Flickr Might Be Up for Sale

Michael Zhang from PetaPixel referencing a WSJ report:

[…] Yahoo sent out letters to potential buyers in recent days, asking that they submit bids over the next two weeks for Yahoo’s businesses and holdings.

There are reportedly about 40 companies interested in snatching up part or all of Yahoo. Potential buyers include Verizon, Time, Microsoft, IAC/InterActiveCorp, private equity firms, and more. Yahoo originally acquired Flickr back in 2005 for around $25 million.

Yahoo has completely botched Flickr in recent times. They’ve made some crazy stupid decisions in the past, including making the Desktop Auto Uploadr a Pro feature.

sigh

March 30, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Vodafone to Acquire YOU Broadband for ₹400 Crores

Baiju Kalesh & Deepali Gupta, reporting for The Economic Times:

Vodafone India has signed a pact to buy YOU Broadband for around Rs 400 crore and has sought approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, said two people familiar with the transaction.

YOU Broadband has been an interesting ISP available in Mumbai, but they’ve stayed away from my area for years now, with no immediate plans to lay fibre here anytime soon.

I don’t expect Vodafone to change that either.

March 30, 2016 ✚ Permalink

The Joy of Tech: iPhone’s on First?

Nitrozac and Snaggy have this hilarious take on Apple’s iPhone product lineup over at The Joy of Tech.

For the uninitiated, this is a reference to the Abbott and Costello sketch, Who’s on First.

March 23, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple Watch Gets a Price Cut in India

Apple Watch New Bands

Alongside the announcement of iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro at the Special Event held yesterday at the company’s Town Hall in Cupertino, Apple also announced a new Space Black Milanese Loop and a new range of Woven Nylon bands for Apple Watch. During the presentation, Tim Cook also announced that the Apple Watch pricing now starts at just $299. This price change only affects the Sport models, with the 38mm version now priced at $299 (previously $349) whereas the 42mm version is now priced at $349 (previously $399). Both versions get a price cut of $50 each, which is about INR 3350.

Thanks to this, the Apple Watch pricing in India has been reduced as well. The Apple Watch was officially launched in India back in November, with the price starting at Rs. 30,900 for the 38mm Sport version and Rs. 34,900 for the 42mm Sport version.

After yesterday’s price cut announcement, Apple has confirmed that the 38mm Apple Watch Sport is now priced at Rs. 25,900 in India, while the 42mm version is now priced at Rs. 29,900. That’s a reduction of Rs. 5000 ($75) on the previous MRP.

It’ll take a while for this new pricing to be reflected across Apple’s retail presence in the country. The pricing of the Steel models as well as Apple Watch Edition remains unchanged.

March 22, 2016 ✚ Permalink

ILM’s Art for Star Wars – The Force Awakens

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has just published this portfolio of 45 pre-production concept art on their website. It’s a fascinating look into the thought process that went into the film, and includes a lot of art for sequences that didn’t even make it into the final cut.

ilm-art-ss-2

Since Industrial Light & Magic’s inception in 1975, every idea dreamt into existence found its genesis within the ILM Art Department. Forty years ago, legendary concept designers like Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston brought George Lucas’s brainchild of an asymmetrical Star Wars “used universe” to life, imagining fantastic worlds bursting with iconic heroes, villains, spaceships and aliens. The ILM Art Department continues to revolutionize film design today, coupling classical technique with the very bleeding edge of technology. Acclaimed directors like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and J.J. Abrams work hand-in-hand with the best art directors and artists in the film industry, exploring ideas and iterating on those ideas until their vision is realized, making the unreal real and the impossible possible.

Even if you are not a fan of the Star Wars franchise, you should check this out for sure.

March 14, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Flickr Desktop Auto-Uploadr Now a Pro-only Feature

Flickr today has announced a big change to its service that has left me baffled. On its company blog, Flickr says that it wanted to “reaffirm [their] commitment to the members of the Flickr community who wanted to know more about how people were sharing and engaging with their photos”

And how does Flickr plan to do that? Well,

The biggest change is that we are making the desktop Auto-Uploadr a Flickr Pro-only feature, giving Pro members exclusive access to the tool. This feature lets you effortlessly upload all of your photos from wherever they are being stored, while making them accessible from any device. If you are already a Pro member, you won’t see any changes to your existing subscription.

Flickr just yanked a tool that let its users upload more content to the service away from free users. Think about that for a moment. Flickr has already been in the dump lately, and now it has actively made it difficult for users to effectively the service. I fail to understand why it gives our tons of Free storage to users and then pulls a move like this.

March 9, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple is Hiring a Country Manager for App Store, Apple Music & iTunes Stores for India

I have a habit of keeping an eye on Apple’s job listings for India, hoping to come across something relevant that I can apply for. Over the last few months, it seems Apple has been on a hiring spree as I’ve seen all kinds of roles being listed, especially for Apple’s new tech development centre coming up in Hyderabad. All of the roles listed for Hyderabad are related to the Maps team, while other cities have had roles ranging from Sales, Marketing, PR, Business Strategy and even Big Data Frameworks.

Today, I came across a certain listing that really caught my attention. Apple is hiring a Country Manager, India — App Store, Apple Music, iTunes.

Apple is seeking a dynamic business leader with an impeccable track record in the entertainment and technology industries to drive its growth in India.

The role is interesting to me due to a lot of factors, most notably because the role is based in Dubai. Apple says,

The candidate will be responsible for the App Store, Apple Music and iTunes business, personnel and strategy implementation for this key market, as well as fortifying exceptional relations with the developer, music, movies, technology and media sectors in the region. The candidate will have strong and established relationships within the Indian technology, music, movies, entertainment and media industries in India, and will be able to lead Apple’s relationships with the Bollywood and regional movie studios, record labels and artistic talent communities.

The mandate is to deliver high revenue growth from premium content services as the Indian population connects to faster and cheaper data connections. He or she will also help to build a strategy for the distribution of Indian apps and content globally.

Apple’s recent hires have indicated that the company is pushing for a stronger focus towards the Indian market and this role only strengthens that belief.

Some other interesting roles Apple has listed in the past include Affordability Program Manager, Thermal Architect and Business Manager — Online Channel. As of this writing, Apple has 34 open positions listed on its job site.

March 2, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Why Netflix Does Not Release Any Show Ratings

The New York Times has a great piece on Netflix titled, “Netflix’s Opaque Disruption Annoys Rivals on TV”. The article talks about how Netflix, which has around 70 million subscribers around the globe, has never published its show ratings or has no plans to.

Ted Sarandos, the Chief Content Officer at Netflix says that he wants to avoid a “weekly arms race” and says,

Once we give a number for a show, then every show will be benchmarked off of that show even though they were built sometimes for very specific audiences,

and adds

There is a very natural inclination to say, ‘Relative to this show, this show is a failure.’ That puts a lot of creative pressure on the talent.

I signed up for Netflix after their global availability announcement at CES 2016 and have been a happy subscriber since then.

February 27, 2016 ✚ Permalink