a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

WordPress 3.9 arrives with better media editing, gallery previews, audio and video playlists, and more

Apr16
by on April 16, 2014 at 7:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Design & Dev, Insider

shutterstock_26692243
WordPress.org today announced the debut of WordPress 3.9, which adds a slew of “refinements” to the blog management tool. You can download the new release now from WordPress.org/Download (it’s 6.0MB). Dubbed “Smith” in honor of African-American jazz musician Jimmy Smith, WordPress 3.9 is supposed to give users a better understanding of how their content will look once it is published. The team has put together a video to show it off: The new features are as follows: Improved visual editing: The new visual editor has improved speed, accessibility, and mobile support. You can paste into it from your word processor…

This story continues at The Next Web

└ Tags: 
a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

WhatsApp, Instagram and the new rules of marketing for the networked age

Apr16
by on April 16, 2014 at 6:52 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Design & Dev, Entrepreneur

US-IT-TAKEOVER-FACEBOOK-WHATAPP
Sangeet Paul Choudary is the author of the blog Platform Thinking. Patrick Vlaskovits is a NYT bestseller author and CEO of Superpowered. Welcome to the age of the zero-dollar marketing startup. WhatsApp, and earlier Instagram, have officially become a permanent part of startup lore for having built multi-billion dollar businesses without (reportedly) spending a dime on marketing. Meanwhile, Airbnb has grown from a hipster community of mattress-renters to the world’s largest provider of accommodations without spending even a fraction of what traditional hotel chains spend in marketing. Marketing is dead! Or that’s what many would have you believe. A great product sells…

This story continues at The Next Web

└ Tags: 
a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Samsung’s Gear 2 smartwatches didn’t live up to expectations, but Gear Fit is a useful fitness band

Apr16
by on April 16, 2014 at 6:38 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Product Reviews, smartwatch, wearable devices

Group_Gear 2_Gear 2 Neo
Samsung has rolled out a bumper crop of wearable devices in conjunction with its latest flagship, the Galaxy S5 — two Gear smartwatches and the Gear Fit fitness band. As someone who has never worn a wearable device up till now, I’ve realized that the tricky part about wearables is that they have to be relevant enough to a user’s daily life. After all, why pay a couple of hundred dollars for a device that draws out certain functions of your phone if you still have to bring your phone around? We put Samsung’s newest crop of wearable devices through…

This story continues at The Next Web

└ Tags: 
a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Tech blog Stratechery goes freemium as Ben Thompson strikes it out as an indie writer

Apr16
by on April 16, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, Insider

fly solo
Ben Thompson, the Taiwan-based American writer behind popular tech blog Stratechery, has quit his day job to become a full-time blogger. Aside from leaving Automattic, the company behind WordPress where he was employed, Thompson is super-charging his site with a new freemium business model and a podcast. Thompson will continue to post two “fairly long” articles a week — which will be sponsored, in a similar way to Apple blogger John Gruber’s Daring Fireball site — but he is also launching an ambitious three-tier membership system to turn his passion into his living. Readers can pay $5 per month (or…

This story continues at The Next Web

└ Tags: , ,
a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Google launches Chrome Remote Desktop for Android, letting you access PCs and Macs on the go

Apr16
by on April 16, 2014 at 6:12 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Google, Insider, Mobile

6996250771_92acb617f6_b
Google today launched a Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android, which lets you remotely control your computer using your smartphone or tablet. You can download the new app now directly from Google Play. The app’s description says you can “securely access your computers from your Android device” but doesn’t elaborate on the security features. Instructions are fairly straightforward though: On each of your Windows or Mac computers, set up remote access using the Chrome Remote Desktop app from the Chrome Web Store. On your Android device, open the app and tap on any of your online computers to connect. Chrome…

This story continues at The Next Web

└ Tags: