Yahoo weather app launched for Apple iPads

Back in April, Yahoo launched a new weather app for iPhones and today it has released the same app for the iPads. You can download it from the App Store.

When the app was first launched, it was appreciated for its beauty with the simple animations and the background images. The image-centric weather app shows what the weather actually looks like in that part of the globe using real images sourced from Flickr. These images have been shared by users as part of the Project Weather Group.

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Yahoo struggles to properly acknowledge, fix ongoing Yahoo Mail service issues

Yahoo on Wednesday finally fully acknowledged on Twitter and on the service’s personal blog that its Yahoo Mail service is experiencing issues which some of its customers had to face for more than two weeks, ZDNet reports. According to the company, an unknown number of users were not able to send and receive emails since November 25. Similar problems for other Yahoo Mail customers started on Monday, although the company only briefly mentioned these issues via Twitter a day later. “We know some of our users are unable to use Yahoo Mail,” the Yahoo Mail team wrote on December 10. “We’re on it and trying to restore access in a few hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

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Samsung partners with Yahoo for providing free news and weather information to Smart TV users

Samsung Smart TV users will now be able to access content like news and local weather information powered by Yahoo. The two companies have inked a content-based partnership which will allow Samsung Smart TV users to watch latest Yahoo news stories, videos as well as weather related information through the NewsOn panel featured on their TVs. The feature has been rolled out in select markets, including India.

The NewsOn panel’s homescreen comes with a collage of photos, headlines, and a snapshot of current weather conditions by Yahoo. User can click on their choice of stories to see the summary or full article, or stream news video. The photos on the weather information will be taken from Flickr.

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Yahoo acquires California-based LookFlow to boost photo discovery on Flickr

Marissa Mayer continues to eye smaller companies in order to help improve Yahoo’s tools and services. The latest company to have come under her radar is LookFlow; a California-based startup that offers an innovative way to explore images on the Internet. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

LookFlow, was founded in 2009 and according to the description on its homepage, the company describes itself as, “an entirely new way to explore images you love.” The team will be incorporated into Yahoo’s Flickr team and they are likely to work towards improving discovery of images on the platform.

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Yahoo acquires Rockmelt

Marissa Mayer’s shopping spree continues as Yahoo today announced it has acquired web browser company Rockmelt. While the terms of the deal weren’t made public, Rockmelt seems to be a good fit in Yahoo’s attempt to be a mobile first company under Mayer. Rockmelt was started in 2009 with an aim to improve web browsing and launched a desktop browser in 2010. It followed it up with an iOS app that let users browse the Internet without having to enter a URL. The company had raised $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and industry legends Bill Campbell, Ron Conway and Diane Greene. Rockmelt says that the apps and web browser will be shut on August 31 and users can export their data before that.

“The parallels between Yahoo! and Rockmelt are obvious: we share a common goal to help people discover the best personalized content from around the web. We can’t wait to integrate the Rockmelt technology into our platform as we work to deliver the best experiences to our users in new and exciting ways,” Yahoo’s Mike Kerns and Adam Cahan said in a statement.

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Yahoo acquires e-commerce platform Lexity

Yahoo has acquired e-commerce start-up Lexity, which calls itself the one-stop-shop of e-commerce. For those who don’t know, Lexity comes with its own App Store and has marketing apps that aim to help online merchants drive sales. It has customers in over 114 countries. According to the announcement, all of its products, services, and initiatives will keep running on its platform, expect for the rebranding of the company.

Under the charge of Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has been snapping multiple new start-ups. It has a renewed focus on building new products, and the purchase of Lexity further intensifies that notion. Previously, Yahoo purchased blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion.

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Yahoo to focus on developing mobile Internet apps

With Internet users on mobile phones increasing rapidly in India, Yahoo is focusing on developing applications for this growing market, a senior company official said on Saturday. Yahoo, which has its presence in almost all categories of Internet users’ daily habits, plans to move its personalized experiences to mobile, said Hari Vasudeva, Head of R&D at Yahoo India.

Yahoo was making talent-based acquisitions with lot of it focused on growing mobile talent within the organization to develop very personalized experiences for users that will inspire and delight them in their daily habits, he told reporters on the sidelines of the sixth edition of the Yahoo Hack India event.

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Yahoo acquires email and contact management service Xobni

Yahoo’s acquisition juggernaut continues to push forward without any signs of slowing down. After acquiring two startups— Bignoggins and Qwiki— in as many days, the Sunnyvale-based company announced that it has now acquired Xobni, an email and address book management service.

For those who aren’t familiar, Xobni launched in 2007 and is a service that integrates with your email accounts to update the contact list using data from social networking sites.

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Yahoo acquires popular fantasy sports app maker Bignoggins

Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer carries on with her acquisition spree and has now acquired popular fantasy-sports app maker, Bignoggins. Details on the deal are scarce at best, with the only thing known at the moment is that app founder Jerry Shen will immediately join Yahoo’s own Fantasy app team.

“After many years as a free agent, I’d like to officially announce that Yahoo has picked me up off waivers,” Shen said in a blog post. “I’m excited to join a team of all-stars to take fantasy sports to the next level. I’ve been playing Yahoo Fantasy since high school and have wanted to work here since college, so this is really a dream come true for me.”

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Yahoo News gets a face-lift to become 'more personal'

Yahoo News on Thursday became the company's latest site to get a facelift.

The Internet company added new features that it believes will deliver a "more personal, intuitive and modern design." That includes a news stream that's customizable to a user's interests and a redesigned iOS app. A new Android design will be hitting devices soon, Yahoo said.

"This new design is one step towards creating a more consistent feel across Yahoo," Mike Kerns, Yahoo vice president of product, said in a blog post.

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