GrantBlog » Tech

Facebook 2009 Revenue Over $500 Million

Grant — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:00:32 +0000

According to a board member of Facebook in a Monday interview, Facebook’s 2009 total profits are expected to be around or more than $500 Million! Wow! In the interview, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen said that in a few years, the site can expect profits into the billions. Wow again.

Facebook, being the 4th most visited site on the internet, earns much of their revenue through the use of non-traditional, non-intrusive ads on their site and through the sale of virtual gifts that members can purchase for one another.

[Webware] (Traffic Data From Alexa)

Google Takes Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs and Talk Out of Beta

Grant — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:11:21 +0000

It looks like Google, starting today, is going to take Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Docs and Google Talk out of beta removing the familiar little “Beta” tag from the bottom of the app’s logos.

Gmail had been widely popular especially since its launch in 2004 by Google back when it was an invite-only service, but still today when it was out of beta, that little label didn’t seem to scare any people away from the service, of which is one of the biggest webmail clients in use today.

“Darren” has also contributed a Google Labs feature which adds back the logo in case you feel to “standard” without it!

New Xbox Coming In 2010

Grant — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:00:40 +0000

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, in a speech last week on the recession, let slide that a new Xbox is set to be released sometime next year. What some though to be their “project natal”, the new device is set to be “really, really, close to an actuality”. We’ll just have to wait and see though- the new console looks like an intersting feat by Microsoft when sales of consoles are down below one billion dollars.

Gizmodo’s iPhone vs. Pre Flow Chart

Grant — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:11:05 +0000

Debating weather you need an iPhone 3GS or the Palm Pre? Really can’t decide? Check out Gizmodo’s little flow chart on their post here. You’ll decide on the right phone for you and enjoy some good humor at the same time!

Apple: Don’t Think You’ll Get That iPhone 3GS Early!

Grant — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:00:48 +0000

According to some reader reports into Gizmodo, lucky ones who bought the iPhone 3GS and have it ready for delivery from UPS are being told that they can’t have their phone until the day it comes out!

That’s right, while some iPhone users have the little tiny, but very valuable iPhone waiting at their local UPS hub, Apple has sent a notice to UPS advising them to hold the package for delivery until Friday, the day the phone officially comes out. They’re getting this message as their shipment status: “The reciever requested a hold for a later delivery date”. What a bummer!

[Via Gizmodo]

iPhone OS 3.0 Comes Out Today

Grant — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:04:22 +0000

Apple’s new iPhone OS 3.0 is out today, soon to be followed by the new iPhone 3GS this Friday. As we covered in an earlier post the day of the Worldwide Developers Conference, the new device software includes new compatibility for upcoming apps and hardware for the devices, copy & paste and several other new enhancements.

Visit iTunes today to get the update- sorry iPod Touch users; this update will set you back about $10!

XBox Live Down For Maintenance All Day

Grant — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:40:38 +0000

Xbox live and parts of xbox.com are going to be down all day today for maintenance from 12:01am to 11:59pm today. While it’s a planned outage by Microsoft, it is sure to upset some students who want to play after just getting off school!

[Via Gizmodo]

YouTube Starts Caching Videos Locally- Neat!

Grant — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:45:21 +0000

YouTube has now begun what some call an extraordinary task- to be able to cache videos you watch on your computer! While some users might not like YouTube using up some of your disk space, this means that if you watch a YouTube video at one point in the day and then decide to watch it later again, you’ll be lucky because you don’t have to wait for it to load. Neat!

[Google Operating System Via Lifehacker]

Adobe Getting Serious With Acrobat.com

Grant — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:00:55 +0000

Could it eventually become a slightly different version of Google Docs? Possibly! Adobe is taking their Acrobat.com service, with over 5 million currently registered users, out of beta and adding pay-plans to it today. The service currently has a suite of features, including spreadsheet and document editors, online meeting services, presentation tools and PDF converters and more, all of which they have been offering for free up until now.

In an interview with Cnet, Adobe’s director of product management and marketing said that the tool isn’t going to quite replace something like Microsoft’s Excel, but it can do collaborative features that the software can’t.

The serivce has plans costing $14.99/month or upto $39/month and launches out of beta today.

[Via Webware]

Download IE8, Microsoft Will Give To Food Bank

Grant — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:00:35 +0000

Microsoft, after recently releasing what they claim to be one of the fastest browsers, Internet Explorer 8, is starting a new campaign in a charity push to get people to download the new browser.

According to the new site, browserforthebetter.com and other Microsoft sources, the company plans to start donating about $1.15 to food banks for every download of their new broswer, up to one million dollars.

Microsoft’s recent attempts at upping-the-ante on their Internet Explorer product come for a reason- in the past few years, Internet Explorer’s usage stats have dropped amid new browsers taking a bite into the market like Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari.

[Via Webware]