Tech Week in Review 3-16-2012

Tech Week in Review 3-16-2012:

Posterous Acquired by Twitter

We first taught you how to get started with Posterous back in 2009. Soon after that, Posterous added a more advanced editor and continued to grow in popularity. Sharing a vision with Twitter of making sharing simple, arguably the easiest to use and most socially integrated blogging platform out there now joins the Twitter team. According to their announcement, this does not signal the end of Posterous a stand-alone platform.

Posterous Spaces will remain up and running without disruption. We’ll give users ample notice if we make any changes to the service. For users who would like to back up their content or move to another service, we’ll share clear instructions for doing so in the coming weeks.

via Posterous

App Makes 6-Figures in 5 Weeks

Still not convinced mobile apps are the way to go? The App Draw Something from OMGPOP pulls 6-figures per day after only existing for 5 weeks. They’ve surpassed 20-million downloads. The simple app, available on both iPhone and Android, now has more users than Foursquare and almost as many as Instagram. Users have produced more than 1 billion drawings and 3,000 Draw Something pictures were being made per second on March 11th. The secret according to OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter (no relation, unfortunately) , is that the game requires two people to play. I’m sure being available on both major mobile platforms doesn’ t hurt either.
via Business Insider

After 244 Years, Encyclopedia Brittanica Discontinues Print Edition

The 32-volume printed edition of the encyclopedia Brittanica is no more. Realizing the shift to digital media, the company has decided to stop the presses and focus on providing their content in “bigger, more numerous, and more vibrant digital forms.” While this move seems logical, it’s still surprising to think that such a mainstay of many bookshelves may disappear entirely. As part of the announcement, Britannica Online will be free for a full week (beginning on the 13th).

“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a company based in Chicago, said in an interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”

via Britannica, NY Times

PayPal Introduces Square Competitor “Here”

It was pretty much inevitable that PayPal would eventually launch a competitor to mobile payment solution, Square. PayPal has long been a quick and easy way for merchants to accept payments online and for individuals to send and receive money. Square has made huge strides in expanding their technology and their brand. Obama and Romney have both adopted Square for accepting campaign donations for 2012. Towards the end of a recent episode of The Game, “Reynoldo” plugs a Square card reader into his phone after asking Tasha Mack if she’s ready to “square up” and pay him for his services.

So what’s the difference between Square and Here? PayPal says it’s the simple fact that Here is created by PayPal, a “trusted brand in the online payments industry with more than 100 million customers around the globe and years of proven payment innovation.” Not really much to be argued on that point. It’s also possible to reduce your fees to 1.7% if you also use the PayPal debit card. My only question is, and I’m sure many of you are wondering the same thing: “Why didn’t they just call it Triangle?”
via PayPal