The end is nigh for IE, Ebay goes high society, a man watches his wife give birth via VR. You know, a typical Tuesday. Welcome to BitStream, all the news and rumours you missed in the last 24 hours.
The death rattle of Internet Explorer has been a long drawn-out one, but as soon as Microsoft started live demoing its latest browser invention, codenamed Spartan, we all knew this day was coming. During the Microsoft Convergence conference yesterday, MS confirmed (which until this point it was only mentioned about on Reddit) that the company will retire the “Internet Explorer” name once Spartan launches and that internal testing for what the name will be is currently ongoing. Tom Warren at The Verge reports that IE may stick around for enterprise compatibility issues, but Spartan will be Microsoft’s one true portal to the internet. So it looks like IE lived just shy of 20 years — not too bad for the ever-changing world of tech. [The Verge]
eBay is going fancy by partnering with Sotheby’s for high-end auctions. [Reuters]
Apps and Devices
SlingTV is reimagining what TV can be, and it just got another powerful partner — the Xbox One.
Facebook tries to clarify its community standards after a string of controversies. Still don’t explain how they plan to enforce these standards. [TNW]
Sony’s finally joined the Lollipop party, pushing out new updates to the Z3 and Z3 Compact. [Sony]
Adobe Document Cloud wants to destroy your need for paper once and for all. [Engadget]
Cyanogen raised $US110 million for the fight against Google, but Microsoft decided not to chip in despite talks. [Bloomberg]
YouTube is a place where you can make a video and become famous. Even though it’s probably more likely to be struck by lightning twice in one day, YouTube for Artists hopes to makes the process easier for musicians. [YouTube]
Rumours!
For a long time, Apple has given trade-in credit for people ditching old iPhones for Cupertino’s latest. Now the company may extend the courtesy to Android users. [9to5Mac]
Xiaomi is reportedly making smart shoes. They better have power laces or GTFO. [Business Insider]
This could be the first render of Sony’s upcoming Z4. Yes, it looks just like the z3. No, we don’t know why. [GSM Arena]
Samsung let a father witness the birth of his son via virtual reality because…I don’t know… the future?
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