World News: maker

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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

JibJab is back with a personalized GIF maker

byAaron Souppouris|@AaronIsSocial| 3 hours ago

Wise to the fact that even your mom is over animated e-cards, a denizen of an internet past is trying to reinvent itself. JibJab -- which rose to fame a a purveyor of political satire and "Starring You" video gift cards -- is today launching JibJab Messages, an iOS app that lets you personalize GIFs with your friends' faces, filters, and meme-style text.

At launch the app features a selection of "hilarious" content for you to play around with for free, and after your first ten messages JibJab will be happy to sell you additional content for a buck. A single tap copies the final GIF to your clipboard, meaning you can share JibJab Messages with your social app of choice. Whether, in an age of Snapchat and Emoji-only messaging, people are in need of more messaging options remains to be seen, but if you're interested, you can check out our finest effort below or head to the App Store to try it out for yourself.

jibjab messages

Source: JibJab Messages (App Store)

Tags: animated gifs, gifs, jibjab, jibjab messages, memes Hide Comments 0Comments

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The cloud is a big money maker for Microsoft as it rethinks hardware and content

BYDana Wollman @danawollman18 hours ago

We always want to know how Microsoft is doing, but today we're paying especially close attention: The company just released its earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter, the first full quarter that new CEO Satya Nadella was on the job. Also, let's not forget that Microsoft just announced it's cutting 18,000 jobs and axing Xbox Entertainment Studios. So how'd the company do? Not bad, actually: The company says revenue is up, largely thanks to its cloud business (previously led by Nadella himself). In particular, Microsoft has its loyal business customers to thank: The company saw big gains in commercial cloud revenue (up 147 percent), Windows licenses and server products. Other honorable mentions include Bing (up 40 percent), Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions and revenue from PC makers.

Largely missing from the report: mentions of hardware. Though the company's new mobile business added nearly $2 billion in revenue, but the firm also took a $38 million hit on Surface RT inventory after canceling the Surface Mini, according to Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood. Basically, then, there are few surprises here: Microsoft made the most money off its bread and butter -- things like enterprise services, the cloud and its core Windows business. And to be honest, we expected as much. Consider that earlier this month, Nadella posted an open letter to employees, reiterating that its mission was to offer productivity tools in a "cloud-first" world. That would indeed seem to be what Microsoft is good at.

All told, the company generated $4.61 billion in profit on $23.38 billion in revenue. To put that in perspective, revenue for the fourth-quarter was up 18 percent over the year-ago period. Profit by 7 percent, but that's to be expected considering Microsoft recently closed its massive $7 billion purchase of Nokia's mobile division. That's it for raw numbers, but Microsoft will be holding a conference call later today to discuss its earnings in more detail. We'll be tuning in, and will update this post as we learn more.

Update: On a call with investors, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood confirmed that that $38 million hit the company took on "Surface RT inventory" was actually a product that had been in development, but was later canceled. That would be the Surface Mini.

Image credit: Associated Press

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Source: Microsoft

Tags: earnings, microsoft Next: Yo and the app hype machine .fyre .fyre-comment-divider > span.fyre-comment-reply-wrapper {top: 18px;}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider > a, .fyre .fyre-comment-divider > a:hover {top: 20px;} AboutAbout EngadgetContact usAdvertiseAbout Our AdsCommunityForumsEngadget MetaCommunity guidelinesReviewsProduct reviewsWrite a reviewContributeSend us a tip!Add to our databaseWrite a reviewStart a discussionAsk a questionLive eventsEngadget ExpandEngadget LivePopular topicsMobileHDAltSoftwareAppleFollow EngadgetEngadget AppsMore Apps from Engadget

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Monday, April 28, 2014

How a toy designer dreamed up the geek-friendly AeroPress coffee maker

The AeroPress is a deceptively simple device -- it's basically a coffee syringe. The quick-brewing coffee maker sits somewhere between an espresso machine and a French press. You pour hot water over your grounds then force the water through them with a plunger. What makes the AeroPress unique is how quickly it can spit out a high-quality cup of Joe. The entire process takes roughly one to two minutes and at the end you've got a heavily concentrated, smooth mug of coffee. But unlike other modern methods for making a hot caffeinated beverage, the AeroPress was dreamed up by an engineer who spent a good chunk of his career making toys and electronics.

After designing flying discs for Parker Brothers, Alan Adler turned his attention to coffee following a conversation with a friend's wife. The two were discussing how hard it was to brew a single cup of decent coffee using a drip machine. That was in 2004. By the following year, Adler had his prototype -- a pair of plastic cylinders that fit together to create an air-tight seal. By forcing the hot water through the grounds at a high pressure, Adler was able to reduce the steep time to as little as 10 seconds (though many will wait up to 30 seconds before pressing the plunger).

The whole setup might seem overly simplistic, but it has inspired an entire subculture dedicated to devising the best ways to brew using an AeroPress. There's even a World Championship where competitors battle it out to see who can make the best mug of Joe using the device. Fast Company has an interview with the inventor and you can see Tested's method for brewing with the AeroPress below.

Image via the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs.

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Source: Fast Company

More Coverage: AeroPrice

Tags: aeropress, Alan Adler, coffee Next: Samsung opens its own Innovation Museum, we take an early tour .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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