Tech news from around the web:
Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the co-founders of social network Diaspora, has died at the age of 22, TechCrunch reports. Started by four students at New York University, Diaspora is an open-source social network and was set up as an alternative to companies such as Facebook. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Facebook is close to a settlement with the US government over how it uses its members’ personal information, The Wall Street Journal reports. The settlement would require the social network to obtain users’ permission before sharing data in a way that is different from how they originally agreed the data could be used, people close to the negotiations told the WSJ. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Research In Motion has run into a problem over its BBX operating system – the blending of its QNX and existing BlackBerry software, PaidContent reports. Basis International, which makes software-development tools, has sent a cease and desist letter and a threat of further legal action to RIM on the basis that the new operating system’s name is too similar to Basis’s flagship product, BBx. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Magazine publishers are already claiming Apple’s Newsstand service, which was launched with iOS5 last week, is boosting sales and orders, PaidContent says. Exact Editions reports that downloads of its sample editions have jumped by 14 times in the past few days, while Future Publishing says that it has ‘sold more digital editions in the past four days through Apple’s Newsstand than in a normal month’. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Twitter is now worth ‘an even $8bn’, chief executive Dick Costolo told the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, Business Insider reports. The company recently raised $800m across a two-part round of funding.
Reliance Industries is looking to start rolling out 4G services in India as early as the beginning of next year and reach countrywide deployment by mid-2012, India’s Economic Times says. The company has also started talks with media and entertainment companies to acquire content for its wireless broadband offerings. Read more
Ebay plans PayPal partnership in China
Ebay chief executive John Donahoe said the Chinese government won’t let foreign-owned internet companies win in that country, but added PayPal will nonetheless bend to fit new rules and stay in the market. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Apple is in talks with several Hollywood movie studios about a plan to let consumers buy movies and stream them to the company’s devices such as the iPad and iPhone, according to Bloomberg. Apple is looking to make the films available via its iCloud service, two people close to the negotiations told Bloomberg. Read more
Facebook and eBay have joined forces to integrate social networking features into online shopping applications, as both companies attempt to breathe life into the flagging field of social commerce.
While several companies have experimented with setting up storefronts on Facebook to sell directly to consumers while they network with friends, actual purchase rates indicate that people are not interested in buying when they’re socializing online. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Sony has revealed that a third party had this month tried to sign into 93,000 accounts on its PlayStation and other networks, Reuters reports. The company said it had frozen the accounts and informed the affected customers, adding that it believed only a few of the accounts were actually accessed.
Traffic to Google+, the online search company’s social network, has fallen since the massive peak in interest seen when it was opened to everyone late last month, according to Mashable. Quoting research from analysts Chitika, Mashable says traffic to the site has fallen 60% since its public launch. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Social shopping group Groupon is poised to roll out a new product called Groupon Rewards that aims to give participating retailers a way to increase customer loyalty, according to TechCrunch. Under the scheme, a business offering a regular Groupon deal will be able to follow up with another reward that gets unlocked after the customer spends a certain amount of money. The scheme will be open to retailers this week with consumers starting to see the rewards in October.
With speculation mounting over the imminent launch of the iPhone5 on October 4, TUAW looks at the fate of two of Apple’s older products, the iPod Classic and Shuffle, warning that the models face the axe later on this year. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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