In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:
- Twitter may be expanding tweet length
- ChannelAdvisor to pay $1 million to break lease
- Networks expands its deal with DreamWorks
- Yahoo is dropping a video hub
- A virus writer gets his sentence
The details:
- Twitter appears ready to expand beyond 140-character tweets
Twitter appears ready to loosen its decade-old restriction on the length of messages in a bid to make its service more appealing to a wider audience accustomed to the greater freedom offered by Facebook and other forums.
CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey telegraphed Twitter’s intentions in a tweet posted Tuesday after the technology news site Re/Code reported the company is exploring increasing its limits on text from 140 characters to as many as 10,000.
Dorsey didn’t directly address the Re/Code report that cited unnamed people, but he made it clear that Twitter isn’t wedded to the 140-character limit. He illustrated his point by posting a screenshot of a text consisting of 1,325 characters.
If Twitter were to allow tweets to span 10,000 characters, it could produce 1,700-word dissertations, based on the size of Dorsey’s extended post.
San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. declined to comment on its plans.
- Report: ChannelAdvisor pays $1 million to break lease
Morrisville-based Channel Advisor’s move to a new headquarters will cost it $1 million to get out of an old lease.
Lauren Ohnesorge of The Triangle Business Journal reported the news Tuesday, citing a securities filing by the ecommerce services provider.
Read the details at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2016/01/channeladvisor-pays-1m-to-break-lease-and-move.html
- Latvian who co-wrote worldwide computer virus can go home
A Latvian computer code writer who admitted a role in spreading avirus to more than a million computers worldwide, including some at NASA, can returnhome after serving 20 months in prison.
Deniss Calovskis, 30, was sentenced Tuesday to time served. Calovskis, who pleaded guilty last summer to conspiring to commit computer intrusion, was not immediately freed because his extradition to the United States to face charges means he must be returned by authorities to Latvia.
U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan said she was impressed by his rehabilitation and wanted to ensure he was credited for more than 10 months he spent in a Latvian prison before he was sent to the United States.
His plea agreement had called for him to face 18 months to two years in prison for his role in creating and distributing a virus that infected between 17,000 and 40,000 U.S.computers, including 190 at NASA, from 2005 to 2012. Authorities said it reached more than 1 million computers across the world.
- Netflix extends online video licensing deal with DreamWorks
Netflix’s online video service will feature more series and movies from DreamWorksAnimation as part of a contract extension with the studio.
The expanded licensing agreement announced Tuesday will allow Netflix to showcase several new DreamWorks series, including “Trollhunters,” a fantasy created by acclaimed movie director Guillermo del Toro.
Netflix secured the rights to DreamWorks programming everywhere in the world but China. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The deal will give Netflix Inc. more video likely to appeal to children, an audience segment that has played an important role in its service more than doubling in size to 69 million subscribers during the past three years.
Netflix’s success has emboldened rivals such as Amazon.com and Hulu to spend more on their own video, triggering bidding battles for digital programming rights.
- Yahoo pulls plug on video hub as CEO refocuses company
Yahoo pulled the plug on an online video hub that had once been envisioned as the beleaguered company’s answer to Netflix and YouTube.
The end of the Yahoo Screen is part of a purge being directed by CEO Marissa Mayer with hopes of generating greater profit elsewhere.
Mayer oversaw an overhaul of Yahoo Screen 16 months ago that came in the form of a new mobile application, thousands of clips from NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and a wide variety of other popular TV shows.
But Yahoo Screen never attracted the vast audiences that flock to Netflix and YouTube.
Yahoo is now scattering its video across its digital magazines and other services, such as Yahoo Music.
“We’re constantly reviewing and iterating on our products as we strive to create the best user experience,” Yahoo said in a printed statement.
Mayer has pledged to jettison technology that fails to justify the amount of money thatYahoo has been investing in them.
