eBay has joined the ranks of retailers dipping their toes in the augmented and virtual reality waters, according to a Fortune report. The online marketplace announced that it is currently developing an AR kit in order to add AR features to its website later this year. One proposed feature will allow shoppers to see how an item would look or fit in its intended space–such as by overlaying the image of tires on a car–before making a bid or a purchase. Another feature will let sellers choose the proper box size when packaging merchandise by showing images of the different size options over the item
HTC Vive Focus ships in China, may have US debut after all
Consumer electronics company HTC officially started shipping pre-ordered Vive Focus VR headsets at an event earlier this week, in what was heralded as the “world’s first on-stage in-VR customer product delivery.” The company also announced that forty pieces of VR content, including several games, are already available for the Focus. The news comes via HTC’s China Regional President of VR, Alvin Wang Graylin. The Focus is HTC’s first stand-alone headset, and is based on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor which will power Lenovo’s Mirage Solo headset announced at CES 2018. Akin to the pending Lenovo offering, HTC’s Vive Focus also offers a 6DoF technology
Instagram’s Kevin Systrom Talks Virtual Reality
Kevin Systrom, co-founder and CEO of Instagram recently talked about Virtual Reality and working with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook in Bloomberg’s Studio 1.0. Instagram story started on Stanford University where Systrom was studying, and Facebook gave him an job offer. Kevin didn’t want to drop out of school, so he passed on the opportunity. During the college years, he got his first taste of the startup world after being chosen as one of twelve students to participate in the prestigious Mayfield Fellows Program. The fellowship led to his internship at Odeo, the company that eventually gave rise to Twitter. After graduating Stanford, he joined Google as an ‘Associate
Twitch Launches Dedicated Food TV Channel
Twitch is probably best known for its game streaming service, allowing gamers to broadcast their gameplay on a number of platforms to millions of viewers. Now the company, which is owned by mammoth online retailer Amazon, has launched a streaming service (TV channel) dedicated to serving up… food! To kick things off, Twitch Creative has launched a Julia Child marathon, broadcasting all 201 episodes of The French Chef that were originally aired on PBS. “Since the launch of Twitch Creative just five months ago, we have seen some amazing things created live on streams,” writes Noreen McInnis. “From makeup to music, game development to graphic
SumAll Gets Hit by Monetization Crunch
We’ve heard this a billion pitches before – an application launches, offers free and premium service, and hopes to capture 10% of worldwide market for whatever metrics the company was gunning for. At the same time, growth pattern is mandating cash burn that your runway is becoming shorter each month. If it succeeds, like LinkedIn or Twitter (or even Google) – the service stays for free, and monetization becomes a matter of services such as LinkedIn Premium or Twitter for Business. If we look into SumAll, which can be described as ‘big data analysis for your social media channels’, it looks like the time of Unicorn has
Earth vs. Social: Facebook is the Largest Nation in the World
Facebook often claims they are the largest social network in the world. Even though there are many non-humans on the list (pets), the undeniable fact is that Facebook has more people using its services than there are people living in China. If we would extrapolate the numbers of social media users and real world countries, we would get quite an interesting list. Thus, we decided to compile data from Wikipedia, showing the list of citizens in largest countries in the world, and an August 2015 report from We Are Social, a British-based analyst firm which focuses on tracking trends in the world of social media. The results
Tesla Model 3 Announced By CEO Elon Musk
This is the news many Tesla Motors supporters have been waiting for: Tesla announced their entry-level model, the Tesla Model 3, to be released in the forthcoming years. The news came earlier today when Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the new model, fueling further hype for the electric car company and their upcoming models as well. Elon used the social media platform, as he did in his earlier announcements and made sure the public was on it right away. To remind the readers, Model 3 represents Tesla’s SEX strategy, which was changed into S3X strategy after Ford trademarked ‘Model E’. We now know that Model 3 is
What is Selerity and Why Did Twitter’s Stock Drop?
Twitter’s stock tumbled Thursday because a little-known startup tweeted its results early. Who is behind this startup and how did it get the information?
ISIS Ally Hacks US Military’s Central Command Social Media Accounts
Hackers sympathetic to radical Islamist militants in Iraq briefly gained control over some of the U.S. military’s social media accounts.
Andrew Keen: The Internet is Not the Answer
The title of the latest book by Andrew Keen, “The Internet is Not the Answer” raises some serious questions. Keen is one of the authors who will be at CES 2015 as part of Gary’s Book Club exhibit. Several authors will discuss their works, answer questions, and autograph books purchased on site during the Las Vegas Convention. Andrew Keen is himself a disruptive influence in the tech industry with his sharp opinions. Among other positions, he is Executive Director of Futurecast which since 1996 has held up a crystal ball looking to the future with an historical perspective across industries, including consumer electronics, the Internet, education,
Twitter's Growth Slowing, But Optimism in Ad Platform Remains
Twitter has faced a growth slowdown in Q3 2014, but the company is confident its upcoming Fabric SDK will see wide adoption by mobile and app developers.
Twitter Steps In To Save Twitpic User Data
After Twitter forced Twitpic to shut down last month, Twitter has stepped in to play white knight to user’s photos, and data.
Twitter Suspends Anita Sarkeesian Critic for 'Abusive Behavior'
Popular YouTuber and Anita Sarkeesian critic Thunderf00t has been suspended on Twitter for taking part in “abusive behavior”. In a recent video Thunderf00t reveals that the social media platform chose to temporarily ban his account from the service, citing a violation of Twitter’s abusive behavior policy. The policy reads as follows: Threats and abuse Users may not make direct, specific threats of violence against others, including threats against a person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, or disability. Targeted abuse or harassment is also a violation of the Twitter Rules and Terms of Service. Interestingly enough,
Twitter to Add a Buy Now Button
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) today announced that it would be adding a Buy Now button to Twitter, specifically on mobile. This is yet another move by Twitter to increase their profitability through finding more revenue making opportunities, this follows its partnering with Amazon to tag purchases on Twitter back in May for adding to an Amazon cart. If anything, this Buy Now button is an evolution of that idea, making Twitter the direct point of sale instead of trying to send you somewhere else to buy the item. Twitter has hundreds of millions of users and if it makes this work right, it may actually have figured out eCommerce through social media
Virgin Mobile Laughs Away Net Neutrality with New Plans
As if Sprint wasn’t already fairly out of touch with their consumers, they’ve once again found a way to make it clear that they are. This time, they have done it through a series of new plans through one of their prepaid subsidiaries, Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile is one of Sprint’s prepaid subsidiaries, including Boost Mobile as well, that has recently undergone some plan pricing changes in order to try to attract consumers amid competition from T-Mobile which has forced other carriers to be more competitive with their plans as well. Since Sprint’s adjustment of Boost Mobile’s plans, it makes sense that Sprint would also
Twitter Reports Stellar Earnings, Stock Jumps 35%
Twitter [NYSE:TWTR] today reported their earnings for the second quarter of the year, beating out all expectations and further raising their outlook for the next quarter and the whole year as well. The company reported that revenue rose to $312.2 million, up from $139.3 million a year ago, more than double. This is a significant beat of where Twitter had guided as well, as they had guided $270 to $280 million while the Thomson Reuters analyst poll had the average expectation at $283.1 million. However, the company still posted a GAAP net loss of $144.6 million, but most of this has to do with a
Nvidia Launches Ultimate Quest to Culminate in Product Launch
Nvidia sent us a link to a contest that they’re running which is a series of puzzles that will eventually lead you to a ‘new release’. By the looks of it, Nvidia is doing some sort of launch next week, July 22nd. This actually lines up with a recently rumored release of an Nvidia Tegra K1 tablet, which is supposed to launch on the 29th according to Videocardz, but originally stated the 22nd (they changed the date since we last saw the rumor). It is rumored to have a full HD display, which is still quite desirable for mobile gaming and a separate game pad to
Brazil vs Germany Game Breaks Twitter Records
Yesterday’s 7-1 World Cup Semi-Final rout of Brazil by Germany will go down in the record books for many decades to come for a multitude of reasons. Sure, Brazil is the host nation and they’ve been picked by many, including Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog to win it all. But yesterday, the German national team proved all of them wrong with an impressive 7-0 display up until the 90th minute when Oscar scored the face-saving only goal for Brazil. Now that we know that World Cup Semi-Finals can have as many points scored as an American Football game, it comes as no surprise that such a
Twitter Another Battleground in the War in Iraq
As the war in Iraq rages on with an upsurge of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) violence in the northern parts of the country, a battle also rages on in the web, especially on Twitter. Originally started by a tweet from what appears to be an unofficial ISIS Twitter account which stated that ISIS brought $500 million worth of wealth to the people of Mosul. This is in reference to the fact that they managed to break into Mosul’s central bank and steal 500 billion Iraqi Dinars which comes out to about $425 million, making them possibly the wealthiest terrorist group the world, overnight.
Microsoft Pays People to Say Good Things About IE
So, even though Microsoft categorically denies doing anything of any sort, I and many of you know that most of what Microsoft does is usually through 3rd parties like SocialChorus that are contracted to take all of the blame for Microsoft in the event that they say something wrong or get caught doing something wrong. And as long as there’s no smoking gun, Microsoft is basically off the hook. So, it came as no surprise that Microsoft got caught trying to pay people for positive posts about Internet Explorer, a browser that is already on its way up from being considered the bottom feeder of