Just out - Whatsapp announces voice call feature

Co-Founder and CEO, Jan Koum announces the release of the voice call feature at the 2014 Mobile World Congress Source: AFP

Well I just published a post about Facebook's aquisition of Whatsapp, but the latest news in regards to the up and coming messenger is the fact that it will now offer voice calls.  That's right voice calls.  Whatsapp CEO Jan Koum announced at the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that Whatsapp would be adding the voice call feature to the app.  This move will result in further revenue disappearing from the world's largest telcom companies pockets.  This major move by Whatsapp will result in further popularity to the app, getting it closer to the 1 billlion users mark.  Lets hope that the voice call option fits seemlessly into the design of the app, and that Jan Koum hasn't overreached in his latest endevour.  The voice option will be released first on Google's Android and Apple's iOS systems and will later be released on Windows and Blackberry systems later in the year. 

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Facebook pays 19B for Whatsapp

Well if you haven't heard by now that Facebook has bought Whatsapp, then here is the latest on that front.  Facebook has bought Whatsapp for an amazing 19B dollars, with this being divided up into 12B in Facebook shares, 4B in cold hard cash and 3B in RSU for employee retention.  Now even though Whatsapp has been bought out by Facebook, it will continue to operate as an independent company from Facebook.  Along with this, the WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s board.  Now Whatsapp is trending toward connecting 1 billion people, with approximately 1 million more users joining Whatsapp per day.  That's a lot of people.  While still not as many users as Facebook Messenger, the increase in users may change this in the near future.  With only 32 engineers employed at Whatsapp, this once small app has revolutionised the way people communicate.  Let's hope Whatsapp continues its amazing growth over the coming months.  

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Flappy Birds Bye Bye

Well by now everyone must know that Flappy Birds, the widely popular and extremely addictive indie game is no longer on the app store or on Google Play.  Shortly after its rise to fame, developer Dong Nguyen removed the game from both platforms.  The question on probably everyone's mind is why??  Flappy Bird topped the charts in early 2014 but due to some negative feedback including accusations that elements in his work were too similar to some in the “Super Mario Bros” Dong Nguyen tweeted he would be removing the game.  Well that's that isn't it.  Flappy Bird is gone and in its wake is a bunch of similar games.  But lets be honest, there wasn't anything particularly special about Flappy Birds.  Its design was rudimentary and its graphics were okay, but that's how it works, some apps can just go viral.  For one thing, Flappy Birds set the trend for the latest string of indie games. 

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