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We’ve all by now heard about how Yahoo is trying to get some “cool” with a supposed $1 billion purchase of hip blogging platform Tumblr, but it may be a moot point if Tumblr’s users fail to stick around post-sale. Microsoft and Facebook may be trying to make a move ahead of Yahoo, Tumblr may be inching ever closer to running out of cash, and (despite that) may not be afraid to play a little hardball. But here’s something you’re not hearing much about: Tumblr’s users are almost universally unhappy with the news that the site might get sold to Yahoo. And they may let their fingers do the talking, and the walking. Do a search on Tumblr for “yahoo” and you get a stream of distress, interspersed with the occasional bit of helpless resignation, and some calls for activism. The voices of reluctant acceptance (usually because of the aforementioned cash situation) or anything like positivity are few and far between. No outright enthusiasm. (Daddy!) See for yourself. It’s a problem that extends to some of Tumblr’s oldest users. “If Tumblr goes to Yahoo, I will seriously consider moving my personal blog to Medium, if that’s possible,” Alexia, co-editor over here at TC, told me. She’s had a blog on Tumblr since June 2009, and, while not part of that coveted 18-24 age bracket, is a significant representative of that other cadre of important users: digital influencers. “I don’t know exactly why, but my Tumblr is a part of my identity. And for whatever reason, I don’t want to identify with Yahoo.” Some have tried to start a petition, with a goal of 5 million signatures although others are cynical about whether this will actually have any effect. User attrition is not something to be dismissed, especially when it appears to be underpinned by wider usage trends on the site. When I wrote a post in January about what might come next for Tumblr as a business (it focused on how it could make money; not how it might need to get sold because it doesn’t), I noted that in the prior month, December 2012, it had 167 million visitors and nearly 18 billion pageviews worldwide (Quantcast figures). The trend over the last six months are down, however: in the U.S. page views are down 21% to 5.3 billion, and uniques down 5% to 76 million. Worldwide the picture is better but still not growing: pageviews are down by 4%; uniques are down by 3%. Not a sinking ship, but not a zippy little speedboat, either. Yahoo’s MySpace, indeed. Image via Tumblr

Macro Photography by Mat Kitchener

More bumps in the road are probably in store for Bitcoin. The virtual currency has seen some massive swings in value over the last several weeks, but that volatility is not likely to end soon, its lead developer suggested on Saturday.read more

Yahoo is going to buy Tumblr for $1B on Monday according to reports. I will explain to you why the media is freaking out, why big companies need to make more bets like this, why Yahoo is the perfect home and why Zuckerberg should offer $2B. Media… Freak Out! Over 20 years in the industry I’ve learned that when something gets bought for $1B or more, people tend to freak out. People can comprehend millions of dollars, because we all know folks who have a million or more dollars (or homes worth that). When you start talking about 100s or 1,000s of millions, people get emotional and some start lashing out. Journalists are one of the first groups to lash out. Why? Because they have no chance of making big money in their jobs, and they have to fight for $5k raises while their pensions are replaced with 401ks. Also, they tend to have covered startups like Tumblr from year one and they can’t reconcile how something that didn’t exist five years ago is now worth $1B — and that they don’t have to balls to create something. F@#4k it, Yahoo Should Buy 10 Tumblrs Here’s the truth: a billion dollars is nothing to a company like Yahoo or Google or Facebook or Apple or Microsoft. If there were 10 startups like Tumblr, with 100M+ users and $50M-$100M in revenue potential a year, it would actually make sense for Google, Yahoo or Facebook to buy all 10. At once. Roll the dice. Why? Because those companies have tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in market cap and cash, and if one in 10 of those startups turn into YouTube, it’s worth it. Read the complete editorial on LinkedIn here. Sign up for jason’s email list at http://jasonnation.com/

Over the past months we’ve discovered ‘pirates’ in the most unusual places, from the FBI, through major record labels and the U.S. Government to the Vatican. Inspired by these revelations the Canadian Pirate Party decided to take a look at the downloading habits of their local Government and police, against a backdrop of vigorous recent debate surrounding online piracy in Canada, and the copyright troll phenomenon in particular. With help from the pirating anti-piracy group Canipre several movie studios are gearing up to sue thousands of Internet subscribers. Interestingly, the Pirate Party’s findings suggest that even the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Government’s Industry Canada could become potential targets. “This discovery shows that copyrighted materials have, in fact, been downloaded via the RCMP and Industry Canada networks,” states Pirate Party leader Travis McCrea. McCrea notes, however, that like most copyright trolls, their evidence is far from rock solid and can’t be linked to individual downloaders. “However, we cannot be sure who is responsible for downloading the material, or even if it was downloaded by employees, contractors, or a person who was using an open wireless connection. This is why this type of intellectual property enforcement doesn’t work – there is no method of reliably telling who actually engaged in the infringement of copyrighted materials.” Below are a few “hits” that were found with data provided by BitTorrent tracking outfit Scaneye, starting with the police IP-addresses. The pirated titles are not unusual and the list mostly includes popular TV-shows and movies. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pirates Industry Canada IP-addresses have also been caught pirating movies TV-shows and games, including episodes of The Voice, Duck Dynasty and The Ultimate Fighter. The IP-addresses that were found are pulled from peer lists which increases the possibility of false positives, which is exactly how many copyright trolls are believed to gather evidence. Industry Canada Pirates In the months to come thousands of Internet subscribers may be dragged to court, with movie studios demanding thousands of dollars in compensation. The Pirate Party Canada speaks out fiercely against these trolling actions. They point out that despite the crackdowns on individual citizens, the police and the Government can seemingly continue to pirate without repercussions. The fact that the makers of Game of Thrones and other frequently pirated titles don’t seem to mind, makes it all the more confusing according to the Pirate Party. “Between the difficulty of targeting individual pirates, the double standard of targeting individuals more harshly than organizations, and the fact that many content creators don’t see piracy as detrimental to their business, it’s clear that something is wrong with the way intellectual property rights are currently enforced,” the Party comments. “If the goal of copyright enforcers – and the creators they represent – is to increase profits and protect creator rights, shouldn’t there be a better way to accomplish this than by harassing individuals who may or may not bear any responsibility for copyright infringement happening on their IP address?” For the many future troll victims in Canada, we hope that the judges handling these cases will ask the same questions. Source: Canadian Police and Government Caught Pirating Movies and TV-Shows

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So it’s come to this, has it, Nintendo? You’re now content to skulk in the corners of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) with your innovative devices and sequels to 20-year-old Super Nintendo games? This once mighty company won’t even attempt to assert itself on a stage against the new titans of the age, Sony and Microsoft? I’m not so out of touch as to think E3 in 2013 is as important as it was to the video game industry back when it started in 1995. So in one respect, I can understand why it seems like a good idea to skip the expense and hassle of a major press conference. I’d applaud the decision if I didn’t think it was yet another symptom of the isolationist culture that’s embedded itself somewhere deep within your business, Nintendo — leading you to behave like an old hermit stubbornly whittling away at the same wooden toys that used to bring the kids out to visit a long time ago. The Nintendo Directs are welcome and informative, but you might be overestimating how widely they are spreading your message. Sure, dropping a prerecorded video message from some far-flung corner of the earth has gotten people plenty of attention before, but I doubt you want to apply that communications model to your free-market enterprise. There’s something to be said for putting on a show at a venue where media, distributors, and industry officials will be converging for several days. You don’t want to leave it up to everyone to watch a 24-minute YouTube video presentation set against a stark white background. With the Wii U, you’ve met the bare minimum requirements to say you launched a new console: You shipped boxes of them to stores, released a glossed-up version of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and put out a variation on the theme of “Look at Us, We’re Innovative” with Nintendo Land. There was no effective marketing done to actually sell the Wii U to the people who bought the original Wii. Your promises of third-party game support have thus far fallen short, your own lineup of software keeps suffering delays, and the latest series of advertisements for the console show families struggling to put two cogent thoughts together about why they even bought the damn console in the first place. You’re not in the clear yet, and it seems like a bad time to rely on others to come to you, especially when Sony and Microsoft won’t be waiting patiently for people to pass by their E3 booths to show them their versions of the next big thing in gaming. It’s not that the IGNs, GameSpots, and Kotakus of the Internet won’t notice you at E3. They will, and the gaming-informed will be able to recite by heart your holiday release schedule by the end of the show. The problem is with U.S.A. Today, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal — the big types of mainstream news sources whose video game coverage largely consists of statements from congressmen and senators panning the medium for its portrayals of violence. They are going to be hard-pressed to find time for your discreet show when they are writing about how Microsoft will be taking over the suburban living room with the new Xbox this fall, with Sony’s PlayStation 4 tagging close behind. Maybe in a year — when you’ve established a strong lineup of games for the Wii U, when the anticipation around next-generation consoles has died down, and when it’s just another time for more games — I might suggest forgoing the stage. In 2013, my only advice to you, Nintendo, is to “break a leg.” Filed under: Games GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here! .blurb-cat-games hr { marg

Safari/Chrome: If Twitter's web interface is a little too busy for your liking, Twipster converts it into a minimal and responsive list of Tweets, with none of the clutter.Read more...

Photography by Nicolas Sisto

"Facebook was not originally created to be a company," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his SEC Registration letter a little more than three months before Facebook went public on May 18, 2012. "It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected." In the year since the Facebook IPO, some things haven't changed: Zuckerberg still sports his trademark hoodies, employees still rate their company and their founder highly, and Facebook still talks about its grand mission to make the world more open and connected. But the era of Facebook operating or being perceived as anything other than a corporation seems more distant with each passing day Read more...More about Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Ipo, Business, and Facebook