LinkedIn aims to boost site engagement with Newsle purchase

LinkedIn has just agreed to purchase alerts service Newsle for an undisclosed amount in order to boost the ability to track its users outside the website. It would also help users find out what other users are doing on LinkedIn. This acquisition seems in line with LinkedIn trying to bolster users’ engagement with their site.

“For example, knowing more about the people in your network—like when they’re mentioned in the news—can surface relevant insights that help you hit your next meeting with them out of the park,” said LinkedIn spokesman Ryan Roslansky.

Source: CNET

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to get a retina scanner?

Samsung is looking to one up its competition once again by introducing a new security feature: a retina scanner. Samsung Exynos tweeted something about improving security for the future and showed an image of a retina being scanned by a phone with the words “Unlock the future.” This may or may not make its way into the Galaxy Note 4 and it would be interesting to see how this feature might fair in real-life situations. We're curious, would you want a retina scanner on your device?

Security can be improved using features unique to us. That's what we envision. What would you use? #ExynosTomorrow pic.twitter.com/KLgQ1q9GkP

— SamsungExynos (@SamsungExynos) July 12, 2014

Shazam now lets you stream full tracks from Rdio within the app

If you’ve wanted to listen to a full track on Shazam, then you can now do that with the help of Rdio. A recent update will let you playback an entire song using Rdio’s library. The catch is you have to have a Rdio subscription. If you do, you just need to link the two apps and you are good to go. The tracks you “Shazamed” will be sorted into its own playlist and there will also be an “Add to Playlist” button to put the song into your playlist of choice. The update is already available for iOS devices and will come to Android in the following days.

Source: Shazam

Babak Parviz, the man behind Google Glass, leaves for Amazon

The man behind Google Glass has left the Plex and has moved on to Amazon. Babak Parviz, who was part of the A-Team at the Google X skunkworks (responsible for self-driving cars, Google Glass and other moonshot projects), is the latest of Google's elite to exit the company. His destination is Amazon which has recently released its first smartphone and has a stable of Kindle tablets and TV streaming devices as well as a lot of interest in mobile technology.

Parviz confirmed the move in his Google + bio page.

Having worked at companies ranging from tiny start-ups to huge corporations and universities in Europe and the US, I have found each one to be fun in its own unique way.

I founded and led a few efforts at Google (among them, Google Glass and Google Contact Lenses are public so far :) prior to moving to Amazon and work on a few other things now…

Replacing Parviz as the head of Google Glass is Ivy Ross, formerly of Bausch & Lomb. No word on what Parviz will be working on at Amazon but it should be pretty exciting.

Source: TechCrunch