Kaching! Citibank admits to security flaw in its iPhone app

Citigroup said that the new iPhone app for its mobile banking customers had a security flaw. As you might expect, the company is reacting quickly and has said it wants its users to upgrade to a new app that fixes the flaw.

There are growing security challenges around mobile apps, and that’s why mobile security companies such as Lookout are getting a lot of attention. Citigroup said that its iPhone app accidentally saved personal account … Continue Reading

Tiger Global invests in Russian travel portal Anywayanyday

Tiger Global Management, a New York private equity firm, has apparently invested approximately $10 million for a 40% stake of Russian online travel portal, Anywayanyday. This is according to an article in Russian newspaper, Vesomoti, and the Quintura blog. The article goes on to quote a company official stating that the size of the online travel market is $600 million and that the company’s current yearly revenue stands at $5 – 6 million.

Tiger Global … Continue Reading

European Commission investigating whether IBM broke antitrust laws in mainframes

The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into IBM‘s actions in the mainframe computer market.

The investigation involves allegations that are well known at this point about whether IBM took actions that shut out rival mainframe software vendors and service providers. It could potentially lead to antitrust charges and fines against IBM.

Traditionally, the European Union has been tougher on American technology companies than U.S. regulators, having lodged large fines against both Microsoft and … Continue Reading

Back to the future: Why push technologies and search are about to explode

Editor’s note: This story is part of our Microsoft-sponsored series on cutting-edge innovation. Stefan Weitz is a director of search at Microsoft.

More and more, people in the search community are pushing to move beyond simple keyword-search capabilities towards a more omniscient search tool. Imagine if, instead of delivering up search results based on the keywords you typed in, your search tool was more of an omniscient oracle that could understand the nuances of … Continue Reading

Jailbreaking phones is now legal thanks to EFF copyright victory

Jailbreaking fans can rejoice. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just secured legal exemptions to copyright law that will allow users to hack their phones and run software that phone makers or carriers haven’t authorized.

Many users “jailbreak” their phones by using software to unlock them so they can use different carriers or just run unapproved apps. The EFF convinced the copyright office to grant three exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In the past, … Continue Reading

Coulomb brings its EV charging stations to the home

Coulomb Technologies, one of the most successful companies rolling out rapid roadside charging stations for the new generation of plug-in vehicles debuting this year, announced today that it has adapted its technology for use in the home.

Interestingly, residential chargers are where many of Coulomb’s competitors have started out — just look at General Electric’s recent launch of its WattStation charger, capable of juicing up a battery in four to six hours. It looks like … Continue Reading

Red Lambda raises $10M for network security software

Red Lambda has raised a $10 million round of funding for its network security software.

The round was led by Saad Al-Barrak, former vice chairman and managing director of wireless carrier Zain Communications. The company said it is also launching the latest version of its AppIron Grid Platform this week at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. AppIron uses virtualization and grid computing — two technologies that have swept through enterprise computing in … Continue Reading

Google Apps makes new push for government customers

Google has been touting the government use of its business suite Google Apps for a while now, most notably signing up the City of Los Angeles (a process that has hit a few bumps). Today it’s ramping up that effort with a version targeted at national, state, and local governments, called Google Apps for Government.

The core product, namely the Web applications like Gmail and Google Docs, is still the same, as is the $50-per-user … Continue Reading

Intel rumored to be buying Infineon's wireless division

Intel has a deal to buy the wireless division of German chip maker Infineon, according to a published report.

Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar said in a note to clients today that Intel is buying the division as part of its move into the smartphone business. It has to play catch-up there with a number of rivals, including Qualcomm, Marvell, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and others. Intel has made its own push into smartphone … Continue Reading

Starcraft II pre-orders hit 800,000 in Americas

Just a day before the release of Starcraft II, the pre-orders for the sci-fi PC game have hit 800,000 units, suggesting the game will be a sure-fire hit this summer.

VGChartz reports that sales in the Americas in the first week alone should be more than a million units. Worldwide first-week sales will likely be more than 2 million units. That’s good news for Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision Blizzard, as this year has … Continue Reading

Britain's set-top box maker Pace acquires 2Wire for $420M

British set-top box firm Pace has agreed to acquire enterprise networking technology firm 2Wire for $420 million in cash.

Under the deal, Saltaire, UK-based Pace will buy 2Wire for $475 million in cash. Since 2Wire has $55 million in cash, the net purchase price is $420 million. The deal will extend Pace’s presence in the U.S. market with telecommunications customers, said Neil Gaydon, chief executive of Pace.

2Wire makes hardware such as digital subscriber line … Continue Reading

Zattikka raises $5M to expand in social and mobile games

Zattikka, a London-based maker of browser and mobile games, has raised $5.5 million in a first round of funding.

Notion Capital led the round and it was joined by individual angels including Harald Ludwig, co-chair of Lionsgate Entertainment. It’s a lot of money for a game company that was started in August 2009. But social and mobile gaming are hot, and you never know where the next Zynga is going to come from. Zattikka’s parent … Continue Reading

Forget antennagate: Apple to launch iPhone 4 in 17 more countries on Friday

Apple isn’t letting up on the gas pedal. It announced today that the iPhone 4 will launch in 17 more countries on Friday.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has seen unprecedented demand for its newest phone, despite reception problems when the phone is held a certain way — a problem that’s been dubbed antennagate. Apple has also delayed the white version of the iPhone 4, but the antenna problem and the delay aren’t derailing the international … Continue Reading

Skype founders place $6 million bet on MadBid.com

Atomico Ventures, an investment group started by Skype cofounders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has invested £4 million, or more than $6 million, in a first round of institutional funding for pay-to-bid auction site MadBid.com. As with sites such as Swoopo and Fluttero, which have been growing in popularity, MadBid.com is part of a move to bring the feel of a Las Vegas casino to e-commerce.

Pay-to-bid auction sites sell packages of bids that users … Continue Reading

New business model conquers games as Live Gamer signs up EA for virtual goods platform

Electronic Arts is adopting Live Gamer‘s virtual goods platform as part of a drive toward new pay-as-you-go business models.

The deal is the third major partner announcement in a week for Live Gamer, which also signed up game publishers THQ and Real Networks. It shows that virtual goods is gaining acceptance after a long limbo in the American video game market. Zynga and other social game companies have proven that the model — where gamers … Continue Reading

Ex-Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's second career in games

One of the highlights of the Comic-Con conference this week in San Diego was the unveiling of Curt Schilling’s first video game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Declaring his “second career, second opening day” in video games, the former Boston Red Sox pitcher revealed details about the first game to be released by 38 Studios, the game company that he has bankrolled in part with the money he made as a professional baseball player. The new … Continue Reading

Convoke Systems raises $5.5 million to help creditors collect debt

Financial information management software firm Convoke Systems announced late Sunday that it has raised a $5.5 million round of financing to help creditors keep track of all the necessary data required to collect on consumer debts. It closed the round Thursday, the day after the U.S. financial reform bill was signed into law.

A large number of consumers are defaulting on their debts due to the recession. Credit card companies sell the debt to collection … Continue Reading

WikiLeaks.org's post of classified Afghan reports causes a furor

WikiLeaks.org has posted tens of thousands of classified military field reports about the Afghanistan war, saying its goal was to expose unethical behavior by governments and corporations.

The disclosure is perhaps the most controversial yet since the organization was founded in December, 2006. Other disclosures include internal memos about the dumping of toxic waste near Africa’s coast, the membership of a racist British party, and the prison manual for Guantanamo Bay.

The lesson for tech … Continue Reading