The Transport Guy: Maybe Teens Aren't Abandoning Facebook After All

Steve Kovach January 30, 2014 at 10:36AM

On its earnings call Wednesday, Facebook dodged the "teen" question.

One of the biggest concerns with Facebook's business is that teens are no longer using the social network in favor of other services like Snapchat and Whisper. One analyst asked Facebook's CFO David Ebersman if teenagers are still using the service. Ebersman dodged the question: "We don't have any new data to report today."

But according to a study of 960 million Facebook fans by Social Bakers, Facebook content still reaches the same number of teenagers as it has for the past year. The data suggest that teen usage on Facebook is flat, not shrinking.

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Maybe Teens Aren't Abandoning Facebook After All from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Google Sells Motorola To Lenovo For $2.9 Billion

Steve Kovach January 29, 2014 at 02:21PM

Google has signed an agreement to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, the company announced after markets closed on Wednesday.

Google will keep the "vast majority" of around 10,000 patents it acquired when it bought Motorola in 2012 for $12.5 billion.

Google's stock was up over 2% in after-hours trading shortly after the announcement.

Motorola has been running semi-independently from Google since the acquisition went through. Last year, Motorola released its first flagship phone, the Moto X, since becoming a Google company. The Moto X was well-reviewed, but it's unclear how many were sold. Motorola has steadily been dropping the Moto X's price since the launch last fall.

Motorola's revenues continue to shrink year over year. In Q3 2013, Motorola revenues were $1.18 billion, down from $1.78 billion for the same quarter a year before. Google will report earnings for Q4 2013 Thursday afternoon.

Here's the full announcement from Goog CEO Larry Page posted to the company's blog:

We’ve just signed an agreement to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion. As this is an important move for Android users everywhere, I wanted to explain why in detail.

We acquired Motorola in 2012 to help supercharge the Android ecosystem by creating a stronger patent portfolio for Google and great smartphones for users. Over the past 19 months, Dennis Woodside and the Motorola team have done a tremendous job reinventing the company. They’ve focused on building a smaller number of great (and great value) smartphones that consumers love. Both the Moto G and the Moto X are doing really well, and I’m very excited about the smartphone lineup for 2014. And on the intellectual property side, Motorola’s patents have helped create a level playing field, which is good news for all Android’s users and partners.

But the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo—which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere. As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. We’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems.

Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola into a major player within the Android ecosystem. They have a lot of experience in hardware, and they have global reach. In addition, Lenovo intends to keep Motorola’s distinct brand identity—just as they did when they acquired ThinkPad from IBM in 2005. Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents, which we will continue to use to defend the entire Android ecosystem.

The deal has yet to be approved in the U.S. or China, and this usually takes time. So until then, it’s business as usual. I’m phenomenally impressed with everything the Motorola team has achieved and confident that with Lenovo as a partner, Motorola will build more and more great products for people everywhere.

While Google is selling Motorola for much less than it paid for it, the deal isn't as bad as it seems at first. Google is still keeping a bunch of Motrola's patents, which it can license out to other companies. Google also sold off Motorola's cable box business (the home division) for $2.5 billion.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Samsung, which makes more Android phones than any other manufacturer, is getting more cozy with Google. The two companies now have a 10-year patent deal. There's also a new report from Recode that says Samsung has agreed to feature more Google services in its Android phones.

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Google Sells Motorola To Lenovo For $2.9 Billion from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Venture Capitalist Compares Criticism Of The Rich To Nazi Persecution Of The Jews

Steve Kovach January 25, 2014 at 08:37AM

Tom Perkins, the founder of venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, wrote a letter to the editor in today's Wall Street Journal in which he compares criticism of the rich to the Nazi persecution of the Jews in the 1930s.

Here's an excerpt:

Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."

Perkins goes on to describe recent attacks on the wealthy in the San Francisco Bay Area, like the Google and Apple bus protests. He also writes that the public's turn against the rich represents a "dangerous rift" in America.

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Venture Capitalist Compares Criticism Of The Rich To Nazi Persecution Of The Jews from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

Google was SHUT DOWN: Massive Bug - Be Careful

Google Responds to Massive Gmail Outage

People use Google's SketchUp app during a Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.

IMAGE: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES ENTERTAINMENT

BY KARISSA BELL

Friday's Google outage that downed Gmail, Google+, Calendar and Documents for users around the world was caused by a software bug, according to a statement released by Google Friday evening.

The culprit, said Google, was an internal software bug that ultimately caused users' data requests to be ignored, which then caused errors within Gmail and other Google services.

SEE ALSO: RIP Google Reader and Winamp: 10 Tech Products We Lost in 2013

"An internal system that generates configurations — essentially, information that tells other systems how to behave — encountered a software bug and generated an incorrect configuration," said Ben Treynor, Google's VP of Engineering, on the company's blog. "The incorrect configuration was sent to live services over the next 15 minutes, caused users’ requests for their data to be ignored, and those services, in turn, generated errors."

Google apologized for the outage, which, it reported, lasted 25 to 55 minutes and affected as many as 10% of users. The company also said they are in the process of putting systems in place to prevent any similar problems in the future.

The outage began Friday at 10:55 a.m. PST, according to Google. The sudden crash of multiple Google services at once caused an an uproar on Twitter, where affected users quickly pointed the finger at Google.

Yahoo was briefly involved in the Twitter firestorm when it dissed Google in a tweet, which was eventually removed. Yahoo later apologized from the same Twitter account saying the tweet "reflected bad judgment."

Elsewhere on social media, an unfortunately timed Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Google's Site Reliability Engineering team was happening during the outage, though the team declined to comment directly on the ongoing outage during the AMA.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

TOPICS: APPS-AND-SOFTWARE, APPS AND SOFTWARE, GMAIL, GMAIL OUTAGE, TECH

The Transport Guy: Care.com, The 'Amazon Of Caregiving Services' Popped 43% On Its IPO Day

Steve Kovach January 24, 2014 at 01:56PM

Care.com, a website that acts as a portal for service providers like babysitters and pet sitters to find clients, had its IPO today. (Think of Care.com as the "Amazon of caregiving services.")

It was a big day too. Care.com priced its shares at $17 when trading started. It popped and was up 30% or more most of the day. The stock closed up 42.9% at $24.30 per share.

Now that Care.com is public, it plans to expand and acquire other similar sites, the company's CEO Sheila Marcelo told Business Insider in an interview.

"Going public allows us to acquire companies," Marcelo said. "We've already acquired four in this fragmented space."

Care.com has 9.7 million registered users. About 4 million of those are caregivers and the rest are families. Marcelo said a large portion of the site's users are women (95% of caregivers and 85% of registered family members) who helped the site grow through word of mouth. The site gets about 2.9 million unique visitors per month, according to ComScore.

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Care.com, The 'Amazon Of Caregiving Services' Popped 43% On Its IPO Day from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: There's A New Apple TV Box Coming In The First Half Of This Year And You Might Be Able To Play Games On It

Steve Kovach January 23, 2014 at 10:23AM

Apple is working on a new Apple TV set-top box that could launch in the first half of this year, reports 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman. Gurman has an excellent track record with Apple news.

Gurman says the box (not a TV set, mind you) will have a new user interface and possibly access to an app store that'll let you download games. iLounge also reports that games could be coming to the Apple TV. There's also a chance the new box will include a motion sensor that will let you control the Apple TV with gestures, sort of like the Kinect sensor on Microsoft's Xbox One video game console.

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There's A New Apple TV Box Coming In The First Half Of This Year And You Might Be Able To Play Games On It from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Netflix Issues Warning On The Dangers Of Ending Net Neutrality

Steve Kovach January 22, 2014 at 01:40PM

Netflix issued a statement today lamenting a federal appeals court's decision to effectively end net neutrality rules.

Without net neutrality, it means Internet providers can treat the content they deliver over the Web differently. For example, if an Internet provider wants to create its own streaming video service, it could theoretically slow down or charge you extra to use a rival service like Netflix.

Netflix, of course, isn't a fan of that. It's better for Netflix if the government keeps net neutrality rules and forces all content to be distributed equally over the Internet. However, Netflix's statement is pretty realistic and notes that Internet providers are unlikely to slow down or charge for services like Netflix any time soon.

Still, Netflix warns that there might be a push for more regulation of Internet providers if they start slowing down certain types of data:

In the long-term, we think Netflix and consumers are best served by strong network neutrality across all networks, including wireless. To the degree that ISPs adhere to a meaningful voluntary code of conduct, less regulation is warranted. To the degree that some aggressive ISPs start impeding specific data flows more regulation would clearly be needed.

Here's the full statement from Netflix:

Unfortunately, Verizon successfully challenged the U.S. net neutrality rules. In principle, a domestic ISP now can legally impede the video streams that members request from Netflix, degrading the experience we jointly provide. The motivation could be to get Netflix to pay fees to stop this degradation. Were this draconian scenario to unfold with some ISP, we would vigorously protest and encourage our members to demand the open Internet they are paying their ISP to deliver.

The most likely case, however, is that ISPs will avoid this consumer-unfriendly path of discrimination. ISPs are generally aware of the broad public support for net neutrality and don’t want to galvanize government action. Moreover, ISPs have very profitable broadband businesses they want to expand. Consumers purchase higher bandwidth packages mostly for one reason: high-quality streaming video. ISPs appear to recognize this and many of them are working closely with us and other streaming video services to enable the ISPs subscribers to more consistently get the high-quality streaming video consumers desire.

In the long-term, we think Netflix and consumers are best served by strong network neutrality across all networks, including wireless. To the degree that ISPs adhere to a meaningful voluntary code of conduct, less regulation is warranted. To the degree that some aggressive ISPs start impeding specific data flows, more regulation would clearly be needed.

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Netflix Issues Warning On The Dangers Of Ending Net Neutrality from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Carrie Fisher Confirms That She'll Be Princess Leia In The Next 'Star Wars' Movie

Steve Kovach January 22, 2014 at 11:53AM

While Disney has yet to confirm it's bringing back the original "Star Wars" cast members for the next installment of the franchise, "Episode VII," that hasn't stopped a few of them from spilling the beans.

The latest is Carrie Fisher, who told TV Guide that she'll reprise her role as Princess Leia. (This isn't the first time she's said it either.) Fisher says that she, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill will start filming in March or April of this year. Ford will play Han Solo and Hamill will be back as Luke Skywalker.

"I'd like to wear my old hairstyle again, but with white hair" Fisher told TV Guide, referring to Leia's iconic cinnamon bun hairdo.

Disney has already announced that "Episode VII" will launch on December 18, 2015.

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Carrie Fisher Confirms That She'll Be Princess Leia In The Next 'Star Wars' Movie from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: It's Another Huge Day For BlackBerry (BBRY)

Steve Kovach January 22, 2014 at 10:08AM

BlackBerry's stock is screaming for the second day in a row today. It's up about 8%.

So what's going on?

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it approved the use of 80,000 BlackBerry devices and caused the stock to close up a little over 9%.

Last year, BlackBerry failed to capture regular consumers with its new BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system. It is now focusing on enterprise and government customers along with consumers in emerging markets like Indonesia where the brand is still very popular.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry got a bit more aggressive this week, criticizing Samsung, which is relatively new to mobile enterprise, for being weak on security.

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It's Another Huge Day For BlackBerry (BBRY) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Here's A Map Of The Internet From 1969

Steve Kovach January 22, 2014 at 03:37AM

A lot of people in the tech world are passing around this image of what the Internet looked like in 1969. Only four cities were connected to each other, likely a few universities and government research facilities.

We got this one from the History In Pics Twitter account.

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Here's A Map Of The Internet From 1969 from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: T-Mobile Will Now Give You A Free Checking Account, Complete With 42,000 No-Fee ATMs

Steve Kovach January 21, 2014 at 09:01PM

T-Mobile isn't just content being your wireless carrier. It now wants to manage your checking account, too.

The company announced today Mobile Money, a free checking account service available to anyone with a T-Mobile phone number.

With T-Mobile's Mobile Money, your wireless carrier is your bank. T-Mobile retail stores are your banking branches. T-Mobile retail employees are your tellers. And while it sounds bizarre, it's just another example of a company trying to remove the banks from banking. (Mobile Money is very similar to Simple, another promising alternative banking service.)

Here's how it works:

• You walk into a T-Mobile store and open your checking account with an initial cash deposit. T-Mobile gives you a prepaid Visa card. (You'll eventually get your own debit card with your name on it.)


• You deposit cash to your account at the T-Mobile store and checks by snapping a photo of the document using the T-Mobile Mobile Money app for iPhone or Android.


• To get cash, you can make withdrawals (no fees!) from a network of 42,000 ATMs that you can find using the app. There's also a network of international ATMs that you can use for free.


• You can transfer money to other Mobile Money customers using the app if you have the person's T-Mobile phone number and last four digits of his or her debit card.


• You pay your bills electronically using the app or T-Mobile's website. You can also have T-Mobile cut a check and send it to someone if that's your only option.

Mobile Money is totally free except for the occasional fee you might have to pay for stuff like same-day bill payments.

But it's not for everyone, of course. T-Mobile is only offering free checking, not savings accounts or any of the other premium services traditional banks offer. It's simply an option for T-Mobile customers who want to easily move money in their checking accounts around. If you need more than that, you're probably better off with your regular bank.

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T-Mobile Will Now Give You A Free Checking Account, Complete With 42,000 No-Fee ATMs from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: BlackBerry Is On Fire Today

Steve Kovach January 21, 2014 at 08:37AM

BlackBerry stock is up nearly 8% today following news that the U.S. Department of Defense will support 80,000 new BlackBerry phones.

Since BlackBerry has largely failed to resonate with normal consumers, the company has decided to focus on providing devices and services to governments and enterprises. Additionally, the company's new CEO, John S. Chen, is making a push in emerging markets like Indonesia where the BlackBerry brand is still very popular.

BlackBerry has also gone on the defensive against Samsung, which is also trying to make bigger moves in the enterprise this year. In a new company blog post, BlackBerry points out a potential security flaw that researchers found in Samsung's Knox enterprise software for mobile devices.

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BlackBerry Is On Fire Today from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Verizon TV Customers Should Be Stoked That Intel's Revolutionary Internet TV Service Is Coming To Their Living Rooms

Steve Kovach January 21, 2014 at 07:13AM

OnCue, a reportedly revolutionary Internet TV service from Intel that was supposed to launch last year, has been sold to Verizon, the two companies announced today.

Intel first started teasing OnCue last year, but missed its window for launch and spun the division off in a sale to Verizon for a rumored $500 million.

The service had a bunch of people scratching their heads from the beginning. Why would Intel, a chip maker with very little experience in consumer electronics and media services, attempt to revolutionize TV?

Well, if early reports are to be believed, Intel was actually onto something with OnCue. And now Verizon TV customers should get excited.

Intel never showed OnCue in public, but AdAge spoke with a few insiders last year who did see it and were blown away by the service.

Here's a snapshot of what the product looked like at the time:

• All video would be delivered over the Internet, not through traditional cable services. Essentially, Intel would be your cable provider and you wouldn't have to deal with your cable company to watch stuff. That alone solves a huge gripe people have with cable.


• OnCue is powered by a beautifully designed box with a front-facing camera. The camera would be able to tell when someone is in the room watching TV. (Intel later said it would get rid of the camera though.)


• Recorded shows are saved in a virtual DVR that lets you stream them over the Internet whenever you want to watch. The virtual DVR would supposedly record every TV show.


• It has a simple remote without confusing buttons.


• There's integration with smartphones and tablets so you can watch TV on the go.

Verizon's purchase of OnCue has to go through the standard regulatory approval process before its official over the next few months, so it'll likely be some time before customers get to see it for themselves. Still, it at least sounds promising.

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Verizon TV Customers Should Be Stoked That Intel's Revolutionary Internet TV Service Is Coming To Their Living Rooms from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Samsung Appears To Be Stuffing Pop-Up Ads In Its Smart TVs

Steve Kovach January 20, 2014 at 08:53AM

Samsung's Web-connected Smart TVs appear to be more than just a way to stream stuff from Netflix and Pandora. It looks like the company is also experimenting with ways to show you ads on your set, just like you'd see when browsing the Internet.

David Chartier, a tech writer and commentator, posted a photo of a pop-up ad for a "Yahoo Broadcast Interactivity" app that randomly appeared on his Samsung Smart TV last week. But the pop-up ad itself wasn't the strangest part. It turns out the ad showed up while Chartier was watching his Apple TV, which was on a separate input. Whether it was a glitch or not, this clearly isn't an optimal experience.

Chartier wrote that he had to dig through Samsung's Smart TV app store to find something called the SyncPlus app that disables pop-up ads on his TV. Again, that's hardly a good experience for users who are annoyed by the ads. If Samsung decides to switch pop-up ads on by default, it's odd that it would make users jump through so many hoops to switch them off.

Samsung isn't alone in this practice though. Panasonic also displays banner ads on its smart TVs that you have to disable in the settings menu.

A spokesperson for Samsung was unable to comment on or explain why Chartier saw the pop-up ad. The spokesperson also couldn't detail how or why Samsung TVs are showing such ads.

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Samsung Appears To Be Stuffing Pop-Up Ads In Its Smart TVs from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: As PC Sales Continue To Implode, HP Starts Pushing Windows 7 Instead Of Windows 8

Steve Kovach January 20, 2014 at 08:03AM

This weekend HP brought in a blast from the past in an attempt to boost its PC sales.

Windows 7.

In promotional material on its website and email blasts, HP says it'll start shipping PCs with Windows 7 again due to "popular demand." And that's not a good sign for Microsoft, which still bets that its touch-based Windows 8 operating system will reinvigorate the PC market.

Many agree that one of the contributing factors to the PC market's implosion is Windows 8, which can be hard to operate on the traditional desktops and laptops that many people still use. Despite manufacturer's best attempts, PC sales continue to decline year over year. In fact, 2013 was the worst year for PC sales, according to research firm Gartner.

Meanwhile, there are a slew of other options for people to choose from, including Chromebooks, the cheap laptops that run Google's Chrome operating system. Chromebooks are gaining momentum with customers, causing Microsoft to launch some very negative ads. HP has started making a bigger push in Chromebooks too.

Finally, Microsoft is reportedly working on a new version of Windows called Windows 9 that will fix many of the gripes people have with Windows 8. We'll likely get a tiny preview of Windows 9 at Microsoft's Build developers conference in April.

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As PC Sales Continue To Implode, HP Starts Pushing Windows 7 Instead Of Windows 8 from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Get Ready For Apple To Report Monster iPhone Sales Next Week

Steve Kovach January 20, 2014 at 06:28AM

When Apple reports its earnings on January 27, all eyes will be on iPhone sales.

That's because it'll be the first report that shows a full quarter's worth of sales for Apple's latest iPhones, the iPhone 5S and 5C. According to Fortune, which looked at dozens of analysts' estimates, Apple likely sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 million iPhones last quarter.

To put that in perspective, Apple reported that it sold 33.8 million iPhones during the third quarter of 2013. The anticipated spike in sales is likely because people were holding out for the new devices that launched in September and the annual bump due to holiday sales.

It'll also be interesting when Apple reports earnings for the first quarter of 2014. The company just started selling iPhones on China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world with more than 700 million subscribers, last week. That should provide a boost.

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Get Ready For Apple To Report Monster iPhone Sales Next Week from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: LEAKED: The Home Screen On Samsung's Next Galaxy Phone Will Be Radically Different

Steve Kovach January 20, 2014 at 05:10AM

Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S5, will have a radically different home screen than before, according to a leaked image from Twitter user @evleaks. @evleaks almost always gets gadget leaks correct, so there's good reason to believe the following image is real.

It appears Samsung's home screen will now be a tile-based menu that displays items you'll likely care about: sports scores, flight information, incoming messages, etc. It's sort of a hybrid between the auto-updating Live Tiles on Microsoft's Windows Phones and the BlinkFeed home screen on HTC's phones that pulls in updates from news feeds and social networks.

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S5 by April along with a new Galaxy Gear smart watch.

Click here for more Samsung Galaxy S5 rumors >>

Take a look:

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LEAKED: The Home Screen On Samsung's Next Galaxy Phone Will Be Radically Different from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Even Chinese Counterfeiters Aren't Interested In Samsung's Galaxy Gear Smart Watch

Steve Kovach January 16, 2014 at 07:30AM

Even Chinese counterfeiters who make a living from selling knockoff iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones aren't too hot on Samsung's smart watch, the Galaxy Gear, according to a report from CNN.

Samsung's smart watch, the Galaxy Gear, launched last fall to so-so reviews. Critics panned the device for its limited functionality, poor battery life, and bulky body.

It seems those negative reviews have trickled down to counterfeiters in China. CNN talked to several and none of them seemed interested in copying Samsung's Galaxy Gear.

From CNN:

The launch of Samsung's Gear seemed like something of a victory against its big rival Apple, which is rumored to be launching its iWatch sometime this year, but the device was conspicuous by its absence in Huaqiangbei's market halls, logistic companies and workshops.

"I've never seen a knock-off Gear in this whole town," said a young woman working in a shop full of Samsung products. Her shop is one of the few outlets that sell the real Gear but she said "they don't sell well."

"[Counterfeiters] don't care about the Gear as consumer demand is too weak," said another shop assistant in his early twenties, who was selling a number of what he said were real Samsung products, but not the smart watch. "We don't sell it anymore. It was not popular."

Despite the poor reviews, Samsung says it has shipped at least 800,000 Galaxy Gears. It's unclear how many have actually been bought by users.

Now for some good news from Samsung on its smart watch plans: Last week, a Samsung executive told Bloomberg that the company plans to launch a new version of the Gear in the spring along with a new flagship Galaxy smartphone. The executive didn't give many hints at what the new Galaxy Gear will be able to do, but he did say it will be slimmer.

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Even Chinese Counterfeiters Aren't Interested In Samsung's Galaxy Gear Smart Watch from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Apple Settles With FTC Because It Was Easy For Kids To Make In-App Purchases Without Their Parents Knowing

Steve Kovach January 15, 2014 at 09:01AM

Apple reached a settlement with the FTC today regarding in-app purchases in its App Store for iPhones and iPads, according to a leaked memo from CEO Tim Cook.

The settlement comes because the FTC found it was easy for younger users to make in-app purchases without their parents' permission.

The FTC will hold a press conference today at noon Eastern today to announce the settlement. We'll have more for you then.

Developing...please refresh this page for updates.

Here's the letter, which was obtained by 9to5Mac:

Team,

I want to let you know that Apple has entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. We have been negotiating with the FTC for several months over disclosures about the in-app purchase feature of the App Store, because younger customers have sometimes been able to make purchases without their parents’ consent. I know this announcement will come as a surprise to many of you since Apple has led the industry by making the App Store a safe place for customers of all ages.

From the very beginning, protecting children has been a top priority for the App Store team and everyone at Apple. The store is thoughtfully curated, and we hold app developers to Apple’s own high standards of security, privacy, usefulness and decency, among others. The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive and customizable, and we’ve continued to add ways for parents to protect their children. These controls go far beyond the features of other mobile device and OS makers, most of whom don’t even review the apps they sell to children.

When we introduced in-app purchases in 2009, we proactively offered parents a way to disable the function with a single switch. When in-app purchases were enabled and a password was entered to download an app, the App Store allowed purchases for 15 minutes without requiring a password. The 15-minute window had been there since the launch of the App Store in 2008 and was aimed at making the App Store easy to use, but some younger customers discovered that it also allowed them to make in-app purchases without a parent’s approval.

We heard from some customers with children that it was too easy to make in-app purchases, so we moved quickly to make improvements. We even created additional steps in the purchasing process, because these steps are so helpful to parents.

Last year, we set out to refund any in-app purchase which may have been made without a parent’s permission. We wanted to reach every customer who might have been affected, so we sent emails to 28 million App Store customers – anyone who had made an in-app purchase in a game designed for kids. When some emails bounced, we mailed the parents postcards. In all, we received 37,000 claims and we will be reimbursing each one as promised.

A federal judge agreed with our actions as a full settlement and we felt we had made things right for everyone. Then, the FTC got involved and we faced the prospect of a second lawsuit over the very same issue.

It doesn’t feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled. To us, it smacked of double jeopardy. However, the consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren’t already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight.

The App Store is one of Apple’s most important innovations, and it’s wildly popular with our customers around the world because they know they can trust Apple. You and your coworkers have helped Apple earn that trust, which we value and respect above all else.

Apple is a company full of disruptive ideas and innovative people, who are also committed to upholding the highest moral, legal and ethical standards in everything we do. As I’ve said before, we believe technology can serve humankind’s deepest values and highest aspirations. As Apple continues to grow, there will inevitably be scrutiny and criticism along our journey. We don’t shy away from these kinds of questions, because we are confident in the integrity of our company and our coworkers.

Thank you for the hard work you do to delight our customers, and for showing them at every turn that Apple is worthy of their trust.

Tim

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Apple Settles With FTC Because It Was Easy For Kids To Make In-App Purchases Without Their Parents Knowing from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Google's Multibillion Purchase Of Nest Is Just The Beginning Of 'The Internet Of Things'

Steve Kovach January 13, 2014 at 03:07PM

We saw some huge news today in the Internet of Things space, that area of tech that's trying to connect everyday objects to the Internet and make them smarter.

Nest, a company founded by former Apple employee Tony Fadell that makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors, sold to Google for $3.2 billion. Take the purchase as a sign that big tech companies truly do think we'll one day live in a future where everything is connected online.

According to analysis from Business Insider Intelligence, more than 18 billion devices will be connected to the Web by 2018. Wow.

This chart says it all:

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Google's Multibillion Purchase Of Nest Is Just The Beginning Of 'The Internet Of Things' from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Ex-Apple Employee Tony Fadell Explains Why He Sold His Company To Google For $3.2 Billion

Steve Kovach January 13, 2014 at 02:34PM

Tony Fadell, the CEO of smart thermostat and smoke detector company Nest, sold his company to Google today for $3.2 billion.

Fadell is most famous for helping create the original iPod. He left Apple after shortly before the iPhone project kicked into high gear under then-vice president Scott Forstall.

Fadell is going on a media tour today, doing interviews about his move to Google. Remember: Nest's long-term goal is to connect everything in your home to the Internet.

Here's what Fadell told The Verge:

For me, this isn’t about a financial transaction. It’s about the future and what we can do together, so I’m really excited about taking the vision. Because they really like the vision that we have and the product roadmap that we have and they can implement it. They’re going to allow us to — Nest can remain Nest. We need more capital, we always do, but when we have somebody who really understands the vision, it’s like, go.

And here's an excerpt from his interview with tech news site Re/Code:

The crux of this is that we thought about what is it going to take to realize our vision and change the world? This is not a typical you-can-add-servers-to-it business, then it scales. There is a ton of infrastructure that needs to be built. We want to differentiate with our products and not spend our time rebuilding stuff other people have. If we did not focus on the products, that is where you get into trouble. But you have to build the infrastructure — it’s not like like you go off a shelf and buy it.

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Ex-Apple Employee Tony Fadell Explains Why He Sold His Company To Google For $3.2 Billion from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Tumblr Is Down For Some Users

Steve Kovach January 13, 2014 at 12:48PM

Many Tumblr users are reporting outages on the blogging site. We tried accessing the site this afternoon and got a "502 Bad Gateway" error message.

Tumblr tweeted that it's aware of the issue and working on a fix:

Our engineers are working hard to restore service as quickly as possible. We’re sorry for the delays.

— Tumblr (@tumblr) January 13, 2014

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Tumblr Is Down For Some Users from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: This Is What The Snapchat Spam Everyone Is Getting Looks Like

Steve Kovach January 13, 2014 at 11:55AM

Snapchat apologized today for a recent influx of spam users have been complaining about.

The company insists the spam has nothing to do with the recent leak of 4.6 million Snapchat usernames and phone numbers to the public. Instead, Snapchat says the spam is the result of its quickly growing service.

Still, you may notice a bunch of random people adding you on the network and sending you unsolicited photos. I have a bunch in my Snapchat inbox right now, and just about all of them look like this:

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This Is What The Snapchat Spam Everyone Is Getting Looks Like from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Ask Siri 'What Does The Fox Say?' And You'll Get The Response You Were Hoping For

Steve Kovach January 13, 2014 at 11:20AM

"Siri, what does the fox say?"

Well, here's Siri's answer:

Or:

This is based off the famous and bizarre YouTube video that went viral last year. Thanks Andrea Harrison for spotting this one on Twitter.

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Ask Siri 'What Does The Fox Say?' And You'll Get The Response You Were Hoping For from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Streaming Live TV Service Aereo Goes Down In New York During Golden Globes

Steve Kovach January 12, 2014 at 05:37PM

Aereo, a service that lets you stream live network TV over the Internet, went down in New York during the Golden Globes tonight.

The company acknowledged the issue on Twitter and said it was working to get the service up again.

Sorry NYC! We are aware of an issue that is impacting @Aereo members. We hope to have it resolved ASAP. (1 of 2)

— Aereo Support (@AereoSupport) January 13, 2014

Aereo costs $8 per month and lets you stream networks like CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox to your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

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Streaming Live TV Service Aereo Goes Down In New York During Golden Globes from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: One Of Microsoft's Twitter Accounts Appears To Have Been Hacked By The Syrian Electronic Army

Steve Kovach January 11, 2014 at 11:39AM

It appears that the Microsoft News Twitter account, which the company uses to distribute company updates and press releases, has been taken over by notorious hacking group the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).

First, the account retweeted SEA's own Twitter account:

Then came a series of other tweets:

The SEA has taken credit for hacking several major Twitter accounts and websites. Last year, it brought down the New York Times site for several hours.

We've reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

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One Of Microsoft's Twitter Accounts Appears To Have Been Hacked By The Syrian Electronic Army from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: The Supreme Court Will Hear Broadcasters' Case Against Streaming TV Service Aereo

Steve Kovach January 10, 2014 at 12:01PM

The Supreme Court will hear a case against Aereo by several broadcasters.

Aereo is a service that streams television from over-the-air networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox to smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Broadcasters are upset at Aereo because they say the service beams content without permission. But Aereo says it has rights to do so because it buys an individual antenna for each of its customers. Aereo then beams the signal from each antenna over the Internet to subscribers.

Aereo costs $8 per month to use and includes a virtual DVR that you can use to record shows and stream them later. It's only available in a handful of cities right now, but its coverage is rapidly expanding.

The whole thing has caused a bit of a panic among networks. Some, like Fox, have threatened to stop broadcasting programming over the air for free if Aereo is allowed to continue.

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The Supreme Court Will Hear Broadcasters' Case Against Streaming TV Service Aereo from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Here's A Photo Of The Big-Screen iPhone 6 Frame That's Being Passed Around Apple Blogs Today

Steve Kovach January 08, 2014 at 12:27PM

Take this one with a huge grain of salt, but according to a Chinese site called C Technology, the following blurry image shows the frame of Apple's next iPhone:

We first spotted this one on 9to5Mac. The image shows a smartphone frame that's significantly larger and thinner than the iPhone 5S body. C Technology has a so-so record with Apple leaks, so it's worth at least mentioning.

To be clear, we have no idea if this is real or not. All we know is that this image comes from a somewhat reliable source of Apple rumors out of China.

It could also just be a random hunk of metal someone took a photo of.

For what it's worth, Apple news site MacRumors thinks this is a bogus photo.

We also know, via The Wall Street Journal and other publications, that Apple is playing around with big-screen iPhones, some with screens as large as six inches. (The iPhone 5S has a 4-inch screen.) And there's a good chance that 2014 will be the year Apple finally makes a phone with a screen large enough to match phones from rivals like Samsung.

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Here's A Photo Of The Big-Screen iPhone 6 Frame That's Being Passed Around Apple Blogs Today from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: That Giant Mystery Amazon Box That Went Viral This Week Was Real And It Had A Nissan Car Inside

Steve Kovach January 08, 2014 at 06:58AM

A photo of a giant Amazon shipping box went viral Monday, but its contents remained a mystery.

So what was inside? And was it even a real Amazon box?

Amazon confirmed to tech news site Re/Code that it was real, and there was a Nissan Versa Note inside. The giant box was part of an advertising campaign for the two companies.

The photo originally began to spread on Reddit, and many commenters speculated it was a Nissan car. They were right!

Here's another look at the gigantic box:

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That Giant Mystery Amazon Box That Went Viral This Week Was Real And It Had A Nissan Car Inside from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

Coinye West: THAT'S RIGHT, The Ye' is launching his own currency. [Must Read]

Coinye West: THAT'S RIGHT, The Ye' is launching his own currency. 

If you couldn’t get behind Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer digital cryptocurrency that’s as volatile as your weird uncle when he’s 3 glasses of gin deep, perhaps Coinye West is more your style. Like Dogecoin, the digital currency stamped with the glorious face of the Internet’s favorite Shibu Inu, the soon to debut Coinye West is piggybacking off of the success of Bitcoin and creating its very own unregulated currency that they hope Kanye himself will get behind.

“Our goal with Coinye West is to make it easier for people to use cryptocurrency,” the creators told Vice. “Right now, it’s kind of a dark art for people to mine coins.” To mine a Bitcoin, users must have an elaborate computer setup called a “mining rig” that will solve increasingly complicated mathematical problems in order to create new Bitcoins.

“We plan on releasing a front end to the ‘mining’ programs called CoinyeMiner,” the creators added. “It will make things a lot more simple and people will be able to make their own coins. We’re working round-the-clock to get everything going as smoothly as possible.”

Coinye’s creators say it’s a more mainstream cryptocurrency than Dogecoin or Bitcoin and they’re hoping it can be used to buy concert tickets, among other things.

Coinye West debuts January 11. Meanwhile, we eagerly await the creation of KimKoin.

Read more: Kanye West Cryptocurrency Coinye West Like Bitcoin | TIME.com http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/02/kanye-west-now-has-his-own-cryptocurrency-and-its-called-coinye-west/#ixzz2pmAkhf4Y

The Transport Guy: LIVE: Marissa Mayer's CES Keynote

Steve Kovach January 07, 2014 at 01:14PM

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is about to give her keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It begins at 1 p.m. Pacific, 4 p.m. Eastern.

You can watch her speech in the stream below. We have two reporters there who will break out all the best news from her speech. Check BI: Tech for the latest updates.

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LIVE: Marissa Mayer's CES Keynote from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Netflix Is Down Today After Analyst Says Amazon And Hulu Are Catching Up

Steve Kovach January 07, 2014 at 11:12AM

Netflix shares are down about 5% today, following a downgrade of the stock by Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt.

Devitt downgraded the stock because Netflix rivals like Amazon Instant and Hulu are beefing up their own original content. He also argues that Hulu has better television show programs than Netflix and is able to get on more devices faster, according to Deadline.

Here's a look at the Netflix stock today:

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Netflix Is Down Today After Analyst Says Amazon And Hulu Are Catching Up from Business Insider: Steve Kovach