Apple to Release iPhone OS 4.0 on Thursday

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
3

Cupertino,
Calif. – Apple (NASD: AAPL) on Monday invited
the press to an event on Thursday at which it will introduce the latest update
to the operating system for its iPhone, iPhone OS 4.0.

Apple Insider speculates
that the update will bring the ability to multitask with applications, allowing
more than one app to run in the background at the same time.

The report further
speculates that the user interface for multitasking will be similar to Apple’s
Expose feature for the Mac OS.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v9zcm
(Apple Insider)

Reed Business Sells Publishers Weekly to Former Publisher

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles
– Trade magazine publisher Reed Business Information on Monday announced that
it has sold its Publishers Weekly title to PWxyz, a company created by George
W. Slowik Jr., a former publisher of the title.

Financial terms of the transaction
were not disclosed.

Slowik, who was publisher of the trade during the late
1980s and early 1990s, said PWxyz plans to retain all of the editorial, art and
advertising staff at Publishers Weekly.

Reed Elsevier has been steadily selling
off titles since it tried unsuccessfully to unload all of its Reed Business
Information unit last year.

While retaining Variety, the company has in recent
months sold titles including Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, TWICE
and Library Journal.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/va0i0
(Publishers Weekly)

http://www.reedbusinessinformation.com

Digg

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Digg Co-founder Jay Adelson Steps Down as CEO

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Jay Adelson, the co-founder and CEO of news aggregation site Digg, has
stepped down after five years in the position. "With the new Digg getting
ready to launch, Digg Ads doing well, our sales force growing, our hiring
ramping, and the company maturing well beyond its startup phase, I feel that
now is the right time," Adelson wrote on the company’s blog.

"The
entrepreneurial calling is strong, and I am ready to incubate some new business
ideas over the next twelve months."

Digg co-founder Kevin Rose will become
chairman and acting CEO of the company.

"While I’ll miss working with Jay
day-to-day I am excited to be taking on the role of chairman and acting CEO,
driving Digg forward on our promise to enable social curation of the world’s
content and the conversation around it," Rose wrote on the Digg blog.

"We’ve
been super busy on the product side getting ready for the upcoming Digg
redesign and delivering our mobile apps for the iPhone and Android."

 

Related Links:
http://about.digg.com/blog

http://snipurl.com/v9zmr
(TechCrunch)

Google to Ask Buzz Early Adopters to Reconfirm Privacy Settings

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Mountain View,
Calif. – After widespread
criticism and a privacy complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, Google (NASD: GOOG) today
is adding a new confirmation screen for early adopters of its Buzz social
networking service, asking them to re-confirm their privacy settings, according
to reports.

Buzz early adopters will be asked to confirm what data appears on
their public Google profile pages, such as which contacts they are following,
and which third-party services are connected.

The company also created a
dedicated channel on YouTube that features video tutorials on using Buzz.

"Shortly
after launching Google Buzz, we quickly realized we didn’t get everything right
and moved as fast as possible to improve the Buzz experience," writes Buzz
product manager Todd Jackson.

"But many of you started using Google Buzz
before we made these changes, and we want to help you ensure that Buzz is set
up the way you want."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v9zfd
(Wired.com)

http://gigaom.com/2010/04/05/google-buzz-are-you-sure-you-want-to-do-that/

http://www.youtube.com/googlebuzz

iPad Day One: 300K Sold; 1M App, 250K E-book Downloads

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Cupertino, Calif.
– Apple (NASD:  AAPL) announced on Monday that it sold over 300,000 iPads in the U.S. on the
device’s first day of availability, while iPad users downloaded over 1 million
apps and 250,000 e-books. The sales figure includes deliveries of pre-ordered
iPads to customers, deliveries to channel partners like Best Buy, and sales at
Apple retail stores.

"It feels great to have the iPad launched into the
world — it’s going to be a game changer," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

"iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one
book within hours of unpacking their new iPad."

 

Related Links:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/05ipad.html

India's Reliance Buys 50% Stake in Game Studio Codemasters

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Mumbai, India – India’s Reliance Big Entertainment
announced on Monday that it has acquired a 50% stake in U.K.-based game
developer Codemasters.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed; the
company’s other major shareholder remains Balderton Capital.

Reliance’s Zapak
Digital Entertainment unit will oversee the investment in Codemasters; the firm
owns the largest chain of dedicated gaming cafes in India, and is the biggest publisher
of multiplayer online games in the country.

Codemasters, which saw revenues of
$150 million last year, has developed titles including the cricket game
"The Ashes," and racing titles "Formula 1" and "Race
Driver Grid."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v9ych

http://www.relianceada.com

http://www.zapak.com

http://www.codemasters.com

Facebook Acquires Group Photo-sharing Service Divvyshot

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook has acquired Divvyshot, the provider of a group
photo-sharing service, according to an announcement on the Divvyshot website.

Financial terms of the transaction were not provided.

Founded in January 2009,
Divvyshot was part of the winter 2009 Y-Combinator program, receiving $10,000
in seed funding.

The company said its staff will join the Facebook engineering
team and focus on Facebook Photos.

The current Divvyshot service has begun
winding down, and is no longer accepting new accounts or offering downloads of
its iPhone application.

Within six weeks, the company said that all visitors
will be redirected to Facebook.com.

 

Related Links:
http://divvyshot.com/facebook

Google Acquires Video Publishing Platform Episodic

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Episodic, the provider of an online video publishing platform, announced that
it has been acquired by Google (NASD: GOOG).

Financial details of the deal were not
disclosed.

Launched in 2009, San Francisco-based Episodic offers a platform for
broadcasting live and on-demand video to the Web or any Web-enabled device.

Company founders Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich wrote in a blog post that
"the Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great
video experience to the Web, mobile phones and IPTV devices."

 

Related Links:
http://www.episodic.com/episodic-joins-google/

Online Game Developer Tiny Speck Lands $5 Million

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Tiny Speck, an online game development studio founded by Flickr co-founder
Stewart Butterfield, has raised $5 million in its first round of funding,
GigaOM reported.

Accel Partners led the investment round; Andreessen
Horowitz also participated.

San Francisco-based Speck’s first title is
"Glitch," a browser-based, massively multiplayer game, which is
expected to launch in beta in December.

The company will use the new funds to
expand its operations in San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada.

 

Related Links:
http://gigaom.com/2010/04/01/glitch-5-million-vc-funding/

http://tinyspeck.com

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