Hasta La Gadget!

For those unfamiliar with the Japanese market, Rakuten is basically Japan’s answer to Amazon, which by its implication would suggest that the company is pretty huge and a force to be reckoned with in terms of online services in Japan. Now according to a press release from Rakuten, they have announced that they will be acquiring Viber for a whopping $900 million. According to Rakuten’s chairman and CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani, “I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available.”

Viber’s CEO, Talmon Marco, sounded just as pleased by the acquisition, saying, “Sharing similar aspirations with Rakuten, our vision is to be the world’s No.1 communications platform and our combination with Rakuten is an important step in that direction.” Viber is thought by many to be a rival to Skype in terms of providing free VoIP calls on mobile devices. The platform boasts over 300 million users worldwide which was instrumental in helping to draw the attention of Rakuten. While Rakuten might be a name familiar in Japan, the company hopes that with the acquisition of Viber, they will be able to expand beyond Japan’s borders and we can’t wait to see what the company will do with their latest acquisition.

Viber Acquired By Rakuten For $900 Million original content from Ubergizmo.

Viber made some waves in the news earlier this year after it was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, but that seems to be such a long time ago now. This time around, we bring you good tidings concerning Viber, where users would definitely love the latest feature – being able to make calls to any mobile or landline number. This will be made available to those who download and install version 4.1 of the app on either the iOS or Android platform. This new service is known as Viber Out, where its most recent “public appearance”, so to speak, was after the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, so that those users who were affected by the typhoon were able to place calls to their families.

Glad to know that it has rolled out to everyone under far more peaceful circumstances, delivering yet another affordable alternative when it comes to VoIP calling. We do wonder just how will Microsoft respond in due time, and will they improve their Skype Out service which Viber Out looks well poised to be a major rival in this department? Viber Out intends to be an extremely easy to use system, where it will connect itself to your phone number, while recipients are able to identify your call.

Viber Offers Phone Call Capability Now original content from Ubergizmo.

Viber is one of the most popular cross-platform communication services out there, allowing its more than 200 million users to text, call and send photos and video messages over cellular or Wi-Fi for free. Today, it updated its apps for iOS and Android. New features have been added, whereas Viber for Android has finally gained tablet support. Users can now use Viber on tablets and smartphones simultaneously.

Significant performance improvements have been made in both apps. Over 1,000 new stickers have been added to the Sticker Market on both iOS and Android. Viber has added a new “Hold & Talk” feature which lets users send voice messages, the recipient will hear the message as the user speaks. Users also get the ability to select conversation backgrounds from a new background gallery. On iOS, the Viber app gets the ability to forward any message to a contact or a group. Across both apps, users can now add up to 100 participants in a group chat. Both Viber for iOS and Android are live now and available as a free download from the App Store and the Google Play Store. The iOS app requires iOS 5.0 or later firmware version whereas any Android device running version 2.2 or higher firmware is compatible with the app.

Viber Updates Mobile App, Adds Tablet Support On Android original content from Ubergizmo.

Viber is one of the widely used cross-platform messaging clients of today. It allows users to send instant messages to a variety of platforms for no cost, users can also make VoIP calls at no added charge. The Android app was definitely in need of an update. Today the Viber for Android app has been update. Above all, it brings significant performance improvements. A couple of new features have been added as well.

The new Viber for Android app lets users send doodles or paint over a photo and share it with their friends. Read receipts are also present, users can now see if their friends have read their message. The app comes with support for the Viber Desktop app on Windows and Mac. There are a host of new emoticons that are going to make messaging even more fun. In the changelog, Viber claims that there are “massive performance improvements” as compared to the previous version. Last but not the least, the update comes with a host of crucial bug fixes. The new Viber for Android app is now available for download from Google Play Store.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It | Viber For Android Update Brings Improved Performance And More original content from Ubergizmo.

The Syrian Electronic Army isn’t happy with VoIP app developers as of late — following an attack against Tango last week, the politically motivated hacking group has compromised Viber’s support page. The SEA claims to have downloaded database backups from Viber that include phone numbers, device IDs and push notification tokens. However, the company believes that the attack was largely harmless for regular customers; SEA’s team got access to top-level support systems, but not the all-important user databases. They’re kept in a system that can’t be reached by attacks like these, according to Viber. While that news is reassuring, we’d advise playing it safe by watching for any suspicious account activity.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: AppleSpot (translated)