Estimate: 90 Million U....

By the end of the year, there will be an estimated 34 million tablet computer users in the U.S., according to new numbers out today from eMarketer . Of those, 28 million (or 83 percent) will be using an iPad. The iPad still rules the tablet world, jumping nearly 160 percent from an estimated 13 million users last year. By 2014, there will be an estimated 61 million iPad users in the U.S. But the iPad’s share of total tablet users will drop to 68 percent. The total number of tablet users in 2014 is estimated to be 90 million. While eMarketer doesn’t break out numbers for any tablet other than the iPad, the obvious question is how much of those remaining 30 million tablet users will be on Kindle Fires or Nooks. Those two seem to be the strongest contenders right now precisely because they come in at a lower price point and are addressing a more limited media consumption set of scenarios. I should note that these estimates are for numbers of users, not devices sold. One iPad or Kindle Fire can be shared by multiple people in a household. For instance, my wife has already absconded with my Kindle Fire, so I guess we count as two users, although I don’t have high hopes of actually getting my hands on it anytime soon. (when she puts it down, my kids grab it to play Fruit Ninja). So I might just have to get my own. I think over time we will see more households with multiple tablets, just like we do today with multiple laptops.

Thanks To The 7 Deadly ...

Sins used to require effort. In biblical times, even sloth meant having to sit around using your imagination. Now, a 1-inch hand gesture is all that separates human kind from the bookmarked sin of choice. The faintest desire for a fix of narcissism sees us pawing through Facebook and Twitter for Likes and retweets. If the task at hand seems daunting, we can hastily retreat to Netflix where we’re only asked to stare. A stray carnal thought can be indulged at any moment thanks to 4Chan and YouPorn. College Humor’s graphic The 7 Deadly Websites is most fascinating not because it’s clever and accurate, but because the internet has removed the taboo from sin. Go ahead, live vicariously through friends as they post about their hot new spouses and high priced vacations, we’re all on Facebook doing the same thing. It’s openly acknowledged that people use Twitter to experience the pride of celebrity, and why put on pants to go to a restaurant when there’s Grub Hub. These services have many redeeming qualities, but they are ripe for misuse. There are angels trying to save us from ourselves. Asana, Khan Academy, Fitbit, Up. But those take at least some determination. Sean Parker at his wickedly extravagant Spotify party said that “Solving the piracy problem can’t happen if you don’t build a service that’s more convenient than piracy.” The same goes for sin. Until technology makes it easier to stay humble, content, active, and pious than to devolve into corruption, righteousness will be reserved for the strongest of will. Alternatively, revel in our damnation, and thank the fates such pleasurable hedonism is now just clicks away.

Instagram Adds Bios, Gr...

If you’re like me  Instagram has become a service you check the first thing you wake up in the morning, alongside Twitter and Facebook. My Instagram addiction has seriously gotten to the point where I anticipate the app’s bi-monthly updates ( Tilt Shift is the best thing to happen to photo sharing addicts since sliced bread, or something). So what’s new in Version 1.7 ?  The most obvious change is that when you click on someone’s photo history, the app now shows you a grid view instead of a laborious feed view, but lets you toggle between them both. Users also now have the option to add a bio to their profiles by going to Account > Edit profile > Bio, upload a profile picture from Twitter and Facebook (Account > Change profile picture) and drill down into which profile notifications they actually want to receive based on their Instagram follow graph. The update also makes it more clear when your photos are being geo-tagged and includes bug fixes and speed improvements. Instagram founder Kevin Systrom delved deeper into the motivation behind each new feature : Grid View One of the biggest requests we’ve had was an easier way to browse feeds. Now, you can view user, location, and hash-tag feeds more quickly by browsing a grid view of the photos. Bio One of the strongest assets Instagram has is its community. People have been making friends from around the world, and users have always wanted to know more about the people behind the photos. With the simple addition of a bio, we allow you to tell your story in text as well. Finer-grained push notifications Before today, you either had to choose to get all push notifications from Instagram or none at all. Today that all changes with fine-grained push notifications control. Now for new likes and comments you can choose to receive pushes from everyone, just the people you’re following or no one at all. Choose profile picture from Twitter and Facebook Most people don’t have a picture of themselves lying around in their camera roll — so now we allow people to import their profile photos from other services. Systrom tells me that the company is maintaining a quick release schedule while simultaneously working on some bigger picture stuff. Hopefully some of that bigger picture stuff includes an Android app. CrunchBase Information Instagram Information provided by CrunchBase

@J_Pinet Tweets IMF Chi...

"a friend in the US just told me that #DSK was arrested by the police in a NYC hotel one hour ago." It was the middle of the night in Paris when the news broke that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Chief of the IMF, had been pulled off an Air France flight and arrested for sexual assault. Coincidentally, he was also set to announce his candidacy for the 2012 French presidential elections next month - and could therefore become one of the strongest opponents of President Sarkozy. But now it looks like the Parti Socialiste may have to nominate someone else...

Blekko Bans 1.1 Million...

Search engine Blekko says they’ve banned some 1.1 million spammy domain names from their search results. The banned domains are the result of a new algorithm the company has developed that looks at both poor quality content as well as the types of ads that the domains include along with the content. It’s part of their ongoing war, they say, against content farm and other very low quality content. It follows an action earlier this year where they banned twenty content farms from their results. They’re calling the new algorithm “AdSpam.” “One of the strongest signals that a page is spam is aggressive participation in self-service online advertising networks,” says the company. When they compare low quality sites (based on existing signals) and see lots of keyword based ads alongside that content, it’s very likely to be blocked. “Domains with low quality content plus keyword ads are “machines that print money,” says Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta . “Machines that print money will be exploited.” Blekko is processing around 1 million search queries per day and has 500,000 unique monthly visitors, he says. CrunchBase Information Blekko Information provided by CrunchBase