GIF all the things: Imgur unveils video-to-GIF converter, and more for Thursday, January 29, 2015

GIF all the things: Imgur unveils video-to-GIF converter Janko Roettgers Jan 29 2015, 6:00am PDT Imgur just gave itself an early birthday present: One week before the popular image hosting service celebrates its sixth anniversary, it unveiled a web-based video to GIF conversion tool Thursday. The new tool makes it easy to create GIFs from any video clip hosted at YouTube […] Read More » This is Tesla’s first battery swap station (photos) Katie Fehrenbacher Jan 29 2015, 6:00am PDT Last month Tesla announced that it would soon start trialing its first battery swap station in private beta to invited customers, next to its super charger station at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif. Soon after the announcement, customers on Tesla forums started asking each other if […] Read More » Upcoming Gigaom event: Speakers and agenda announced for Structure Data, March 18-19 Gigaom Jan 29 2015, 5:55am PDT This March Structure Data is back in a big way, bringing together some of the most brilliant minds in the field over the course of two days. You can read about these folks, or you can get a first row seat to hear from them first […] Read More » Google adds pull to refresh action on Chrome beta for Android Kevin C. Tofel Jan 29 2015, 5:28am PDT I’ve long been a fan of the “pull to refresh” gesture used on mobile apps and now you can find it Chrome for Android. You’ll need the latest beta version of Chrome — which you can install from the Google Play Store separately from the standard edition […] Read More » The AllSeen Alliance changes its IP stance after Iotivity launch Stacey Higginbotham Jan 29 2015, 5:00am PDT After getting hammered on its intellectual property rights by Intel’s competing Iotivity standards effort, the AllSeen Alliance, which is promoting Qualcomm-backed AllJoyn protocol, is offering users a patent pledge. Essentially anyone who gets certified with the AllSeen Alliance logo also gets a pledge that none of […] Read More » VMware is bringing key Google services to its cloud Barb Darrow Jan 29 2015, 5:00am PDT Here’s a deal that has “corporate synergies” written all over it. VMware and Google are working together to make four Google cloud services available to corporate customers of VMware’s vCloud Air hybrid cloud. Google BigQuery analytics and Google Cloud Storage, as well as Google’s Datastore and […] Read More » Report: China wants backdoors in imported tech, but only its own David Meyer Jan 29 2015, 4:13am PDT Western companies are doing big business in China, but storm clouds lie on the horizon. According to a New York Times report, new banking security rules approved in the People’s Republic at the end of 2014 require those selling hardware and software to Chinese banks to […] Read More » A sneak peek at Sony’s PlayStation Vue internet TV service Janko Roettgers Jan 28 2015, 2:10pm PDT Sony may have just shuttered its music service, but it’s getting ready to launch another media venture: PlayStation Vue, the company’s upcoming live TV service, is supposed to launch before the end of the quarter. Sony has been testing the service with a limited number of users […] Read More » Qualcomm may have just confirmed no Snapdragon in the Galaxy S6 Kevin C. Tofel Jan 28 2015, 1:38pm PDT Recently we heard various reports of Qualcomm’s latest mobile chip overheating, which led to the expectation that Samsung was planning to use its own processor in the upcoming Galaxy S6. Qualcomm has refuted the heat problem, as did LG which is using the Snapdragon 810 in its new G […] Read More » Looks like those IBM layoffs have started Barb Darrow Jan 28 2015, 1:24pm PDT Reports of big layoffs to come this week at IBM were correct, at least with regard to timing. Starting Wednesday, the message board at Alliance@IBM, a site manned by former IBM employees, was full of posts from people saying (anonymously) that they had been laid off. More accurately, most said they had […] Read More » How Facebook is speeding up its app for iOS and Android Kevin C. Tofel Jan 28 2015, 10:02am PDT You might not have noticed it, but depending on the phone platform you use, your Facebook mobile app is about 10 to 15 faster than it used to be. How’s that? Facebook has tweaked its app for both iOS and Android to render pictures and your […] Read More » It’s official now: SoftLayer’s Lance Crosby exits IBM Barb Darrow Jan 28 2015, 8:03am PDT The writing was on the wall when IBM named another guy to head up its cloud operations, but now it’s apparently official: Lance Crosby, the CEO of SoftLayer, which IBM acquired in July 2013 for $2.2 billion, is leaving the company. Most had expected SoftLayer’s top guy […] Read More » Nasty Blackphone vulnerability allowed decryption and worse David Meyer Jan 28 2015, 6:45am PDT The theoretically super-secure Blackphone had a very serious bug in its SilentText chat app, security researcher Mark Dowd revealed Wednesday after informing the phone’s makers. The vulnerability in Silent Text, which is also available for other devices from Blackphone backer Silent Circle, made it possible for […] Read More » Cable’s next step: Offer “virtual” cellular service Kevin Fitchard Jan 28 2015, 5:00am PDT Cablevision has become the first cable operator to launch a smartphone running entirely off of Wi-Fi, but there’s one more thing it has to do for its mobile service to become truly mainstream. It has to become a mobile virtual network operator. MVNOs are network-less carriers, buying […] Read More » Netflix is revamping its data architecture for streaming movies Jonathan Vanian Jan 27 2015, 3:30pm PDT Netflix is revamping the computing architecture that processes data for its streaming video service, according to a Netflix blog post that came out on Tuesday. The engineering team wanted an architecture that can handle three key areas the video-streaming giant believes greatly affects the user experience: knowing […] Read More » Apple Watch goes on sale in April “on schedule,” says Tim Cook Kevin C. Tofel Jan 27 2015, 2:33pm PDT There isn’t much more time to wait for the Apple Watch, which up until today was expected in “early 2015.” Apple will start shipping its watch on an unspecified date this April, it announced on Tuesday. That’s not early, nor late, but “right on schedule,” according to […] Read More » Apple earnings: 74.5M iPhones sold, record-breaking $18B profit Kif Leswing Jan 27 2015, 1:30pm PDT There was a lot going for Apple in its most recent holiday quarter. As the first quarter with the popular iPhone 6 on sale for the entire period, many expected Apple to boast eye-popping earnings, and Apple’s first fiscal quarter has traditionally been its best. Expectations were […] Read More » FCC issues warning on Wi-Fi blocking, cites “disturbing” trend Jeff John Roberts Jan 27 2015, 12:08pm PDT The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday sent out a public notice warning hotels, convention centers and other businesses not to tamper with consumers’ personal Wi-Fi hot spots, or else face penalties. From the FCC’s statement: In the 21st Century, Wi-Fi represents an essential on-ramp to the Internet. Personal […] Read More » Six ways in which Andrew Keen is wrong about the internet Mathew Ingram Jan 27 2015, 11:12am PDT In his new book "The Internet Is Not The Answer," author Andrew Keen continues a theme he introduced in previous books, about how the internet is a net negative for the economy and for society. But I think he is far too negative Read More » White House CTO calls for open source APIs, visibility for women Jeff John Roberts Jan 27 2015, 9:00am PDT U.S. citizens create world-beating tech sites like Amazon, Facebook and Twitter — so why can’t agencies like the IRS or Veterans Affairs do the same? The White House’s chief technology officer, Megan Smith, suggested it’s possible, provided the government can attract enough people with a high TQ, or […] Read More »