The biggest tech stories of 2012

Vine cofounder Dom Hoffman is teasing some new features on the eve of Instagram’s purported video launch. Details are slim, but it looks like the new Vine will have video effects like fish-eye lens and possibly text on screen and even messaging, not unlike Snapchat. [Source: AllThingsD]

It’s called “Emma” and it’s based on the Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus,” (“Give me your tired, your poor…”) [Source: FWDus via Ad Age]

An unsettling, misogynistic dating book written by a popular Redditor (which among other things encourages lonely men to “grab her hand and put it right on your dick”) has raised over $16,000 on Kickstarter. But while Kickstarter calls the book “abhorrent” it’s refused to remove it from its site. [Source: Betabeat]

Data stored on Leaseweb’s servers, which housed “petabytes” of photos, music, files, and other documents for Megaupload, has been deleted in a “data massacre,” according to Kim Dotcom. Dotcom’s lawyers are said to have asked Leaseweb not to delete any Megaupload data while the company faced legal action in the US.

[Source: RT]

Stratasys, a 3-D-printing company, has acquired MakerBot, another 3-D-printing company, for $403 million in stock and $201 million in performance-based earn-outs, AllThingsD reports. The news comes after the unveiling of MakerBot’s new factory in Brooklyn.

[Source: AllThingsD]

Photo editor on Android, Aviary, has released the latest version of its app. New features include a better “enhance” tool as well as added filters. [Source: CNET]

TechCrunch is reporting that Wired editor Michael Copeland will be leading Andreessen Horowitz’s ‘content strategy.’ Copeland has covered the VC world for a variety of outlets, including Wired, Fortune, and Business 2.0. [Source: TechCrunch]

Despite reports claiming Apple’s upcoming iPad mini 2 housing a retina display, one analyst believes they won’t be ready for the upcoming shipment. According to an analyst from NPD DisplaySearch, the retina displays will ship sometime in 2014, whereas the latest upcoming batch will contain the iPad’s current display. [Source: BGR]

Today Facebook unrolled a new feature for its commenting system. Now users are able to comment with more than just words, being able to attach photos as comments. [Source: CNET]

Gnip, a startup that resells social data from the likes of Twitter and other social giants, has announced a shuffling of the executive ranks. Now, it’s former COO and president will be CEO. [Source: AllThingsD]

Facebook has redesigned its Page Insights, the tool that lets Pages user monitor their performance. This is the its first update to since October 2011. [Source: TechCrunch]

Despite some controversy with its transition to the Cloud, Adobe’s CEO says its Creative Cloud Suite is actually doing quite well. According to the company, it has 700,000 subscribers, up from 479,000 in the first quarter of 2013, which exceeded the company’s original expectations. [Source: GeekWire]

Viacom has joined Twitter’s Amplify program, a partnership for media companies to better implement second screen experiences. The first Viacom-Amplify will be the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on August 25. [Source: VentureBeat]

Dan Bricklin, the co-creator of VisiCalc and “father of the electronic spreadsheet,” has been hired as the CTO for Alpha Software. In addition, the company announced the launch of Alpha Anywhere. [Source: AllThingsD]

Videopixie launched today, providing a marketplace for people who have rough video footage and editors. The service works by users uploading their raw footage, and then vie bid for the job by making a quick teaser trailer with the footage. [Source: TechCrunch]

Google today launched a new AdSense scorecard aimed at telling site owners their performance. The scorecard is divided into three categories: revenue optimization, site health and Google+. [Source: TechCrunch]