Contrary to the plethora of reports in the media that Facebook outbid Google for WhatsApp by offering an eye watering $19 billion, it appears that the popular cross platform messaging service didn’t receive a bid from Google in the first place. This comes directly from Android chief and Google SVP Sundar Pichai, so its safe to say that these comments have weight to them.
WhatsApp Didn’t Receive A Buyout Offer From Google original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Line is one of the better known WhatsApp competitors out there, and even though it doesn’t quite have the user base of the latter, it has developed strong revenue streams. Its gaming platform, Line Game, generates 60 percent of its total value whereas stickers account for over 20 percent. Over 1.8 billion are sent daily, and while only Line’s partners could design and sell them previously, the Line stickers shop has now been opened up to all designers.
Line Stickers Shop Opened To All, Skype Competitor On The Way original content from Ubergizmo. 
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North and South Korea hasn’t had the best of relationships with one another for many, many years. In fact if you read stories and reports about North Korea, it seems that the government practices very heavy propaganda in which they constantly remind its citizens about the perils beyond the borders of its country.
However one man by the name of Park Sang Hak has spent years trying to fight the propaganda by sending in balloons over the border, and within each balloon contains materials like USB sticks that have been loaded with Wikipedia entries, DVDs of popular TV shows, anti-government leaflets, and sometimes even American dollar bills which can be used to buy food on the black market. (more…)
Balloons Filled With USB Sticks And DVDs Are Being Floated To North Korea original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Not so long ago Amazon revealed that it has been working on a concept that would enable them to deliver goods to customers within 30 minutes after an order has been placed. Called Amazon Prime Air, the concept utilizes drones for speedy deliveries. Obviously there’s a top of red tape to go around and a lot of other issues that need to be sorted before Amazon’s drone delivery ambitions can see the light of day, but that won’t stop Netflix from mocking it. Director of engineering at Netflix, Paul Johnson, has posted a video on his personal YouTube channel which is essentially a funny parody of Amazon Prime Air, he calls it “Netflix Drone To Home.”
Netflix Mocks Amazon’s Drone Delivery Ambitions original content from Ubergizmo. 
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In an interview with CNBC earlier today, BlackBerry CEO John Chen remarked that he would sell BlackBerry Messenger if someone came to him with a $19 billion offer, he’d “definitely sell,” and “recommend the board to take it.” Before people start flaming him out, its not that Chen was touting some absurd valuation of BBM which we all know isn’t worth $19 billion, BlackBerry’s entire market cap sits just above $5 billion. The $19 billion figure has been raising eyebrows recently because that’s what Facebook paid for WhatsApp.
BlackBerry CEO Says He’d Sell BBM If Someone Offered $19 Billion original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Over the holiday season major U.S. retailers were hit by a massive security breach which lead to data of millions of customers being compromised. The Target hack alone compromised data, including but not limited to credit and debit card numbers, of more than 70 million people. While the retailer has offered them an olive branch and is helping out in investigations being carried out by the Secret Service and the Department of Justice, some critics hold the view that Target should have done more, particularly when it came to notifying everyone. Today the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called on Congress for a law on quick declaration of data breaches.
U.S. Attorney General Wants Law On Swift Notification Of Data Breaches original content from Ubergizmo. 
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WhatsApp is undoubtedly one of the most popular cross platform messaging service out there, touting over 460 million users. It has been in the news quite a lot, primarily due to the fact that Facebook has acquired it for $19 billion. Only a couple of days after this news broke though WhatsApp went dark for several hours, an outage that lead to CEO Jan Koum having to apologize. During this time its competitors did very well, particularly Line. It added 2 million new users in just one day.
Line Scored 2M New Users After WhatsApp Went Dark original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Billion dollar acquisitions in the tech industry are nothing new, but they rarely catch the attention of people who don’t usually follow industry news. A recent acquisition has got everyone talking though, and it makes sense why, considering Facebook decided to buy WhatsApp for an eye watering $19 billion. Analysts have questioned the value, critics hold the view that Facebook paid too much. However Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, believes that WhatsApp is worth a lot more than $19 billion.
WhatsApp Worth More Than $19 Billion: Mark Zuckerberg original content from Ubergizmo. 
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After launched a new Galaxy Gear 2 and Galaxy Neo, Samsung has kept one more wearable device for its Unpack 5 event in Barcelona. Gear Fit is a band that features a 1.84” curved AMOLED display. Created with design in mind, Samsung made it possible for users to swap watch bracelets, so they’re technically not limited to one color option. This is a huge step forward since the rigidity of the bracelet was one of the main peeve with the original Galaxy Gear.
Samsung Gear Fit: An S5 Companion To Keep You In Shape original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The U.S. government has had to make some painful explanations following blowback generated by the highly classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden. This former CIA technical analyst leaked dozens of documents revealing the U.S. National Security Agency’s electronic spying programs, and the fact that even the country’s allies were not immune from spying. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington last year in protest as it was alleged that even her phone and email were spied on by the NSA. Now Brazil and the European Union have agreed to lay a separate undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza in order to keep U.S. spying at bay.
Brazil And EU’s New Undersea Cable Aims To Keep U.S. Spying At Bay original content from Ubergizmo. 
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