Tim Bradshaw Apple to compensate millions of parents whose kids splurged on apps

February 26, 2013 2:24 am by Tim Bradshaw

As a now-famous YouTube clip from 2010 shows, kids as young as 2 can operate an iPad, quickly learning how to open apps and play games. Unfortunately, some parents who used their iPad or iPhone as a babysitter ended up with a steep bill when their kids spent hundreds of dollars on virtual items in “free” games.

Five disgruntled parents blamed Apple for failing to provide appropriate controls around in-app purchases, and together filed a class-action lawsuit against the iPhone maker in 2011.

After fighting the case for two years, Apple agreed to settle last week, according to court filings first spotted by GigaOm. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Mobile |

Tim Bradshaw Samsung teases Galaxy S4 launch event in March

February 25, 2013 7:12 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy smartphone looks set to be unveiled on March 14, according to the company’s postings on Twitter and Facebook, as the Korean giant prepares its latest volley against Apple’s iPhone.

A flyer for the launch event, held in New York and livestreamed on YouTube, invites fans to “come and meet the next Galaxy”, expected to be the S4. The device will be the follow-up to its best-selling Galaxy S3 and is rumoured to include a larger, 5-inch display with full-HD, 1080p resolution. Read more

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Posted in Hardware, Mobile, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Wooga pilots a new episode of profit

February 22, 2013 12:35 am by Tim Bradshaw

Wooga, the social games developer behind Diamond Dash and Monster World, said it was profitable last year, but indicated that it had no immediate plans to follow rival Zynga onto the public markets.

“We were profitable for the year 2012,” said Jens Begemann, Wooga’s founder and chief executive at a press briefing in San Francisco where he also unveiled four new games. Read more

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Posted in Europe, Games, Mobile, Social |

Tim Bradshaw Mayer refocuses on Yahoo apps

February 13, 2013 12:57 am by Tim Bradshaw

Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer said that she wanted to do more with less on mobile apps and that she wanted to expand the web portal’s presence abroad, in her first appearance at an investor event since becoming chief executive. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Mobile, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw The countdown to an Apple iWatch

February 10, 2013 11:24 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Two reports on Sunday lent credence to the idea that Apple’s next big innovation might be a smart watch.

The idea isn’t new, but the rumour mill is gaining momentum, at a time when some Apple investors are becoming impatient for its next blockbuster product. Read more

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Posted in Hardware, Mobile, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Twitter buys social-TV specialist Bluefin to harness the roar of the crowd

February 6, 2013 2:26 am by Tim Bradshaw

Twitter has made one of its largest acquisitions to date with Bluefin Labs, to help its advertisers better understand the link between traditional and social media. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Social, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Super Bowl blackout is Twitter’s gain

February 4, 2013 3:17 am by Tim Bradshaw

The Super Bowl’s power outage was embarrassing for the NFL and CBS – but golden for Twitter.

When the lights went out in the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, the Super Bowl broadcast didn’t show any extra ads. But the TV audience wasn’t watching the big screen anyway. If my Super Bowl viewing party in San Francisco is anything to go by (and, for once, fewer than half of the people here in attendance work in tech), a lot of people were looking at their smartphones, checking Twitter.

And amid the usual (t)witticisms you would expect in this sort of situation, many brands were quick to take advantage. If nothing else, it shows that not all of adland’s creativity goes into TV ads these days. Read more

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Posted in Social |

Tim Bradshaw will.i.am wants to bring hardware manufacturing to the ghetto

February 1, 2013 2:01 am by Tim Bradshaw

The spike in tech investment by celebrities over recent years has been seen by some as another sign that Silicon Valley’s hype is getting ahead of reality. But Ashton Kutcher, soon to appear on screen as Steve Jobs, has made some canny investments, including Skype and Airbnb, while even Justin Bieber got a payday when Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo bought Stamped, a mobile startup he helped finance.

So while it may be easy to mock will.i.am – Black Eyed Peas star, hip hop producer, reality TV show judge and sometime Olympic torchbearer – and his new ₤300 iPhone case, don’t write him off too quickly. Read more

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Posted in Consumer Electronics, Hardware, Mobile, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Twitter flies to $9bn despite Facebook’s fall

January 25, 2013 10:34 pm by Tim Bradshaw

It’s been a torrid 12 months on the public markets for consumer internet stocks, with Facebook, Groupon and Zynga all seeing their valuations collapse after going public.

Yet during that period, privately held Twitter has managed to increase its valuation: a tender offer to employees by a BlackRock fund prices the social media site at more than $9bn, sources familiar with the situation told the FT. Read more

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Posted in Social, Tech, Tech Finance |

Tim Bradshaw What to look for in Apple’s results

January 23, 2013 6:06 am by Tim Bradshaw

Some analysts are calling Apple’s first-quarter results, coming after the market closes on Wednesday, the iPhone maker’s most important in years.

The company’s stock price has tumbled by a quarter since September’s peak and October’s warning that profit margins would come under pressure from the near-simultaneous launch of the iPhone 5, iPad mini and other upgrades last autumn. Read more

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Posted in Consumer Electronics, Hardware, Mobile, Tech |
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