Hasta La Gadget!

Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer has been working hard to turn things around at the once prominent search firm. Mayer has been shaking things up and making some significant changes at Yahoo in her turnaround attempts. We mentioned not long ago that Microsoft was going to be handing out a bunch of new gadgets to employees and now Yahoo is getting in on the action.

Reports indicate that Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer sent an e-mail to all full-time and part-time employees of Yahoo in the United States promising them a new smartphone. According to reports, Mayer offered a device from Apple, Samsung, Nokia, or HTC. I would imagine what this means is the vast majority of employees will be going with the new iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S III.

There is nothing truly compelling from Nokia or HTC available right now. A source of the company simply said, “People are happy” reports Business Insider. Indications that Mayer might be offering all Yahoo employees a new smartphones surfaced a few weeks ago. Yahoo is apparently calling the program to hand out new smartphones “Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!”

Apparently, the memo sent out to employees about the new program offers specific devices to choose from. The specific devices include the iPhone 5, and Galaxy S III, HTC One X, HTC Evo 4G LTE, or the Nokia Lumia 920. As I said before, the iPhone 5 or S III are sure to be the most popular options from that list. Yahoo will even pay the phone bills for its workers and word is support for BlackBerry smartphones is being discontinued. The program is expected to cost a few million dollars and will have Yahoo employees using the same devices most mobile users access Yahoo with.

[via Business Insider]

Mayer gives all Yahoo employees a new smartphone is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Emergency services are embracing technology as new ways to investigate, send alerts and receive reports of crises. And now, the Japanese are looking at social networks to support communication in disaster scenarios, especially when traditional services fail. The local Fire and Disaster Management Agency put together a panel discussion on just that topic, with representatives attending from the likes of Twitter, Yahoo, Mixi and NHN Japan, as well as various government and emergency bodies. The talk was motivated, in part, by the March tsunami, when the internet was the sole means of information for some, and with initiatives like Google’s Person Finder playing a role in the aftermath. Any formal implementation of the ideas discussed is probably a long way off, and this is the first of three planned meets to hash it out. In the meantime, however, Twitter’s Japanese blog posted some suggestions on how their network could be used in emergencies — we just hope they won’t be needed anytime soon.

Filed under: Internet

Japan considers using social networks in disaster situations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday has come and gone, which means that the weekend is here once again. The latest iPhone 5 rumors have propelled Apple’s stock to its highest point ever, and it turns out the company’s funds will go toward helping tap a recently-discovered underground river in Crook County, Oregon. Earlier today we saw a picture of what was reported to be the Samsung Galaxy Note II, but later on in the day Daniel YU informed everyone that it was just his mock-up used without his permission. That’s disappointing, but his mock-up looks great, so be sure to check that out.

According to Lenovo, Windows RT tablets could cost $300 less than Windows 8 tablets, and it appears that Yahoo is on the lookout for a new COO. After discovering a glitch with digital signatures earlier in the week, Microsoft is once again publishing Windows Phone apps, and Twitter’s new API update restricts some third-party apps, so watch out for that. UK retailer Clove is reporting that the black Samsung Galaxy S III will be out in October, and a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 bundle comes packed with bonuses that students are going to find hard to resist.

There’s a particularly nasty Trojan dubbed “Shamoon” that’s making the rounds, and in some rather surprising news from the day, it seems that OnLive is shutting down today. OnLive executives said throughout the day that everything with the company is fine, but later, more evidence that supports such a shutdown surfaced. Not good. Both models of the Nexus 7 are now in stock again on the Google Play store, and third parties were right there to begin pushing all sorts of accessories for it, while we’re hearing rumors that claim Apple’s set-top box will come with cloud DVR and a simple UI.

The beta for Steam’s upcoming Big Picture Mode will be kicking off at the beginning of next month, and HP is getting serious about tackling the consumer tablet division (or at least trying to again). The iPad Mini – and future iPad iterations for that matter – will apparently be getting a special ITO film, and Warren Spector is really pushing for Epic Mickey on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but he needs your help in convincing Disney.

Finally tonight, we have a number of original articles for you to peruse. Don Reisinger asks if there will one day be a universal gaming console, Ben Kersey has SlashGear’s review of The Expendables 2, and Chris Burns has a hands-on with the Motorola PHOTON Q. Enjoy your weekend, folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 17, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We talked more than a few times about the new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Mayer is working hard to turn the fortunes of Yahoo around before the Internet stalwart goes extinct. Reports are surfacing that Mayer has been trying to recruit a new employee from the ranks at twitter. Specifically, Mayer has reportedly been trying to lure Katie Jacobs Stanton, twitter’s head of international markets, to Yahoo.

It’s unclear what specific job Mayer wants Stanton to take, but sources claim it would be a major job on the media side of Yahoo. AllThingsD reports that Mayer and Stanton have worked together before at Google. Interestingly, Stanton was once Mayer’s boss when Stanton acted as the product management leader for the launch of Google Finance.

Stanton was also a driving force in the creation of Yahoo Finance when she worked there between 1999 and 2002. While it’s unclear what specific job that Stanton is being wooed for, one source has told AllThingsD that the job could involve running Yahoo’s homepage. Another source said that the job Mayer has in mind for Stanton could be an even larger role than managing the Yahoo homepage.

No one would be surprised if Mayer started replacing some of Yahoo’s executives with her own choices. With former interim CEO Ross Levinsohn leaving the company recently, some speculation is that executive Mickie Rosen, who was appointed by Levinsohn as SVP of media and commerce, could possibly be replaced with Stanton.

[via AllThingsD]

Yahoo CEO courts Twitter’s head of international markets is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this morning, we talked about Yahoo! Mail as well as Yahoo! Messenger in addition to other segments of Yahoo!’s online services experiencing a disruption, regardless of where you stay on the globe. Well, Yahoo! did release a statement around 7 hours ago, stating, “Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and other areas of Yahoo! may currently be inaccessible or slow to respond to some users in certain locations. We are working to correct the issue and restore all functionality immediately. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who might be affected.”

After the apology, it was still touch and go for many users, and I guess that Yahoo! software and hardware engineers managed to successfully flush out whatever gremlins there were left lurking in the network, killing the proverbial fail whale in the process – so that everyone is able to access their range of Yahoo! services. This has led to the latest statement approximately 3 hours ago, stating, “Yahoo! Mail and other services are restored. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who were affected.”

All’s well that ends well, no?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Yahoo! Mail outage – momentary pain for permanent pleasure?, Interim CEO Ross Levinsohn steps down from Yahoo,