Instagram will let users post longer videos, Intel CEO resigns, and Microsoft launches an ambitious blockchain project.
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First up, on LinkedIn. In an apparent swipe at YouTube, Instagram has announced that it will let users post videos up to an hour long through a new section called IGTV. According to the company, it will also be offered as a stand-alone app in the coming weeks. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion when the fresh-faced photo-sharing service had only 30 million users, but it has since grown to more than 1 billion monthly users. YouTube, on the other hand, is currently sitting at around 1.9 billion monthly users.
On Reddit, after discovering a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee, which is against company policy, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich (KRA-ZAN-ICH) decided to resign, the company said in an announcement. Krzanich, who had been an Intel employee since 1982, and became CEO in 2013, will be replaced by interim CEO Bob Swan. Krzanich was in charge when Spectre, a serious security bug affecting most Intel processors, was discovered earlier this year. After the discovery, Krzanich apologized on behalf of the company.
And lastly, on Flipboard, Microsoft is teaming up with Ernst & Young to launch a blockchain solution for content rights and royalties management. The two companies are hoping once the project is tested successfully among some of Microsoft’s game publisher partners, they can introduce it to all industry verticals that need licensing of intellectual properties. The network is built using the Quorum protocol and Microsoft’s Azure cloud and blockchain infrastructures. The two companies remain silent about how exactly the new platform will be able to handle large volumes of data and its ability to scale – a common concern among early blockchain adopters. In February, Microsoft said that it is working on a blockchain digital identity platform, but this latest announcements appears to be a separate project.
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