Yahoo’s new Flickr now comes with redesigned Homepage/UI, 1TB of free storage

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All of a sudden Flickr is back. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s Tumblr (that was quick!) post on the matter:

Photos tell the stories — stories we’re inspired to relive, share with our friends, or capture simply to express ourselves. Collecting these moments is a part of our everyday. Since 2005, Flickr has become synonymous with inspiring imagery. Today, we’re thrilled to take Flickr even further with a beautiful, completely re-imagined experience that puts photos front and center. When it comes to photography, technology and its limits shouldn’t hinder the experience. So we’re also giving our Flickr users one terabyte of space — for free. That’s enough for a lifetime of photos — more than 500,000 original, full-resolution, pixel-perfect, brilliant photos. Flickr users will never have to worry about running out of space.

1TB is “I no longer have to think about where to store photos,” and full res quality means no compromise. Oh, and we’ve heard there will be some even bigger things coming up from Yahoo/Flickr for iOS users next month. Flickr is currently integrated into OS X and Apple TV software.

How to get 1 year of NFL Sunday Ticket streamed games to your iPad, iPhone or Mac for $100 (plus Madden 25!)

From 9to5Toys.com:

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Are you ready for some football?  Last Friday our 9to5Toys team discovered an Amazon exclusive preorder bonus that will make most gamers’ wives and girlfriends cringe.

The first 50,000 orders of Madden 25 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will include a full 17 week trial of NFL Sunday Ticket. A standard copy of this game retails for $60, so another $40 nets you every NFL game streamed to your laptop, tablet or smartphone each Sunday. Even better, gamers who already have DirectTV or who are eligible to receive it will also get a $10 off per month of their first year of service, a total savings of over $400 when you take into account the NFL Sunday Ticket subscription too. If you do not have DirectTV and are not eligible you will still receive a free year trial of NFL Sunday Ticket to stream every game to your favorite mobile device. Be sure you review the details of the promotion as there are some quirky caveats like not being able to stream the service to a PS3.  Grab your buddies, grab some beers and download this season’s schedule and the iOS appRead more

Apple publishes recommendations on tax reform ahead of Senate hearing on offshore tax practice

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Apple today has published its testimony proposing corporate tax reform and detailing the company’s tax practices ahead of CEO Tim Cook’s appearance at a Senate hearing on offshore tax practices scheduled for tomorrow.

In the testimony, Apple proposed what it called comprehensive corporate tax reform that should: Be revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates; and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US.

While some Subcommittee members may have differing views on these tax policy matters, Apple hopes the Subcommittee will see that these recommendations aim to create meaningful change and go well beyond what most US companies propose. As both a pioneer and participant in the American innovation economy, Apple looks forward to working with the Subcommittee on its efforts to encourage comprehensive reform of the US corporate tax system. Apple appreciates the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee to contribute constructively to this important debate.

Apple also detailed the company’s current tax practices and noted it “made income tax payments to the US Treasury totaling nearly $6 billion – or $16 million per day.” Apple points out that, at a rate of 30.5%, that accounts for around “$1 out of every $40 of corporate income taxes collected by the US Treasury last year.”

Apple continued by commenting on its recent decision to borrow $17 billion in debt instead of repatriating offshore funds to help fund its shareholder return: Read more

US Apple Stores make record sales whatever the measurement, says new analysis

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Apple’s US retail stores, which already make more money than any other store per square foot, also top the list when it comes to revenues per visitor, according to figures from Asymco’s Horace Dediu (via CNET).

Dediu calculated that in the latest quarter’s figures, Apple achieved an average revenue of $13m per store, equating to an average of $57.50 per visitor … Read more

Inside AT&T’s 83GB/hour mobile cell tower …or why your iPhone no longer drops out at huge events

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AT&T shared a little bit of what goes into a portable network cells they put up at special events where bandwidth needs will be extraordinary. Remember, AT&T’s network is about 80% iPhones so this is important stuff. The setup above was what they used to cover a recent Los Angeles festival (read: Coachella).

This isn’t a test network; AT&T’s been honing their skills since they got caught with their pants down at SXSW in 2010 (back when AT&T was the only US iPhone carrier). Since then, with their mobile response team, they’ve been able to keep their network up and running at huge events with the addition of these ‘kits’ above.

The  network performance stats for this setup – some of which are staggering:

  • Carried approximately 83 GB of data traffic during the peak hour on our in-event network
  • Carried a combined 6,054 GB (or more than 6 terabytes) of data on our in-event network during the two weekends of the music festival (24-hour traffic totals, Friday-Sunday for two weekends).
  • About 50 engineers were involved in planning, construction or onsite 24/7 monitoring.

Both the super multi-beam antenna and five-beam antenna are AT&T innovations that were conceptualized by L.A.-based AT&T engineers Bob Mathews and Gary Chow who discuss their work in the videos below: Read more