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EU introducing uniform data protection rules

Data protection may be getting a major overhaul in Europe this week. In a new European Union bill to be published later in the week, businesses in the 27-nation bloc will be required to adhere to stricter data protection regulations aimed at protecting consumers, reducing bureaucracy and giving European companies a competitive advantage in the world. “Personal data is the currency of today’s digital market,” said European Commissioner Viviane Reding at the DLD conference in Munich. “And like any currency, it needs stability and trust. Only if consumers can ‘trust’ that their data is well protected, will they continue to entrust businesses and authorities with it, buy online, and accept new services.” The new legislation would create a pan-European regulation, replacing the existing compilation of 27 national codes, and would include sweeping new rules for businesses and rights for individuals. Ms Reding added: “A company will have to comply with one law for the whole of the EU territory. It will only have to deal with one single data protection authority. “It will be the data protection authority of the member state in which the company has its main establishment.

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RIM co-CEOs resign

Flagging smartphone manufacturer RIM has named Thorsten Heins CEO following a management shake-up that saw co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis step down. Balsillie will remain a member of the board, while Lazaridis will serve as Vice Chair of the board’s Innovation Committee – offering strategic counsel to help promote the BlackBerry brand. “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership,” co-founder Mike Lazaridis said in a statement . “Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now.” Calls for Balsillie and Lazaridis to step down came following a difficult year at RIM – competition from Apple and Android ate into BlackBerry’s market share, and the company reported a slump in profits in its Q3 results. Investor patience also wore thin following a series of PR fails – most notably the BBM crash in October – and the poorly-selling BlackBerry PlayBook did little to impress shareholders following its launch. “Thorsten has demonstrated throughout his tenure at RIM that he has the right mix of leadership, relevant industry experience and skills to take the company forward,” Lazaridis said.

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RIM co-CEOs resign

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BlackBerry profits slump

BlackBerry makers Research In Motion has released its third quarter fiscal numbers, revealing a 6 per cent slump in profits compared with the same period last year. The flagging company reported profits of $265 million (

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WhatsApp sends a billion messages

Popular smartphone messaging service WhatsApp has sent more than a billion messages, the company has announced. “That’s 41,666,667 messages an hour, 694,444 messages a minute and 11,547 messages a second,” WhatsApp said in an official blog post . The popular messaging service lets users send messages to one another for free, working across smartphone platforms as well as internationally. While WhatsApp was by no means the first free messaging service on the market – BlackBerry’s popular messenger BBM has been around for years, and remains a major draw for consumers – WhatsApp gives users the ability to communicate between different devices, something which BBM and the newly launched iMessage can’t do. Brainchild of two ex-Yahoo! employees Jan Koum and Brian Acton, WhatsApp secured a rumoured $8 million (

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Blackberry users endure blackout, slow recovery

A major service disruption is causing frustration for a third day among owners of the BlackBerry smartphone. The problem, which first surfaced on Monday and then reared its head again on Tuesday, left Blackberry users without access to email, internet, and BBM – the messenger service that allows Blackberry users to interact with one another for free. Though Canadian BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) acknowledged the outage quickly, it took 36 hours to further elaborate on what caused the problem. “The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure. “Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested.

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Blogger haven Tumblr takes in $85m investment

Tumblr is the latest social outlet to see a surge in spending cash, as venture capitalists – including Sir Richard Branson – poured $85 million into the start-up. First reported by the New York Times and subsequently confirmed by the company itself, Tumblr found the financing through Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, the Chernin Group, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Sequoia Capital in addition to Branson. “This additional capital allows us to continue to scale our business and give real focus to the further development of Tumblr,” chief executive and founder David Karp said in an email. Tumblr launched just under five years ago as a more social alternative to traditional blogging services. Incorporating features such as simple ‘reblogging’ – similar to retweeting, only on a larger scale – the site has grown to become a powerhouse in the social media sphere. A report published by Nielsen earlier this month confirmed the surge of the social standout, saying it had nearly tripled its number of unique US visitors in just one year – and purely on word of mouth advertising. The New York-based firm also recently eclipsed 10 billion total posts, based on nearly 30 million unique blogs, and all signs lead to an IPO for the company some time in 2012

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Blogger haven Tumblr takes in $85m investment

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Press conference sparks rumours of Amazon tablet

Amazon is rumoured to be announcing a new tablet this week at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday in New York. Speculation about an Amazon tablet has been growing for months, reigniting this week when word broke about Wednesday’s press conference. Analysts speculate the Amazon tablet will be a revamped version of the existing Kindle e-reader. It will be priced cheaper, however, undercutting Apple by selling its tablet for $250, but, similar to the iPad, will operate by touchscreen. Unlike other competitors, Amazon is well positioned to take on Apple’s stronghold on the market because of its online store, which makes books, movies and music available to users at the touch of a button. While the Amazon tablet is expected to be a simpler tablet than the iPad, it could offer consumers the features they want most at a lower price. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps told the New York Times : “The No 1 thing consumers do on tablets is email. The No 2 thing is look up stuff on the web.

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Press conference sparks rumours of Amazon tablet

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Press conference sparks rumours of Amazon tablet

Amazon is rumoured to be announcing a new tablet this week at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday in New York. Speculation about an Amazon tablet has been growing for months, reigniting this week when word broke about Wednesday’s press conference. Analysts speculate the Amazon tablet will be a revamped version of the existing Kindle e-reader. It will be priced cheaper, however, undercutting Apple by selling its tablet for $250, but, similar to the iPad, will operate by touchscreen. Unlike other competitors, Amazon is well positioned to take on Apple’s stronghold on the market because of its online store, which makes books, movies and music available to users at the touch of a button. While the Amazon tablet is expected to be a simpler tablet than the iPad, it could offer consumers the features they want most at a lower price

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Press conference sparks rumours of Amazon tablet

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First UK art show for Instagram

‘My World Shared’ is the UK’s first art exhibition for Instagram photos, organised by Instagrammers London ( @IGersLondon ), a group of iPhone-equipped photography enthusiasts. Instagram has amassed more than seven million users in just under a year of existence and recently announced that over 150 million photos have been shared on its network. The app’s also just released a major update, v2.0, adding real-time filtering and other features. Instagrammers London is a group of photographers who love using the app and its filters to create images of the capital. They regularly organise photo walks and other social events based around the idea of Instagram photography, but decided to take it one step further and put together an exhibition of their work

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First UK art show for Instagram

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Dolby drops patent lawsuit against Blackberry makers

Dolby has withdrawn its lawsuit against BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM), after the two companies reached an agreement on the use of patent protected technologies in the phones and in PlayBook tablets. The lawsuit was launched earlier this year when Dolby decided to sue RIM for use of its audio compression technology without having it licensed first. “Litigation was regrettably our last resort after RIM declined to pay for the use of Dolby’s technology,” said executive VP and general counsel, Andy Sherman, back in June. Dolby audio compression software, which greatly reduces file size, is used in a range of smartphones, tablets and music players, to allow for MP3 and AAC digital playback in such devices. During the ongoing patent infringement case, Dolby took steps to ensure that the Blackberry models and tablets that used their software were not sold in Germany and the United States. But now the suit has been dropped after the feuding companies managed to reach an undisclosed financial agreement, and RIM have sought licensing for the technology through Dolby subsidiary, Via Licensing Corporation

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Dolby drops patent lawsuit against Blackberry makers

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