Yahoo buys blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion

By Christian Zibreg on May 20, 2013

Yahoo’s recently-minted CEO Marissa Mayer has gone on a shopping spree. After the troubled Internet giant in March bought mobile news startup Summly for $30 million, and having snapped up the iOS/Android task management service Astrid earlier this month, Yahoo this morning announced a definitive agreement to acquire Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Yahoo promised “not to screw it up” and operate Tumblr independently as a separate business, keeping its founder David Karp as the CEO.

More than fifty billion posts (75 million more arriving each day) are hosted on Tumblr so this acquisition is bound to significantly bolster Yahoo’s content empire… Read More

 

How to make Yahoo’s new weather app the default in iOS

By Cody Lee on May 1, 2013

Last month, Yahoo released a new weather app for iOS aptly named Yahoo! Weather. And its fit and finish actually surprised some people. Our very own Christian Zibreg said it’s “the best-designed iOS app from Yahoo yet.”

It’s just too bad that you can’t make the app the default weather application in iOS. Or can you? Actually, thanks to a new jailbreak tweak called ‘YahooWeatherisBetter,’ you can make Yahoo’s new weather app your default… Read More

 

Trust Twitter and Google, not Apple, to protect you from government data demands

By Christian Zibreg on May 1, 2013

Well, this is certainly noteworthy. According to the third annual report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) titled “Who Has Your Back?”, gadget giant Apple along with carriers AT&T and Verizon, Google’s rival Yahoo and the forgotten social network MySpace all are very likely to give in to Uncle Sam’s data demands.

Specifically, Apple and Yahoo scored one out of six possible stars, with Verizon and Yahoo rather ingloriously earning zero stars each. These companies’ weak safeguard implementation does little to circumvent data demands and protect your private information from the government’s prying eyes.

Whereas Apple and Yahoo only fight for users’ privacy rights in Congress, companies like Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Dropbox go to great lengths to ensure privacy of your data, earning four out of six stars each… Read More

 

Yahoo updates iOS app with Summly summaries

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 22, 2013

Yahoo last week refreshed its Mail iOS app and released a brand new and beautiful weather software for the iPhone and iPad. In the continuation of its re-newed mobile-first strategy, the search firm this morning updated its iOS client with a summarization technology it snapped up last month for $30 million from UK-based startup Summly, founded by the 17-year-old founder Nick D’Aloisio. Thanks to that acqui-hire, the new Yahoo! version 3.0 software taps Summly natural-language algorithms and machine learning for personalized story summaries… Read More

 

Bono: Apple’s Jony Ive is Obi-Wan of design

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 19, 2013

Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most interesting people for 2013 is packed with profiles of technology leaders. Apple design guru Jony Ive is among those listed, described as a Star Wars’ Obi-Wan leading a team of Jedi employees.

The thread of Apple’s innovation runs through other profiles, including Samsung’s CEO, who is viewed by a former executive of the iPhone maker as carrying on the tradition of Steve Jobs… Read More

 

Yahoo! Mail launches on iPad

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 18, 2013

With Google continuing to allocate significant resources towards improving its Gmail service and the excellent iOS client, you’d be forgiven for disregarding Yahoo! Mail. I mean, who in their right mind uses Yahoo! Mail, right? Turns out more than 281 million people do, making it the third-largest web-based email service as of December 2012, according to comScore. And the iPhone from the onset supported Yahoo! Mail.

As promised, hot on the heels of releasing a gorgeous new Weather application for the iPhone, Yahoo this morning also refreshed its existing iOS email client with native support for the iPad’s bigger canvas. Go past the fold for more tidbits and a nice promo clip… Read More

 

Yahoo’s new Weather iOS app looks terrific

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 18, 2013

I’m a huge sucker for awesome weather apps, so much that I’m afraid to even think about how much money I’ve put into these kinds of apps for my iThings.

Yahoo, as you know, supplies Apple with weather data for its stock iOS Weather app (in addition to Stocks and Siri data as well) and it was reported earlier this morning that the company will be launching a dedicated weather forecast software on the App Store.

You could imagine a weather buff like myself would be hanging on the edge of my seat in anticipation of Yahoo! Weather. Now that it’s just hit the App Store, I can honestly say that this is the best-designed iOS app from Yahoo yet.

The elegant typography combined with the big, beautiful full-screen images (crowd-sourced via Flickr), the crisp weather pictograms and just the right amount of information make this my new favorite weather forecast app. Jump past the fold for a bunch of screenshots, you know you want to.. Read More

 

Yahoo to launch new iOS weather app and iPad email client tomorrow

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 18, 2013

According to well-informed sources, Internet giant Yahoo will tomorrow release two new iOS applications, one a standalone weather software and the other an iPad version of its native email client. The news arrives hot on the heels of last week’s claim by The Wall Street Journal, which has it on good authority that Apple and Yahoo are “in very early stages” of deepening their partnership in order to grow Yahoo’s presence on mobile devices as Apple continues to push itself further away from Google… Read More

 

Yahoo and Apple said to be in talks over deeper iPhone partnership

By Cody Lee on Apr 9, 2013

It looks like Yahoo could stand to gain from the war that has broken out between Apple and Google. Now that the iPad-maker has cleared nearly every trace of Google from the stock iOS experience (besides web search), it’s apparently in the market for a new partner.

And that partner could just be the Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo. The web company already provides data for a few iOS apps, including Weather, Stocks and Siri. And according to a new report, it’s in talks with Apple to take that relationship to the next level… Read More

 

Yahoo to buy mobile news start-up Summly for $30 million

By Cody Lee on Mar 25, 2013

Yahoo! announced today that it will be acquiring mobile news start-up Summly. The deal, said to be worth around $30 million, is for both the app and the team, and is expected to close sometime in the next few months.

For those unfamiliar with the company, Summly created and maintains the popular news-summarizing iPhone app of the same name. It uses special algorithms to deliver ‘snapshots’ of stories that match a users’ interests… Read More

 

Flickr updated with comment alerts, @username tags, volume shutter and more

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 21, 2013

After a long time, I recently fell in love with Yahoo’s Flickr service, all over again. I mean, not everyone is on Facebook. More importantly, Instagram leaves a lot to be desired in terms of screen resolution so Flickr, which stores original-res photos, is becoming increasingly relevant to my iPhoneography workflow. The freshly updated software now supports @username tagging (with tags linked to users’ photo stream) and can notify you via push alerts when someone tags you in their comment.

And if you happen to find the volume shutter feature of the stock iOS Camera app useful, you’re going to love this update as it lets you snap a photo using your iPhone’s volume up button. The program also includes a few other improvements, mentioned right below… Read More

 

How to copy all your Instagrams to Flickr

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 29, 2012

Instagram’s exploding popularity is having long-time iPhoneography buffs pay notice and watch in horror as mainstream users cannot get enough of its crappy filters and the obscenely low 612×612 pixel resolution. And with Facebook and Android now in the picture, no wonder some early adopters go to the extremes of closing their account while others, like Apple’s marketing honcho, stopped using Instagram for it “jumped the shark”.

To the most ardent fans, the last straw was Instagram’s confusing handling of the recent terms of service changes - even if it was much ado about nothing.

If you’ve been seriously contemplating importing your Instagrams over to Flickr but were put off by the tedious manual uploads – worry not, turns out there are a few ways to get that job done without too much fuss. iDB has you covered with this quick guide to bringing in all your Instagram photos to Flickr with just a few clicks… Read More

 

Yahoo updates Flickr app with the obligatory Instagram-like filters

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 12, 2012

Following Instagram’s update that added a new Willow filter and yesterday’s big refresh of Twitter’s iOS client that now lets you crop a photo and apply up to eight brand new filters before tweeting it out, Yahoo too has joined the fray by revamping its aging Flickr iOS client this morning. And guess what? The redesigned app also touts filters as Yahoo attempts to stay relevant in the social photography space. There are sixteen unique camera filters to choose from, twice as much as in Twitter’s app (and also powered by Aviary). More features and screenies right after the break… Read More

 

Yahoo releases brand new Mail app for the iPhone

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 11, 2012

Surely you must remember Yahoo! Mail? The more than 310 million people who still use it swear it’s the best webmail service out there, bar none. If you’re a fan of Yahoo’s email offering, you’ll be delighted to learn that the search firm today released a brand new iOS email client. It’s got the basic you’d want from an email app nailed: the clean inbox view with infinite scrolling, auto-complete for email addresses you type, notifications for incoming email messages, multiple message selection, swiping left and right for quick access to options, in-line images, search across folders and more… Read More

 

The iPhone 5 is the top searched gadget of 2012 on Yahoo and Bing

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 3, 2012

Samsung reigns supreme in handsets, but Apple’s iPhone continues to pique consumer interest like no other gadget. The easiest way to figure out what consumers want is to comb through logs of major web search properties. Yahoo is out today with their annual top searches and the results are hardly surprising.

The iPhone 5 was the top searched for gadget in 2012: it’s managed to beat Kim Kardashian for the most searched for term overall in 2012. Matter of fact, three of Apple’s gadgets landed at the top of Yahoo’s year in review list. Looking beyond units sold, it’s clear where the public’s heart lies… Read More

 

Former Googler Mayer wants iPhones for Yahoo

By Ed Sutherland on Aug 21, 2012

Ironies are everywhere in Silicon Valley. Take new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, for instance. Mayer spent 13 years at Google — Ground Zero for Android — yet now is considering buying every Yahoo employee an iPhone. Seems workers at the search company are a polyglot bunch when it comes to phones with many using BlackBerries, Android handsets and iPhones, of course.

It’s not clear why Mayer settled on the iPhone instead of Android, but one unnamed source “familiar with Mayer’s thinking” told BusinessInsider that the goal is to “get consistency across the company.” However, early on Mayer professed interest in the iPhone, showing up at a press meet-and-greet with an Apple handset. She later went on to explain: “I use lots of phones.” Read More

 

Yahoo releases new Axis web browser for iOS

By Cody Lee on May 24, 2012

In an ongoing effort to prove it can stay relevant in the mobile space, Yahoo quietly released a new web browser for iOS last night. Dubbed Axis, the app combines search and browsing into one experience, “so you can rip through the web.”

Axis is a universal application, as it works on both the iPhone and iPad. And if you’ve been looking for a new way to browse the web on your iOS device, it might actually be worth taking a look at… Read More

 

How much Google pays Apple to get its search onto iOS devices

By Oliver Haslam on Mar 10, 2012

While it’s true that users can switch between Google, Bing and Yahoo when deciding which search engine to use in Safari on iOS, it’s debatable as to whether anyone does actually change it. We’re going to put our money on the percentage being on the low side!

That’s why being the default search option on iOS is so important. If you’re the one chosen out of the box, then the chances are you’ll be the one that gets the vast majority of hits from users. Right now, that default choice is Google, and they pay handsomely for the privilege according to Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter.

Just how handsomely, you ask? Read More

 

Yahoo Rolls Out New App Search Page

By Cody Lee on Feb 4, 2012

You have to feel bad for Yahoo. The one-time dominate web company now seems to be constantly staving off the thought of bankruptcy as a result of failing to transition into the mobile market as its counterparts have.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s giving up on the mobile world. Last year, the company launched an iOS app to help you search for mobile applications. And now it’s just unveiled a web-based portal with a similar function… Read More

 

InstaURL: Search Google, Bing, or Yahoo From Anywhere

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 25, 2011

InstaURL is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to perform web searches from anywhere on your iDevice.

Similar to QuickGoogle and QuickSafari, InstaURL isn’t alone when it comes to tweaks of this nature.

Is it different enough to warrant paying the $0.99? Check inside for the full video walkthrough… Read More

 
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