By:
Zach Epstein | May 25th, 2012 at 07:30PM

Pennsylvania-based law firm Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP on Friday filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook regarding the handling of its initial public offering, which was made on March 18th. On the day of its IPO, the company was hit with a privacy-related class action lawsuit seeking $15 billion in damages. This new complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges Facebook and multiple officers, directors and underwriters with violating the Securities Act of 1933 by failing to disclose or disregarding material adverse facts that were known to them.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 06:15PM

According to a new report from online advertising network Chitika, smartphones and tablets now account for 20% of all Web traffic in the U.S. and Canada. Traditional PCs accounted for 80% of Web traffic, with smartphone traffic totaling 14.6% and tablets making up 5.6%, AllThingD reported. Chitika found that a whopping 95% of tablet Web traffic came from a version of Apple’s iPad, mainly the newest iPad, and 72% of smartphone traffic also belongs to Apple, compared to 26% for Android devices. The Cupertino-based company didn’t fare as well on the desktop side, which saw 85% of Web traffic from Windows machines compared to 13% from Macs. The report also noted that Windows Phone now accounts for a third as much traffic as BlackBerry phones, and while Microsoft’s mobile platform owns a smaller share of the market, the handsets’ larger displays may be responsible for the proportionally large share of Web browsing.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 05:00PM

HP’s open source webOS team, known as Enyo, will reportedly be leaving the company and joining Google, according to The Verge. The computer giant in December announced its failed webOS mobile operating system would move to an open-source model under the name Enyo, with version 1.0 slated for release in September 2012. The website’s sources claim the entire Enyo team will not be headed for Google, but Matt McNulty, the head of the project, will be among those departing. This wouldn’t be the first time the Internet giant has hired former webOS workers; Android’s current design chief Matias Duarte oversaw the creation of the user interface for the operating system while working at Palm. It is unclear if the Enyo team members will be joining the Android group or another Google project.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 03:55PM

Following Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, it looks like the company has no intention of slowing down. According to a report from Pocket-lint, the social networking giant may be looking to enter the Web browsing market by purchasing Opera Software. The move would put Facebook in direct competition with Microsoft and Mozilla, and it would certainly apply increased pressure to Google as well. Opera’s mobile browser has seen strong growth in recent years, however the same cannot be said for its desktop version, which lags far behind Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. A Facebook browser could potentially allow users to stay up to date with their social life using built-in plug-ins and features integrated into the browser’s UI.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 02:50PM

In its latest Transparency Report, Google has included information about takedown requests related to copyright infringement for the first time ever. According to the data from this past year, nearly 8,000 copyright owners have contacted Google with requests to remove search results that lead to copyright infringing websites. Microsoft led the charge with more than 500,000 removal requests across 9,108 domains during this past month alone, and a total of 2,554,475 takedown request across 23,485 domains over the course of the past year. According to research done by TechDirt, the software giant was mainly targeting pirated Xbox content, which Google agreed to take down. Search results for the very same websites, ironically, often remain present on Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 01:45PM

Comcast recently announced that it may soon begin charging additional fees to broadband Internet subscribers who go over their monthly bandwidth allowances. The cable operator currently suspends customers’ service if they repeatedly go over their 250GB monthly data allowances rather than charging any penalties. Instead of capping broadband customers at 250GB per month, however, Comcast plans to raise the cap to 300GB and charge $10 for each 50GB block of data above that limit, Digital Trends reported. The change is currently being tested with select customers but if successful, the company plans to implement the change across its network. Comcast began capping data in 2008, and it claimed the measure was necessary in order to manage its network.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 12:30PM

Google recently wrapped up its Google+ Photographer’s Conference in San Francisco. During the event, a number of Google employees, including co-founder Sergey Brin, wore the company’s Project Glass prototype, and even a shared a video and a photo album of point-of-view images taken with the device. The augmented reality head-mounted display prototypes are being tested outside the walls of Google’s Mountain View campus as the company continues to refine the devices. Details surround the glasses are few and far between, and it is still unclear if Project Glass will ever hit the consumer market in its current form. Point-of-view images and a video taken with Project Glass prototypes follow below.
By:
Zach Epstein | May 25th, 2012 at 11:15AM

Usage of Apple’s third-generation iPad in the United States has passed the original iPad model after just over two months of availability. According to a recent report from software analytics firm Localytics, Apple’s latest iPad captured a staggering 14% of the U.S. iPad market in just four days when Apple sold more than 3 million devices during the tablet’s debut. Now, a week and two months after the third iPad launched on March 16th of this year, the new model’s share of U.S. usage topped 20% during the week of May 16th, narrowly surpassing the original model for the first time. Apple’s first iPad tablet launched in the U.S. on April 3rd, 2010 — more than two years ago — and was available for purchase at a discounted price until the third-generation iPad launched in March of this year. According to Localytics, Apple’s iPad 2 currently accounts for 60% of all iPad usage in the U.S.
By:
Zach Epstein | May 25th, 2012 at 10:00AM

CBS, Fox and NBC have independently filed lawsuits against Dish Network, claiming its new automatic commercial-deleting service Auto Hop violates copyright laws; Fox even goes as far as to state that Auto Hop is “destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem.” Auto Hop is a feature launched recently for Dish Network’s Hopper DVR. When enabled, the free add-on allows users to automatically skip over commercials aired during prime time shows on each of the four major television broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Networks took issue with the feature immediately, of course, and now complaints have been filed by three of the four affected networks, BGR sister site Deadline reports. Dish has already filed its own complaint with a New York district court seeking a declaratory judgement that its new service is “in full compliance with copyright law and its re-broadcast agreements.”
By:
Zach Epstein | May 25th, 2012 at 08:55AM

iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users running the latest version of Apple’s iOS software now have access to full-featured untethered jailbreak software courtesy of iOS hackers Chronic Dev Team and pod2g. The software needed to perform the jailbreak, Greenpis0n Absinthe 2.0, is now available for download and is compatible with A4-powered devices like the original iPad and the iPhone 4, as well as newer A5-powered devices like the new iPad and iPhone 4S, JailbreakUntethered reports. The updated software allows users to jailbreak their newer A5-powered iOS devices without having to connect to a computer while booting, though it is not compatible with iPad 2 models powered by Apple’s newer 32-nanometer chipset. Download links for Greenpois0n Absinthe 2.0 and a how-to guide details each step of the jailbreaking process can be found through the read link below.
UPDATE: A large number of users are reporting problems with the new software and as such, users may want to wait for a subsequent release before attempting to jailbreak their devices.
By:
Zach Epstein | May 25th, 2012 at 07:40AM

GameFly announced on Wednesday that it plans to begin publishing mobile games for Apple’s iOS platform and Google’s Android operating system. In addition, the video game rental service plans to further expand into mobile by launching its own Android app store to take on the Google Play store. ”GameFly is dedicated to giving consumers the best user experience possible, and to be their single destination for console, PC and mobile gaming needs,” GameFly co-founder Sean Spector said in a statement. “We plan to be a leading player in mobile games by launching our retail GameStore for Android and helping to fund mobile developers of all sizes to publish, promote and sell their smartphone and tablet games.” The GameFly GameStore will launch this fall on Android tablets and smartphones. GameFly’s full press release follows below.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 01:15AM

Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy recently announced that the music streaming service had surpassed 150 million users in the United States and was the second most downloaded app in the history of Apple’s App Store. According to the company’s recent earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, Pandora grew to a record 51.9 million active users, representing a 53% year-over-year increase. The service has a commanding 71.7% share of the top U.S. Internet radio market and controls almost 6% of the total U.S. radio listening market. The company’s total revenue jumped 58% year-over-year to $80.8 million, $70.6 million of which came from advertising and $10.2 million from subscription plans. While advertising revenue increased 62% year-over-year and subscription revenue increased 38%, Pandora still reported a net loss of $0.09 per share.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 25th, 2012 at 12:00AM

Sharp and Sony on Wednesday released a joint statement to announce the end of the companies’ joint venture to produce and sell LCD panels. Due to the “rapidly changing market for LCD panels and LCD televisions,” Sony will sell its shares of the venture, which represent 7.04% of the company. The manufacturer will also receive a cash payment equal to its original investment of 10 billion yen that will be paid by Sharp. Both the sale of shares and Sony’s cash payment will be completed by the end of June 2012. The joint press release can be found after the break.
By:
Dan Graziano | May 24th, 2012 at 10:45PM

Millennial Media on Thursday released a new report outlining estimates first-quarter market share across mobile devices and operating systems. The mobile advertising company found that tablets — the top being Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Amazon’s Kindle Fire — accounted for 20% of all ad impressions during the first quarter of 2012, an increase from 15% in the first quarter of 2011. “Tablets and other non-phone connected devices have established a clear role in the growing mobile ecosystem,” said Jamie Fellows, SVP, Product, Millennial Media. “The substantial quarterly growth of impressions in this category is tied to both increased usage and adoption, and we expect this trend to continue in the foreseeable future.” The report also found that 14 of the top 20 mobile phones ran Google’s Android operating system, which was installed on 49% of all devices. Apple’s iPhone was the top handset, helping the Cupertino-based company to edge out Samsung, which had four of the top 20 mobile phones, as the top manufacturer. Millennial Media’s press release and two additional tables follow below.