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Tech news from around the web:

Malware targeted towards phones running on the Android operating system continues to be on the rise, TechCrunch reports. According to McAfee’s security report for the third quarter, the amount of malware targeted at Android devices jumped nearly 37 per cent since last quarter. This follows a 76 percent rise in Android malware in the second quarter.

Tech news from around the web:

Amazon has increased the order numbers for its Kindle Fire tablet computer from manufacturers to 5m units by the end of the year, according to TechCrunch. The tablet is available in the US from next Tuesday.

Richard Waters

Yahoo just moved another step forward in its bid to control the end-game that has been taking shape around its future.

Silver Lake has agreed to enter into confidential discussions with the US internet company, making it the latest private equity firm to go this route – and potentially robbing Alibaba and Softbank of an ally as they consider making a play for Yahoo themselves. But it’s still far too early to call it “game over”.

Tech news from around the web:

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson has made a ‘multimillion-dollar’ investment in mobile payment start-up company Square, a spokesperson for the company has told Reuters. The move  follows a $100m investment led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and an injection by credit card company Visa.

Adobe Systems is said to be scrapping its move to bring its Flash Player software to smartphones and tablets, CNET reports. The Flash browser plug-in is widely used on personal computers but has so far only reached a fraction of the mobile phone market. 

Tim Bradshaw

When two key partners at Index Ventures, Danny Rimer and Mike Volpi, moved from London to open the tech investor’s first Silicon Valley office, many European entrepreneurs saw it as a loss for the region.

But as it raises a huge new €500m ($700m) late-stage fund, Index insists that it’s just as focused on Europe – and London – as it’s ever been.

Tech news from around the web:

Downloads of Android’s apps overtook those of Apple’s iOS apps in the second quarter of 2001, Business Insider reports. According to figures from ABI Research, the market shares of Android and iOS were 44% and 31% respectively. However, Apple still gets more downloads per user than Android.

Richard Waters

It seems that August’s stock market mayhem has done little to deflate the latest internet bubble – at least, when it comes to private companies with strong growth prospects and some traction in their business models. The latest case in point: Workday.

Chris Nuttall

Zynga has updated its IPO filing with a breakdown of the sales contributions from its most popular games – FarmVille, FrontierVille, CityVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker – as it faces questions on whether its games cannibalise one another and on how it will maintain its record of success.

The leading social gaming company also announced it would list on the Nasdaq rather than the New York Stock Exchange, with a ticker symbol of ZNGA, although the timing is still unknown.

Chris Nuttall

In this fevered climate of big funding rounds and IPO plans for the hottest tech startups, allegations of founder greed have been flying around.

Airbnb’s founders, who recently suffered a PR disaster when thieves vandalised the apartment of a user of their holiday letting service, this weekend found themselves under fire from bloggers again – this time over their latest funding round.

After dedicating the last couple years to building a secondary market system where employees at private companies like Facebook and Twitter can sell shares, New York-based SecondMarket put itself up for trade on its own exchange.

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Richard Waters, Chris Nuttall and April Dembosky in the FT's San Francisco bureau share their views - plus tech insights from Tim Bradshaw and Maija Palmer in London and Robin Kwong in Taipei.

The blog includes a separate section on personal technology.

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Contact the FT Tech Hub team: richard.waters@ft.com, chris.nuttall@ft.com, april.dembosky@ft.com, maija.palmer@ft.com, robin.kwong@ft.com and tim.bradshaw@ft.com.

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