Welcome to the Morning Briefing for the 24th of April 2013, where we highlight the tech stories from across the web that broke while you were sleeping and what we are watching here at techgeek.com.au.
Here’s what we are watching:
- A bunch of Facebook financial news broke through this morning. Facebook saw its profit fall 12 percent this quarter because of a rise in expenses, it revealed in its latest IPO amendments. The drop, it noted, was due to ad revenue – its strongest – had a drop.
- Also revealed was why they bought Instagram for US$1 billion. Well, technically it is $300 million in cash and then issuing 23 million shares to cover it – which have been assumed to be worth $31. It bought it because “independent mobile applications to enhance our photos product offerings and to enable users to increase their levels of mobile engagement and photo sharing.”
- Microsoft and Facebook have signed a deal that allows Facebook to use the patents that it acquired with AOL, and some of the AOL patents transferred to them in a deal worth US$550 million. Microsoft will still be able to license them, and still holds at least around 275 patents from its AOL deal. Should also be noted that Microsoft owns a small portion of the site
- And of course, Yahoo decides to release a media statement attacking them and called them weak for purchasing patents. “Nothing about today’s action changes the fact that Facebook continues to infringe our patents. Companies who purchase patents are often working from a position of weakness and take these actions to strengthen their portfolio. We see today’s announcement as a validation of our case against Facebook,” it said.
- Is this the new iPhone home button? A leak from a Chinese supplier has showed off what the new button could be. But don’t get your hopes up just yet – remember the supposed tear shape design for the iPhone 5? (which is the iPhone 4S with pretty much the same body, without the death grip)
- An app released called “TV English Premium” was quickly pulled from the app store after letting you watch several channels for a one-time fee. Though, it looks highly suspect. It offered you the chance to watch some BBC channels (among other European channels), while having the US’ History, National Geographic and ESPN – in HD.
- Paul Thurrott’s Supersite has some images of the Office 15 Beta – which you can delve into on the link. He notes that some of the jarring effects such the weird coloured window shadows have been removed, and animations have been sped up.
- Ubuntu 12.10 has a name. Yes, it’s now called Quantal Quetzal – as opposed to Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Ubuntu has a long history of naming their products with some sort of adjective and animal. The upcoming 12.04 is called “Precise Pangolin”.