All Entries Tagged With: "public"

Digg Close to Hiring New CEO, Launching New Site

San Francisco, California-based Digg is apparently very close to hiring a new CEO and launching the much anticipated and improved New Digg. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Digg Founder and current interim CEO Kevin Rose revealed that the company is just about a week away from hiring a permanent CEO. The search has apparently been narrowed down to just three candidates. While he did say that the new CEO will some experience in both technology and managing a business, Rose declined to name the three remaining candidates.

Rose also stated that the New Digg, which is currently being tested by a limited number of users, will be publicly launched around the same time that the new CEO takes over.

BlackBerry App World 2.0 Now Available to Everyone

It wasn’t too long ago that Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion made available the new BlackBerry App World 2.0 to select members of the BlackBerry Beta Zone. Well, Erictric has just been informed that BlackBerry App World 2.0 is now publicly available to every BlackBerry smartphone owner. We’re told that BlackBerry users will be notified of the upgrade in the coming hours. However, the update might be available by visiting www.blackberry.com/appworld from a BlackBerry smartphone

As we have reported before, the new BlackBerry App World 2.0 offers users the following features:

• New Payment Options
  BlackBerry App World will support new payment options in addition to PayPal. Customers will be able to purchase applications using major credit cards, including Visa and MasterCard, in various countries around the world. Carrier billing may also be supported by certain carriers.
• Easier Application Discovery
  BlackBerry App World adds new tabbed sections for various lists of applications. Users can horizontally swipe or scroll to quickly view the Top 25 Free Apps, Top 25 Paid Apps and Top 25 Themes, as well as lists of Newest Apps and Recently Updated Apps.

Skype Files $100 Million IPO

In a new wave of IPOs hitting, VoIP provider Skype has officially filed for a $100 million initial public offering with the SEC. The offering would allow the company to raise a maximum of $100 million.

Though the company’s volume and share prices have net yet been disclosed, it was last estimated back in September, 2009 that the company was worth a whopping $2.75 million. The company was also sold in 2009 by parent company eBay to a group of private investors, of which included: Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake.

This is a developing story. More information shortly.

Microsoft to Launch Internet Explorer 9 Public Beta in September

Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner revealed today at the annual 2010 Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting that a public beta of the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 will be released sometime in September. Sources familiar with the matter had originally indicated that Microsoft was planning to launch the beta in late August. However, the date was moved to September due to unknown reasons.

Thus far, Microsoft has been offering different previews of Internet Explorer 9 on its Test Drive page. The new Internet Explorer is expected to offer broader support of HTML5 along with other standards, take more advantage of the GPU, better tab management, and more. The browser has been built on a new JavaScript engine dubbed “Chakra.”

Facebook Questions Service Goes Live to Limited Number of Users

Back in May, Erictric reported that Facebook was planning to launch a new Q&A service dubbed “Facebook Questions.” The company actually encouraged testers to join the beta. The purpose was to get as many questions and answers as possible prior to its big debut.

Now, according to a post on The Facebook Blog, a beta of Facebook Questions has begun rolling out to a limited group of Facebook members. Three to five million users to be more specific. The company expects to make the service available to many more individuals as soon as possible.

According to Facebook Director of Product Management Blake Ross, the new Facebook Questions will allow users to not only ask questions from the comfort of their profiles, but they can also add photos and even polls for their friends to answer. To make it easier for other to answer to questions, users are highly encouraged to tag their queries with categories and themes.

Google Releases Buzz Firehose

Google announced yesterday on the Google Code Blog the introduction of the Google Buzz Firehose to the existing Buzz API Beta, which was launched during the 2010 Google I/O developer conference. The company states that the Buzz Firehose was one of the most requested features by developers. The new Google Buzz Firehose allows developers to access all public activities as soon as they are published through a single subscription. The public activity is syndicated in real-time via PubSubHubbub.

Launch partners, who have now integrated the Google Buzz Firehose, include Collecta, Gnip, OneRiot, Postrank Analytics, and Superfeedr’s Track.

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Public Beta

Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Windows & Windows Live Tami Reller announced during a presentation today at the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference [WPC] in Washington D.C. that the public beta of its upcoming Windows 7 Service Pack 1 [SP1] is now available to everyone. Redmond-based Microsoft previously made available a beta of Windows 7 SP1 to early testers back on June 23.

To learn how to install and to download the new Windows 7 SP1 Beta, click here. Do take into account that the service is still in beta, which means that bugs are expected. Additionally, Microsoft states that installation is not supported by Microsoft. Install at your own risk.

Google Voice Goes Public

Google announced today that its popular web-based phone service Google Voice is now open to the public. The announcement was made on the official Google Voice Blog by Google Voice Product Managers  Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet. However, the company is careful to clarify through an update that although sign-ups are now open to everyone, Google Voice is still currently limited here in the U.S.

A preview of Google Voice was first introduced last year in March. Ever since, the Mountain View-based company has been tweaking and revamping the service with new features. Many of us here at Erictric have been using the service for a while now, and we can definitely say that it’s one of the best products released by Google. With that said, Google Voice required an invitation, which was inconvenient to many, given that the waiting times were long. That’s a thing of the past now.

To try out Google Voice and join the more than one million existing users, all you need to do is create a Google Account, if you already have one just visit voice.google.com. To learn more about Google Voice check out a video demo in the full post.

Google Makes It Easier and More Private to Share Google Docs

Google just announced on the Official Google Docs Blog the introduction of new sharing options, which will make it easier and more privately to share Google Docs. For instance, all documents can now be classified in three different ways: “private,” which can be viewed by the creator only; ”anyone with a link,” which allows anyone who knows the URL to view the document; or “public on the web,” which allows anyone on the Internet to view the document. It’s important to note that the “public on the web” option automatically allows search engines to index documents.

Google states that all document will be made private as default. However, users have the ability to change that by choosing to share their documents with just a group of individuals or anyone on the web. This change comes just a couple of days after Google introduced a brand new version of Google Docs.

Additionally, Google indicates that the new sharing features include a cleaner and simpler interface, the ability to modify sharing settings of several documents at once, and the ability to reset the URL of document marked with “anyone with a link.”

Check out the two videos after the jump for more information.