“Pandora For E-Commerce” StyleSeek Raises $750K More In Seed Funding

Chicago-based StyleSeek has raised $750,000 more in pre-Series A funding for its e-commerce recommendations service for lifestyle products, which is today primarily focused on men's and women's fashion. Though the service competes with a number of product aggregators on the market, like Wanelo, Fancy, Want, Fresh, TheFind and others, StyleSeek instead is betting on algorithms and data over social… → Read Mo

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How NASA Will Use 3D Printers In Orbit

In June 2014, astronauts whizzing by high above us in the International Space Station may be able to print a highly detailed plastic Yoda head or, barring that, important parts that they may need while in orbit. → Read More

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Amazon’s annual Kindle sales estimated at $4.5 billion

Just how much money does Amazon generate from selling its Kindle eReaders and tablets? It's tough to say because Amazon never releases specific sales figures for its devices. AllThingsD points us to new research from Morgan Stanley that estimates Amazon will sell $4.5 billion worth of Kindle-branded devices this year, a 26% increase from 2012. The Morgan Stanley researchers also think that Kindle sales will total $5 billion next year and $5.5 billion in 2015. Amazon will release the next generation of its 7-inch Kindle Fire this fall and its specs will include a 1,920 x 1,200-pixel display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP4 4470 processor with PowerVR SGX544 graphics, 1GB of RAM and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Second-generation Kindle Fire HD tablets are also in the works, and they feature some of the most impressive tablet specs we have ever seen.

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The Pirate Bay unveils web browser that bypasses government, ISP censorship

The Pirate Bay is working hard to help out citizens in the United Kingdom who might soon have their favorite porn sites taken away. The infamous file-sharing site has announced that it has created a new web browser that will bypass governments' and ISPs' attempts at censoring content on the web. The Pirate Bay describes its new PirateBrowser as a "simple one-click browser that circumvents censorship and blockades and makes the site instantly available and accessible" and comes with "no bundled ad-ware, toolbars or other crap, just a Pre-configured Firefox browser." PCMag notes that the browser doesn't offer anonymous browsing, however, so you shouldn't use it if you're trying to surf the web without risk of being identified by government censors or surveillance agencies

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The 1.6 percent of the Internet that NSA “touches” is bigger than it seems

 In a memo issued last Friday, the National Security Agency provided details of its ongoing network surveillance operations intended to assuage concerns about its scope, content, and oversight. As Ars' Cyrus Farivar reported, the NSA tried to set the context of its activities with a Carl Sagan-like metaphor:

According to figures published by a major tech provider, the Internet carries 1,826 Petabytes of information per day. In its foreign intelligence mission, NSA touches about 1.6 percent of that. However, of the 1.6 percent of the data, only 0.025 percent is actually selected for review. The net effect is that NSA analysts look at 0.00004 percent of the world's traffic in conducting their mission—that's less than one part in a million. Put another way, if a standard basketball court represented the global communications environment, NSA's total collection would be represented by an area smaller than a dime on that basketball court.

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BlackBerry announces that it may sell the company

The BlackBerry smartphone.

BlackBerry said on Monday that it is considering a range of options to put an end to its struggles, including putting itself up for sale.
BlackBerry will "explore strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale in order to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployment," the company said in its announcement. "These alternatives could include, among others, possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions."

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Flood Threat Expected Throughout Pakistan Due to Over Flow water sent by India from Satluj River towards pakistan sides.

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Internet Numbers

Time Warner Cable posts weak Internet numbers, sparks deal talk

By Liana B. Baker

Thu Aug 1, 2013 11:23am EDT

(Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc reported quarterly revenue below analysts' estimates as it added less than half the number of subscribers for high-speed data services that analysts had expected.
Shares still rose 3.2 percent on Thursday as analysts said the cable company's management did not necessarily rule out a merger or takeover during a conference call.

Time Warner Cable, which ranks second to Comcast Corp in the U.S. cable market with about 12 million customers, has attracted takeover interest from John Malone's Liberty Media Corp.
Malone, whose media holding company has an investment in cable provider Charter Communications Inc, recently made an offer for Time Warner Cable but it was rejected, Reuters previously reported.
On Thursday, Chief Executive Glenn Britt, who will be retiring at the end of the year, said the speculation swirling over Time Warner Cable "is really an endorsement of the value of our assets." Britt will be replaced by Time Warner Cable's second in command, Rob Marcus.
Britt said that building value "for the cable industry as a whole through consolidation is a worthwhile endeavor, but our objective is-and will continue to be-to build value for our shareholders."
While Britt's comments are in line with what Time Warner Cable's management has said about consolidation, ISI analyst Vijay Jayant said that executives "seemed open to any M&A opportunity that creates value for Time Warner Cable shareholders" and that the "tone of the call sounds like they are amenable."
Time Warner Cable's new finance chief Artie Minson also stressed that the company did not want to change its investment grade rating or increase its debt leverage.
Moffett Research analyst Craig Moffett said Minson's comments means that Time Warner Cable may not want to borrow more cash to buy back shares. The possibility that TWC might do so has been widely discussed as a possible defensive strategy to fend off a merger.
WEAK NUMBERS Cable operators in the United States are increasingly depending on internet customers for growth as they continue to lose cable TV subscribers and face rising programming costs.
Time Warner Cable said on Thursday it added only 21,000 high-speed internet customers on a net basis in the second quarter. Analysts had expected 55,400, according to research firm StreetAccount.
Moffett called those Internet numbers a "truly awful result."
In contrast, larger rival Comcast said on Wednesday it added 187,000 high-speed Internet customers. Earlier this week, Time Warner Cable said it was raising its monthly rates customers pay to rent modems.
Cable operators are also facing stiff competition from video services offered by satellite TV and phone companies as well as internet-based services such as Netflix Inc.
Time Warner Cable lost about 189,000 video subscribers in the quarter, more than the 174,700 analysts had estimated.
CBS DISPUTE
Marcus, the future CEO, said he had no update on negotiations with CBS, the broadcaster it is locked in a battle with over programming fees. Time Warner Cable blacked out CBS briefly this week in markets such as New York and Los Angeles after talks broke down. The signal was restored but the new deadline for an agreement is Friday at 5 p.m. EDT.
Marcus said only that the company was focused on obtaining reasonable pricing for programming, which will "continue to guide our negotiation."
Net income attributable to the company rose to $481 million, or $1.64 per share, for the second quarter from $452 million, or $1.43 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.69 per share.
Revenue rose about 2.7 percent to $5.55 billion.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.64 per share on revenue of $5.58 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Time Warner shares were up $3.77 or 3.3 percent at $117.68 per share. Shares are up nearly 20 percent this year.
(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York, additional reporting by Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Andrew Hay)

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