Google Lands A Huge Customer For Google Apps: Whirlpool (GOOG, MSFT)
Google Apps scored some enterprise street cred on Monday by announcing a huge customer: Whirlpool. Whirlpool has 68,000 employees and 66 facilities around the world who will standardize on Apps, Google’s cloud email and office productivity suite. Whirlpool did not ditch Microsoft Exchange or Office for Google. It was using IBM’s Lotus Notes, its CIO Michael Heim told the Wall Street Journal. Even so, Whirlpool is a feather in Google’s cap for its sheer size and name recognition. Some 5 million businesses are using Google Apps, Google claims. The majority are small to mid-sized businesses. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been crowing ... → Read More
Silicon Alley Insider - Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Fine. (Photo: Fruit of the Loom) In what edges into “weird Klout perk” territory, Fruit of the Loom is scouring LinkedIn for users who have switched jobs within the past month and giving them free underwear. It’s part of the company’s skidmark elimination ”Start Happy” campaign to help people feel better and more confident for their new jobs. How nice!
State Senator Phil Boyle wants to pass a “revenge porn” law in New York that will be even tougher than the one just passed in California, he told a local radio station. Revenge porn is when someone posts nude photos on the Internet without the person’s consent. It’s an extremely ugly get-even tactic used by an angry ex. In California, posting such photos without consent and “with the intent to cause serious emotional distress” has become a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail or a $ 1,000 fine. The law doesn’t cover photos that people took of ... 
Huge iPads or tiny journalists? That’s the question that many are asking after Fox News released a video detailing a new set that includes a number of analysts sat before massive touch interfaces. The screens measure 55 inches, run Windows 8 (soon: Windows 8.1, presumably) and look damned futuristic. Secret Fox News hardware? Something that Samsung kicked together for the company? Nope, just Microsoft’s PPI display technology deployed in the wild, the company confirmed with TechCrunch. Microsoft’s PPI business comes from its acquisition of Perceptive Pixel in July 2012. Microsoft, through that acquisition, is now an OEM of some of the ... 
This was a tough year for Internet freedom around the world. In Pakistan, the government blocked thousands of websites. There was a dramatic increase in web censorship in Venezuela surrounding President Hugo Chavez’s death. The Edward Snowden leaks in the U.S. caused a wake-up call about how much the government monitors our online conversations. In the last three years, overall freedom on the web globally has steadily declined, with significant downgrades in four countries since 2012, the United States included, according to a report just published by Freedom House. Not surprisingly, the United States was dinged in the survey due ... 
Twitter has to pay about $ 100,000 per month for exclusive access to the 9th floor roof deck located on top of San Francisco’s historic Market Square building, according to its lease. We first saw Quartz’s Zach Seward tweet about the cost of the roof deck. For the entire space, which Twitter moved into just last year, it must pay roughly $ 7.5 million per year in rent. Twitter is also reportedly in talks to open up an additional office adjacent to its current HQ. The microblogging platform, which just filed its IPO last week, is likely to be valued ... 
Only boring people are bored. But sometimes it’s okay to be a boring person, because it might get you an automatic cup of joe thanks to this fancy new coffee maker. The vending machine is the result of a branded publicity stunt, as most great drink dispensers historically have been. It’s part of Dutch company Douwe Egberts’ “Bye Bye Red Eye” campaign. The company is setting up coffee machines in airports, DVice reports, with facial recognition software that, when it catches you yawning, covers your face with a digital Lord Voldemort mask then produces some coffee. Cue conspiracy theorists saying ... 