In an attempt to go head-to-head with the likes of iMessage and BBM in emerging markets, social network Facebook has just announced that it will be allowing users of its Messenger app to send messages at free or heavily discounted data rates.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — Here at Mobile World Congress, ZTE is showing off the Grand Memo, its new super-sized smartphone that packs a giant 5.7-inch display. That’s 0.2 inches bigger than the Galaxy Note II’s display, and although that doesn’t sound much, it’s instantly recognizable when you pick up this handset for the first time.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS -Mobile World Congress 2013 is now underway here in Barcelona, and there’s one device we couldn’t wait to get our hands on: the Galaxy Note 8.0 — Samsung’s answer to the iPad mini. In addition to its 8-inch display, the device boasts a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and of course, the Note’s trademark S Pen.
But can it give the iPad mini a run for its money?
Kind of look like boomerangs, right?
Vanity Fair today released a brand new architectural rendering of the plans for Google’s new office building complex, called ‘Bay View.’ The new campus, planned for Mountain View, near San Francisco Bay, comes after the recently aborted Googleplex plans fell through, and will have nine different structures, each four stories high, shaped like bent rectangles. These shapes are arranged to form different-sized courtyards, while several of the buildings seem to have green roofs, perhaps planned as rooftop gardens, cafes, and possibly meeting spaces. There are bridges connecting all the separate buildings, and there are no cars to be found within the rendered plan.
Google announced its first computer yesterday, the ChromeBook Pixel. Yes, they’ve had ChromeBooks for a few years now, but this is the first computer product that was made solely by Google.
Over the past few years we’ve seen service and software oriented companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon venture into hardware development. It’s left many people scratching their heads, as we wonder why these companies want to shift their focus to hardware when they’ve dominated by just offering great services? Asymco’s Horace Dediu is pretty sure he knows the answer, and it all comes down to money.
