Gadgetory

it's Tuesday April 10 2012 I'm Bridget Carey on cnet com and it's time to get loaded Facebook has forked over 1 billion dollars to buy Instagram a social network for photography and it's left many in the tech community asking just how did that happen instagram has no revenue has been around for less than two years with about a dozen employees so how does a photo app get valued that highly the LA Dodgers cost two billion dollars is Instagram half the cost of a baseball franchise well some analysts say that the deal is made because Facebook sees Instagram as a threat and spent a cool billion to keep the threat under control Instagram is a pretty big network there are more than 35 million registered users uploading more than 5 million photos a day in total more than a billion photos have been uploaded so when you look at those numbers it's clear Instagram is stealing away photo sharing traffic that could have gone to Facebook but Facebook isn't killing the service Instagram will remain a separate network and app for now but despite those promises Instagram users have cried out online upset about the purchase many say they use Instagram to get away from Facebook and if this means Facebook has the rights of their photos they will unsubscribe from the service Instagram grew popular for its color filters that made cell phone photos look aged in retro users were then able to share those photos to the Instagram network or other social networks Instagram was named Apple's iPhone app of the year in 2011 bestbuy CEO has resigned and will step down from the Board of Directors in a press release best buy said there were no disagreements between CEO Brian done and the retailer and that it was a mutual agreement done started that best buy back in 1985 as a store associate and was named CEO in 2009 director Mike McCann has been named the interim CEO bus by recently announced it was closing 50 stores laying off 400 workers and focusing on smaller boutiques to sell mobile phones the top 4 mobile carriers are partnering with the Federal Communications Commission to create a Justice League for stopping cell phone theft the New York Times reports that carriers will create a joint database of lost stolen cell phones that will make it easy to track the device and cut off voice and data service the FCC says that currently it's easy for a thief to steal a phone and sell it on the black market next month New York City will start replacing public pay phones with internet connected touchscreen tablets the tablets will be free to use for point up info on news traffic and nearby businesses and will of course make money with advertisements eventually the tablets will have skype and be Wi-Fi hotspots app developers have a new way to make money in amazon's android app store now programmers can add in-app purchases and amazon would take thirty percent of the revenues from the transactions just the same as apple's app store those are your headlines for today I'm Bridget Carey for cnet.com and you've just been loaded