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Yahoo, which derives a vast amount of its revenues from advertising, is to review its sales operation. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP Yahoo has announced a massive round of layoffs as the troubled internet company struggles to turn around its fortunes. In a statement, the company confirmed earlier reports that it was cutting 2,000 jobs, about 14% of its workforce. It is the sixth mass layoff in the past four years for the beleaguered company.
Yahoo confirms layoff of 2,000 employees in bid to renew company | Technology
Yahoo Then and Now: Diagnosing a Sad Decline
Two thousand people losing their jobs is just the worst kind of news and for Yahoo, it’s a culmination of years of decline. The company is not decimated. As of Q3 2011, it employed over 14,000 full-timers. 12,000 or so is still a very significant workforce and this could be beginning of a big turnaround for the online portal that provides services across a wide variety of categories including news, entertainment, business, business services, finance and multimedia. It’s home to one of my favorite online services: Flickr. At this moment, I have no idea where the cuts are coming from.
Link to video: Audit finds Apple's Chinese factories in violation of employment laws An audit of Apple 's Chinese factories details "serious and pressing" concerns over excessive working hours, unpaid overtime, health and safety failings, and management interference in trade unions. In the most detailed public investigation yet into conditions at Foxconn factories in China , which assemble millions of iPhones and iPads each year, the independent Fair Labor Association found that more than half of employees had worked 11 days or more without rest. More than 43% of workers reported experiencing or witnessing an accident at the three plants audited.
Apple's factories in China are breaking employment laws, audit finds | Technology
Thinspo on Tumblr, Pinterest: Can Social Networks Stop It?
<img src="http://timenewsfeed.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/picture-40.png?w=480&h=320&crop=1" alt="Pinterest Thinspo" title="Pinterest Thinspo"/> Pinterest, the latest social-media site to be hailed as the next Facebook or Twitter , has reached an Internet milestone — though a rather suspect one. It’s the latest website that’s felt the need to ban thinspiration, or thinspo, content. For the unfamiliar, thinspiration consists of photos, tips and angst-ridden quotes meant to provide visual inspiration and motivation for those looking to whittle their bodies down to tinier proportions. With a disturbing similarity to pro-anorexia websites, thinspo typically consists of photos of female bodies with pencil-thin arms and jutting ribs.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This semester WTVR.com has partnered with VCU’s School of Mass Communications “iPadJournos” mobile and social media journalism project. Those VCU students reported the following story. By Samra Khawaja and Manhatten Royal (Special to WTVR.com) RICHMOND, Va. – Social media entrepreneur David Karp is full of praise for Richmond’s tech community and the diversity here. In an interview for WTVR.com, the founder and CEO of the rapidly growing microblogging platform Tumblr said that he sees even further expansion of his local community support service team on the horizon, which just moved into a larger office last month [LINK: Tumblr grows rapidly, moves to larger Richmond office]
Tumblr founder builds expansion on Richmond’s diverse tech talents
Invisible Children, the group that released the Joseph Kony video that went viral this week, has been making films about Kony for years and targeting young people as the main audience. Here, the group's co-founders, Jason Russell (left), Bobby Bailey (center) and Laren Poole, record footage in Africa in 2007. PRWeb
How Teenagers Learned To Hate Joseph Kony
The Encyclopedia Britannica, in its now-defunct printed edition. Photograph: Alamy My childhood was richer because we had an encyclopedia at home. It wasn't the ultra-expensive Encyclopedia Britannica, but rather the thinner, more modestly priced World Book. My school library had a full Britannica set, and I spent countless hours immersed in both.
Encyclopedia Britannica in the age of Wikipedia | Dan Gillmor | Comment is free
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has voiced full confidence that he will win Sunday's presidential election in Russia, bluntly dismissing opposition demands and maintaining his strong criticism of the United States. Putin, who is all but certain to regain the presidency, sought to put a positive spin on massive protests that have been held against his 12-year rule, saying they were a "good experience for Russia." "That situation has helped make government structures more capable, has raised the need for them to think, search for solutions and communicate with the society," Putin said during a meeting with editors of top Western newspapers. The remarks were broadcast by state television and released by his office Friday.
Russia Elections 2012: Vladimir Putin Sure Of His Victory In Presidential Vote
Kodak to stop making cameras | Business
Kodak is abandoning its camera business, having given up on Kodachrome film in 2009. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Kodak , the company that pioneered home photography , is to give up making cameras after more than 110 years. The company, whose little yellow film boxes could once be found throughout the world, said on Thursday it plans to "phase out its dedicated capture devices business", which includes all digital cameras, video cameras and digital photo frames. It comes less than a month after Kodak Eastman filed for bankruptcy protection in the US as it finally succumbed to a digital revolution that left its products obsolete following intense competition from rivals in the Far East.
Google plans home entertainment system | Technology
Google is planning a new music streaming system that will be controlled by Android smartphones such as the Galaxy Note. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Google is planning a major push into home entertainment with a new music streaming system controlled by Android smartphones . The internet giant will make its first move into consumer electronics later this year, unveiling a Google-branded product that can wirelessly play music on other devices in the home, according to the Wall Street Journal . Google indicated a push into home entertainment at its I/O developer conference in May 2011 , briefly showing off a music system dubbed Project Tungsten that could be controlled by Android-based handsets. The company recently filed a request with the US Federal Communications Commission for permission to test what it called an entertainment device.