FEATURE: Disclaimer The organizers of Casual Connect paid my way to Amsterdam. Our coverage remains fair. The business model of the Internet is changing as more people install tools to block advertisements, and this is forcing content creators into situations where they need to c … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – A Facebook executive who spent about 24 hours in a Brazilian jail this week said authorities treated him with respect and that the incident will not slow the company’s expansion in Brazil. Diego Dzodan, a Facebook vice president based in São Paulo, was arrested on Tue … | Continue reading
Any modern age marketer worth his salt is under substantial pressure to prove the ROI (return on investment) behind his marketing activities and endeavors. Awash in endless reams of data from dozens of sources, and countless different metrics or signs he/she can measure, it’s no … | Continue reading
It’s hard to find a company as iconic as Yahoo is in tech. Not surprisingly, Yahoo’s been one of the most closely watched tech companies over the past two decades. But Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman, who’s been in the position for the last four years, doesn’t seem too excited about it. Ra … | Continue reading
GUEST: Machine Zone blew away the competition in the Mobile & Video Games category this month for TV advertising, with spending estimated at three times more than its nearest competitor. Propelled by an ad that ran in the first quarter of the Super Bowl, it’s difficult to compare … | Continue reading
Microsoft’s Xbox Live is once again experiencing issues. Users are unable to sign in, and Microsoft is investigating what the problem might be. Ironically, we first spotted the issue without even being on an Xbox. At 9:23 a.m. Pacific, we tried playing Minecraft for Windows. The … | Continue reading
Oculus VR is only a few weeks away from releasing the Rift headset. And while that kicks off high-end virtual reality on PC, it’s the end of an uncertain journey for developers building games for these devices. One of the earliest games due out for the Rift this spring is a sci-f … | Continue reading
It’s a strange feeling, contemplating the future of music making while playing a drum set made of cheeseburgers. But George Michael Brower‘s Playthings warrants the discussion. The artist’s experience, created solely by Brower, drops you inside an awww-inspiring mini-game made of … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Virtual reality (VR) was the talk of the town at Mobile World Congress (MWC) last month, and it has become increasingly clear that VR will be the hot technology trend of 2016. A great deal supports that assertion — Samsung and Six Flags are creating VR roller coasters, w … | Continue reading
Starboard, the activist hedge fund leading an investor revolt against Yahoo's management team, will push for control of the company's board in talks scheduled for next week, according to people familiar with the matter. | Continue reading
Live esports isn’t going anywhere. Twitch, the leading site for livestreaming gameplay video, announced today that it has extended its partnership with the ESL esports organization. Fans of Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and League of Legends can expect to keep seeing … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: One of Britain’s biggest movie theater chains has revealed plans to let film fans decide which movies are played from a library of more than 400 titles. Vue Cinemas is teaming up with Our Screen, a social crowdfunding platform that lets people “vote” for a particular mo … | Continue reading
ICX Media, a Washington, D.C. startup promising to help video creators find an audience and make money, announced today that it has raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The company was founded by Michael Avon, Tom MacIsaac, Steve McCord and Joey McCord (pictured above). Three of … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: Facebook released its new interactive, full-screen mobile ad unit called Canvas last week. It gives advertisers an elegant, rich-media way to engage users directly within Facebook’s page. Agencies are already lapping it up and experimenting with it to showcase their pro … | Continue reading
Capturing the key moments of the 2016 Oscar ceremony— when Spotlight was crowned Best Picture and Leo finally got his award— took a team of nearly 20 Getty Images staffers, lightning fast reflexes and just a little help from robots.Getty Images, one of the biggest photo services … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc is exploring the sale of $1 billion to $3 billion of patents, property and other “non-core assets,” its chief financial officer said on Thursday. Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference that a committee created … | Continue reading
While Twitch and YouTube gobble up live and recorded video for traditional gaming platforms, a battle is heating up on smartphones. Stre.am, a mobile livestreaming video company, is expanding from camera-based content to video games — at least on Android. It’s using the new addit … | Continue reading
The world is getting ready for virtual reality — well, the world of PC, smartphone, and PlayStation 4 owners. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who helped design the Rift head-mounted display that has everyone buzzing about the potential of VR, has said it’s Apple’s fault that Mac do … | Continue reading
First came the Transportation hub with Uber, and now Facebook Messenger is launching “its very first music integration” with Spotify. Inside the Messenger “More” section in chat threads, all iOS and Android users will now find a Spotify option. Tap it, and they’ll be shuttled int … | Continue reading
Don’t miss Alexander Klöpping at TNW Europe in May! Get your discount ticket here. What do you call people who are stretching the limits of their imaginations to engineer a new future? At The Next Web, we went with imagineers. Produced in partnership with the City of Amsterdam … | Continue reading
Popular long-form blogging platform Medium has given the biggest hint yet as to how and when it will let publishers monetize their content. Speaking to the BBC, Medium founder Evan Williams — who also co-founded Twitter — said: “We’re building monetization into the product right … | Continue reading
FEATURE: When I say Pokémon, most of you probably think of the games. But the franchise owes just as much of its success to its cartoon series. The Pokémon anime started in 1997, one year after the original game released in Japan. Those handheld classics celebrate their 20th anni … | Continue reading
Spotify has rolled out a slate of playlists designed to help users discover new artists from across multiple genres. First introduced last year, Fresh Finds combines human input with algorithms to serve up an auto-generated playlist to each user’s account every Wednesday. Unlike … | Continue reading
Yahoo has launched a new section on its network dedicated to covering esports. The company hopes that it will eventually become the “premiere destination for all things” in the gaming world, providing not only original and syndicated content but also a bounty of video interviews … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: Speculation is increasing that Facebook will open up its Messenger chat service to outside businesses, potentially as early as its F8 conference on April 12-13. Facebook won’t comment on its plans, but such a move could open the floodgates to a revolution of sorts in co … | Continue reading
Pouring petrol on the bonfire of news tech, Google announced that it has invested more than $30m into projects spanning the European news tech scene. The fund’s goal is to ‘help stimulate innovation in digital journalism’ over the next three years, Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO sai … | Continue reading
It’s been three years since Livefyre acquired social aggregator Storify, and the company hasn’t really made major waves in the service — until now. Livefyre announced today the launch of Storify 2, an upgrade to the real-time storytelling product that now provides improved workfl … | Continue reading
The latest version of veraPDF is now available. The latest version of veraPDF is now available for download in the PREFORMA Open Source Portal. veraPDF is building the definitive, file-format validator for all parts and conformance levels of ISO 19005 (PDF/A). This version contai … | Continue reading
Videogram, the Japan-US company that helps publishers and creators get more out of online video content, has closed a bridge round of funding ahead of planned Series B later this year. Read More | Continue reading
(Reuters) – Yahoo said it may have to write down the goodwill value of Tumblr, more than two years after the web pioneer spent $1.1 billion to buy the microblogging site. Yahoo said earlier in the month it took a $230 million impairment charge related to Tumblr and was considerin … | Continue reading
Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, when 12 states hold their primary elections and caucuses in the U.S. presidential campaign. It is arguably the most important day for candidates in the battle for the Democrat and Republican nominations, a day when the most states and the most delegates … | Continue reading
China’s Mobvista has agreed to acquire mobile ad monetization firm NativeX for $25 million in cash. The deal signals further consolidation in the mobile market for advertising aimed at acquiring new users for games and apps. In this multibillion-dollar market, bigger companies ar … | Continue reading
Microsoft’s augmented reality development kit costs $3,000, and that’s because it shares some components that you’d normally find in spacecraft, guided missiles, and drones. HoloLens, the head-mounted display that mixes digital imagery with the real world, starts shipping to deve … | Continue reading
FEATURE: “Pika. Pika pi, pikachu. Pi ka chu.” OK, maybe writing this story in Pika-ese isn’t a great idea. Still, it does remind us of an important point: one of the most popular video game characters ever created can’t say any words besides his own name. Pikachu was one of the 1 … | Continue reading
While most of the current Hollywood headlines are focused on the Academy Awards, there were some new movies this weekend, too — including Triple 9, a sprawling crime drama with a cast that includes (deep breath) Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Kate Wi … | Continue reading
The Oscars are finally here. Will Leonardo DiCaprio finally get his Oscar? Will we see another epic celeb-filled selfie from Ellen?If you want to catch all the action but won’t be in front of a TV, here are all the ways you can stream the event tonight, starting at 5:30pm PT / 8: … | Continue reading
FEATURE: It’s never too late to become a Pokémon fan. The original games came out 20 years ago and spawned a franchise that stretches across cartoons (the show has over 900 episodes), movies (19 of them), a card game (that has 68 sets), and more. In total, the Pokémon brand earns … | Continue reading
I’ve argued in the past that Netflix will have the last laugh — that its success with content production will soon rival and surpass traditional TV networks and movie studios. Now I’m more convinced than ever. Ironically, it’s a smear campaign spearheaded by NBC to undermine Netf … | Continue reading
GUEST: The annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona just wrapped up, and it has arguably become more important than even the giant Consumer Electronics Show in terms of indicating where technology is headed. Despite highlighting many different trends — and focusing especially on … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Pikachu, Squirtle, Charizard, and all their of friends turn 20 years old today. On this day in 1996, Pokémon Red and Green came out in Japan for the Game Boy. It spawned a series that has sold over 200 million copies. But Pokémon’s reach goes far beyond video games, as i … | Continue reading
FEATURE: Mike Gallagher came out swinging in defense of the game industry in a recent talk. He has to be feisty, as he’s the industry’s chief lobbyist as the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. Gallagher is gaming’s biggest cheerleader, and he showed that at the recent … | Continue reading
Facebook has announced that it is finally expanding its live video-streaming tool to Android devices, but only in the U.S. for now. Today’s news comes one month after the social network opened Facebook Live to all iOS users in the U.S., following a short period of limited availab … | Continue reading
With Twitter struggling for growth and focus, what better person to ask for advice than the head honcho of a rival social network that’s emerged as one of the world’s most valuable companies in the world? While Jack Dorsey won’t be calling Mark Zuckerberg any time soon, during a … | Continue reading
Facebook is expanding its live-video feature to Android users, the company announced in a blog post today. This rollout is initially for Android users based in the U.S. next week, but “more countries [are] coming soon,” Facebook confirmed. Read More | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: If there’s one thing the world doesn’t need, it’s another social messaging app. From Facebook Messenger and Snapchat onto WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, and beyond, it’s safe to say that most bases are covered. Right? Well, maybe. A new startup launched out of stealth in th … | Continue reading
Google today announced the launch of a smart feature people can use once they’ve uploaded videos to YouTube. Now you can draw a box around the thing you want to blur in a video, and YouTube will automatically keep that thing from being seen clearly, even as it moves elsewhere in … | Continue reading
Bern, 3-6 October 2016 iPRES is the premier international conference on the preservation and long term management of digital materials. The 13th International Conference on Digital Preservation will be held on October 3-6, 2016 in Bern, Switzerland. PREFORMA submitted a proposal … | Continue reading
Google has announced that it’s opening its anti-DDoS Project Shield technology to all online news websites as First announced back in 2013, Project Shield has been in testing for more than two years now with a select group of organizations. The service aims to counteract attempts … | Continue reading