YouTube is in the process of acquiring Twitch, according to a report by Variety. YouTube will allegedly be paying over $1 billion dollars. The deal will be all-cash and is expected to be announced “imminently”.

Twitch is a video streaming that lets you watch live gameplay videos from gamers around the world. You can upload games from your PC, Xbox or PlayStation for others to watch and comment on. It is especially popular for streaming live gaming tournaments. Read more »

Google has quietly added a new feature to its desktop Google Maps and now lets bikers avoid steep hills and climbs when you’re planning a route.

The feature will be much appreciated by bike enthusiasts as the elevation profiles will make it easy to choose that single best route without the need to use other software aside from Google’s Maps. Read more »

Twitter is a great way to keep in touch with people and all that goes around in the world. But often, you may be following someone whose tweets you may not want to read on occasions but don’t want to unfollow them either. Muting, a functionality offered by many third party Twitter clients, enabled users to mute these people so that their tweets would be hidden from your timeline without their knowledge and without you having to unfollow them.

Not a lot of people use third party clients, however, and those who use the website or the official app have been asking for an official mute functionality from Twitter for a long time now. After years of requests, Twitter has finally obliged. Read more »

Popular photo messaging service Snapchat is adding two new features to its repertoire. The service is known for being able to send photos across that automatically disappear after a short time. Now, users will also get the option to do video calls and send text messages, in a way that fits Snapchat’s personality.

The new app will have the same basic interface design as the current version, but if you were to swipe right on the name of a contact in your inbox, you start a text chat with them. Here you can type and send messages, which disappear automatically when the other person reads them. Similarly, the messages they send disappear from your phone after you read them, unless you tap on them to save them. Read more »

Facebook has announced two new ways of logging into apps using your Facebook account. The ability to log into other services using your Facebook account has always been a convenient option but the cost of that convenience was giving away your personal information to an app that you may not fully trust.

With the new Anonymous Login feature, you can now log into services without giving away any personal information. You will see the option to login anonymously on apps that support this feature along with the standard Facebook Login. Read more »

Google released standalone Docs, Sheets, and Slides mobile apps for Android and iOS. Docs and Sheets are already available to download and install, while Slides will be available soon.

The apps work both online and offline. Read more »

Popcorn Time, which debuted a few weeks ago as a service providing torrent streaming for movies and TV shows, was promptly taken down due to obvious legal issues.

Now, the service is back up with the promise that it will “never be taken down” again. Better yet, a new Android and updated desktop versions are just around the corner. Read more »

Facebook has reported the financial results for the first quarter of 2014. The company reported revenue of $2.5 billion, up by 72% over the same period last year. Revenue from advertising was $2.27 billion, up by 82% from the same period last year.

Facebook also reported the numbers for the active users using the service. Currently, Facebook is clocking in at 1.28 billion monthly active users, a 15% growth compared to last year, along with 1.01 billion monthly active users from mobile devices, a solid 34% increase over last year. Read more »

Facebook has announced a new feature for users of their mobile apps. Called Nearby Friends, the feature is designed to let you catch up with your friends on Facebook if they are close to your location.

Nearby Friends obviously requires you to share your location with your friends for it to work but you can choose whom to share it with. Your friends also need to enable sharing with you for you to see them. Once enabled, you will get notifications when your friends are nearby. You can also share a precise location so that people can see where exactly you are on a map. Read more »

Flickr has released version 3.0 of the iOS and Android app that is a complete overhaul over the previous versions. To put it simply, it now looks like Instagram.

The update is available on both iOS and Android and for once we see no preference given to either platform, with both getting the latest update with a UI optimized for that particular platform (unlike Instagram). Read more »

Google has updated the Gmail web interface to make it a bit easier to send photos that you take from your phone. This is only applicable to those who use the Auto Backup option on their Android or iOS devices.

If you have the option enabled, the photos you take on your phone automatically get backed up to Google’s servers. Now, you can just hit the ‘Insert Photo’ option in Gmail web to access all the photos that got uploaded from your phone. You can then mark and send them quickly over email. If you have organized your photos in folders, you can mark an entire folder and send it instead of individual images. Read more »

As promised, Microsoft released cheaper subscription plan for Office 365 productivity suite. Dubbed Office 365 Personal, the plan costs $6.99 a month or $69.99 for the year.

The newly released subscription plan is valid for one PC or Mac, and one iPad or Windows tablet (the service also works on iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone devices). Read more »

Dropbox had a lot of announcements to make yesterday, starting with a new service and two new apps. First is the Dropbox for Business service, which lets companies get a Dropbox account for all their employees, who can then manage their personal and business accounts from the same device and using the same account.

Dropbox for Business gives admins features like remote wipe, account transfer and sharing audit logs. One new feature arriving later is Project Harmony, which lets you see who is editing a file and chat with other users, similar to Google Drive. Read more »

WhatsApp now offers its own prepaid service through E-Plus in Germany, letting you use the popular messaging app for a fixed monthly amount. The offer also features unlimited usage of the app even if you don’t have any standing traffic left.

The package with the SIM card is on offer for €10 but features a starting balance of €10 itself making the SIM practically free. Otherwise a call or text will set you back €0.09 to all German carriers whilst 1 MB will cost €0.24. Read more »

Leaked documents and screenshots obtained by The Verge reveal that Google is about to launch a new take on home entertainment. Dubbed Android TV, the service will take on the likes of Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.

According to the leaked documentation, Android TV is going to be “an entertainment interface, not a computing platform”. Read more »