search-property

Google pays users to give up their privacy

Google will pay you to give up your online privacy. In a new project called Screenwise, Google is offering to pay users up to $25 (

search-property

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock steps down

The changes keep coming at Yahoo , as Chairman Roy Bostock steps down; triggering a board overhaul at the beleaguered internet company. Yahoo Board Chairman Roy Bostock announced on Tuesday that he and three other directors – Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson and Arthur Kern – will not stand for re-election this year to the company’s board of directors. The move comes just one month after Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down from the company to pursue interests outside of Yahoo . At the time, Mr Bostock announced the company was continuing to undergo a strategic review – striking the tinder of takeover rumours. Two private equity firms – Silver Lake and TPG Capital – made tentative offers on the company that shareholders rejected as too low. Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo in 2008; however Mr Bostock reportedly helped Mr Yang reject that offer. Yahoo is now worth $19.75 billion

Read more here:
Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock steps down

search-property

Google introduces Chrome for Android

Google has introduced two of its most successful products to one another – Chrome and Android – releasing its Chrome Browser App for Android users. Available in the Android Market for smartphones fitted with Ice Cream Sandwich, the new Chrome app is ‘focused on speed and simplicity’ and features many of the same features as the desktop version. “Today, we’re introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet,” Chrome and Apps Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai wrote on the Google blog . “Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign in and sync so you can take your personalised web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.” The new mobile Chrome features ‘reimagined tabs’ designed specifically to fit on a mobile browser, and makes use of gesture-based controls to move across tabs.

See original here:
Google introduces Chrome for Android

search-property

Apple pulls iPad and iPhones in Germany

Motorola has dealt a double-whammy to Apple in Germany. Following a December ruling by a German court that Apple failed to license one of Motorola’s wireless intellectual properties and the ruling’s subsequent patent injunction, the Cupertino-based company has now begun to pull older iPad and iPhone models from it German online store. In a separate lawsuit, Motorola also won a permanent injunction against the push email service of Apple’s iCloud and any devices that can access the services in Germany. The sales ban relates to a Motorola-owned patent for a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system.” The separate push email ban would only come into effect if Motorola decides to enforce the judgement, which deals with a patent relating to two-way communications between pagers and other devices. Apple isn’t taking the news sitting down, however, and has vowed to appeal the rulings and to keep its products available elsewhere for its German customers.

Here is the original:
Apple pulls iPad and iPhones in Germany

search-property

Android Market gets a Bouncer

Google has released an automated service for the Android Market to help detect malicious apps when they are uploaded. The new service – code-named Bouncer – “provides automated scanning of Android Market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android Market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process,” VP of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer wrote in a blog post . “Once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analysing it for known malware, spyware and Trojans. “It also looks for behaviours that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analysed apps to detect possible red flags.” Once scanned, if the app has been identified as malicious it will be scanned manually for confirmation.

Read more: 
Android Market gets a Bouncer

search-property

Facebook finally files IPO

It pays to have friends, especially as Facebook finally files its long awaited IPO. Reports have been swirling for months over Facebook’s looming IPO and it’s finally happened. The company filed initial public offering papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday evening. In the filing, Facebook, which has more than 845 million users across the globe, indicated it was seeking to raise $5 billion – making it the biggest IPO by a web company since Google in 2004 and could place the company’s value as high as $75 billion (

search-property

Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic

Pinterest is the fastest growing referral site on the net, eclipsing the likes of YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, according to new stats released by Shareaholic. “According to our findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, Linkedin and YouTube combined,” head of marketing Janet Aronica wrote on the Shareaholic blog . The virtual pinboard lets users gather and organise things they find on the web, sharing them with other users on the site. Users can add photos to their own pinboards, as well as browse other users and discover new things based on interests including clothing, food and interior design. “Pinterest grew from 2.5 per cent of referral traffic in December to 3.6 per cent of the referrals in January. That’s impressive growth from just owning 0.17 per cent of the traffic back in July,” Aronica said. In just six months, the invite-only site has jumped ahead of Google+, MySpace, Reddit YouTube and LinkedIn – coming up against traffic driving titans like Facebook and StumbleUpon

Read the rest here:
Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic

search-property

Major tech companies join forces to stop phishing

Some of the biggest tech enemies have set aside their differences in the name of stopping phishing. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and eleven other email providers, social media properties, email security companies and financial institutions have announced a broad new alliance to combat email phishing known as Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance – or, DMARC for short. The goal of DMARC is to create new email standards to help stop spammers from tricking email and web-users into providing sensitive information, like credit card numbers and bank account details. To date, phishing has been relatively easy to do. Spammers simply simulate data in an email so that it looks like it came from a legitimate sender. Most phishing messages are caught by users’ spam folders, but many people still open emails that look real – leaving their personal and financial information vulnerable to theft. “One of the worst experiences for a user is being phished,” Adam Dawes, a Google product manager and DMARC representative said

Here is the original: 
Major tech companies join forces to stop phishing

search-property

Nokia profits take a big hit

Having once dominated the global cell phone market, Nokia Corp on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter net loss of €1.07 billion (

search-property

Google launches Public Alerts

Maps just got smarter, as Mountain View announced the launch of Google Public Alerts. Google Maps users will now be able to see relevant ‘Public Alerts’ when using the popular tool, getting warning of weather, public safety and earthquake alerts. “Today marks the launch of a new Google Crisis Response project: Google Public Alerts, a platform designed to bring you relevant emergency alerts when and where you’re searching for them,” Public alerts engineer Steve Hakusa wrote on the Google blog . The tool is designed to alert users to things that might be happening in their area – tornado warnings, for example – and provide information about where and when the disaster might occur, as well as how severe the storm is expected to be and where resources can be found to help. “The Google Crisis Response team works on providing critical emergency information during crises. Our goal is to surface emergency information through the online tools you use everyday, when that information is relevant and useful,” Hakusa said. Users can search directly on Google maps for specific warnings in their area, or alternatively, can go directly to the Public Alerts Page, where users can find a list of current emergency warnings from around the world. Warnings are displayed as hotspots which users can hover over or click to view more information. “We’re learning as we go and we’re working hard to continuously improve the range and relevance of the content you see,” Hakusa said of the newly-launched service

The rest is here:
Google launches Public Alerts

Next Page »