Snapchat on Monday announced raising a whopping $60 million in a second round of venture financing led by IVP and including General Catalyst, Benchmark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and SV Angel. The financing for the startup behind the wildly popular photo-messaging app follows a $13.5 million initial funding in February. With the new investment, Snapchat has a valuation of $800 million, according to reports. The company said in a blog post today that users are now sending up to 200 million “snaps” per day. Unlike other photo apps, Snapchat images are only meant to last for up to 10 …

Combined shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones worldwide will rise 5.9% this year to 2.35 billion units, according to a new Gartner forecast. While mobile devices will drive that growth, shipments of desktop and laptop computers are expected to fall 10.6%. And what Gartner calls “ultramobile” PCs, including Chromebooks, hybrid devices running Windows 8, and devices with light clamshell designs, will drop 7.3%.   By contrast, tablet shipments are projected to surge 67.9% in 2013 to 202 million, while the mobile phone market will increase 4.3% to more than 1.8 billion units. Read more

Instagram has vaulted up the App Store ranking of free iPhone apps since launching a video-recording feature last Thursday, jumping from No. 22 to No. 8 as of Monday morning. At the same time, Twitter’s Vine has slipped from No. 3 to No. 7 among free apps, leaving the rival apps nearly neck-and-neck in the race for downloads.  Sunday was the first day since March 27 that Vine didn’t appear in the top 5 list of U.S. iPhone apps, according to tech blog BGR. Instagram said on Friday that 5 million videos were uploaded …

Chevrolet's total redesign of the Impala is "Made to Love." The name refers to John Legend's new single. The song by the nine-time Grammy winner is featured in Impala's new marketing campaign that debuts on Game 7 of the NBA Finals on ABC tonight.

Yahoo on Thursday said it has completed its $1.1 billion of acquisition of blogging site Tumblr after initially announcing the deal a month ago. Through the purchase, Yahoo hopes to better compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter in social media and appeal to a younger set of users more focused on newer Web and mobile properties. In its release today, the Web portal reiterated that Tumblr will be operated independently under founder and CEO David Karp, and that the company’s service and brand will remain separate from Yahoo. Yahoo’s “support and belief in …

Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform has gotten a little more sizzle with the addition of Vevo. Available in the Windows Store starting today, the Vevo app offers access to more than 75,000 high-definition videos as well as Vevo TV, its broadcast-style music channel. Users can search for favorite artists and songs by name for related videos or find new artists by browsing through different filtering options. Search results also provide information on upcoming tour dates for bands and artists along with full bios. Through the Snap feature in Windows 8 and RT-powered devices, Vevo users can also …

In connection with reporting second-quarter results on Tuesday, Adobe said it has delivered 100 million digital downloads of magazines, newspapers, corporate publications and apps created with its Digital Publishing Suite (DPS). Magazine publishers using the system for digital editions include Fast Company, Hearst Corporation, National Geographic, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and Time Inc. Data Adobe released in April indicated about 80% of magazine downloads are being paid for in some capacity, either as part of a bundled print subscription, standalone digital sign-ups or single-issue purchases. About 22% of tablet owners read magazines on their devices …

Google-owned Motorola has appointed Publicis Groupe's Digitas to handle global media duties, according to sources. Those duties, which were shifted without a formal review had previously been handled by WPP's Mindshare. The latter agency had handled the account for the past eight years. The company spent an estimated $550 million on ads worldwide in 2011, according sources. Last year's figures weren't immediately available, but sources indicated that the company had cut back somewhat on spending outside of the U.S. The shift comes months after the arrival of Brian Wallace as vice president, global brand and product marketing at Motorola, a …

Tracey Weber, North America head of Internet and mobile banking at Citi, is leaving the banking giant at the end of June to pursue new opportunities. During her nearly three years at the company, Weber oversaw development of the Citibank for iPad app, the overhaul of Citibank Online experience, and new mobile offerings such as PopMoney and mobile check deposit. In June 2012, she was awarded “Mobile Banker of the Year” by Bank Technology News.

As part of its recent effort to simplify its ad offerings, Facebook on Monday announced updates for its Page post link ad format aimed at driving off-site traffic and conversions. The improvements include offering marketers the ability to customize images used in the ads rather than automatically grabbing a thumbnail image taken from a Web site. Facebook wants to provide further flexibility by allowing brands to create unpublished Page post link ads within its ad creation tool, instead of having to select an existing post to promote. Unpublished page posts ads let marketers tailor messages to specific audiences …