Will Yahoo ruin Tumblr?

I really hope not.

About three minutes before I started writing this, lumbering monolith Yahoo announced that it had bought beloved social blogging platform Tumblr for US$1.1 billion in cash. Aware of their current reputation, they subtitled their announcement "promises not to screw it up". Much like Facebook with Instagram, Yahoo (I refuse to use that!) have promised to keep Tumblr as a separate entity run by founder/CEO David Karp.

(Image credit: Buzzfeed.)

Google Now is the future

Generally, when we interact with our various devices, we are actively pursuing some sort of information.

We open a news app to see the what Aaron Gilmore is up to or we ask Siri whether it is raining. Push notifications (texts, tweets, etc - the things that make your phone beep) changed this somewhat - directly interrupting us to tell us that someone was trying to talk to us in some way, or alert us about something that we have told the device we want to be alerted about. Still, push notifications are inescapably human - they are generally another human trying to talk to us or something we told the device to remind us about. The device is still doing something we asked it to do, whether telling us about new emails or waking us in the morning.

Now, usually when people talk about Google and "the future", they are about to embed this video and wax poetic about wearable computing. Google Glass is really interesting, but it's a new form factor that won't be widespread for a while yet - and Google Now will be a huge part of it when it is.

Google Now isn't even its own app yet, but it's already amazing. It bills itself as "the right information, at just the right time". If you are on Android (4.1+) or iOS, you can find it in the standard Google Search app, just below the famed search field. Google Now attempts to make that little box a lot less relevant.

TGIF: Cat and tie edition

Hi!

- Next level animal remixing. One of the two cute animal videos this week, with

- This puppy taking a bath being the other. I love my job.

- While we are on animals, bunny shaming is apparently a thing.

- Okay, okay, okay so the angry sorority girl email can still be made funny in new ways.

Kickstarter and fan-entitlement

Zach Braff, of Scrubs/Garden State fame, recently launched a Kickstarter to fund his new film. Yup, just like Veronica Mars. He's set the goal at $2 million, and, given his net worth is probably around $23 million, a lot of people are pretty mad.

Kickstarter — in case you've been living under a rock without 3G — is a crowdfunding website where donors the world over can "pledge" various amounts of money toward a cause, often gaining some sort of mention or merchandise in return. If the project doesn't reach its stated goal the money pledged is never actually paid, so you don't have to worry that your money will go to waste if others don't chip in too.

Braff, just like the Veronica Mars' creators before him, seems much happier delving into fan-financing than regular financing. Regular film-financing gives control over casting and final cuts to the funders, not the directors, argues Braff, and he would prefer for his vision to be more directly realised. So why are people so mad?

TGIF: Peasants edition

- What happens when you invent bands then ask Coachella attendees about them? What you would expect, really?

- Sofia Coppola/Emma Watson's new film about a celebrity crime spree looks pretty fun, despite the increasingly cliche first-album Sleigh Bells in the trailer.  In other trailer news, Thor.

- GUYS A CLIP FROM THE NEW ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT GUYS.

- That insane email from last week got a dramatic reading, of course.

- New Zealand's own The Civilian is going from strength to strength lately. Not far off this kind of brilliance.