Yahoo! Just Bought Tumblr for $1.1 Billion

Reuters

That rumored $1 billion offer from Yahoo! to buy Tumblr? It's looking like a forgone conclusion at this point. But things are messy and speculative and there are already doomsayers predicting this is a bad idea for everyone involved. But mostly they're predicting it's bad for Yahoo!

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 5, 2013

Everything You Need to Know About the Dell Buyout

After weeks of rumored talks, Dell has announced its sale to Microsoft, Silver Lake Partners, and founder Michael Dell for $24.4 billion, the biggest leveraged buyout since the 2008 financial crisis.

Comments | 1,207 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Feb 4, 2013

That Salad's Making You Sick

If you're eating mixed greens right now, you might want to stop for a second, because news that a fourth of all food-borne illnesses come from leafy vegetables might put a bad taste in your mouth.

Comments | 2,759 Views

By J.K. Trotter

Feb 4, 2013

Today in Research

'Tis Actually Better (for Your Health) to Give Than Receive

Discovered: Giving is good for the soul; New York's so-called "Broken Windows Theory" is wrong; gold-loving bacteria; the different ways we experience fear.

Comments | 1,897 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 4, 2013

Facebook's New App Isn't a Spy — It's a Find My Friends Killer

A new report claims Facebook is working on what sounds like a creepy mobile location tracker, even though more likely it's an app that will seek to be more successful than Apple's Find My Friends app for the iPhone.

Comments | 2,759 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 4, 2013

This Is What Facebook Memory Lane Looks Like on Its Ninth Birthday

On the occasion of Facebook's ninth anniversary, pretty much the whole Internet has decided to get nostalgic. Here's how.

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 4, 2013

Why Malware Warnings Took Over the Internet Today

For Chrome users, a malware warning page popped up on Monday across many major websites — The New York Times, IMDb, and MSN Money, to name a few — due to so-called blacklisting bug inside Google's ad network.

Comments | 9,618 Views

By Connor Simpson

Feb 4, 2013

Soccer Has a 'Global Crime Syndicate' Problem

The E.U.'s joint police force announced the conclusion of a years-long investigation into soccer-match fixing on Monday, and the results are a little troubling — and the source of the scandal perhaps even more troubling still.

Comments | 962 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 4, 2013

Aaron Swartz's Girlfriend Convinced Depression Didn't Drive Him to Suicide

In an emotional letter that may either refocus or amp up the conversation surrounding the tech pioneer's death, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman has released a post on her Tumblr called "Why Aaron Died" — and none of her reasons include his clinical depression.

Comments | 11,292 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 4, 2013

The Future of BlackBerry 10 Sales Looks Hazy

As the U.S. market remains on standby for sales and even ads, reports from both analysts and suppliers suggest sold-out new models in the United Kingdom, the first and only place the BlackBerry Z10 is available yet.

Comments | 4,483 Views

By Connor Simpson

Feb 2, 2013

China May (or May Not) Be Behind the Twitter Hack

You may not have heard, but roughly 250,000 Twitter accounts may have been compromised by hackers. And there's a small theory that -- if you read between the lines -- Twitter is implying the Chinese are to blame for compromising their security. 

Comments | 2,776 Views

By David Wagner

Feb 1, 2013

Today in Research

Life Found Under Ice in Antarctica

Discovered: Oxygen-dependent lifeforms in the harshest of conditions; how owls twist their necks like that; the flu came early this year because of a warm winter; cats and humans are very alike (when it comes to a form of epilepsy). 

Comments | 3,928 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 1, 2013

How Twitter Earned Its Mega-Valuation

Twitter might not quite deserve its (very) big new $10 billion valuation, but it's spent the last year working (very) hard to grow up — and just in time for the inevitable and (very) good-looking public offering in 2013.

Comments | 957 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 1, 2013

Here's the GIF Search Engine You've Been Waiting Too Long For

Just as the rebirth of the GIF was apparently ending, someone up and started Giphy, a search engine focusing solely on the soon-to-be-passé looping file format of Internet past.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 1, 2013

The Economics of Netflix's $100 Million New Show

With Netflix's foray into original, high quality programming today, the streaming TV network wants to turn into the HBO of Internet TV, but can Netflix afford it?

Comments | 123,556 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Feb 1, 2013

This Week's Social Media Power Rankings: The Return of Swatch

This week, Cisco got educational, Swatch got you hooked on love, and Intel parlayed its Ultrabooks to get a jump in the social media ranks.  

Comments | 484 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 1, 2013

Apple TV Is Running Late

So, Apple's big plan to talk cable companies into making the iPod of the television industry thus far involves getting Time Warner to let it put HBO Go on its box (if you buy a cable subscription!), something other similar boxes already do. How very unexciting.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 31, 2013

Today in Research

Our Soldiers Are Not Sleeping Enough

Discovered: Sleep deprivation runs high in the military; a look inside the brain of the zebrafish; how pigeons get lost in the "Bermuda Triangle"; cancer death rates are down.

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 31, 2013

China Hacked the Wall Street Journal, Too

Less than a day after The New York Times revealed Chinese malware experts had cracked into its employee computer system, The Wall Street Journal said Thursday afternoon that it, too, has been "infiltrated." How bad was it, and is the Chinese government involved?

Comments | 1,408 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 31, 2013

Update: Amazon.com Is Working Again

It may be time to declare today the Day of the Internet Not Working Properly: First Twitter sputtered, and this afternoon Amazon is experiencing technical difficulties.

Comments | 1,035 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 31, 2013

CES Ditches CNET After CBS Scandal

The once beloved and suddenly beleaguered tech-review site CNET will no longer select the official Best in Show awards at the Consumer Electronics Show because of its ethically questionable situation with parent company CBS.

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 31, 2013

Kim Dotcom Shut Down the Mega Search Site Because He Wants to Stay Legit Now

It only took a few days for some sneaky pirates to transform Kim Dotcom's totally legal new file-storage hub Mega into a file-sharing site that mimicked the old Megaupload, and it's only taken the last few hours for the former pirate king to fight back.

Comments | 3,571 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 31, 2013

The Mars Curiosity Rover Is a She, Just So You Know

A note to @MarsCuriosity's 1,270,220 followers on Twitter: NASA's intrepid rover is a she. The women behind her massively popular social media presence confirmed today that "she" is the proper pronoun for referring to the Mars explorer.

Comments | 510 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 31, 2013

Why Was Twitter Down Today?

Yes, Twitter isn't working right now, and, yes, Twitter is working to fix it. While Twitter hasn't yet offered a specific reason for the disruption, it very well may be a server-capacity issue.

Comments | 4,828 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 31, 2013

The Apple Rumormongers Demand an iPad Mini with Retina Display

Rumormongering about an iPad Mini with Retina Display is sort of the perfect rumor for gadget blogs because one day between now and forever, when Apple inevitably releases said device, their predictions will come true.

Comments | 3,966 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 30, 2013

Today in Research

Should We Believe Research That Says Men Who Do More Chores Have Less Sex?

Discovered: Does sex really vanish when men do more chores?; weighing black holes; why you should get most of your eating in before 3:00 p.m.; a quarter-billion year old tapeworm. 

Comments | 2,022 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 30, 2013

You Can't Hate Twitter if You Don't Get Twitter

In one of the most talked-about columns on social media today, The Week columnist Matt Lewis tries to explain how he got trapped in the "prison" of Twitter's apparent decline — even though he's really just trapped himself, by way of a really bad Twitter feed.

Comments | 2,412 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 30, 2013

Facebook's Ads Can't Keep Up with Its Mobile Growth

The social network's latest earnings report shows why a lot of good is never enough for Facebook, especially when it comes to making money off you and your cellphone.

Comments | 690 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 30, 2013

What They're Saying About BlackBerry 10

After a strange unveiling of its new operating system, two phones, and a company rebranding, BlackBerry lifted the embargo on reviews of one of the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, the $599 touchscreen Z10. Here's the early word.

Comments | 1,377 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 30, 2013

Look How Desperate the BlackBerry 10 Unveiling Event Actually Was

Not that Research in Motion was ever very cool beyond the corporate crowd, but the company's rebranding, as simply BlackBerry, came with an outward appearance not of confidence so much as outright desperation.

Comments | 3,270 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 30, 2013

Everything You Need to Know About BlackBerry 10

The company formerly known as Research in Motion has unveiled its hail-mary BlackBerry 10 operating system, including two new phones — the Q10 and Z10. 

Comments | 3,889 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 30, 2013

Samsung Just Can't Stop Beating Apple

Samsung has won the latest round of its neverending patent war with Apple — and at just the right moment in its cultural ascendance, giving the Korean gadget giant another notch on its "better-than-Apple" belt.

Comments | 1,664 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 29, 2013

Today in Research

Doctors Are Being Worked Too Hard, and That's Hurting Hospital Safety

Discovered: Physicians who see too many patients are more prone to slip up; gay men are gayer than straight guys; taking trays out of cafeterias reduces waste; new criteria for 'habitable' planets.

Comments | 1,129 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 29, 2013

Why Amazon's Stock Is Soaring After a Terrible Earnings Report

Amazon's earnings were filled with all sorts of misses, including a 45 percent decline in profits, and yet the stock is up around 10 percent in after-hours trading because of one good metric.

Comments | 1,291 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 29, 2013

Silicon Valley Wants Its Privacy Back

Silicon Valley blogger Sarah Lacy thinks the reincarnation of the Gawker gossip blog Valleywag shouldn't cover gossip because people in the tech start-up world like to keep their boring lives private, a hilarious statement since Silicon Valley has industrialized the public flaunting of people's boring private lives.

Comments | 637 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 29, 2013

Instagram Is a Terrible Example of Immigrants Creating American Jobs

During his immigration speech on Tuesday afternoon President Barack Obama cited the Brazilian born Instagram co-creator Mike Krieger as an example of the potential jobs and money a non-American can bring to our country, a strange choice considering how teeny-tiny the photo-sharing app industry is.

Comments | 653 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 29, 2013

Facebook Graph Search Still Doesn't Speak Human

Despite hiring a couple of linguists to get its new search engine to move "beyond 'Robospeak" and actually understand how people talk, Facebook hasn't actually taught Graph Search how to do that very well just yet. And that's a problem.

Comments | 1,387 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 29, 2013

How Video Sharing Apps Keep Porn Out

Just like Vine, pretty much any of the other "Instagram for video" platforms that have come out in the last couple of years have experienced an inundation of inappropriate content.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 29, 2013

$800 Sure Is a Lot of Money for an iPad

Despite the rise of the phablet and its friends, the battle of the very expensive tablets is very much upon us as Apple announced an $800, 128GB version of its iPad on Tuesday morning — less than two weeks before its enemies at Microsoft will launch a $900, 128GB tablet, the Surface Pro.

Comments | 1,555 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 28, 2013

Today in Research

Green Tea and Viagra: A Recipe for Fighting Cancer?

Discovered: Erectile dysfunction meds and green tea team up to fight cancer; cell phone towers are responsible for many bird deaths; look at this tractor beam in action; shooting your belly full of botox won't make you skinny.

Comments | 3,367 Views

By Connor Simpson

Jan 28, 2013

What Old Valleywags Think About the New Valleywag

Nick Denton surprised some when he revealed he was relaunching Gawker's old tech rumor blog Valleywag this morning, as reported by Business Insider's Alyson Shontell. We asked a pair of old Valleywag editors what they think of the resurrection. 

Comments | 1,935 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 28, 2013

Indie Labels Are Really Mad at Myspace Right Now

The sleek new revamped Myspace has no problem paying major labels for the right to stream their music. But indie labels aren't seeing any of that kickback, and they're furious about it.

Comments | 1,923 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 28, 2013

The Government Is Still Trying to Spy on a Lot of Your Twitter and Google Data

On the occasion of Data Privacy Day, Twitter says it's giving away user information requested by the U.S. government... without a warrant. It's the continuation of a frightening trend that's as frightening as it is growing.

Comments | 5,124 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 28, 2013

What Twitter Can Do About the 'Human Error' Behind Its Latest Porn Problem

Twitter was quick to defend itself Monday morning after a pornographic clip briefly made its way in front of all users on the Editor's Picks of its new app, but how much of a porn problem does Vine already have?

Comments | 690 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 28, 2013

Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day Has Been Canceled

The first annual Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day has been canceled because of a number of "valid risks" with using a hashtag to prove a point about the way readers often objectify female tech writers.

Comments | 2,257 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Jan 27, 2013

Vine Has a Porn Problem Because Of Course It Does

It's actually pretty surprising that it took everyone three days to figure out that Twitter's new cell phone camera-powered video sharing app, Vine, is perfect for porn.

Comments | 17,846 Views

By Connor Simpson

Jan 26, 2013

You Will Not Stop Watching Vinepeek

You might not be sold on Twitter's new short video app Vine, but we challenge you to try and stop watching Vinepeek. You won't. You'll be stuck for 20 minutes before mustering the will power to look away. 

Comments | 13,716 Views

By Connor Simpson

Jan 26, 2013

No, Anonymous Doesn't Have Access to U.S. Warheads

If you were skimming the news this morning, we could understand why you might be confused and thinking that the hacking collective Anonymous has access to real U.S. warheads. Stop worrying, they don't. 

Comments | 12,414 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 25, 2013

Today in Research

Cows Who Eat Flaxseeds Make More Nutritious Milk

Discovered: Omega-3s make cow dairy more nutritious; protons are just a tiny bit smaller than we thought, and that has huge implications; HIV's ancient origins; ADHD medicine is putting more people in the emergency room.

Comments | 1,518 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Jan 25, 2013

Square's No. 2 Resigned Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

Keith Rabois, the chief operating officer of Square who resigned from the payment company of the future with little public explanation late Thursday, has now revealed that he left amid allegations of sexual harassment.

Comments | 1,823 Views

By David Wagner

Jan 25, 2013

Why Was Flame Retardant in Gatorade, and Why Is It Still in Mountain Dew?

Electrolytes aren't the only thing quenching your thirst when you drink Gatorade. An ingredient patented for use as a flame retardant has been in the formula until now, as PepsiCo Inc. plans to phase out the substance from Gatorade... while keeping it in other products.

Comments | 7,533 Views

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App