Facebook Acquires Gowalla

Facebook Acquires Gowalla

Author JoeDigital | 20.12.2011 | Category Technology

Facebook announced this week the purchase of Gowalla, a geo-social networking site that allows users to tag their locations and tell friends what they are doing by “checking in.” Gowalla is similar to Foursquare, its more popular competitor.

In a blog post, Gowalla’s founder, Josh Williams, announced that the site was shutting down and that none of its user information was being transferred to Facebook. Effectively, then, this means that Facebook is purchasing Gowalla’s talent and its capabilities – not its data or its product.

Gowalla was founded by Williams and Scott Raymond in 2007. In addition to letting users identify their location and seek out the location and current activities of friends, Gowalla further provides a Passport feature where users can share the locations of places they have visited and collections of photos from those places. It differentiates itself through this focus on “social travel.” With Gowalla, instead of using a site like Anywho.com to see where your friend is calling from, all you need to do is log on and see if they’ve checked in. Although Gowalla’s membership was dwarfed by that of other social media sites, the company had received $8.4 million in funding two years ago and is reported to be profitable and growing. Nevertheless, it will cease operations in January as part of the Facebook deal.

Facebook, for its part, has tried multiple times in the past to harness geo-social capabilities. Last year, it tried to buy Foursquare but could not arrive at a deal. Foursquare later received an injunction of venture capital money and continues to independently operate. Facebook also tried last year to start its own geolocation service: Places. That service no longer exists. These days, the networking site allows for location tags when making status updates or uploading photos, but there is no stand-alone geolocating feature.

Facebook’s acquisition of Gowalla doesn’t immediately change this, however. Since, as aforementioned, the social networking giant is planning to shut Gowalla down and not take any of their user data (likely due to privacy concerns), Facebook’s true intention here is talent; Gowalla’s founders and top talent are all switching jobs as part of the deal.

The talent involve here seems to ultimately be key, making this move less of an acquisition and more of a hiring spree. In recent weeks and months, Facebook has been quite public about its search for top talent. It has sent CEO Mark Zuckerberg on an East Coast recruiting tour, opened up an engineering office in New York, and announced its intent to hire thousands of new workers in the next year. Facebook is growing, and it wants the best and the brightest. Add in the ability of Gowalla’s team to track user locations for advertising means – a talent much sought-after in the industry – and Facebook has itself a pretty good deal.
The two companies refrained from disclosing any financial details of the acquisition.

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Video Game Tournaments

Author Karoken | 14.05.2011 | Category Video Games

As gaming becomes more and more popular, the competitive side of the industry is growing as well, thus giving rise to numerous online tournament services. While Major League Gaming was the first major venue to embrace competitive gaming, many newer services are ready to compete for a new and lucrative market. One of the newer services, Virgin Gaming, has really taken video game tournaments to the next level with a comprehensive package which includes redeemable points, player profiles, and an awesome ranking and reputation system.

With competitive games like Starcraft 2, Call of Duty, and FIFA taking the market by storm, it’s no wonder why so many players are looking to take gaming to the next level. Let’s be honest, competition makes anything better, and video games are certainly no exception. Online tournaments not only add a new dynamic to any title, they are also a great way to win prizes and “glory” in the gaming world, which is probably the reason why they have become so insanely popular in the last couple of years.

While the competitive side of games has always been a part of the industry dominated by countries with a huge fan base such as South Korea, services like Virgin Gaming are looking to capture the North American market, which has huge potential for competitive gaming. It’s only a matter of time before gaming takes off in Western countries as the next big thing, and it all starts with online tournaments and vanues. The main problem holding competitive gaming back is the price tag involved, as most gamers cannot afford to fly to whichever city is sponsoring Major League Gaming and compete in tournaments. Online completion is definitely the answer, and something we can see on the minds of both fans and developers in the near future.

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The latest digital camera news

Author JoeDigital | 06.04.2011 | Category Consumer Electronics, cameras

Image courtesy of Expansys

Following the recent magnitude 9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that have struck Japan both Nikon and Canon have stopped production at their plants. This is both in response to the interruption to power supplies, the impact of the human tragedy and damage done to their plants and the plants of their suppliers, preventing the delivery of components. There have also been reports of injuries to staff and those of their suppliers. Canon and Nikon have both donated money to help with the earthquake relief efforts with over 400 million Yen donated between them. It remains to be seen how soon production will resume and what impact this will have on the camera market as stocks begin to run out.

Pentax has just released its new Pentax Optio RS1500 which is available in a wide range of customised exteriors. As a camera it is very much in line with the field with a 14 megapixel sensor and three inch display but the camera’s exterior is interchangeable and comes in a wide range of colours and styles with customised styles for individuals and businesses also available. The body covers are matched by lens rings to give the whole camera a unique look. The camera offers nothing unusual with four times optical zoom and being capable of shooting up to 720p video. It is rather surprising how much digital cameras are beginning to lag behind smart phones as the top smartphones and tablets now offer 1080p recording as a standard feature, the processing power requirement and cost of including that feature may mean the days of dedicated low end digital cameras are numbered as the more highly subsidised and higher volume smartphones move in to the market place, especially when some of them sport dedicated lenses and sensors that match the hardware in the current generation of digital cameras. Other RS1500 features include face and blink detection along with improved automatic shooting modes to make taking photographs easier. Oddly it lacks an HDMI port and has a very limited 21 MB of internal storage, far too little to shoot any length of video and rather disappointing given the low price of flash memory. This can be improved on with SD and SDHC cards up to 32 GB.

Lumix have recently released their FP5 and FP7 models, two elegantly shaped cameras that have single colour, shiny finishes. Both cameras can record 720p film with their stabilised four times optical lenses. The LCD screens on both cameras have grown since the previous models with 3 and 3.5 inch displays now for the FP5 and FP7 respectively, making navigating easier and viewing pictures and film on the camera far higher quality. The newest feature that both share is built in image processing options to allow pictures to be touched up as soon as they have been taken. Lumix’s FP7 has an impressive 16.1 megapixel sensor while the smaller FP5 features a more standard 14.1 megapixels with both sharing the same 35mm four times optical zoom lens. Both cameras will be available in a range of colours with prices yet to be announced. If they continue where their predecessors left off both should be fun low and mid range digital cameras available at competitive prices, price announcements are expected soon from Lumix for both models.

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Technology gifts for Christmas

Author JoeDigital | 15.12.2010 | Category Computers

Men and women always seem to struggle with knowing what to get each other. Women obviously know what women want and men, of course, know what their fellow man wants, but can one ever successfully buy for the other?

Women should take note, men love technology. From super-sized 3D TVs and home cinema systems to the latest digital camcorders and mps players, men love a bit of James Bond style gadgetry. Of course that’s not to say that bottle of cologne, new shirt and vintage bottle of whisky won’t go down a treat, but to really impress your man this year you need to think like Q and go for as much ‘cool’ stuff as possible.

One of the coolest new gadgets for gamers this Christmas is Microsoft Kinect for the XBOX 360. This clever piece of kit allows your whole body to become the controller, taking fighting games to a whole new level. Maybe you’ll need to clear an area of the lounge to avoid accidental damage.

If your man loves to drive but will never stop to ask for directions this Christmas there is a solution to solve the problem of getting lost. CoPilot Live turns mobile phones and PDAs into personal sat navs without the huge expense of buying the real thing.

For movie lovers on the go, the MiLi iPhone 4 projector is a seriously cool Christmas gadget. You plug it into your iphone and you can watch your favourite movies projected onto a nearby wall. The ‘screen’ size can by up to 70 inches so not bad for something the size of your hand.

Of course if your partner is really into his movies then the ultimate gadget is the 3D TV. These are the latest TVs to hit the market so are still rather pricey, but for around a £1000 you can pick up a 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray player from Samsung.

Being able to document all his funny antics down the pub, at concerts or on the upcoming snowboarding holiday is highly appealing for any man, so get them the latest in HD hand-held digital camcorders. The price range is quite astonishing and you can pick up an HD-ready camera for less than fifty quid, but at the top end of the market you won’t get much change from £500. You can therefore find one to fit your budget and just how much time you want your partner to be spending with the thing.

In keeping with your new knowledge of all this technologic, don’t shop on a packed high street, head online for the best deals and bargains away from the crowds. Pricedropper has plenty of technology and gadget goods including cheap camcorders.

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Microsoft Windows XP Downgrade Rights Extended

Author JoeDigital | 12.07.2010 | Category Computers, Windows

It was announced today that Microsoft would extend the downgrade rights from windows 7 to windows XP for another 10 years. If that is right it means that the Windows XP extended support would need to be further extended to cover this new extended downgrade rights. This comes as no surprise as Microsoft has extended the EOL for Windows XP many times amass the large number of corporate
customers that refuse to “upgrade” to Windows 7 (or Vista).

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179109/Microsoft_extends_Windows_XP_downgrade_rights_until_2020

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How to Train your Dragon Movie Review

Author edokun | 28.03.2010 | Category Movies

Dreamworks has a solid product with How to Train Your Dragon. Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Cressida Cowell, this movie version makes for a refreshing take in dragon folklore.

With allusions to the tales of yore, the cartoony caricature driven CGI world created here does more than stir the imagination. It harkens to a potential saga in the making. With more books in this series, there is potential to adapt the later novels. And the altered storyline is something that writer Chris Sanders is not too worried about.

This veteran in the animation scene is better known for his work in the Lilo & Stitch series, and he repeats his winning formula for Dreamworks. If one looks carefully, Toothless the dragon looks a bit like the alien Stitch.

And instead of a girl meeting an extraterrestrial, the tale takes a spin in a world of fantasy where a young boy, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) encounters a dragon. His Viking village is at war with the entire dragon race and in order to train the next generation to fight against them, Hiccup goes to school.

Little do his classmates know, he is rehabilitating a serpentine beast behind everyone’s back. But it’s a question of who is training who, and those moments are particularly engaging. Just like Lilo and Stitch, there are a few adorable moments as the two bond.

When they take to the air, the aerial aerobatics they undertake are more breathtaking than what Avatar can do. James Cameron can learn from this film.

Photo-realism can only go so far, and the cartoony flavour helps to make this movie particularly enjoyable for the one important message it delivers—it’s possible to make alliances.

And no battle can come out scar-free. This touch of realism is important and this helps make for a solid film.

***** out of 5

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3DTV’s Future

Author edokun | 29.01.2010 | Category Computers

Are consumers ready to embrace a new style of watching TV?  Everyone is talking about 3DTVs and it’s the next most hyped thing next to Avatar. Nexus Newspaper has a great article looking at 3DTV’s introduction to the consumer market this year, penned by one our own staff writers!

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Cool and Unique watch by phosphorwatches

Author JoeDigital | 18.11.2009 | Category Computers

So your looking for a new cool LED watch, one that is both unique but subtle. Well take a look this way at a new watch by phosphorwatches.com. This unique and styleish time piece sports technology that is rare in watches and is sure to turn heads with its sleek look. Based on “E-Ink” the same type of technology used in Amazon Kindle and Sony ereader the display has a very book like font to it, unlike regular LCD watches that have an absolute streight edges. Having e-ink technology in the watch allows the user to instantly change the appearance of the watch dail as well as present the date and time information.

An elegant curved watch case houses a distinctive digital display that fits comfortably on your wrist. The bright, high contrast E Ink electronic paper display insures readability day or night and allows you to select between differing watch dial modes to match whatever style fits your mood.

The Phosphor watch also has a contured case that wraps around your wrist to give a great fit and feel. If you are looking for a great Christmas gift this year thetechnologyblog.net highly recommends the Phosphor E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch Stainless Steel

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Cool Watches from Tokyo Flash

Author JoeDigital | 04.11.2009 | Category Japanese Gadgets

Looking for a cool LED watch? tokyoflash is having a sale on most of its unique and ultra fashionable watches. One of the most amazing watches in the tokyoflash line-up right now is the Negative and the Keisan. The Negative has an “always on” LCD display and one of the most sophisticated designs Tokyoflash has to offer. The Keisan on the other hand is a streamlined one motioned design that is both cool and streamlined. Even if they cant read the time it will be a eye catcher both in the board room and the dance floor. Check out the Ultra cool watches at http://www.tokyoflash.com

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Mineral Oil Submerged Computer

Author cobster | 17.10.2009 | Category Computers

Ive seen it all, Now we have a mineral oil submerged cooling system by Puget Systems.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok] 

From Puget Systems Homepage: http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

“We built this system because with all the oil cooled projects out there, no one built a system that looked good and functioned well! After seeing all the other projects, we had a lot of ideas of how we could do it better and more easily. Many projects used vegetable oil, which would go rancid after a short time. The mineral oil does not have this problem, and is completely clear. We also wanted to use an appropriate enclosure — the Toms Hardware system used a clear acrylic case, and they had to painstakingly seal each rear connector to keep the oil from leaking. We wanted to put the ports on top to solve that problem the simple way. Other people have built systems in aquariums before, but they were always oversized and square. When we found the Eclipse System 6 Aquarium, we were excited to see an aquarium that was absolutely perfect in size — you couldn’t go any smaller. In addition, we had questions about performance and long term effects. Our initial tests, which we go over below, answer the questions about cooling performance. At the bottom of the page, we’ve posted subsequent follow ups after a few months and even a year, to let you know how a system like this performs in the long term.”

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