Consumer content

Yes, you can tweet from Google Glass

Corrected at 9:30 p.m. PT: Due to erroneous information provided by a source, the original version of this report misidentified the app as an official Twitter app for Google Glass. It is in fact an app produced by a third party.

There's no doubt about it: Google Glass is already being used to send tweets.

For now, however, it's not known for certain that anyone has done so with an official Twitter app for Google's wearable computer. What is known is that LeWeb founder Loic Le Meur has been testing out a third-party app called … Read more

Vine adds front-facing camera functionality

Twitter said today that it has updated its stand-alone Vine mobile app to allow users to shoot video with both their front- and rear-facing cameras.

In a blog post, Twitter also said that Vine users now can tag someone in a post, meaning that people can, for example, shoot a video with a friend and add that person's name, or Twitter handle, in the post.

With the old version, users could only use the rear-facing cameras on their iPhones. Also, while it was possible to enter someone's name or Twitter ID in the associated text of a Vine … Read more

Yahoo graces Android app with Summly, too

To sum it up: First came the new Yahoo app for iPhone, then came the one for Android.

Just over a week ago, Yahoo brought out an iPhone app that features news summaries delivered using the natural-language algorithms and machine learning technologies from the company's recent Summly acquisition. Now, Yahoo brings us word of its similarly equipped new Android app.

And what a difference that eight days seems to have made in the excitement level for Yahoo.

The announcement of the iPhone app came in a posting from CEO Marissa Mayer and it made sure to name-drop Summly, a … Read more

Twenty years on, the Web faces new openness challenges

Two decades ago today, the European particle accelerator called CERN gave birth to what's known as the open Web -- a technology that anyone can build without paying licensing or royalty fees.

But as the Web has grown ever more popular and sophisticated, proprietary technology poses a challenge to that philosophy of openness. The challenge is most clear in the area of video, where patents and copy protection are at odds with the Web's openness.

Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist at CERN, started developing what he called the World Wide Web in 1989. After CERN released the software for … Read more

Yahoo rolls out six original shows and new TV partnerships

Working to fulfill Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's promise to make Yahoo a place where users will want to come every day, the company announced Monday that it will debut six new original Web shows in 2013.

The shows range from Ed Helms playing a miniature crime fighter to chef Megan Mitchell giving tips on outdoor grilling to actor John Stamos interviewing celebrities about losing their virginity.

"In the last year, we have more than doubled the original video programming on Yahoo! to become one of the Web's largest content publishers," Yahoo vice president and head of … Read more

Twitter may already have an app for Google Glass

If a now-deleted tweet is to be believed, Twitter may already have created an app for Google Glass.

That's TechCrunch's conclusion, at least, as the technology news site has a story up this afternoon positing that someone may already have sent a tweet from an obviously as-yet-unannounced Twitter app for Google Glass.

Is @mogroothmuddler beta testing an official Twitter for Glass app? Certainly looks like it. twitter.com/jonmarkgo/stat...

— Jonathan Gottfried (@jonmarkgo) April 29, 2013

In the photo that's embedded in the above tweet, it is possible to see that the tweet (assuming it actually existed) … Read more

Upstart.com aims to be a Kickstarter for college grads

When Dave Girouard worked at Google, he noticed a pattern. He met a lot of young people early in their careers taking the conservative route -- choosing a stable job in a big company instead of following their dreams, taking risks, and striking out on their own.

So Girouard, Anna Mongayt (also a former Googler), and Thiel fellow Paul Gu launched Upstart.com in 2012. Girouard describes it as a kind of Kickstarter for people. Instead of investing in a company or product, financial backers invest in a person and their potential over time. In return, investors receive a small … Read more

Jack Dorsey says Twitter 'not even thinking' IPO -- report

Although there has been much speculation in recent months that Twitter is ramping up for an initial public offering, company co-founder Jack Dorsey has suggested that nothing is imminent.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Dorsey reportedly said that Twitter "is not even thinking" about an IPO at the moment.

"A lot of people think of this as a goal you have to get to but it's a milestone," Dorsey told Bloomberg during an interview in New York. "If you think about it as a goal you're rushing towards it and then stop, and … Read more

Flipboard, now with 56M users, looks for ways to make money

Flipboard is posting pretty rapid growth, and it's looking for new ways to generate revenue for itself, partners, and users, the company's CEO said.

Mike McCue, speaking Monday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, said the company has added 6 million new users since launching an update to its popular news-reading app a month ago.

Flipboard in late March launched version 2.0 of its iOS app that allows readers to become magazine publishers. Instead of just reading content, users can now create personalized periodicals curated from a variety of Web content from around the world. … Read more