more toothbrushes if it used a location-aware price comparison app for shopping lists. Amazon has been a leader in price-comparison shopping and its strength in m-commerce should only grow as the ecosystem expands and smartphone users come to rely on their devices' in-store utility.

The infographic below, courtesy of Deloitte, serves as a rough map to the biggest m-commerce opportunities for developers, brands and retailers.

Click here for a larger version of the infographic.

Meet The 10 Billionaires Of The Facebook IPO

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:33:51 GMT

Facebook made a lot of people millionaires but it made 10 people billionaires.

The stock opened today at $38 per share.

Using that price, Bloomberg calculated the net worth of Facebook's richest employees and investors. They're now worth ten or eleven figures.

Chris Hughes, cofounder of Facebook, is now worth $935 million

Who he is: Cofounder of Facebook, college classmate of Mark Zuckerberg's.

Value of Facebook stake at $38/share: $835 billion

Net worth: $935 million

Sheryl Sandberg is Facebook's COO. She's now worth $1 billion.

Who she is: Facebook's COO, former Googler.

Value of Facebook stake at $38/share: $1 billion

Net worth: $1 billion

Yuri Milner is now worth $1.1 billion

Who he is: Milner is the founder of DST, which made a big investment in Facebook. He owns ~ 12.5% of DST's Facebook shares.

Value of Facebook stake at $38/share: $400 million

Net worth: $1.1 billion

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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FACEBOOK EMPLOYEES CELEBRATE: This Is What Brand New Millionaires And Billionaires Look Like

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:21:51 GMT

Maybe you've heard, but Facebook went public today at an astounding $104 billion valuation.

Incredible!

Naturally, Facebook employees and former employees are pretty ecstatic.

Some of them spent all last night celebrating at Facebook HQ (though the only drinks were Red Bulls).

There are lots of photos of this! Many of them are ending up on – where else – Facebook.

Want to see what a brand new millionaire looks like?

Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes posted this 8-year-old picture of himself and his cofounder

Here, Facebook employees battle in a "dance off" at the company HQ

Facebook M&A whiz Amin Zoufonoun made the Nasdaq bell-ringing photo his new profile cover

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Feds considering allowing DVD-encryption cracking

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:20:50 GMT

Photo: ToastyKen/Flickr

LOS ANGELES Federal regulators considered testimony Wednesday here at UCLA Law School on whether to allow citizens and filmmakers to legally crack DVD encryption meant to protect the discs from being copied.

Filmmakers, video mixers and others have petitioned the U.S. Copyright Office for the ability to continue to use DVD decryption tools to copy short clips of DVDs from motion pictures to put into their own films. The issue isn't whether they have a fair-use right to the material, but whether they can utilize decrypting tools to make the best reproduction for film-making purposes.

Another proposal for the first time calls for the public at large to be authorized to make copies of their own DVDs without breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which makes it unlawful to circumvent encryption technologies in items that you buy.

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First private launch to the ISS scheduled for 5am tomorrow

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:54:50 GMT

The Dragon/Falcon 9 combination on their way to the launch pad.

NASA

After being pushed back several times, the first launch of a private vehicle to the Internaltional Space Station (ISS) is now set for early tomorrow morning (based on the timezone where the launch will take place). The Dragon capsule is set on top of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, and the assemblage was raised to a vertical launch position overnight. If all goes well, the vehicle will be sent to low-Earth orbit at 4:55am EDT tomorrow morning. For those of you located overseas (or willing to wake up early in the morning), NASA will have live coverage available via NASA TV.

The Dragon capsule will only be carrying supplies on this mission food, clothing, batteries, and a laptop, according to NASA. But the journey should give both the company and NASA the chance to test out the capsule's sensors and control systems as it approaches and assuming all those check out docks with the ISS. This will provide an essential validation of a system that is intended to ultimately carry astronauts on a similar journey. Dragon capsules are in the process of being certified for human use.

The launch window for reaching the ISS from a site in Florida is fairly narrow, so everything will have to go off without a significant hitch for the launch to take place. In other words, if you set your alarm that early and wind up with nothing to watch, don't blame us. We warned you.

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Foursquare hires former iAd exec Steven Rosenblatt to lead monetization efforts

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:53:50 GMT

According to a report by AdAge, location-based check-in service foursquare is starting to get serious about making money. It has hired former Apple iAd exec Steven Rosenblatt as Revenue Chief, the first such role the company has had in its history.

Foursquare has shown that its serious about getting more companies to join its platform by way of claiming their venues with a new simple verification process that will run them $10. The company recently announced that the new feature is available to companies worldwide.

By bringing in Rosenblatt, the company is getting someone who has spent a long career in the mobile space. Before joining Apple, he was a VP of advertising sales for Quattro Wireless. Apple purchased Quattro in 2010, and Rosenblatt went on to help lead the iAd division.

The iAd product was introduced as a highly interactive ad unit only offered to a top tier of advertising partners.

With all of the talk today surrounding Facebook's IPO, the question of how companies can advertise on mobile platforms effectively continues to gain steam. This appears to be the perfect hire at the exact right moment for foursquare.

Rosenblatt had this to say about the opportunity that foursquare has in helping companies reach all new audiences:

I think what we're most excited about is helping create new products and building new tools for our merchant partners to be able to reach new customers.

He has a lot of work ahead of him, as does the company, but it looks like the team is on the right track.

Foursquare lost its head of Business Development, Tristan Walker, at the beginning of the month, so today's announcement will help lighten that blow.

If foursquare is going to make serious money, it must figure out a way to reach its users without forcing them to take a "check-in" action, which it attempted to do with its "Radar" feature. Radar would alert you when you were close to venues and share deals with you, but as is the case with most location-aware apps, it's an absolute battery drain.

The story of the secret room at Pixar, frequented by Steve Jobs and many other celebrities

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:10:51 GMT

Truthfully, I thought everyone knew about the 'Lucky 7 Lounge'. It's a secret room at Pixar that's really not so secret now. But I took a quick poll of some friends and coworkers and drew a blank, so here goes.

It was a nook, really, created by the shape of the building around it and the needs of the air conditioning system when the company's new headquarters were built. Animator Andrew Gorden discovered it while investigating a human-sized hatch in the back wall of his new office. After finding that the tunnel ended in a 'lost space', he decided to start decorating.

In this clip from the Toy Story 3 bonus features, shared by Scott Myers at The Blacklist, Gorden details the discovery and decoration of the room. He also goes into how it was found by Pixar Director Andrew Stanton and, eventually, CEO Steve Jobs, who thought it was super cool:

Later on, the room was modified to add a sliding bookshelf with a hidden button, for easier access to the lounge.

The Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson also touches on it, but calls it The Love Lounge. Apparently, Steve loved to bring people there:

The wackiest piece of serendipity was The Love Lounge. One of the animators found a small door on the back wall when he moved into his office. It opened to a low corridor that you could crawl through to a room clad in sheet metal that provided access to the air-conditioning valves. He and his colleagues commandeered the secret room, festooned it with Christmas lights and lava lamps, and furnished it with benches upholstered in animal prints, tasseled pillows, a fold-up cocktail table, liquor bottles, bar equipment, and napkins that read The Love Lounge.
A video camera installed in the corridor allowed occupants to monitor who might be approaching. Lasseter and Jobs brought important visitors there and had them sign the wall. The signatures include Michael Eisner, Roy Disney, Tim Allen, and Randy Newman. Jobs loved it, but since he wasn't a drinker he sometimes referred to it as the Meditation Room. It reminded him, he said, of the one that he and Daniel Kottke had at Reed, but without the acid.

This is the room itself, with Gorden at center with the 2008 Oscar nominees for Animated Short:

Here's the hatch originally leading into the room:

And here's a shot of the 'Lucky 7′ sign and the secret button, courtesy of Singaporean blogger Xiaxue:

And the panel that hides the room, from that same AWN tour:

So, there you go, the secret room at Pixar, now you know.

Great Job, Wall Street and Facebook! The IPO Was Perfectly Priced...

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:05:51 GMT

It was a huge relief this morning when Facebook stock opened a modest 10% above the IPO price.

This price level was ideal for almost everyone involved--with the exception of short-term traders who bought the stock only to instantly flip it. (And no one should cry for them).

With such a modest pop, Facebook and its selling shareholders did not leave tens or hundreds of millions (or even billions) of dollars on the table--an expensive mistake that most companies make.

When LinkedIn went public, for example, the bankers underpriced the deal, and the company needlessly handed $100+ million to institutional investors.

Individual investors, meanwhile, weren't sucked into buying Facebook stock at a truly ludicrous "pop" price shortly after it opened... only to get creamed over the ensuing months as the hype faded.

To be sure, at ~$40, Facebook is still a very expensive stock.

It's trading at about 65X this year's estimated earnings of $0.60, and about 55X next year's estimated earnings of $0.75. This compares to about 13X earnings for Apple and 19X earnings for Google. So there's still plenty of downside.

But at this price, Facebook at least has a chance of being a solid investment going forward. (If it had opened at $70 or $80, growing into that valuation would have been almost impossible).

And ~$40 was clearly the price that the market was willing to pay for the stock. So, Facebook and its shareholders got nearly the full market price for their shares, and investors who are buying in the public market aren't having to pay much more than that price.

Lastly, the muted "pop" will discourage clueless investors from playing future IPOs just because they're IPOs. Buying any stock is risky. And the moment it begins to seem like a guaranteed windfall, as it does when there's a big IPO pop, too many people rush in without appreciating these risks.

So, kudos to Facebook and its bankers for perfectly pricing this deal.

Today could have been a disaster.

Instead, it has worked out nearly perfectly for all involved.

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Here are the things that Facebook made more money than today

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:42:50 GMT

Facebook, investors, and journalists aren't the only ones having a hoot-and-half during today's mega-IPO event. It seems like developers who like to hack together cool little sites to commemorate the event are also having the best day ever.

Check out this one, called Facebook Made More Money Than , which is accumulating all of the things that Facebook made more money than today. You can even submit your own.

My personal favorite? 66 sets of Winklevoss twins.

Simply click the arrow on the timeline and enter your own answer and source link:

By the end of the day, it'll be interesting to see how many submissions the site can get and how creative all of you can be. Go get in on the action!

Facebook Made More Money Than

What it takes to make a "green" Apple

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:38:50 GMT

Enlarge / Apple Maiden, North Carolina data center will be largely powered by Apple's own solar panel arrays and methane-powered fuel cells.

Apple, Inc.

Apple has gone into detail about how it sources energy for its data centers, explaining its plans to reach 100 percent renewable energy for all of its data centers by 2013. The company is adding an additional large solar panel farm in North Carolina, sourcing hydro power for its upcoming center in Oregon, and transitioning its existing data center in California to renewable sources. Apple is planning to power much of its other operations with renewable energy as well.

But Apple isn't alone in adopting "green" energy and design for its data centers and operations. Microsoft recently announced plans to make all its data centers and operations "carbon neutral" by July 2012. Google has invested heavily in outfitting its data centers and operations facilities with solar panel roofs and sourcing wind and other renewable energy. The overall trend toward greater data center efficiency began in earnest around 2008, when "performance-per-watt" began to trump raw gigahertz speed as top concern for IT operations, just after Google helped found the Climate Savers Computing Initiative in 2007.

Cutting coal in North Carolina

Apple has already confirmed that a 20MW solar array and a 5MW fuel cell array are being built adjacent to its Maiden, North Carolina data center. The company is also planning an additional 20MW solar array just a few miles away. Each solar panel array is capable of generating 42 million kWh of clean energy annually. The fuel cells, which run on waste methane generated by a nearby landfill, will produce another 40 million kWh.

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Facebook's 4 Biggest Risks

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:54:51 GMT

Facebook, whose stock is trading on public markets for the first time today, has had an incredible rise - from zero to 900 million users in just over eight years. In the fast-changing technology world, though, today's Facebook can quickly become tomorrow's MySpace. Make no mistake: Everyone's favorite social network faces substantial risks. Here are a few.

Missing the Boat on Mobile

Facebook's biggest driver of usage - and revenue - comes from the old, desktop-PC web. But as people start spending more time on mobile devices, and more people get online for the first time only on mobile devices, Facebook could lose its edge. The biggest risk, then, is the rise of a mobile-only or mobile-first social network that steals the attention and hearts of its users.

The good news: For now, Facebook is doing pretty well on mobile devices. It has more than 500 million mobile-active users as of last month; more than half its users. It recently acquired Instagram, a mobile photo-sharing network, previously one of its biggest existing threats. There's also a potential upside: If Facebook were to become a mobile platform - the way Apple's iOS and Google's Android are - it could open doors for many future businesses.

But that's also a big challenge. And right now, Facebook's mobile products aren't exactly great. Facebook's iPhone app, for example, is slow and uninspired. Something better may come along that Facebook can't beat, clone or buy. Meanwhile, Facebook admits in its IPO filing that it does not "currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven."

Growing its Business Beyond Advertising

The vast majority of Facebook's revenue - 85% last year - comes from advertising: Those little ads you see on the right side of your Facebook window. It's a decent business, with $1 billion in profit last year, but it's not a killer business. The big question is whether Facebook will be able to build additional revenue streams as big as or bigger. To make a Microsoft analogy, Facebook has its Windows, but can it find its Office?

Google, for what it's worth, hasn't been able to build another business as big as its ad business. But it hasn't needed to yet. And there's a big difference between Google's ads and Facebook's ads, as startup investor and founder Chris Dixon explains in a recent blog post.

"The good news for Facebook," he writes, "is there is a lot of room to target ads more effectively and put ads in more places. The bad news is that, if there is one consistent theme in both online and offline advertising, it's that ads work dramatically better when consumers have purchasing intent. Google makes the vast majority of their revenues when people search for something to buy or hire. They don't have to stoke demand they simply harvest it. When people use Facebook, they are generally socializing with friends."

Will Facebook figure out how to put its ads near a service where people have more purchasing intent? A social search engine, for example? Or will Facebook's payments business - 15% of its sales last year - grow to become bigger than its ad business? It will probably be years before those questions find answers.

Losing its Leadership and Recruiting Edge

Facebook has already weathered significant staff turnover: Many early employees, already rich from the company's success, have left to do other things, such as starting their own companies or becoming professional investors. Facebook has, for the most part, been able to recruit good replacements. With Mark Zuckerberg at the helm and COO Sheryl Sandberg as deputy, Facebook has seemed stable for years.

But Sandberg is about to become a billionaire. Many other employees will become millionaires. And the recruiting lure of pre-IPO shares is gone. Will Facebook be able to keep its leaders and continue recruiting the brightest engineers at reasonable prices? Or will it gradually lose out to competitors?

All the Small Things

Those are three big risks for Facebook. But in its IPO filing, it lists many others, some large, some small. These include: Failing to keep or attract new users; failing to introduce new, improved or popular products; potential for concerns over privacy, safety or security; technical problems (a big challenge for MySpace and Friendster that helped Facebook leapfrog both); and loss of advertisers.

In general, things seem to be going well for Facebook, so it's not as though users, fans, employees or investors should be particularly worried. But it's important to keep an eye on the risks and the competition. In this industry, for a site that has grown as fast as Facebook has by blowing past competitors, it's important to bear in mind that what goes up can easily come down.

Diablo III: demon-cleaving, refined

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:31:50 GMT

Third time's the charm?

Let's draw a distinction between a sequel to a game and an installment in a franchise. In a sequel, the developers examine what made the original game work and then expand on those ideas. Sometimes that work produces stark differences. The near-decade between Fallout II and Fallout III, for example, saw that game switch the perspective from isometric to first-person, the combat change from turn-based to real-time with pauses, and the setting move from California to Washington, DC. In other cases, a decade of work results in an installment that is much more about incremental refinement.

The original 1996 Diablo was a successful, simple title a real-time, single-player role-playing game with randomly generated dungeons and loot, along with minimal plot and character development. You clicked on things to kill them while delving deeper into a dungeon until you arrived at the very gates of Hell and found the titular villain Diablo.

The 2000 sequel, Diablo II, made everything about its source material bigger and better. The core concept of clicking on bad guys until they died remained intact, but very little else stayed the same. Instead of a single setting, the town of Tristram, Diablo II took players across its world both above and below ground, from the European-like forests and fortresses of the first act to Arabian-style deserts in the second, etc. The plot was detailed in a series of cutscenes, where a witness to the game's events recounted the key moments from an insane asylum.

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WHY FACEBOOK'S IPO POP FIZZLED: Nasdaq Isn't Telling Desks If They Got Their Stock

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:14:50 GMT

Facebook's IPO, priced at $38, only managed to pop to $45 and then crater back to $40.

This was surprising.

What happened?

A theory from a source close to FB's IPO bankers: The volume that caused Nasdaq to delay the IPO for more than a half hour, also prevented Nasdaq from informing big bank trading desks whether or not their trades on Facebook had gone through.

This left trading desks in a position where "you dont' know whether you bought it, and you think you did at $42 but you're not sure," says our source.

Updates coming!

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Facebook drops, kissing IPO price before rebounding

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:12:50 GMT

In a nail-biting bit of trading, Facebook landed at the $38 mark, and sat there, almost falling below its IPO price. The company had spiked as high as $43.20 this morning, according to Google Finance, but settled quickly.

Zynga's plunge and halt could not have helped. Here's the chart, as things stand:

I'll bet a whole host of investors are more than glad that Facebook didn't break the psychological boundary that its IPO price represents. Whatever jitters investors seem to have had, they appear to be leaving.

Of course, the entire financial world is staring at the company, given the size and importance of its initial public offering. For more on Facebook's IPO, check TNW's previous coverage.

Zynga's stock drops 13% during Facebook IPO, trading halted

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:59:51 GMT

During Facebook's IPO event, which the world is watching, a company closely tied to it called Zynga wasn't celebrating.

Its stock dropped over 13% and trading has been halted.

This Is Why Facebook Isn't Falling Below $38/Share

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:58:50 GMT

It strongly appears that there's a huge perma-bid at $38 on Facebook, so that it doesn't fall below the IPO price.

Twitter user @Bourbon_Meyer sent us this look at the order book, showing the MASS of bids supporting the price at $38.

Check out the big mass of yellow on the left colum... all those bids at $38.

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INSTANT TAKE: A Stunning Lack Of Enthusiasm For Facebook Stock

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:51:50 GMT

Facebook's stock was priced at $38 per share, and when it finally started trading it popped to just $45.

Now it's settled around $40, $39.

Considering some of us (ahem, me) figured the thing could go as high as $70 per share before coming back to Earth, Facebook's mini-pop demonstrates a rather stunning lack of enthusiasm by the public markets.

To be sure, Facebook sellers had a LOT of stock to move, and this surely dampened the price, but still.

The siliving lining is actually a very bright one. Considering its decelerating advertising revenues, Facebook's $104 billion valuation is already hard to stomach. That Facebook hasn't gone nuts means that investors – consumer and institutional – are actually behaving rather responsibly.

The other important to point to make is that a small pop means Facebook CFO David Ebersmann did a very good job making sure Facebook was able to meet investor demand almost perfectly in his pricing negotiations.

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U2's Bono Will Make More On Facebook IPO Than Throughout His 30-Year Music Career

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:16:51 GMT

Today's Facebook IPO will make U2's Bono the richest rocker on the planet, according to multiple reports.

Back in 2009, the musician smartly bought 2.3 percent of shares for $90 million in the social networking company through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners.

With Facebook now going public, Bono is said to make close $1.5 billion in returns.

The current richest musician, Paul McCartney, has a totaled fortune of approximately $1.05 billion.

Prior to the IPO, Bono had a net worth of around $900 million thanks to a successful 30 year career. His latest "360" tour was the highest grossing tour of 2011, raking in over $300 million.

Despite the big pay day, Bono is showing no sign of slowing down. U2 has been in the recording studio and are reportedly working with hip, upcoming names in the music industry like Danger Mouse, RedOne, David Guetta and the songwriters behind the British pop boy band, One Direction.

NOW READ: Everything you need to know about the Facebook IPO >

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Drink up! Coffee associated with lower risk of death

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:16:50 GMT

Maria Keays

Is coffee good or bad for you? If you follow the medical literature, you might think that the answer changes a few times a year. Different studies have found associations with various ailments, while others suggested that people who hit the java actually outlived their peers.

Now, a new study is out that not only finds that coffee has a positive effect, but may help explain why the earlier studies were so confused. As it turns out, coffee drinking is associated with a broad range of bad habits (most notably smoking), so if one adjusts the numbers to compensate for those, coffee drinking starts to look pretty good. Before you rush off for your latest hit, however, you should note the biggest limitation of this study: its population was recruited exclusively from the AARP. If you're not considering retirement, you might want to hold off until we see more from a study with a younger demographic.

AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) membership is open to anyone over 50, so the population at the start of the study was between 50 and 71. On the plus side, it was huge: over 400,000 individuals. And that was after the authors got rid of people who already had cancer, heart disease, and/or strokes. The initial survey included questions about coffee consumption along with a lot of other health and dietary habits. Once enrolled, the authors followed the participants for 12 years, or until Social Security records indicated they had died.

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HERE COMES FACEBOOK'S FIRST STOCK TRADE...

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:43:50 GMT

Facebook's first stock trade should be hitting shortly.

We'll have the number as soon as possible!

Click here for the latest, or just refresh your browser.

In the meanwhile, check out some of our Facebook coverage:

Congratulations Facebook!

13 Secrets To Facebook's Success

DEAR GIDDY FACEBOOK INVESTORS: Are We Looking At The Same Numbers?

Facebook Has An Incredible Pipeline Of Products Coming

VOTE: Where Will Facebook's Stock Close On Its First Day?

Here's Who Is Getting Rich On The IPO

Mark Cuban: Why Facebook's IPO Is The Most Important Ever

Facebook Is Hanging These Posters So Nobody Gets Distracted

Facebook's Ads Suck

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VIDEO: Watch Mark Zuckerberg And The Rest Of Facebook Ring The NASDAQ Bell

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:50 GMT

Here's Mark Zuckerberg ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ.

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CrashPlan is cloud backup for literally everyone

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:55:50 GMT

We've recently spent a fair amount of time talking about cloud syncing solutions for PCs and mobile devices. In addition to syncing files and data across multiple devices, these services also provide as much off-site backup as most home users need. But power users and businesses often need more control than the typical cloud sync service can offer whether it's over which data is backed up and how, over which users can use the service, over how that data is secured both in transmission and at rest, or any combination of those flavors of control.

For users and system administrators who are less worried about syncing and more worried about keeping their data safe, a cloud backup solution could be the solution, and among cloud backup solutions, CrashPlan is one of the most competitive both in features and in pricing. For consumers and small businesses, CrashPlan offers a range of versatile and highly configurable products that can back up client data to CrashPlan's cloud servers without requiring users to pay for and maintain their own file servers or network-attached storage devices. Larger businesses and enterprises can also back data up to CrashPlan's cloud, but are given the added option of creating their own on-site backup servers, which should calm security hawks distrustful of using other companies' servers to store important or sensitive data.

CrashPlan basics

Some of the CrashPlan plans.

CrashPlan

Though the details sometimes differ, all versions of CrashPlan operate in the same basic way: using client software installed on the computer you wish to back up, you specify what files you'd like to backup and where you'd like to back them up to. All versions of CrashPlan can use CrashPlan's hosted servers, but other versions can also backup to locally hosted CrashPlan servers, external drives, or even other client computers. Once backed up, you can use the client to restore files and folders to your system.

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Check Out Mark Zuckerberg's Epic Status Update On Facebook This Morning

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:54:50 GMT

We're pretty sure no one is ever going to top this status update.

Here are the "4 others":

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After the bell was rung, Mark Zuckerberg posted this epic Facebook Timeline status update

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:46:51 GMT

This is awesome.

Screenshot for posterity.

WHOA: In HOLY CRAP: In Germany Already There's Bidding For Facebook At $74/share!Germany Already There's Bidding For Facebook At $74!

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:42:50 GMT

Trading in the US on Facebook won't start until 11:00 AM ET.

But according to Bloomberg, there are bids for the stock at 58.20 in Europe, and that's $74/share!

That would be a HUGE gain from the $38 where it priced at

We'r enot sure whether there ahve been trades, or what that means for US trading, but WOW!

More to come...

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FACEBOOK'S HACKER HEAVEN: This Is What A $100 Billion Company's Office Looks Like

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:14:51 GMT

Facebook is finally going public. It's going to be worth more than $100 billion.

How did it get there?

Well, for starters, it attracted some of the best software engineers in Silicon Valley.

That starts with having a sweet office — and man, does Facebook have a sweet office.

Facebook put a bunch of photos of the office up on their website. You really have to see it for yourself.

Here's the courtyard of Facebook's Menlo Park campus. It's on 1601 Willow Road.

There's a big "like" sign outside the office. You're definitely in Facebook territory.

Here's the lobby to the Menlo Park campus.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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At a $104b valuation, here's how Facebook stacks up against other public tech companies

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:01:51 GMT

At least on paper, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now worth more personally than all of online services pioneer Yahoo. Here's how the social networking company he co-founded some 8 years ago stacks up against other public technology and Internet firms at current market valuations.

Valued at $104.2 billion after setting its share price at $38 just yesterday, Facebook is currently worth:

- almost the same as Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Nokia, AOL, Adobe, Groupon and Research In Motion, combined (sum of market caps: $104.57 billion)

- a Netflix more than Amazon.com (market caps: $4 billion and $98,38 billion, respectively)

- nearly twice as much as ecommerce juggernaut eBay (market cap: $50.4 billion)

- almost 10 times as much as social network firm LinkedIn (market cap: $10.84 billion)

- more than half of Google (market cap: $203.13 billion). Google reported almost $3 billion in profits last quarter, Facebook booked $1 billion in net income for all of 2011.

- almost 43x what China's social network RenRen is worth (market cap: $2.43 billion)

- approximately 4x what computer maker Dell is worth (market cap: 26.32 billion)

- more than 93 times what Zillow is worth (market cap: $1.12 billion)

Crazy when you look at it like that, right?

Also check the NYT's amazing 'The Facebook Offering: How It Compares'

Needless to say, we'll have to wait and see how investors value Facebook when its stock start trading publicly today (around 11 AM Eastern Time).

Either way, this offering will give Facebook a mind-blowing market capitalization, and will put enormous pressure on Zuckerberg and Facebook's thousands of employees to make it worth much more than that in the coming years.

Travel across the Roman Empire in real time with ORBIS

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:27:50 GMT

In a clever bit of technological legerdemain, Stanford University has combined historical research, mapping, and Web technology to bring ancient Roman Empire travel to the Internet. A cross-disciplinary team has created and launched ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World. With it, a user can determine how long it will take to travel from any point in the Roman Empire to any other, as well as calculate the cost of transporting goods and people.

This heretofore unnatural union of geographers, technologists, and historians of the ancient world is becoming more and more common under the descriptor of "digital humanities." ORBIS looks to be one of the most effective examples of its promise.

Built by historian and classicist Walter Scheidel and Stanford Libraries' digital humanities specialist Elijah Meeks, with the assistance of geographer and Web developer Karl Grossner and GIS analyst Noemi Alvarez, the interactive online atlas is based on a host of data. This includes historical tide information and weather; size, grade, and surface of roads; main cities and ports; land, sea, and river routes; vehicle speed (including ships, ox carts, horse, and walking); and the cost of transport.

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Vyclone: This collaborative video app is just what citizen journalists ordered

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:01:51 GMT

2011 was a tumultuous year for the Middle East, but the troubles also served as a reminder of the role technology can play in giving everyone a voice.

Live video-streaming platform Bambuser is one example of how citizens took the initiative and reported on events from their own perspective, often from positions unreachable by traditional media outlets. And now as The Guardian reports, a new mobile app is looking to harness the power of roving smartphone-owners to create a compendium of crowdsourced clips that tell the story of key events from multiple perspectives.

Vyclone: Videos from the masses

Vyclone is a free iOS app that professes to let you "Record life from all angles" - in short, it lets users collaborate from different locations and perspectives to "co-create, sync and share movies".

So let's assume you're watching the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations - topical, I know - and you film a snippet of the procession using your iPhone. Vyclone lets you upload a clip to its servers, where other users can throw their own shots into the mix to create a crowdsourced movie encompassing, literally, different points-of-view.

How it works…

When you first launch the app, it's clear the preference is that you log-in with your Facebook credentials, but you can set yourself up with your own Vyclone account too.

Once you're in you can browse existing videos, or start shooting footage yourself.

It's worth noting that once you upload a video for the Vyclone-using public to access, others can remix it and do as they please. So imagine you're at a gig and you capture some great footage, it could find its way onto a multimillion-views YouTube hit. So if you're precious about your 'work', this may not be for you.

That said, you can choose what content you want to share publicly through Vyclone, and whether you want to keep it private between you and your buddies. If you don't choose 'public' or 'private', it will default to the former.

The app's terms and conditions are pretty clear though, and there are potential ramifications for rights-issues depending on where your video collaboration ends up. It says:

"By choosing to post the content to the Vyclone website through the app, you are granting pretty much everyone else the right to use, edit and view your content. It's 21st Century sharing, and we hope you like that. If you don t, then don't hit POST to submit your content to the Vyclone website through the app. Got it? Yes? Super."

The upshot of this is, well, you could upload a clip on the spur of the moment of a really newsworthy event (think: Arab Uprising), and it could find its way onto a CNN montage in no time. But, you have been warned and you likely won't have a leg to stand on if you object to how your handiwork has been used.

Moving back to the specifics of the app, a nice little feature is that you can search for movies that have already been created nearby, which obviously lends itself well to event-specific video collaborations.

Once you're done shooting or remixing the movie with the built-in editing tool, you can choose to broadcast your movie across all the usual social networks.

It's worth noting that the app is UK-only for now, though as The Guardian notes, a full-scale launch should happen this year. And an Android app is in the works too.

So…what do the creators believe the app will be used for?

"Our big regret is that we didn't have Vyclone ready in time for the Arab unrest or Occupy Wall Street protests, as it would have been a very powerful tool to record what was truly happening," says Chief Executive David King Lassman in the interview with The Guardian's Stuart Dredge.

"We're convinced that citizen journalism will be a key application for the product. But the reason we're putting this out into the public domain is that people will find uses for this that we couldn't possibly begin to imagine."

In other words, your only limit is your imagination. Citizen journalism is only one potential use-case for Vyclone.

Vyclone

Apple no longer censoring the word jailbreak in U.S. iTunes Store

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:36:50 GMT

Yesterday a bit of a hullabaloo was started when it was discovered that Apple was censoring the word 'jailbreak' in the U.S. App Store. Now, that censoring has been corrected, and the word is visible across all categories, including podcasts, songs, iTunes U, iBooks and more.

This censoring was likely the result of an error in the ratings for the U.S. App Store, as the word appeared just fine worldwide. As I conjectured yesterday, we have seen Apple fix the problem quietly, and the error has been rectified.

In closing, I'll just quote what I said then:

If Apple was simply enacting an iTunes-wide ban on the word jailbreak, why would it only do so in the U.S.? Much of the world's jailbreak community is located internationally, because one of the first major reasons to jailbreak iOS devices was to unlock it from its exclusivity to AT&T as a carrier. Why wouldn t Apple censor it in the most popular regions for the term?
If I had to conjecture, I would say that this problem will likely quietly fix itself now that it has gained some attention. Don't be surprised to see the word jailbreak suddenly re-appear like normal in iTunes.

It looks like this is exactly what has taken place. Rest easy jailbreakers, Apple isn't out to get you.

Wake up to the sound of tweets in the morning with The Listening Machine

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:18:51 GMT

If you fancy waking up to the sound of the world in 140 characters? Then you will be delighted to know that there's a way to translate tweets into sound for your own dawn chorus.

The Listening Machine is an automated system that creates a continuous soundscape based on the activity of 500 Twitter users around the UK. Their conversations, thoughts and feelings are translated into musical patters in real time and listeners can tune in through any web-connected device.

Tweet sentiments

The twittering 500 have been selected proportionally from eight different fields: arts, business, education, health, politics, science, sport and technology. Other parts of the group are chosen at random.

When any of these people posts a status update, the machine analyses its properties in terms of both sound and meaning, and generates music based upon it. The system uses techniques like natural language processing and machine learning to categorise each tweet.

It's pretty clever programming where the sentiment is identified via emotive terms and classification is centered on the the topic of the tweet and identified using an archive from the BBC News Website.

The rhythm and intonation, taken from the vowel sounds and patterns in each tweet are extracted to turn word sequences into music.

By looking at the overall behavioural trends, The Listening Machine can make measurements of the collective as a whole, which are displayed on gauges. If the overall activity within the sports classification is high, its dial will indicate as such.

Created by created by Daniel Jones, doctoral researcher at Golsmiths, composer and cellist, Peter Gregson and musicians from Britten Sinfonia. The Listening Machine will be live from May until October 2012 on The Space, the new on-demand digital arts channel from the BBC and Arts Council England.

The process is certainly very cool but the music produced might not be something you can easily sing along to. The piece is set to evolve over time, adjusting its responses to social patterns and generating new musical output, so it's worth checking back to see how things have changed.

It's complicated: Indian woman files for divorce over single Facebook status

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:01:50 GMT

Love. It's not always all you need.

In a sure-tell sign that Facebook's IPO will be a massive failure, an Indian women has reportedly filed for divorce after her husband failed to update the relationship status on his social networking profile to 'Married' instead of 'Single'.

The couple had been married for only two months, but the woman is already looking to nullify the - arranged - marriage over her husband's Facebook gaffe.

For his part, the man claims he simply forgot to update his status because he was so busy with family and his furniture business post-wedding.

You may think that this is funny, but it's actually quite hilarious.

Reports the Deccan Chronicle (via 9MSN):

Pallavi (name changed), 28, a newly-wed IT professional, has approached the family court seeking divorce from her 31-year-old businessman husband Gaurav (name changed), for not updating his Facebook profile status from single to married !
The Telugu couple had an arranged marriage just two months ago. The case was filed in the jurisdiction of an Aurangabad court where the girl resides. Gaurav told the court that he had forgotten to update his status.
However, Pallavi said she couldn t trust her husband and wanted to nullify the marriage. The judge has given the two parties six months to undergo counselling.

Can't they just poke and make up?

China's Tencent focuses on mobile, ecommerce and overseas growth with restructuring

Fri, 18 May 2012 07:48:50 GMT

Chinese Internet company Tencent has announced a corporate restructuring move that will see it focus on developing its social network services, mobile offering and overseas presence through dedicated business units.

Tencent posted record earnings this week - with quarterly revenues in excess of $1.5 billion and profits of $466 million - and its reorganisation will see the business split into six verticals: corporate development, interactive entertainment, mobile internet, online media, social network, and technology and engineering.

Additionally, the firm has created an ecommerce subsidiary to manage its online retail business, which includes its struggling Gaopeng joint venture with Groupon, which is rumoured to be merging with rival FTuan.

CEO Pony Ma explained that the move will help the company increase its presence overseas, which already includes a 49.9 percent share in Thai Internet firm Sanook, and focus on its developing its core services:

Our goals are: to strengthen our social networking services, to embrace the expanding global online games market, to extend our presence in mobile Internet, to integrate our online media platforms, to nurture our search business, to build out our e-Commerce platforms, and to enhance our capabilities to incubate new businesses.

The focus is not unexpected as comments made in March revealed that ecommerce, search expansions and global opportunities would occupy the Chinese giant's plans for the year.

Tencent isn't alone in its aim to branch out as, earlier this year, Chinese search provider Baidu signalled its focus on nearby Southeast Asia. The company opened a research center in Singapore, as it looks get a better understanding and emerging markets there, and the region is one that Tencent is prioritising too.

Already the company has released its Weixin mobile chat application in Southeast Asia, as it looks to gain a footing in the region's fast growing mobile market, using a similar approach to its Chinese strategy.

The firm's QQ messenger is the backbone of its offering in China, and the service has more than 751.9 million active members, the firm's latest figures published this week revealed. QQ ties into its websites, in a similar way to the vision of Google+, but with far greater effect as QQ was launched before many of the services.

Aside from its Twitter-like Weibo service, Tencent's other sites games, video and microblogging services, and Weixin - which is known as We Chat in Southeast Asia - looks to be its opening gambit in the new region.

As discussed earlier this week, a move into global markets does not make a lot of sense for Chinese social media firms right now - with plenty of issues at home and little to differentiate them with rivals - but Tencent has a vast array of other services which could appeal to new markets more than its 'Weibo' microblogging site.

Ordinarily restructing could mean job loses (a-la Yahoo), but in Tencent's case new hires are a more likely result. Though for now, Tencent isn't discussing any recruitment drive.