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LinkedIn pitches SlideShare as advertising

Get ready for some LinkedIn ads masquerading as slideshows. The company is pushing its SlideShare tool as an advertising medium within its network, LinkedIn announced today.

The network has signed on General Electric and marketing firm Constant Contact as the initial brands to try out this type of advertising.

These slideshow ads, called SlideShare Content Ads, will blend in on the LinkedIn pages, according to Meera Bhatia, head of Product Management for Marketing Solutions. The advertising will appear as a "sponsored presentation," and users can click through it within the advertisement or they can expand it into a … Read more

Restrict printer usage in OS X

The default configuration for printers in OS X is relatively basic and offers you options to essentially add or remove a printer and then set some driver-specific features such as the amount of RAM or duplexing details; however, you may wish to have more options for managing access to your printer, such as limiting access to one printer and not another, or requiring a password to print.

The easiest way to administer these options for printers is via network access, where if you share the printer you can limit which users will have access to it over the network. Doing … Read more

Create personalized slideshows in minutes thanks to FotoMagico for Mac

Making a beautiful slideshow personalized enough not to resemble any other might be harder than it seems. For people looking for some customization options while keeping things simple to use, FotoMagico for Mac might be the solution. However, it comes with a rather hefty price tag.

FotoMagico for Mac can import images from iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom to integrate with the photographer's workflow. The documentation is rich enough to get you started in minutes. The strong point of this software is clearly its interface. It's well thought out and really intuitive, and everything behaves exactly as expected. Drag-and-drop … Read more

Samsung said to be eyeing $107 million investment in Sharp

As Sharp works to restructure and stay afloat, word has it that Samsung may come in to help. According to Bloomberg, Samsung is reportedly in talks to invest roughly 10 billion yen, or $107 million, in the ailing Japanese consumer-electronics maker.

People familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that details of the possible partnership could be announced as soon as today, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Sharp has had a rough go over the past couple of years. The electronics manufacturer saw sales drop 16 percent year-over-year to 1.1 trillion yen, or $13.7 billion, in the six … Read more

Need to lend your key? E-mail it, Fraunhofer says

HANOVER, Germany--You're traveling and your coworker needs your key to get into your office. Why not just e-mail it?

That's the idea behind Fraunhofer Institute's Key2Share technology, which the German research lab is developing in partnership with Bosch and showing off here at the CeBIT show.

Key2Share uses smartphones equipped with near-field communications (NFC) short-range wireless networking abilities to unlock phones. But because approval to use the key becomes digital data, a person can e-mail that approval.

It could be useful for other situations, too, said Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, a researcher involved with the project. For example, a … Read more

Sprint unveils shared data plans for small businesses

Sprint now offers small-business customers a way to pool their mobile data usage and trim costs.

Introduced on Friday and available only until June 13, the new plans are geared for businesses with up to 30 mobile devices. The plans cover smartphones, tablets, mobile hot spots, and USB dongles and require the standard two-year contract.

The smartphone plan allocates 20GB of shared data across 10 devices, 40GB across 20 devices, or 60GB across 30 devices. The more data and devices, the higher the cost -- ranging from $139.99 through $349.99 per month. The first device must be a … Read more

Viddy doubles length of clips, adds video enhancement tools

Social video startup video has released an updated iOS app with a bevy of new features to help people enhance their videos and to stave off Twitter's upstart video-sharing app, Vine.

Debuting this evening in Apple's App Store, the updated app doubles the length of videos that people can upload from 15 seconds to 30 seconds, as well as adding the Vine-like ability to pause recording to splice together segments into a single clip. The app also adds 15 new video filters, licensed music tracks from popular artists that can be added to videos, and stop-motion functionality that … Read more

Stock split rumor surfaces ahead of Apple investor meeting

At last year's annual shareholders meeting, Apple CEO Tim Cook knocked the idea of splitting Apple's then-soaring stock.

"A stock split isn't so clear to be honest," Cook told investors last February. Apple had charted out how stock splits worked for "many" other companies, Cook explained, and hadn't come up with a clear answer on what to do. "There might be a short-term pop, but for a lot it does nothing," Cook said.

A lot can change in a year though.

The day before Apple shareholders descend on the company's Cupertino, Calif., campus, … Read more

Social video startup Viddy lays off a third of its staff

Social video startup Viddy has laid off a dozen employees, or about a third of its work force, as it faces competition from a Twitter app.

The cuts come less than a month after the firing of co-founder and CEO Brett O'Brien, who was rumored to have turned down a buyout offer from Twitter. In a statement, Viddy's board confirmed the staff reductions, which will reportedly focus on marketing and operations:

As the board continues to review Viddy's business, we've identified specific ways to streamline costs which include eliminating some positions. These changes will allow the … Read more