By Gilbert Falso :: 1:09 PM
Domain registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy today announced that it has acquired Media Temple, a high-end web hosting and services provider based in Los Angeles.
Media Temple’s customer base has mostly been web developers and professional content creators, and the purchase will help GoDaddy push into a premium level market that it currently isn’t reaching. Statistics from Media Temple show that the company currently hosts over 1.5 million websites, with nearly 90% of those sites classified as higher tier web and IT services based.
GoDaddy will operate Media Temple as a separate entity, and keep the company’s 225 existing employees to staff it, rather than integrating its services into existing business operations. GoDaddy currently serves about 12 million customers, and has 4,000 employees.
Initial Media Temple customer reaction on social media, however, has not been positive. Many web developers loathe GoDaddy as a webhost and service provider, and have actively avoided them by moving to services like Media Temple.
Below, a sampling of reactions from Twitter:
Ugh. Go Daddy bought Media Temple. Time to look for new hosting. #fb
— Rob Harrigan (@robharrigan) October 15, 2013
Go Daddy buys Media Temple? This is most unwelcome news.
— Daniel Sofer (@hermosawave) October 15, 2013
Go Daddy have acquired @mediatemple??? What? No! No! No! Naughty Media Temple!
— David Hill (@iamdavidhill) October 15, 2013
@preshit this is the worst news I’ve ever read… i HATE go daddy and I loved media temple.
— Merek Davis (@Merekdavis) October 15, 2013
Media Temple – Loved by web designers around the world. Go Daddy – Hated by web designers around the world. Money talks, folks.
— Dan Edwards (@de) October 15, 2013
By Cynthia Herbert :: 10:47 PM
Clothing retailer Gap may be running a sale today, but their customers are having a hard time checking out on their website, if posts on Twitter and Facebook are to be believed.
Customers have taken to social media throughout the evening complaining about slow load times for pages on the Gap’s site, and errors when attempting to finalize their sale.
Late this afternoon, many users reported seeing a blank page when they attempted to load the Gap site, often paired with an error message that read, “Template definition is null.” While that error was mostly fixed within an hour or two, problems still occurred with other areas of the site, and customers waited for pages to refresh, with some eventually giving up.
“I had a coupon that was set to expire today, I just wanted to use it while I still could, but the site wouldn’t let me all the way through the checkout process,” explained a frustrated Cindy Dasano, from Colorado. “I eventually gave up.”
Some customers who reached out to the retailer via their customer service phone line received word that their coupons and sale prices would be honored tomorrow. Problems with the company’s checkout systems appeared to also affect telephone orders as well.
“Got a person.” Tweeted Alaina Wiens, “But the whole system’s down.”
The retailer’s website has ads that boast today as being the last day of a 40% off Columbus Day sale event.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 8:41 PM
If you filed for a 6-month extension on your tax paperwork back in April, this Tuesday is the deadline to get your paperwork in to the IRS. Don’t think that the current government shutdown is going to make the IRS forget about what you owe them – it’s not – they still expect your paperwork in the mail on October 15th.
While Uncle Sam still demands your returns be in by the 15th, the shutdown will prevent any type of refund being processed.
“Tax refunds will not be issued until normal government operations resume,” the IRS said in a statement released last week, preparing taxpayers for the shutdown.
In addition to the halt on refund payments, the agency is also not staffing its support centers or call lines during the stalemate, as 90% of IRS staffers are on a mandated furlough program, and are not reporting to work. The IRS website does remain functional, however, and some automated telephone lines are also working to assist filers.
The only current exception to Tuesday’s deadline is that an extension has been granted to military service members currently serving in Afghanistan, and to some residents of Colorado that have been affected by recent storms in that state.
By Paul Thomson :: 5:16 PM
It appears now that Microsoft Windows devices aren’t the only gadgets susceptible to the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” crashes – many Apple iPhone 5S users are reporting similar blue screen crashes on their devices over the past several weeks.
Users have been complaining on Twitter, YouTube, and on Apple user forums about the glitch, which seems to happen mostly when they are dealing with apps in the iWork suite.
Phones that crash switch to a blank blue screen for several seconds before rebooting. Other than the inconvenience of the phone reset, the crash does not seem to damage any data, or adversely affect the phone after it restarts.
Apple has not formally addressed these crash concerns yet, but the user community seems to believe that they can be avoided by disabling iCloud syncing for the Pages, Keynote, and Numbers applications.
Travis Arnold, a web designer from Baltimore, MD, says, “it’s definitely very annoying. I was looking forward to using my new phone, and preparing to give a presentation using Keynote, but now I’m not confident that the phone will stay up.”
Arnold has experienced about a half-dozen blue screen crashes over the past week with his phone.
By Paul Thomson :: 3:35 PM
Shares of mobile phone company BlackBerry have been halted from trading pending release of news from the company.
BlackBerry said in a short statement that it will be going through a restructuring operation that will result in the loss of 4500 jobs.
In addition to the job cuts, the company will post a loss of $1 billion.
Before trading was halted, BlackBerry stock was priced at $10.27, down $0.25 or 2.38 percent for the day.
Rumors are also swirling around a possible sale of the company, but no definitive information has been released in that regard.
The story is developing, and will be updated as details come in.