The creators of the Candy Crush Saga just filed for a secret IPO thought to be valued at more than $5 billion

The creators of the Candy Crush Saga just filed for a secret IPO thought to be valued at more than $5 billion

By Roberto A. Ferdman @robferdman an hour ago

It appears the creators of Candy Crush Saga are ready to cash in on the success of the simple three-of-a-kind matching game. King, the British company behind the Candy Crush Saga as well as a slew of other social games, has submitted paperwork for an initial public offering to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to the Telegraph. The UK-based technology company is expected to trade on the US’s Nasdaq exchange, and garner a value of more than $5 billion. Read more of this post

Why Tech Geeks Adore Sonic.net

Why Tech Geeks Adore Sonic.net

By Brendan Greeley September 26, 2013

Dane Jasper reaches between the seats of his Tesla (TSLA) and pulls out an AT&T (T) mailer offering broadband service for $20 a month. “Turn it over and look at the fine print,” he says. The $20 price is a one-year teaser rate. A $99 installation fee may apply. A $180 early termination fee definitely will. AT&T caps the plan at 250 gigabytes of data per month, and it doesn’t run faster than 0.8 megabits per second, less than one-fourth as fast as the Federal Communications Commission’s definition of broadband. Read more of this post

When Google Brainstorms, Online World Shudders; Google Is Considering Using a ‘Super Cookie’ to Track Browsing Habits

September 26, 2013, 7:23 p.m. ET

When Google Brainstorms, Online World Shudders

Google Is Considering Using a ‘Super Cookie’ to Track Browsing Habits

JOHN BUSSEY

Is Google GOOG +0.11% about to do to online privacy what body scanners did to airline travelers? It might seem that way given the reaction to a bit of news that, intentionally or not, leaked out of Google last week. Google is considering using anonymous identifiers to track consumers’ browsing habits online. This technology could eventually take the place of the controversial “cookies” that marketing outfits now plant on our computers to track where we go on the Web and then pitch us related products. Read more of this post

What’s Behind Apple’s Epic Memory Markup; Apple’s iPhone customers haven’t benefited from the plunge in memory prices over the past four years

What’s Behind Apple’s Epic Memory Markup

By Adam Satariano and Ian King September 26, 2013

While all those new iPhone sales send Apple’s (AAPL) profit forecasts sailing past previous estimates, one big reason isn’t getting much attention: The company charges four times the going rate for extra file-storage space. As with previous models, Apple is asking for an additional $100 to double the storage memory on the iPhone 5s and 5c, and $200 to quadruple it to 64 gigabytes on the 5s. A similar 64GB memory chip for phones running Google’s(GOOG) Android operating system sells for about $50 on Amazon.com (AMZN). While the cost of smartphone memory has fallen 71 percent in the last four years—to about 60¢ per gigabyte, according to researcher IHS iSuppli—“Apple has never followed the trend in passing along the savings,” says IHS analyst Michael Yang. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment. Read more of this post

StumbleUpon’s Mobile Ad Breakthrough

StumbleUpon’s Mobile Ad Breakthrough

By Douglas MacMillan September 26, 2013

For Internet content providers, figuring out mobile advertising is the next great digital puzzle. From Google (GOOG)and Facebook (FB) to the New York Times, companies are struggling to devise new smartphone and tablet ads that strike advertisers as more effective than clunky banner displays and don’t alienate users. A solution may have arrived via an unexpected source: a 12-year-old, nearly forgotten aggregator of links. Read more of this post

Rogers unveils Netflix-like all-in-one digital magazine subscription service

Rogers unveils Netflix-like all-in-one digital magazine subscription service

Christine Dobby | 26/09/13 | Last Updated: 26/09/13 5:02 PM ET
More from Christine Dobby | @christinedobby

TORONTO – Rogers Communications Inc. hopes that bringing a reader-friendly digital magazine subscription service previously only available in the United States to Canada will help cement its status as this country’s “dominant publisher.” The media division of the Toronto-based communications company said Thursday it has struck a partnership with Next Issue Media, a joint-venture of five major U.S. publishers. Read more of this post

Robots are the Next Big Thing in Telepresence

September 26, 2013, 3:07 PM ET

Robots are the Next Big Thing in Telepresence

By Steve Rosenbush

Deputy Editor

The latest thing in corporate videoconferencing isn’t the grand “telepresence room” with wall-to-ceiling high-definition monitors and leather chairs arranged around a walnut table that’s as long as an airport runway. It’s more like a Segway with an iPad stuck on top. A cheaper, more intimate and mobile form of telepresence, or what used to be known as videoconferencing, is entering the business world. In this latest version of the video call, a motorized, remote-controlled platform several feet high is outfitted with a monitor and camera. The devices are equipped with video conferencing and navigation software, and when connected to the Internet, they allow people to have face-to-face video contact with someone in a distant location, moving freely about the remote environment with the device functioning as their physical double. Read more of this post

How Jack Ma can keep a tight grip on Alibaba after an IPO

Updated: Friday September 27, 2013 MYT 8:57:43 AM

How Jack Ma can keep a tight grip on Alibaba after an IPO

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma wants to keep a tight grip on the Chinese e-commerce company he founded even after he takes it public, and U.S. law gives him several ways to do so. The company had planned to list in Hong Kong, but the exchange there threw cold water on Ma’s plan to give Alibaba’s insiders, who only own about 10 percent of the stock, the power to nominate a majority of the board, sources say. Regulators in the Chinese territory said that all shareholders must be treated equally. Read more of this post

Google Alters Search to Handle More Complex Queries

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013, 5:29 PM

Google Alters Search to Handle More Complex Queries

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Google on Thursday announced one of the biggest changes to its search engine, a rewriting of its algorithm to handle more complex queries that affects 90 percent of all searches. The change, which represents a new approach to search for Google, required the biggest changes to the company’s search algorithm since 2000. Now, Google, the world’s most popular search engine, will focus more on trying to understand the meanings of and relationships among things, as opposed to its original strategy of matching keywords. Read more of this post

EBay to Buy Braintree for $800 Million; Deal Could Accelerate PayPal’s Goal to Draw More Revenue From Smartphone and Tablet Users

Updated September 26, 2013, 7:08 p.m. ET

EBay to Buy Braintree for $800 Million

Deal Could Accelerate PayPal’s Goal to Draw More Revenue From Smartphone and Tablet Users

GREG BENSINGER

EBay Inc. will buy payments service Braintree Payments Solutions LLC for $800 million in cash, making a big bet to secure the pole position in the race to get consumers to pay for goods and services on smartphones, The deal will give eBay’s PayPal unit more extensive customer data as well as the lucrative transaction fees from Braintree’s expanding network, which currently processes more than $12 billion in payments annually, a third of which is on mobile devices. Braintree charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Read more of this post

Singapore App Maker MyHero Raises $10M Series A For Its Stock Market Trading Gamification App, TradeHero

Singapore App Maker MyHero Raises $10M Series A For Its Stock Market Trading Gamification App, TradeHero

NATASHA LOMAS

posted 6 hours ago

An app that lets people play the stock market without the risk of losing any real money has turned its virtual cash game into a pile of actual Benjamins, by closing out a $10 million funding round — one of the largest Series A rounds for a consumer startup in the region, it claims. The app in question, TradeHero, is made by a Singapore-based developer MyHero. Investors in the round are Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers China fund (KPCB China) and IPV Capital. Read more of this post

Yelp’s fake review problem

Yelp’s fake review problem

September 26, 2013: 11:05 AM ET

A New York sting operation caught businesses paying for positive ratings on recommendation websites. What’s Yelp’s response?

By Daniel Roberts, writer-reporter

FORTUNE — On Monday, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the conclusion of “Operation Clean Turf,” a yearlong sting that caught 19 different companies, most of them SEO (search engine optimization) or reputation management firms for hire, that were writing fake reviews for small businesses that paid them. The NYAG fined the businesses in varying amounts that total $350,000. (As part of the operation, people from the NYAG’s office even posed as owners of a Brooklyn yogurt shop.) In the press release, Schneiderman says that the investigation “tells us that we should approach online reviews with caution” and calls the process of posting fake reviews online, “the 21st century’s version of false advertising.” Read more of this post

Technology’s crystal ball offers only a hazy view of the future

September 24, 2013 5:08 pm

Technology’s crystal ball offers only a hazy view of the future

By John Kay

Exciting innovations such as big data and small robots are by historical standards modest

Perhaps it is the result of years of challenging students in Oxford tutorials, but my friends sometimes describe me as counter-suggestible – too inclined to point out weaknesses even in well presented arguments for motherhood and apple pie. So it is an unusual experience for me to leave a debate persuaded by both sides. But that was my reaction last week to a discussion at Columbia University’s Center on Capitalism and Society. Both protagonists are professors at Northwestern University in Illinois. In one corner was Robert Gordon, famous for his pessimistic view of the technological future. In the other was Joel Mokyr, the pre-eminent modern economic historian of technology. Read more of this post

TalkTalk halves price of pay-TV service

TalkTalk halves price of pay-TV service

TalkTalk has mounted the second stage of its push into pay-TV with a cheaper set-top box targeting lower-income households and those watching their spending as Britain climbs out of recession.

By Christopher Williams, Technology, Media and Telecoms Editor

3:49PM BST 25 Sep 2013

The new “essentials” package halves the monthly cost of TalkTalk’s internet-based television service and makes it available to the majority of its broadband and phone subscribers for the first time. For £7.50 per month it offers broadband and phone, plus all the Freeview channels with a seven-day catch-up facility and the chance to bolt on premium channels such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies on a pay-as-you-go basis. Line rental is not included. Read more of this post

Please Twitter, Just Stay Weird; An IPO Will Pressure Twitter to Change—and Not for the Better; most Web services take off by offering an online analogue for activities we already do offline

September 25, 2013, 5:35 p.m. ET

Please Twitter, Just Stay Weird

An IPO Will Pressure Twitter to Change—and Not for the Better

FARHAD MANJOO

I am an inveterate Tweeter. I use Twitter more than any communications medium other than email. I check it first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and about a billion times in between. (Assume that for every sentence in this article, I’ve refreshed Twitter three times.) I’ve tweeted my wedding, my kids’ births, and my major surgeries. I have joked with my wife—who, like most sensible people, doesn’t use Twitter but loves Facebook FB +2.08% —that by neglecting the microblogging service, she’s missing out on the most interesting facet of my personality. The sad thing about this is that, most days, it isn’t really a joke: @fmanjoo is usually a lot more fun than Farhad Manjoo. Read more of this post

On YouTube, ‘Lyrics Videos’ Mark a New Genre

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013, 11:05 AM

On YouTube, ‘Lyrics Videos’ Mark a New Genre

By AMY O’LEARY

Maroon 5’s lyric video for their song, “Payphone,” is one of the most popular examples of a new, emerging genre on YouTube. If you had searched for a “lyrics video” on YouTube in 2008, you might have found a touching homegrown tribute from a fan who urgently wanted to share the poetical lyricism of their favorite song with the world. In one instance, a Guns N’ Roses fan lovingly presented the lyrics to the power ballad, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” over a montage of images of their family dogs. Read more of this post

Internet Pioneer RealNetworks Seeks Revival

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013, 9:00 PM

Internet Pioneer RealNetworks Seeks Revival

By NICK WINGFIELD

SEATTLE — When a ground-breaking product called RealPlayer was released in its earliest form in 1995, Steven P. Jobs had yet to return to Apple, Google’s future founders had only just met and Mark Zuckerberg was10 years old. Almost two decades later, RealPlayer, which practically invented the category of streaming audio and video over the Internet, is not gone, but it is largely forgotten. The same might be said for the pioneering company that created the software, RealNetworks, which helped midwife the Internet into its heady commercial phase. Read more of this post

Elevated Market Expectations Dim Attractiveness of 3-D Printers

Elevated Market Expectations Dim Attractiveness of 3-D Printers

By Daniel Holland | 09-25-13 | 06:00 AM | Email Article

The outlook for the 3-D printing industry remains upbeat, but the market’s optimism continues to grow just as much, resulting in peak performance expectations and little margin for error. Both  3D Systems (DDD) and  Stratasys (SSYS) are trading well ahead of our fair value estimates, making us hesitant to recommend the names to new long-term investors. While our summer travels to trade shows and discussions with industry participants have done little to alter our opinion, some emerging developments in the industry may shape the growth trajectory and moat prospects for companies in this sector. Read more of this post

Why eBay Failed in China?

Why eBay Failed in China?

2013-09-18 16:59:46

Jiansuo Wang,Famous IT critic,columnist and English Blogger,CEO of Baixing.com(eBay)

Let me give you some background information. Almost all US Internet companies failed in China in the last 10 years. Yahoo! entered China by acquiring 3721.com (some argued it was a keyword based search engine that dominated the space before Baidu.com came out), and turned it into nothing, before Yahoo! China was sold to Alibaba. eBay acquired EachNet.com, the largest C2C website, and spent few hundred million dollars on marketing, and successfully turned its market share from 90+% to less than 10%, and then sold it to Tom Online. Google entered China and with years’ of efforts only to turn its market share from 30% to 10%, and claimed to move China site to Hong Kong. Who else? Here is the question: Why eBay failed in China? Why Yahoo! failed in China, and why almost all US-based Internet giant failed miserably in China? Read more of this post

BestTV To Launch JV With Microsoft, Bringing Domestic Game Consoles To Foreseeable Future

BestTV To Launch JV With Microsoft, Bringing Domestic Game Consoles To Foreseeable Future

By Emma Lee on September 24, 2013

Shanghai-based media service BesTV New Media (SH: 600637) and Microsoft Corp announced Sept. 23 that they planned to co-launch a joint venture by investing $79 million. The two companies will hold 51% and 49% stake of the new company, respectively (report in Chinese). The joint venture, which will locate at Shanghai Free Trade Zone, is principally engaged in design, distribution and sales of game and related home entertainment devices. The two companies planned to release a new home gaming console, preliminary named Bestpad, in the future. To develop the new product, Microsoft will provide Xbox related technology and BesTV will offer OTT license and part of its video resources. Chinese government issued a policy in 2000, forbidding enterprises and individuals to produce and sell electronic game devices and accessories in domestic market. Presently all game consoles, including Microsoft’s XBox and Sony’s PlayStation, are not allowed to be sold in Chinese market. Industry insiders interpret the tie-up between BesTV and Microsoft as a signal to lifting the ban and opening up of Chinese electronic gaming market.

Baidu’s Deal Is Proof That M&A Will Flourish in China

Baidu’s Deal Is Proof That M&A Will Flourish in China

2013-09-18 17:02:27

Wang,Famous IT critic,columnist and English Blogger,CEO of Baixing.com(eBay)

Baidu’s $1.9 billion acquisition of app store 91 Wireless this week made me smile, because it solved a Chinese mystery. I’ve always wondered: Why do Chinese Internet giants try to copy the success of other companies, instead of simply buying them out? Tech companies in the U.S. have long been willing to acquire promising up-and-comers, instead of simply duplicating them. But, until recently, it didn’t work that way in China. Read more of this post

Why Amazon’s Cool-Sounding Locker Strategy Didn’t Work

Why Amazon’s Cool-Sounding Locker Strategy Didn’t Work

MARTY LARIVIERE, OPERATIONS ROOM SEP. 24, 2013, 12:58 PM 2,189 2

About a year ago, we had a post on Amazon Lockers — the Seattle firm’s attempt to solve recurring last mile problems. Customers could have their purchases delivered to a secure, nearby location. No need to sign for a package; no need to worry about someone walking off with your box. You just need to enter a code to pop open the locker that has your stuff. But there is an obvious complication here: Those lockers have to go somewhere. Amazon’s plan was not to buy real estate but to plant them in existing retail locations. But which stores would benefit from hosting Amazon lockers? That is the question that a recent Businessweek article examines (Do Amazon’s Lockers Help Retailers? Depends on What They Sell, Sep 20). Read more of this post

WEARABLE COMPUTING: Inside The New Mobile Market That Is Taking Shape

WEARABLE COMPUTING: Inside The New Mobile Market That Is Taking Shape

MARCELO BALLVE SEP. 24, 2013, 12:15 PM 1,595

Those betting big on wearable computing believe an assorted new crop of gadgets — mostly worn on the wrist or as eyewear — will transform the way in which we interact with the rest of our devices. But wearables won’t just complement smartphones. What is perhaps most intriguing about them is that they will serve new purposes too. Because they are designed to be worn close to the body, they’re ideal for monitoring our vital signs and health. They’ll track how active we are, our sleep quality, how many steps we take during the day. Consumers of all sorts — fitness buffs, dieters, and the elderly — will come to rely on them. Read more of this post

Millennial Media CEO Says Mobile Will Supplant Digital Ad Spending And Become The ‘Real’ Digital

Millennial Media CEO Says Mobile Will Supplant Digital Ad Spending And Become The ‘Real’ Digital

AARON TAUBE SEP. 24, 2013, 5:51 PM 572 2

In a speech to kick off the Smarter Mobile Marketing conference this morning, Millennial Media CEO Paul Palmieri trumpeted mobile advertising’s rise in the marketing ecosystem and suggested it might be the pre-eminent place for brands to spend their digital advertising budgets — supplanting traditional digital budgets. “We are now in a moment where consumer choice, consumer behavior, and consumer reception have gone past the tipping point of mattering,” Palmieri said. “Mobile has become an indispensable part of the marketing mix.” Read more of this post

Twitter Adds CBS to Its Stable of Big Advertising Partners

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013, 7:14 PM

Twitter Adds CBS to Its Stable of Big Advertising Partners

By VINDU GOEL

Twitter has been furiously adding partners to its Amplify advertising program ever since it began informally last year with a partnership between the social network, ESPN and the Ford Motor Company. In those initial ads, ESPN sent out clips of football games, wrapped in a Ford Fusion ad, as short messages on the service. Since then, more than a dozen other content distributors, from the Fox television network to Globosat in Brazil, have joined the program, with brands including Heineken and AT&T promoting clips from major sports events like the U.S. Open tennis tournament and NCAA basketball games and live events like MTV‘s Video Music Awards. Read more of this post

The Mobile Payments Rush Is On, And The Winners Will Shape The Future Of Transactions And Commerce

The Mobile Payments Rush Is On, And The Winners Will Shape The Future Of Transactions And Commerce

TONY DANOVA SEP. 24, 2013, 9:12 PM 2,005 3

PayPal is close to a deal to acquire Braintree, a company that specializes in powering mobile transactions. Meanwhile, Facebook announced that it’s pairing up with payment companies to roll out “Autofill,” which makes it easier for its users to buy things straight from their phones.  Mobile devices are edging closer to fulfilling their long-delayed promise as digital wallets, and tech and financial services players do not want to be left out. Consumers and merchants are beginning to see the advantage of channeling offline payments through mobile devices, rather than transacting in coins and cash, credit cards — or clunky register systems.  In a new report from BI Intelligence,  we explain the main reasons why mobile payments are poised for takeoff, provide proprietary estimates for the growth and size of the mobile payments market in the years to come, and analyze the specific trends that will help shape the growth in mobile payments, including user concerns around security. We track the demographic and geographic nature of the consumers who will drive the growth, merchant-side adoption, and the mobile payments solutions that will lead the charge.

Read more of this post

Technology’s crystal ball offers only a hazy view of the future

September 24, 2013 5:08 pm

Technology’s crystal ball offers only a hazy view of the future

By John Kay

Exciting innovations such as big data and small robots are by historical standards modest

Perhaps it is the result of years of challenging students in Oxford tutorials, but my friends sometimes describe me as counter-suggestible – too inclined to point out weaknesses even in well presented arguments for motherhood and apple pie. So it is an unusual experience for me to leave a debate persuaded by both sides. But that was my reaction last week to a discussion at Columbia University’s Center on Capitalism and Society. Both protagonists are professors at Northwestern University in Illinois. In one corner was Robert Gordon, famous for his pessimistic view of the technological future. In the other was Joel Mokyr, the pre-eminent modern economic historian of technology. Read more of this post

Netflix is doing to TV what steam-powered printing did to books

Netflix is doing to TV what steam-powered printing did to books

By Zachary M. Seward @zseward 10 hours ago

“The broadcast networks adapted to the expansion of cable networks very well,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said last week. “And that’s what we’ll see with cable networks: They’ll all become internet networks.” He was speaking at a private conference hosted by Google in Arizona. Video of the Q&A session, which also included producer Brian Grazer, just went up online and was spotted by BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield (registration required). The comment about cable networks becoming internet networks is interesting, in part, because Netflix recently began describing itself as a “network” for the first time. “We are a movie and TV series network,” it now says in the company’s “long-term view” document. The company’s preferred self-description used to be “internet TV app,” but Hastings clearly sees “network” as an equalizing term. Read more of this post