Facebook’s entire business model is under fire in the EU

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.”

Facebook (and just about every other free Web service) has built a business on that saying and its implications, and the European Commission is taking the social network to task for it. The EU is considering a ban on Facebook’s practice of selling demographic data to marketers and advertisers without specific permission from users.

First, let’s have a … Continue Reading

10 disruptive cloud companies we’re excited about

There is so much happening right now in emerging cloud computing — the entire economy is being disrupted by the trend.

With publicly-traded giants like Amazon, Google, VMWare, Microsoft, Cisco and Salesforce lurching around with new and improved services that can help businesses with cost and efficiency gains, sometimes it’s easy to miss the hot players that are up-and-coming.

We’ve assembled a list of ten private cloud companies that we think are particularly intriguing — … Continue Reading

Twitter acquires Android security startup Whisper Systems

Android security startup Whisper Systems has been acquired by Twitter, the startup announced on its blog today.

Whisper Systems, which total employees consist of only Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson, focuses on Android security for enterprise customers. As VentureBeat previously reported, the startup originally focused on creating a way for people to use Google and other systems without being tracked. The company is well-known for its RedPhone service, which creates encrypted phone calls so no … Continue Reading

Windows Phone may finally be heading from “sleeper hit” to just “hit”

Windows Phone may be getting a long-awaited second wind. Newly available app usage data indicate as many as 600,000 Windows Phones may have been purchased over the past two weeks alone.

Currently, the Windows Phone Facebook app has more than a million active monthly users. The exact number rose from one million users on November 11 to 1,100,000 on November 25.

According to calculations by WMPowerUser, a Windows Phone-focused blog, this surge means as many … Continue Reading

Quid makes million-dollar maps of technology’s past, present… and future

Iraqi insurgency groups and Silicon Valley startups may not appear to have a lot in common, but according to Quid‘s Chief Technical Officer Sean Gourley, the mathematics underlying innovation and conflict are not that different.

“The dynamics of an insurgency are actually quite similar to startups disrupting an established market,” says Gourley.

Data analysis is becoming ever more important within tech companies but Quid allows corporate strategists to manipulate a data-driven “map” of an entire … Continue Reading

OneReceipt mines inboxes to make sense of receipts

Our inboxes are a treasure trove of digital receipts, forever lost beneath the weight of spam and cheesy e-mails from your mom. New York City-based OneReceipt hopes to take advantage of that valuable data with its new receipt tracking service, which will help you keep better track of your online and offline purchases.

The site has been in closed beta testing for a few months now and is today finally opening up to the public … Continue Reading

The cyber holiday weekend winner is … Amazon

With mobile shoppers getting the jump on discounts by buying big on Thanksgiving Day and e-commerce sales bubbling up over the long weekend, the online holiday shopping season has arrived in full force.

So who is this year’s biggest winner on the web? Survey says, Amazon.

Amazon sales jumped 30 percent on Thanksgiving Day and continued to climb throughout the weekend, suggesting a massive Cyber Monday climax, according to data compiled by e-commerce software and … Continue Reading

iPhone 5 with 4-inch screen could arrive in March 2012

The iPhone 5 rumor mill has begun spinning anew, with speculation of a new 4-inch iOS device coming March of 2012. Macotakara is reporting that suppliers Hitachi Displays and Sony Mobile Display Corporation have already begun shipping the 4-inch LCDs for final production.

Macotakara also cites an Asian source claiming that the two suppliers will be merging with Toshiba Mobile Display Company to form “Japan Display” in the spring of 2012.

MacRumors recently reported that … Continue Reading

Zynga employees give Mark Pincus a 46 percent approval rating

The claws are out for Mark Pincus, chief executive of social game maker Zynga, today. First, the New York Times published a negative story on a potential talent drain at the social game company. Now Glass Door, the career services firm, says that Pincus has a 46 percent approval rating among his employees.

That means 56 percent of the employees surveyed by Glass Door have a negative view of Pincus, whose company is about to … Continue Reading

Hulu Plus may be expanding into Germany

Streaming video service Hulu is exploring the idea of expanding into Germany, according to German media news site Horizont.net.

The report indicates that Hulu is in talks with many major German TV networks to reach a deal that would allow the service to stream content throughout the country. Previously, Hulu was unsuccessful in reaching deals with European TV networks because many of them had plans to start their own online, on-demand services. However, German regulators … Continue Reading

Watch out, Ruby on Rails: Node.js is the most popular repo on Github

Node.js became the most popular code repository on Github over the holiday weekend.

With 11,460 watchers as of this writing, the Node repo now has more attention than Rails, which has 11,274 watchers.

For all you who’ve been trumpeting that Node would become “the new Rails,” your rantings have just become a wee bit more justifiable.

While Node is still a couple years away from the mass adoption and enterprise acceptance that slightly older technologies … Continue Reading

Russian Internet Titan Yandex pays $38M for mobile developer SPB Software

Russia’s Internet search giant Yandex has acquired mobile developer SPB software for an estimated $38 million, according to multiple sources. SPB has 75 employees and develops software for smartphones and tablet devices, with offices in Russia, Thailand and Taiwan.

“Mobile is a vital part of our growth strategy,” said Yandex Chief Executive Arkady Volozh in a Wall Street Journal report. “The acquisition of SPB Software creates new market potential for us and a plethora of … Continue Reading

Do you need a data scientist?

Some of the world’s biggest tech companies from Google to Facebook are data-driven, but few startup founders have any idea what a data scientist does, never mind whether they should hire one. Here is VentureBeat’s guide to data science for startups.

What does a data scientist do?

DJ Patil led LinkedIn’s data science team and is now the Data Scientist in residence at Greylock Partners. His free ebook “Building Data Science Teams” provides an excellent … Continue Reading

Newegg deal brings Google Offers to its knees

Google Offers may have bitten off more than it can chew with its Cyber Monday deal from Newegg.com, a site popular with techies for computing equipment and other electronics.

The deal, $20 for $40 worth of Newegg credit (it’s now expired), sent a horde of eager bargain hunters to Google Offers, but the site was clearly unprepared for the onslaught of traffic.

While trying to purchase the deal, I received multiple error messages from Google … Continue Reading

Galaxy Nexus volume bug fixed with custom Android ROM

The anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus still isn’t available in the U.S., but the phone’s U.K. users have been troubled by a volume fluctuation bug since its release. Thankfully, a fix has now been found — if you’re willing to install a custom ROM.

The volume bug, which has been closely documented by The Verge, is contained inside the Android Ice Cream Sandwich software and is not a hardware problem. Google says it is working on … Continue Reading

HTC hoping to spark consumer interest with new phones in 2012

HTC hopes to re-spark consumer interest with its new line of smartphones in early 2012, despite the company’s poor performance in the global smartphone market this year, reports Reuters.

Future HTC phones will likely focus on LTE technology and run Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of the mobile operating system.

In the past few years, HTC saw double-digit growth rate from a number of different phone models, including the Desire, Sensation and Wildfire. … Continue Reading

Zynga spurned by both Rovio and PopCap Games in huge takeover offers?

Zynga was reportedly spurned by two companies it was trying to acquire in what would have been gigantic deals in the game industry, according to a story in the New York Times.

Zynga reportedly offered $950 million in cash to purchase PopCap Games this summer, the Times reported, citing two unnamed sources. Interestingly, that would have been ALL of Zynga’s cash, unless it was able, as it did later, to secure a big line of … Continue Reading

Cyber Monday sales may reach $1.2B, mobile shoppers will double

When it comes to made-up online shopping holidays, Cyber Monday is still expected to be the reigning champion this year.

Cyber Monday sales may reach $1.2 billion this year, reports the LA Times, up from over $1 billion last year. 122 million Americans are expected to take part in Cyber Monday deals, and the number of consumers using their smartphones to shop is expected to double, according to a recent survey by BigResearch.

By comparison, … Continue Reading

Zynga to add Indiana Jones to Adventure World game

Starting Tuesday, Zynga will add the Indiana Jones character to its Adventure World game on Facebook.

As we noted earlier, Zynga has a distinct lack of well-known brands compared to traditional game companies such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard. To compensate for that, Zynga has been doing marketing deals with celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga. Now it will integrate Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones character into the Adventure World game.

The new … Continue Reading