NEWS
Update: BlackBerry Outage Day Three, RIM Still Investigating, U.S. Impact?
Beleaguered BlackBerry maker Research In Motion’s bad week is not getting much better. As the company entered its third day of service outage in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, Stephen Bates, the head of the company’s UK operation, covering some seven million BlackBerry users, ducked out of a key RIM ( NSDQ: RIMM ) event in London while the company continues to try to get to the bottom of the problem that has left millions of users without messaging and internet browsing services.
The Morning Lowdown 10-12-11
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning: ? ? RIM’s Service Outage Enters Day Three And Company Admits It’s In The Dark ( paidContent ) ? ? How Gizmodo escaped indictment in iPhone prototype deal ( Cnet ) ? ? Updated: WSJ Europe Chief Langhoff Resigns Over Ethical Concerns ( paidContent ) ? ? @ CTIA: Wireless CEO Showdown Fizzles Amid Buzzword-Heavy Addresses ( paidContent ) ? ? Gannett ( NYSE: GCI ) Shuttering MomsLikeMe Network, Deleting Everything ( paidContent ) ? ? Google+ Traffic Falls 60% From Post-Launch Highs ( Mashable ) ? ? TheDailyMeal Serves Up Ad Guarantee ( Mediapost ) ? ? Planning a paywall? Maybe you should sell some e-books instead ( GigaOM/Mathew Ingram ) ? ? What If We Had a Nutrition Label for the News? ( Mediashift/Idea Lab ) ? ? Daily Deals Industry Moving Into Consolidation Mode ( Street Fight ) ? ? eBay ( NSDQ: EBAY ) Set to Outline Its Future and It Looks Nothing Like Amazon ( NSDQ: AMZN ) ( AllThingsD )
NPD: Already, More Than One In Five Smartphones Sold Is 4G-Ready
Some interesting stats out today from the NPD Group underscore just how fast-moving the evolution is in devices today. Although fast mobile networks built on technologies like LTE are far from ubiquitous, 4G-capable smartphones accounted for more than one in every five smartphone purchases—22 percent—in the last quarter in the U.S
Sony Hacked Again, But This Time, Comes Clean Quickly
Sony was lambasted last spring after it took seven days to disclose that an attack on its video game network had led to what some called the “largest identity theft in history.” Last night, the company disclosed that its customer data was hacked again. In a message on its PlayStation blog, Sony’s chief security executive warned that hackers had broken into 93,000 customer accounts that contain information like names and credit-card information. Sony believes hackers did this by trying to log in to its network using information stolen from a third party: We want to let you know that we have detected attempts …
The Amazon Publishing ‘Premium’: $100,000?
Amazon ( NSDQ: AMZN ) Publishing’s general trade imprint, headed by publishing industry vet Larry Kirshbaum, reportedly paid $850,000 for Laverne and Shirley star Penny Marshall’s memoir at auction—about $100,000 more than the next highest bid, according to Crain’s. Marshall’s agent, Dan Strone, CEO of Trident Media Group, called the $100,000 figure “absolutely false.” Crain’s
LocalResponse Raises $5 Million For ‘Check-In’ Ads
LocalResponse , the “check-in” ad network formerly known as Buzzd, has raised $5 million to build up its sales team as it tries to attract agencies and marketers to its offerings.
Why Children’s Books Could Take Off On The Kindle Fire
When the Hammock children, both now over two-decades old, were brand new, they were never more than a few inches away from an Eric Carle book. ( The Very Hungry Caterpillar is likely the book I have read out-loud more times than any other book ever published, except, now that I think of it, Good Night Moon .) So it caught my eye recently when reading about next month’s launch of the Kindle Fire that it is going to include a 1,000-title (at launch) collection of children’s books formatted especially for the Fire, including Carle’s classic (among Hammock children and millions more), Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? . I’ve seen some punditry that suggests these “books” are likely to make it to other Kindle reading formats (which makes sense, as Amazon makes money from selling content, not hardware ).?But those pundits aparently haven’t let it fully sink in that the Kindle Fire will not just be an e-book reader, ?it is an Android pad (tablet) device
Apple’s Newsstand Debuts, Grouping iOS Publications In One Folder
Conde Nast, Bonnier, Future, Nomad Editions and Associated Newspapers were amongst the publishers whose titles were on board when Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) launched its Newsstand feature ahead of iOS 5’s full launch on Wednesday. The feature is a new application that merely contains latest issues of titles that iPad or iPhone users have subscribed to or downloaded in iTunes Store’s app store, a bit like a dedicated version of a regular folder. Magazines and newspapers are still apps; no change there
E-Book Checkouts From Libraries Up 200 Percent Over 2010
It’s no longer necessary to go to the library for a new book—you can just visit your local library’s website from home or from your mobile phone to check out an e-book. And that practice is taking off. OverDrive, the leading distributor of e-books and digital audiobooks to libraries, reports today that e-book checkouts nearly tripled through September 30, compared to all of 2010.
Zynga Aims For ‘Hypergrowth’ As IPO Nears
Pushing regulatory rules has become de rigeur when American internet firms prepare to go public. The infamous Playboy interview with Larry Page and Sergey Brin published during the “quiet period” before Google’s 2004 flotation, and more recently Groupon’s leaked memo spring to mind.It should be no surprise, then, that one of Silicon Valley’s hottest firms held its biggest ever press event during its enforced “quiet period”. Zynga filed to go public four months ago, and co-founder Mark Pincus knows that a lot has happened since.
