Photo-Sharing Platform Instagram Raising $50 Million During Series B Funding

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InstagramInstagram has become a behemoth of a photo-sharing site and based off its more than 30 million users and the release of its Google Android based app version last week the company is believed to be close to a new round of massive funding.

According to AllThingsD  the San Francisco-based startup plans to grab $50 million in Series B funding which would be led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and which would valuate the company at $500 million.

You may recall that back in February 2011 Instagram raised $7 million from Benchmark Capital and a group of big name tech guru’s including Square and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

During initial funding Instagram had just 1.75 million registered users.  [Read more…]

Instagram Finally Coming To Android Smartphones, Company Hopes To Double Users

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Instagram for Android

Since it’s launch the popular photo sharing service Instagram has only been available for Apple iOS based devices and now the company has announced plans to launch a Google Android version of the program, a smart decision given Google’s nearly 50% smartphone market share.

With the launch of the new application Instagram believes they can double their current user database which includes more than 50 million active users.

Speaking at LeWeb in Paris Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom revealed:

“We have two people working on Android now,” and “I’m excited to be able to see our numbers today nearly double.”

At this time there is no timeline for the launch of the new Android app and Systrom wasn’t exactly forthcoming with details for the new program.  [Read more…]

Asus Transformer Prime Tablet Introduces First Quad-Core Android Tablet

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Asus Transformer Prime

When it comes to tablet based devices these days most manufacturers have scrapped the bottle of the barrel in terms of processing power, however Asus hopes to change that fact with their newly announced Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the first Google Android based tablet to feature a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chip.

Teased to consumers in October the $499 (32GB) and $599 (64GB) models will arrive this December and they promise to pack quite the punch.

Aside from the quad-core processor setup the Transformer Prime also offers an 8-megapixel rear facing camera with LED flash (upgraded from 5-megapixels on the older model) while coming in at a relatively small .33 inches thick and 1.29 pounds. The tablets 10.1″ Super IPS+, 1280×800 display that houses the camera lens also comes equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack for easy compatible headset listening while the system is powered on 1GB of LP DDR2 memory. [Read more…]

Foursquare Debuts New Feature To Android Users Before iOS In Rare Move

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Foursquare Notifications for Google AndroidFoursquare on Tuesday pulled off a rare move when they debuted a new mobile feature on the Google Android operating system ahead of Apple’s own iOS system which supports iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad systems. The move from a numbers point of view makes sense as Google Android devices now outsell Apple on a daily, monthly and yearly basis, however mobile app providers have traditionally debuted new applications and upgrades for their already exisitng apps for the Apple app store before moving on to other platforms.

The new upgrade is a badge that will show users notifications of activity among friends, while check-ins, photos, completed tips and swarming and trends changes can now be shown without interrupting the core use of the program.

The notification system also allows users to turn on and off device and email notices for events they don’t want to see, while all messages can be set to “temporarily off” status for one hour or until the following day.

Along with the update Foursquare has promised Blackberry and iOS updates with the new feature “as soon as possible” although an exact date has not been mentioned or even hinted at. [Read more…]

TweetDeck For Google Android Arrives Today In Beta Form

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Tweetdeck for Google AndroidStarting Thursday, Google Android users can download the beta version of the platforms TweetDeck application, the most popular 3rd-party Twitter app currently available.

The program will no doubt have issues as it’s not fully polished and TweetDeck is still relying on feedback from users. However what it does offer is integration with Facebook, Twitter, Buzz and Foursquare in one single program.

Users can also view their own Twitter @replies with the “Me” column, while also viewing comments and likes from Facebook. You’ll also notice updated color-codes with a single blended column. [Read more…]

Google Launches Turn-By-Turn Directions In More Countries

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Google Maps NavigationGoogle Maps navigation for Android devices has been one of the biggest headaches for Garmin, TomTom and various other GPS companies who watched as their stocks tumbled upon the initial release of the software in the United States on October 2009, now Google has announced a more widespread launch of the program.

Under current capabilities voice-based turn-by-turn voice directions are now also available in the U.K and Ireland, most of mainland Europe and all of Canada.

The exact countries now supported according to Mobiflip.de are:  Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.

The best part? Google Maps is still 100% free for Android users and the program supports voice commands and voice search, along with traffic warnings, millions of POIs (Points Of Interest), step-by-step directions and street view capabilities.

[Read more…]