This Infographic Visualizes 15 Years Of Tech Company Acquisitions.

With the tech world still buzzing over Facebook’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition, business insurance provider Simply Business has put together a fascinating infographic.

Showing 15 years of acquisitions by Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, the chart lays out in visual terms when tech giants were at their purchasing busiest, as well as how much they typically spend on deals — with the size of individual dots representing the price paid for each startup.

The infographic also lets you zoom in on specific time periods, as well as filtering the search by certain types of acquisition.

It’s a great way of getting your head around some of the giant numbers thrown around when it comes to tech deals, and also a means of looking at how the product and business strategy focus of major tech companies have changed over the past decade-and-a-half.

It shows that Apple has been more or less consistent in keeping the price of its acquisitions low despite its massive cash reserves — preferring to buy companies for their technology and employees rather than just market share.

This attitude was imbued in the company by Steve Jobs, who reportedly viewed acquisitions as a “failure to innovate.” While Tim Cook has by and large stuck to this mantra — avoiding massive transformative deals — he has still been proactive about buying companies to bring new intellectual property to Apple.

Of the five companies profiled on the infographic, Apple has spent by far the least on its biggest-spend acquisition during the 15 year time period: shelling out $390 million for flash memory company Anobit and $356 million for AuthenTec, both in 2012.

Source: Cult of Mac.

Oral-B Shows Off iPhone-Compatible Smart Toothbrush at Mobile World Congress.

Proctor and Gamble first introduced its smartphone-connected Oral-B toothbrush earlier this month, but the company is on hand at the Mobile World Congress conference in Spain to give attendees a look at the upcoming device.

The Oral-B SmartSeries 7000 connects to the Oral Blue iPhone app using Bluetooth 4.0, allowing the app to provide real-time guidance on brushing habits. It records brushing activity on a chart that can be shared with dental professionals to create personalized brushing routines and because the Bluetooth connectivity works both ways, the app can also be used to program the toothbrush.

Engadget went hands-on with the Oral-B SmartSeries 7000 to show off how the app interacts with the brush itself. While brushing, the iPhone app runs a timer in real-time to keep track of how long a user has brushed and it also includes a stream of news articles to keep users entertained while brushing.

In case the sheer boredom of brushing your teeth for that long is too much to bear, you can also thumb through a stream of news articles or local weather reports (no, really) to help you hang in there. Turns out, just furiously mashing those bristles into your teeth isn’t great either, so the timer will blink red if you’re pressing too hard.

In addition to Bluetooth connectivity, the SmartSeries 7000 features oscillating-rotating-pulsating technology, six different cleaning modes (Daily Cleaning, Deep Clean, Whitening, Gum Care, Sensitive, and Tongue Cleaning), a pressure sensor to prevent users from brushing too hard, and several different travel accessories.

Oral B’s Bluetooth 4.0 smart toothbrush technology will be available in several of its toothbrushes, beginning with the Oral B SmartSeries 7000, which is expected to launch later this year for $220.

Source:  Mac Rumors.

Apple releases iTunes 11.1.5.

Apple has released iTunes 11.1.5 which, according to the company’s copious release notes, “…fixes a problem that may cause iTunes to quit unexpectedly when a device is connected and improves compatibility with iBooks for Mac on OS X Mavericks.” Go and get it now in Software Update or Mac App Store.

What Happens To Your Old iPhone When You Sell It To Gazelle.

When you sell your old iPhone to a third-party, what happens to it? It enters a thriving third-party marketplace in China, where it is restored to almost new and sold in gray and emerging markets. Weird!

According to a report from Chinese tech site ITHome, when an iPhone with a shattered screen, scratched back, broken motherboard, or more is sold to some third-party sites, it ends up being sold in bulk and, if purchased, getting shipped into China from the USA, Hong Kong or Japan. There, it goes to a place like Shenzhen, where phones are disassembled and restored to pristine condition, thanks to the surplus of spare parts these iPhone-making centers can afford.

Once they are refurbished, these iPhones are then wrapped up in pristine Apple product packaging, even going so far as to stick replacement serial numbers on the boxes and putting the original screen protector back on. Then, the boxes are shrink wrapped, and sold to China’s emerging markets at a considerable mark-up.

Due to the fact that there’s plenty of spare parts lying around and they are easier to take apart than the iPhone 5/5s series, the iPhone 4 is a more popular device to get this sort of treatment.

So now you know what happens to your old iPhone when you sell it to someone like Gazelle. Who knew?

Source:  Cult of Mac.

Disney leverages iTunes to take on UltraViolet with new ‘Movies Anywhere’ iOS app.

The ties between Apple and Disney are tightening even more thanks to their unprecedented collaboration on the new Movies Anywhere app. This ambitious project has been percolating at Disney for years and aims to make purchasing and viewing digital content easier than ever.

A direct shot at UltraViolet, the Movies Anywhere app allows users to purchase and play movies within the app or through any device with access to your iTunes library. Previously purchased films on DVD, and Blu-ray can be added to the app if they shipped with a digital redemption code. All past iTunes purchases are eligible.

Users can simply connect their iTunes account to their Disney Movies Anywhere account to begin populating their Disney digital movie locker and watch movies online and on their devices. Featuring simultaneous access on multiple devices, Disney Movies Anywhere enables consumers to stream and download Disney movies on their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and Apple TV (through iCloud or using AirPlay).

 

 

Disney believes integrating with iTunes is crucial to meeting the demands of today’s consumers:

“Disney Movies Anywhere offers an exceptional consumer experience built around some of the most beloved and popular entertainment brands in the world,” said Alan Bergman, President, The Walt Disney Studios. “This unique technology underscores Disney’s commitment to meeting our consumers where they are with the content they want, and we’re thrilled to debut with iTunes, the #1 digital media retailer in the world.”

Another added benefit is that all iTunes purchases from this point forward will include Disney Movie Rewards points.

To help get your movie collection started, Disney is providing a copy of Pixar’s ‘The Incredibles’ free of charge when you sign up and connect your iTunes account to the app. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity soon as Disney warns that it’s only available for a limited time.

As of right now Movies Anywhere is exclusive to iTunes and iOS, but it’s possible that it could extend to other platforms in the future. Only available to residents of the United States who are 13 or older.

Apple releases iBeacon specification through its Made-For-iPhone program.

Aura iBeacons coming soon for EverSense smart thermostat

iBeacon, Apple’s new framework for using low-cost Bluetooth LE devices to beam notifications to nearby smartphones and tablets, will soon be getting a bigger push from Apple and third-party manufacturers through its Made-For-iPhone program. While “iBeacon” is often used in the media to describe any Bluetooth beacon, Apple is now implementing tighter control over who can use the ‘iBeacon’ branding. Much like it requires for manufacturers placing the “Made-for-iPhone” branding on Apple authorized devices, Apple is now requiring manufacturers meet certain specifications before using ‘iBeacon’ on their products. The change was first spotted by Beekn.net. It appears the program is separate from the main Bluetooth MFi specification as it still asks that accessory manufacturers not support the iBeacon feature.

The change means that manufacturers will have to apply through Apple’s MFi channels for permission to use the iBeacon name on products and in the process will have to meet certain specifications. Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any requirements that would limit the functionality of beacon products already on the market. The requirements are comparable to those for Bluetooth accessory makers under the MFi program. As competitors developing their own competitive Bluetooth beacon standards hit the market, the ‘iBeacon’ branding will make it easy for consumers to recognize products authorized by Apple for use with iOS devices. The iBeacon requirements, however, do not prevent beacons from working with Android devices as well.

The concept of iBeacons is simple: As you walk around retail stores or other locations, your iOS device will communicate with iBeacons in proximity and display notifications, promotions, payment options, or other info setup by whoever deployed the nearby beacons. So far we’ve seen the iBeacon technology used in several retail environments including the Apple Store and Macy’s, as well as during events like CES and MLB games. Most recently, MLB announced it had completed a rollout of iBeacons at stadiums that will present notifications that include info related to the game and stadium through the MLB At the Ballpark app.

Source: 9to5Mac.

Millions Flock to Telegram Messaging App After WhatsApp Outage.

Telegram, a messaging app that emphasizes privacy and security, added millions of new users Sunday, following WhatsApp’s biggest outage in years.The spike in downloads pushed the app to the No. 4 position in the App Store Sunday and the app was the No. 1 iPhone app in 48 countries, according to the company.

Earlier in the week, the company reported it had added more than one million new users within days of Facebook’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition. On Saturday afternoon, an issue with WhatsApp’s network routers caused the service to go down for three hours.

The outage appears to have boosted Telegram’s downloads considerably. By Sunday afternoon, the company was reporting it had added 4.95 million users on that day alone.

The sudden influx of users— new users were registering at a rate of 100 new user per second, the company tweeted— caused the service to have its own connection issues in Europe.

Telegram’s messaging platform was created by Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the two brothers behind Russia’s largest social network, VK.

On its website, the company says it sets itself apart from WhatsApp and other messaging platforms by emphasizing security, speed and keeping its services free.

Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram is cloud-based and heavily encrypted. As a result, you can access your messages from several devices (including desktops!) and share an unlimited number of photos, videos and documents (doc, zip, mp3, etc). Thanks to our multi-data center infrastructure and encryption, Telegram is also faster and way more secure.

The two founders say they are not interested in making any money from the app and have no future plans to sell the app, accept investments or charge users for its services.

Play Gameboy Classics In Your iPhone Browser With This New Emulator.

It seems like emulator news is the flavor of the week, between webNES, GBA4iOS, and now Ben Midi’s Gameboy. Like webNES, it runs entirely inside of mobile Safari, so unlikeGBA4iOS you don’t have to install anything weird, roll your date back, or anything else. It works quite well, particularly in landscape mode:

Here’s the current list of playable games as of this writing.:

• Mario Land
• Tetris
• Dr. Mario
• Bomberman
• Kirby’s Dream Land
• Kirby XXL
• Space Invaders
• Motocross Maniacs
• Bomb Jack
• Boxxle 2
• Castelian
• Centipede
• Stopwatch

Since this web emulator seems to be actively hosting and providing access to these different real Nintendo games, it seems like it’s prime material for a cease and desist from Nintendo. Regardless, it’s a pretty neat thing to fiddle with while it stays up, so if you’re looking for a blast from the past mash this link and go nuts.

Remembering Steve Jobs on his birthday.

On February 24, 1955, a baby was born in San Francisco to Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Scheible, a young unmarried couple who had met at the University of Wisconsin. The couple had decided to put that baby up for adoption at birth, and he became the son of Paul and Clara Jobs. That child grew up to co-found Apple and make a huge impact on the world.

Steve Jobs would have been 59 years old today had he not succumbed to pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011. Current Apple CEO and close friend of Jobs, Tim Cook, noted Jobs’ birthday today with a pair of heartfelt tweets

 

Happy Birthday, Steve.

OS X 10.9.2 Release Imminent – Includes Mail and Safari Fixes, FaceTime Audio, More.

It appears as if the public release of OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 is imminent, as some employees at Apple are reportedly receiving prerelease builds of the update.

Some employees have been provided with a version of OS X 10.9.2 identified as build 13C64, people familiar with the matter told AppleInsider on Monday. The forthcoming update includes the usual security fixes, but also adds a number of new features to Mavericks, most notably the ability to make and receive FaceTime audio calls.

Other features include call waiting support for FaceTime audio and video calls, along with an added ability to block incoming messages from individual senders in the Messages application.

Internal release notes also indicate the update will improve the accuracy of the unread messages count in Mail, and should also resolve an issue that prevents Mail from receiving new messages from certain providers.

Other fixes and changes expected to be included in OS X 10.9.2 are:

• Improved “Autofill” capabilities in Safari
• A fix for an issue that could cause audio distortion
• Improved reliability when connecting to a file server using SMB2
• A fix for an issue that could cause VPN connections to disconnect
• Improved VoiceOver navigation in Mail and Finder

The release notes don’t indicate if the build fixes the recently exposed SSL security flaw that it shared with iOS, which was fixed in a security update last week. Apple has promised the OS X flaw will be fixed “very soon.”

Update: AppleInsider reports that a person with access to the prerelease build has confirmed to them that the latest version of OS X 10.9.2 does indeed patch the so-called “goto fail” SSL security flaw.

Source: MacTrast.