Snapchat is in talks with Buzzfeed, ESPN, CNN, Vevo and others to help launch a new feature for its popular app that offers a much wider variety of content than friends’ selfies. These media companies will produce articles, music and video for the upcoming “Discover” section of the Snapchat app, making it more of an all-inclusive media consumption app. No date has been announced regarding when the “Discover” section will make its debut on the popular photo- and video-messaging app. Continue reading Snapchat Teams with Major Media Companies on New Feature

Facebook’s new “Rooms” app is reminiscent of the Internet bulletin boards and chatrooms of old. The iOS mobile app allows users to create discussion boards on almost any topic and chat with people they may or may not know. Participants can use any username they want and they can change usernames in different rooms. Unlike traditional text-heavy, desktop-based chatrooms, the Rooms app is designed for users to post videos and images and have online discussions on-the-go. Continue reading Rooms: Facebook Embraces Anonymity with New Chat App

Social news and entertainment site Reddit was one of the most shared channels linking to controversial celebrity photographs reportedly hacked from iCloud accounts. In the six days prior to Reddit’s removal of the photos, the site earned enough revenue to run its servers for a month. This is based solely on Reddit Gold, and does not include ad revenue from the quarter billion page views. As Reddit seeks a new round of investments, the site’s belated removal of the page is not considered a coincidence. Continue reading Reddit Earns Significant Revenue During Celeb Photo Scandal

Dropbox wants to add image recognition software to its cloud storage service so that photos would automatically be tagged with the objects, people, and places found in the images. The company has hired the co-founders of Kriegman-Belhumeur Vision Technology, Peter Belhumeur and David Kriegman, to engineer the new technology. The two men are university professors with extensive experience in computer vision, facial recognition, and machine learning. Continue reading Dropbox Hires Computer Vision Experts to Mine Photographs

A new app from Instagram makes it possible for users to create high-quality time-lapse videos from their iPhones. Amateur photographers simply click a button to start and stop recording, and then use a single slider to adjust the speed of the frames. The new app relies on data from the smartphone’s built-in gyroscope to perform the image processing, making the videos appear less shaky. Hyperlapse is currently available on iOS, while an Android version is being planned. Continue reading Hyperlapse: Produce Time-Lapse Videos with Instagram App

LiketoKnowit is a website that allows Instagram users to easily locate items, such as clothing and jewelry, in an Instagram post and then purchase them online. After signing up on the website, whenever a user “likes” a post on Instagram that links to “liketoknow.it,” they receive the information about the product in their inbox with links to shop online. RewardStyle, a company that allows fashion bloggers and publishers to earn commissions on items they link to, developed the site. Continue reading LiketoKnowit Gives Instagram Users Easy Way to Shop Online

Snapchat, the mobile app that creates vanishing messages and currently touts 27 million users, may soon become a service for distributing television and movie clips, news videos and articles, and advertisements. According to people familiar with the matter, the startup has met with advertisers and media companies in recent weeks about a service to launch in November called Snapchat Discovery. At least a dozen newspapers, magazines and TV networks have reportedly discussed providing content. Continue reading Snapchat Mobile App Plans to Add News Content and Sell Ads

BuzzFeed, which currently draws more than 150 million average monthly viewers, wants to become known for more than its numbered lists popular with Web surfers. To achieve this goal, the startup just closed a $50 million investment from Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. The investment will be used to develop new content sections for the site, create an in-house incubator for new technologies, and put more resources toward its LA-based video arm, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. Continue reading BuzzFeed is Using Investment to Test a Host of New Features

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new photo-editing tool that lets users turn and flip objects as if they were in 3D. Photo editors have only been able to manipulate objects in 2D by resizing them or changing their location within the photo. This new software uses a publicly available database of models to recreate objects, even the sides that were not captured by the camera. Researchers found that this software could be used for animations as well. Continue reading Software Allows Photographers to Manipulate Objects in 3D

In an attempt to compete with Amazon, Google is planning to add ratings to its product listing ads in order to make search results more effective. The ratings are to be based on aggregated rating and review data taken from several sources. Google believes merchants that gather these ratings will decide to share the data because it ultimately generates more business. The move should create more relevant search results as more data surrounds the product.

Continue reading Google will Compete with Amazon by Adding Product Ratings

About 14 percent of Twitter’s 271 million users do not log in directly to the mobile app or website, where Twitter features its ads. These 37.9 million consumers instead access Twitter content through third-party apps such as Flipboard, Instagram, Foursquare or various news sources. When Twitter filed its IPO last year, the company projected that the number of people accessing via third-party apps would decline. However, growth of the third-party app population has doubled since then. Continue reading Nearly 40 Million Twitter Users Do Not See Ads on Site or App

Twitter announced that it has acquired an artificial intelligence startup known as Madbits. The social network is buying into Madbits’ technology that can search an image and understand its content. This new image search engine is based on deep learning, a type of AI that relies on convolutional neural nets, much like a human’s network of neurons in the brain. Twitter is just the latest in a line of tech companies to invest in this type of technology. Continue reading Twitter Acquires AI Startup Madbits, Explores Image Search

Researchers at Nvidia have found a trick that solves the problem of users being able to see the pixels in their VR headsets. By using a “cascaded display” involving two LCD panels, the researchers found that they could quadruple the pixel density of the headset, making pixels invisible to the eye even at close range. The cascaded displays also have a faster frame rate, making images appear smoother, and a reduced brightness, which is not a concern for the displays in VR headsets. Continue reading Nvidia Designs New Pixel-Dense LCD Panels for VR Headsets

Apple unveiled a new Photos app during its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month in San Francisco. Now it seems that the app will serve as a new platform for the upcoming OS X Yosemite. As a result, Apple will no longer develop its Aperture pro photography application, and iPhoto will be replaced by the new Photos app. The transition is designed to provide a more seamless experience, since users will be able to edit and search their Photo Library in the cloud on any Apple devices. Continue reading Apple’s Plans for Photos App Will End Aperture Development

Google’s Project Tango is developing 3D smartphones and tablets that can not only render locations and objects, but can also be used to record 3D images and videos. Mantis Vision’s technology, which will be used in the Google Project Tango devices, creates a depth map of a scene so that users can view an image from different perspectives and add different backgrounds and other 3D visual effects. Other electronics companies are investing in the Mantis technology as well. Continue reading Google 3D Smartphones Will Run on Mantis Vision Technology