Google Reported to Acquire WhatsApp For $1 Billion

WhatsApp Messenger, the cross-platform instant messaging app serving iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone, is a life-saver to those looking for a hassle-free mode of communication, and according to a new report, the search giant is very interested in buying it.

According to the report from Gizmodo, WhatsApp founded by former Yahoo pioneers Brian Acton and Jan Koum, is said to be holding out for the $1 billion.

The news, if true, would be pretty significant, but also rather surprising. Google’s mobile messaging department could certainly do with bolstering, and drafting in WhatsApp would certainly be an easy way for the Mountain View-based company to achieve this. However, it has long since been reckoned that Google’s ‘Babel’ chat will be an all-encompassing communications service, and with GTalk already being a popular, strong feature of the GApps (at least, on Android), the immediate benefit would seem to be in the user base WhatsApp has amassed in its four years of existence.

Google has, on numerous occasions, acknowledged that the quality of its messaging services have fallen below par, and buying WhatsApp would be a big statement of intent. It would also, as many perceived as motive to Facebook’s Instagram purchase, eliminate one of the main competitors in this field, helping Google quickly place itself among the likes of Facebook Messenger and Apple iMessage.

Unless Google Babel is, contrary to reports, not culminating into the great service Google needs to make its presence known in the IM market, then this could also go a way to explaining why the company is rumored to be considering WhatsApp. After all, the service, which was founded only in 2009, handles tens of billions of messages a day, and if it were to provide the engine for the upcoming Babel service, Google would have one hell of a beast to unleash.

Via: RedmondPie

Follow us on twitter for more updates...

Nokia Releases Nokia Music for Windows 8 and RT!

Nokia has just released their music streaming service app Nokia Music for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. The app features hundreds of hand-crafted playlists across every genre, offline mixes, and if you got a Nokia Music+ subscription, you can enjoy higher quality audio, unlimited track skips, unlimited offline mixes and lyrics.

Nokia Music is a complete playback and discovery experience for your computer. Play one of our hand-crafted Mixes from genres you’ll love. Play and queue your own music, discovery rich artist information.

If you already have a Nokia Music+ subscription on your Nokia phone, just sign in to get all the great features from your phone directly on your computer.

If you have never had the pleasure of using a Nokia phone, you are still invited to the party! Try completely free trial and have a listen. It gives you recommendations of mixes you could listen to based on your own music.

Nokia Music also creates a Mix for you, featuring songs from those artists expertly weaved with suggestions from our 20 million track catalog.

It also allows you to find new artists and get under their skin with bio’s, image galleries, what they’re tweeting and where they’re gigging.

Nokia Music is available on the Windows Store
Download Nokia Music Now and Experience Great Musics on the go.

Follow the team on twitter for more updates...

Ubuntu 13.04 Beta Released

The final beta of Ubuntu 13.04 has been made available for download.

Also shipping alongside it are betas for all of the official Ubuntu spins, including the newly anointed Ubuntu GNOME and Ubuntu Kylin projects.

Key features new to Ubuntu 13.04, and available in this beta, include:

New shutdown and session exit dialogs
A new sync menu for Ubuntu One
Faster, more performant Unity
New interface animations, including window snap
Scroll-switching of open windows from Unity Launcher
For details of precisely what has changed between Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04 you can view our development coverage by using the Raring Ringtail tag.

Getting Ubuntu 13.04 Beta

If you’re running daily builds of Ubuntu 13.04 you don’t need to do anything special to get the beta – as long as you’re up-to-date, you’re using it.

Ubuntu 13.04 is scheduled for release on April 25th. It will come with a reduced support cycle of only 9 months. Support for it will end in January 2014

A release candidate of Ubuntu 13.04 is due for release on April 18th.

Download Ubuntu 13.04 Beta 2

Source

Ubuntu To Become The Official OS Of China

Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu have announced that they will be officially affiliated with the Chinese government to bring a new Ubuntu based OS to the Chinese population.

In a recent blog post on the Canonical blog, they went on to explain that Ubuntu Kylin (the official name of the new OS) will go way beyond just a version of Ubuntu with Chinese language packs installed. The blog post went on to say:
“Ubuntu Kylin goes beyond language localisation and includes features and applications that cater for the Chinese market. In the 13.04 release, Chinese input methods and Chinese calendars are supported, there is a new weather indicator, and users can quickly search across the most popular Chinese music services from the Dash.”


This isn’t just a one off release, it’s going to be a completely separate version of Ubuntu that is designed specifically for the Chinese market. Much like Kubuntu, or Xubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin will have on going development separate from the core Ubuntu build. The blog post goes on to say…
“Future releases will include integration with Baidu maps and leading shopping service Taobao, payment processing for Chinese banks, and real-time train and flight information.
The Ubuntu Kylin team is cooperating with WPS, the most popular office suite in China, and is creating photo editing and system management tools which could be incorporated into other flavours of Ubuntu worldwide.”

This is a very big move for Canonical and Ubuntu as a whole. We all know how huge China are, and for the Chinese government to push an official Ubuntu build onto the population can be nothing less than an amazing bonus for the Linux world.

Source

Follow me on twitter for more technology news updates.

LG Reported to be Working on its own smartwatch and a Google Glass-like Project

Apple, Google, and Samsung are all rumored to be building their own smartwatches, LG becomes the latest manufacturer to reportedly join the fray. According The Korea Times.

LG is currently developing both a smartwatch and another wearable computing device described as something similar to Google Glass. It wouldn't be the first time that LG developed such a product — back in 2009, the company showed off a "watch phone," which came with a full GSM radio built-in for voice calls. This rumored new product would be more along the lines of the Pebble and other speculated smartwatches, with the ability to sync with your smartphone and check messages or other notifications.

The watch is reported to run on Android, which fits considering the company's heavy focus on Google's OS — but there's also a chance it'll run the new Firefox OS that was shown off in detail at MWC last month. While it would certainly make sense for LG to be exploring wearable computing options, the timing of this rumor helps put LG in the conversation alongside consumer technology's giants — smartwatches from Samsung, Google, and Apple are probably the biggest rumor in technology right now.

Source