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Rakuten believes its chat app Viber can ‘completely change’ its e-commerce business

Aug04
by on August 4, 2014 at 11:02 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Mobile, ra

rakuten

Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten surprised many when it stumped up $900 million to buy mobile messaging and calling service Viber in February. The deal was announced just five days before Facebook’s landmark $19 billion acquisition of fellow chat app WhatsApp — while WhatsApp is the industry leader by some margin with over half a billion active users each month, Viber is performing better than might have been expected. According to Rakuten’s latest earnings report — which was released today and first spotted by Tech In Asia — the business now has 400 million registered users. That’s up from 280 million registered…

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

Aug04
by on August 4, 2014 at 10:54 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Roundups

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Sometimes missing out on the latest tech news and features over the weekend can’t be helped: you had dull life chores to take care of, you promised to take the kids to that amusement park, you really needed to get the garden under control, your hangover prevented you from functioning properly. There are many reasons why you might not have been able to keep up with the latest-and-greatest happenings from tech land in the last 48 hours. It’s ok, we’re not here to judge your excuses. We’re here to pay attention so you don’t have to. So, put aside those promises…

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You can now use your EE phone instead of an Oyster card for contactless payments on London buses

Aug04
by on August 4, 2014 at 9:53 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Product Updates, UK

London_Bus

EE’s phone customers can now pay for travel on London buses simply by tapping their phone on the bus’s Oyster card reader. In order to use your phone to pay for your journey, you’ll need to be a user of EE’s Cash on Tap app, which itself requires a compatible handset. Currently, newer devices like the HTC One M8 and LG G3 are not supported, but the company says it will be compatible with over 500,000 customers’ handsets by the end of the year. Thankfully, the daily and weekly maximum payment caps applicable to Oyster card travel are still in place…

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Kogan’s £150 4G Agora Android smartphone comes to the UK

Aug04
by on August 4, 2014 at 9:09 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Insider, UK

KoganAgora4G_feat2

Australian electronics manufacturer Kogan has teamed up with Benq to launch a 4G version of its 5-inch Kogan Agora smartphone in the UK. First announced for Australia last week, the device runs the KitKat (4.4.2) version of Android, has a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and offers an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. On the front, there’s a 1.3-megapixel snapper for video calling and the seemingly obligatory selfies. Essentially, it’s very similar to the Kogan Agora launched in September last year, but with the addition of 4G LTE capabilities.  While the internal memory is limited to just 8GB, there’s an expansion slot which will…

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