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Offline over Christmas? Read all the tech news you missed right here

Dec29
by on December 29, 2014 at 11:19 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Roundups

Coffee_christmas
Christmas is over. Well, not officially, but we’re straddling that odd period between saying goodbye to the past year and welcoming in a new one. So while you’re still working through the leftovers and recovering from the shock of spending quite so much uninterrupted time with extended family, it’s time to catch up on the best of the tech news and features that you missed in a special edition of our offline over the weekend posts. All you need to do is stop trying to get through the endless emails in your inbox, make yourself a coffee and spend 15 minutes or so…

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China’s Christmas present to Google? Blocking Gmail

Dec29
by on December 29, 2014 at 10:35 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, censorship, gmail, Google

Screen Shot 2014-12-29 at 10.28.37
Gmail has been completely blocked in China, following six months of disruption by government censors. Google’s Transparency Report reveals Gmail traffic in China dropping like a stone on December 25th. The Chinese government has not claimed responsibility for the sudden drop in Gmail traffic from the country but a Google spokesperson told Reuters: “We’ve checked and there’s nothing wrong on our end.” Anti-censorship group GreatFire.org says large numbers of Gmail addresses were cut off in China on Friday. Unsurprisingly, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told Reuters that she did not know anything about Gmail being blocked. During the summer,…

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Kim Dotcom will soon launch an encrypted video call service

Dec29
by on December 29, 2014 at 8:50 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Kim Dotcom
Kim Dotcom has announced that his company Mega will launch a secure, fully encrypted video call service soon, reports VentureBeat. The maverick and entrepeneur tweeted the news only hours ago, taking a dig at Microsoft-owned video chat service Skype: Mega will soon release a fully encrypted and browser based video call & chat service including high-speed file transfers. Bye bye Skype 🙂 — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 29, 2014 The inclusion of high-speed file transfers comes as no surprise. Dotcom rose to fame through file-sharing – first with the controversial MegaUpload, which was shut down, and now with Mega. Currently…

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Pinterest gears up to launch ads on New Year’s Day

Dec29
by on December 29, 2014 at 6:53 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Social for Business, Social Media

Promoted pins
Pinterest will soon open for business by allowing brands to advertise on its curation network beginning first thing next year, reports The New York Times. Come New Year’s Day, Pinterest will allow marketers to pay for and place ads across its site in the form of ‘Promoted Pins’ – posts that look identical to those created by users who collect images of products, destinations, DIY projects and more. Pinners will be able to save and share these ads that will appear in search results, just like they do with standard pins. So what kinds of pins will you soon see…

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