Internet & Media

Google Translate boasts 64 languages and 200M users

Ever wanted to know how to turn a phrase in Esperanto, Bengali, Chinese, or some other language? Seems lots of people do, in fact millions.

Google announced today that more than 200 million people actively use Google Translate monthly. Add up all those words and that equals roughly the same amount of text per day as there is written in 1 million books.

"To put it another way: what all the professional human translators in the world produce in a year, our system translates in roughly a single day," Google Translate research scientist Franz Och wrote in a blog post. "more

Did Facebook spend $1B to keep Instagram from Twitter?

Was Facebook's acquisition of Instagram motivated by paranoia?

That is the theory behind a VentureBeat report that Mark Zuckerberg rushed the negotiation process for the photo-sharing app to keep it out of Twitter's hands. The report contends that Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom first received an offer and term sheet from Twitter and then leveraged that for a $1 billion payday earlier this month from the social-networking giant.

Systrom used a pending funding round with Sequoia and Greylock to pressure Twitter to make an offer, a source tells VentureBeat. However, Instagram reportedly did not sign the offer, said to more

Facebook's next patent push: The top suspect

When Yahoo filed its sweeping patent lawsuit against Facebook, claiming that Facebook essentially built its social network on the back of Yahoo's intellectual property, Mark Zuckerberg took little time to take up arms.

In just over a month, Facebook has snapped up more than 1,400 patents -- 750 from IBM in March, and on Monday, 650 from Microsoft. It's all a swift attempt to bolster its position against Yahoo and to amass a war chest to scare off others looking to sue a company whose pockets will grow ever deeper once it goes public.

And based on more

Amazon quarter better than expected; is it the Kindle effect?

Amazon's first-quarter sales and earnings were much better than expected as the company touted its Kindle ecosystem.

The company reported first-quarter earnings of $130 million, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of $13.18 billion, up 34 percent from a year ago. Earnings were down 35 percent from a year ago, but well ahead of estimates.

Wall Street was expecting Amazon to report first-quarter earnings of 7 cents a share on revenue of $12.9 billion. Going into the earnings report, analysts were worried about gross margins and slowing media sales.

Amazon acknowledged that it was hurt by more

Zynga Q1 offers upside surprise, investors stage relief rally

Update: 4:45 PM P.T. Zynga's stock rose in after-hours trading after the company's first-quarter earnings report beat Wall Street's expectations.

"We're pleased with the progress that Zynga has made in the first quarter growing our audience reach 25% year over year and nearly 20% quarter over quarter. Our team did a great job launching 5 new games across mobile and web including new hits like Hidden Chronicles, Slingo and Scramble with Friends," CEO Mark Pincus said in a statement.

Zynga had revenue of $321 million, up 32 percent year over year and earnings per more

Dear Microsoft: Please don't take away my Live Mesh

Microsoft giveth, and it taketh away. At least, that's how it looks with the latest incarnation of the SkyDrive online storage service.

Unveiled this week, the preview of the new SkyDrive kicks in several improvements over its Web-based predecessor.

The old SkyDrive Web site separates documents that you upload from those synced via Live Mesh, creating a limited and clumsy workspace. The new preview edition ensures that all files are stored in one place, whether they're uploaded or synced from your PC.

You can now view and open all your SkyDrive files directly from Windows Explorer, eliminating the more

Smartphone buyers nix paying more than $50 a month for data

What's the maximum you would spend each month for mobile data?

A full two-thirds are unwilling to shell out more than $50 a month for a mobile data plan, according to the new report from Parks Associates. Further, a lot of people are in the dark as to just how much data they gobble up.

Half of current smartphone users questioned said they have no idea how much data they use each month.

These findings tell analysts at Parks that carriers face risks as they try to force more subscribers from unlimited plans to tiered, or usage-based, plans.

"U.more

Buy a product on Walmart.com, pay with...cash?

When paying for products online, you almost always need to pay with a credit card. Until now.

Wal-Mart announced a new program today, called "Pay with Cash," that allows online shoppers to sift through a broad selection of products, and after deciding what to buy, pay with cash. Of course, there's no cash terminal sitting in the average person's computer, so in order to complete the transaction, customers will need to head down to their local Wal-Mart store or Neighborhood Markets.

According to Wal-Mart, users will be able to fully check out online, and will be given an more

Spotify reportedly creating online radio station to rival Pandora

Is Spotify looking to beat Pandora at its own online radio game?

The streaming music provider may be building an online radio service that could rival that of Pandora, according to Bloomberg.

Citing "two people with knowledge of the situation," Bloomberg said the new service would launch before the end of the year and be funded by advertising. Spotify has just begun informing content partners about the new service, according to the sources.

Spotify currently works as a downloadable application that provides access to your local music libraries and lets you search for and play music online. Users can also more

Mom's Facebook humiliation of mouthy teen daughter

I am sure that they'll kiss and make up in around 30 years.

Currently, though, I can imagine there is something of a standoff between an Ohio mom and her voluble little 13-year-old.

As WKYC TV tells it, Denise Abbott warned her daughter that if she discovered her mouthing off on Facebook again, she would lose it for a month. This would surely be the equivalent of removing her daughter's pinkie.

"If she can't talk respectfully to me, she won't be able to talk to anyone else either," Abbott said of little Ava.

It seems that more