By Jordan Valinsky 6/18 9:09am

Linkages

He's in South Korea. (Photo: Flickr.com/gpaumier)

Booting Up: Is Yahoo Nearing a Purchase of Another New York Startup?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg embarked on a weeklong whirlwind tour of South Korea yesterday. His meetings include President Park Geun-hye and officials from Samsung, so good thing he packed his suit. [WSJ]

Instagram founder Kevin Systrom spills on how he envisions an Instagram movie: ”It’d be superboring, a 30-minute Lifetime special.” At least it would look pretty? [Fast Company]

Yahoo’s checkbook is apparently still open. The company is poking around Qwiki, a New York-based startup that created an app that turns photos, music, and videos into short films. The asking price is a reasonable $50 million. [AllThingsD]

Beginning today, AT&T will roll out 25 solar-powered charging stations across New York for people suffering from a drained cellphone. Now if we can hook up one of these 12.5-foot steel poles to a CitiBike… [New York Times]

The new version of Skype has a Snapchat-like feature. [Digital Trends]

By Jordan Valinsky 6/17 10:55am

Survey Says

The seflie. (Photo: Hashgram)

Smize! Selfies Are Now the Most Popular Genre of Photo

Selfies are now the most popular brand of pictures among British youth, thus narrowly beating out the sorority squat and pre-gaming action shots.

A new poll reveals that 30 percent of youth aged 18 to 24 have admitted to snapping selfies. However, more men admitted to taking them than women, so we’d like to humbly request that all of the naughty pictures be submitted to Guys with iPhones. Read More

By Jordan Valinsky 6/17 8:55am

Linkages

Imagine the videos she'll create.

Booting Up: Instagram Might Soon Add a Video Feature

Vine killer? Instagram is rumored to be adding a video function this week. [TechCrunch]

Saudi Arabia might block WhatsApp within the next few weeks unless it establishes a local server so government officials can monitor activity. [CNET]

Not to be left out, Apple says it has collected between 4,000 to 5,000 requests for user data from the government. [TNW]

Google is building a high-tech system to scrub the Web of child porn. [Telegraph]

It finally pays off to have purchased a Samsung phone: Jay-Z is giving away 1 million free copies of his new album to owners next month. [Verge]

By Kelly Faircloth 6/12 2:06pm

#NoFilter

Ew. (Photo: Figure1)

Here’s an App For Sharing Gruesome Images of Your Festering Wounds

Do you enjoy trawling Web M.D. for gross-out fodder? If so boy, have we got the app for you.

Meet Figure1, a “crowdsourced medical image library for healthcare professionals.” That means docs can use it to document interesting cases (identifying features blocked out, unless they want to get mega-busted) or to investigate what a condition might look like.

Because there’s nothing more reassuring than your alarmingly young GP turning to his iPhone to figure out what the hell’s wrong with you. Read More

By The Editors 6/07 6:00pm

shameless rumormongering

Imagine the videos she'll create.

Rumor Roundup: Miley Cyrus Descends on Silicon Valley and Goldman Guys Love Uber

Just Being Miley. We don’t know what Instagram did to deserve this, but leopard-print leotard Miley Cyrus paid a visit to the company’s offices this week. She appropriately posted a picture of herself on her zany Instagram account acting all “rock and roll” or whatever she’s trying to be like today. Look at all those poor employees trying to feign interest!

But Instagram wasn’t the only social media HQ treated to a visit from Ms. Cyrus this week. She was apparently on a tour of the Valley to promote some new song of hers (not the one on those Bravo commercials). Silicon Valley Business Journal combed through her tweets and pieced together her itinerary: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/27 8:12am

Linkages

(Wikipedia)

Booting Up: It Was All a Dream, I Used to Read Word Up Magazine

Is Vine going to run into the same legal headaches as early hip hop? [GigaOm]

Searching for a framework to explain the conflict between wearable tech pros and opponents, Nick Bilton went with Dr. Seuss. [New York Times]

“They want teenage kids posting up all the stupid duck face photos that they litter Instagram and Facebook with. Because those teen kids, are ad revenue.” [Infinite Hollywood]

Speaking of Yahoo: The company has bid somewhere between $600 and $800 million for Hulu, because Marissa Mayer’s apparently got money burning a hole in her pocket. [AllThingsD]

The Internship is weird. ”Google needs that now. This movie could help keep them out of the penalty box a little while longer.” [L.A. Times]

By Kelly Faircloth 5/03 8:24am

Linkages

Why won't it work?! (Photo: Rob Bateman, www.nukomp.com, via Flickr)

Booting Up: Does Your Smart TV Work? Have You Tried Connecting It to the Internet?

Twice as many households have “smart tvs” as streaming devices–but only 69 percent of them are actually connected to the Internet. Grandparents! [GigaOm]

“When I got here, I was very emotionally touched by all the great companies in this area….These were all the companies I had heard of since I was a kid. I felt like I should be here. Like I belong.” [New York Times]

Here is how you remove tagged Instagram posts from your profile. [Wired]

Earlier this year, Mt. Gox and CoinLab teamed up in a partnership to reach the American market more efficiently. Now CoinLab is suing for $75 million in damages. [Gawker]

Do you trust your friends enough to give them the extra set of keys to your Facebook account? [L.A. Times]

By Jordan Valinsky 4/30 2:20pm

Visiting Dignitaries

Stop it. (Photo: Instagram)

Super-Rich Ryan Seacrest and the Super-Rich Founder of Instagram Are Totally BFFs

Talking Orbit gum stick Ryan Seacrest announced today that he’s producing a new program for Aol, but sadly (luckily?) it doesn’t include any of the Kardashians. Rather, it’s a 10-episode series with appearances from relationship coach Gwyneth Paltrow. The Web-only deal is his production company’s first foray into creating digital programming.

Variety called the deal an “organic evolution” for Mr. Seacrest since his Internet prowess has racked him up millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram. Combined with his popularity, a presumably high Klout score and his connections with Valley big-wigs (like Twitter CEO Dick Costolo), he’s become their go-to guy for communicating with middle America. Read More