WWWorld.ru · Темы дня · Разделы дня · Интересы дня · 2012 · Свежие новости

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook will pay Microsoft Corp $550 million for hundreds of patents that originated with AOL, beefing up its intellectual property arsenal. Reuters: Internet News »

AT&T now has 40 million smartphone subscribers, who helped generate an additional $1 billion in data-plan revenues, a "remarkable statistic," the company's chief financial officer, John Stephens, said Tuesday. The company sold 5.5 million smartphones in the first quarter of this year, with 30 percent of those customers using 4G-capable devices. The boast was part of a bright outlook for the nation's largest phone company and second largest wireless service carrier as it released first quarter numbers. Overall, the company's revenues increased 1.8 percent, or $575 million, to $31.8 billion compared with the same quarter last year. Wireless data revenues grew by 19.9 percent. Phone Contracts Lag The bulk of new monthly postpaid wireless contract plans added during the period, however, about 180,000 of 189,000, were tablet users, while new phone contracts lagged. The Associated Press noted that Verizon Wireless added 501,000 new contract subscribers during the quarter, spelling trouble for AT&T's efforts to catch up to its biggest rival. However, AT&T did outpace Verizon on sales of Apple's iPhone for the quarter a year after losing its exclusive deal to carry the device. Sales were down for both carriers, but AT&T sold 4.3 million iPhones, the bulk of its 5.5 million smartphones, though down sharply from 7.6 million iPhones in the previous quarter. Verizon sold 3.2 million iPhones in the first quarter, down from 4.2 million in the last quarter of 2011. Technology analyst Jeff Kagan told us it's too soon to attribute those falling numbers to anticipation of the next iPhone model, due this summer. "Next version weakening happens the quarter before," he said. "We are still a couple quarters away. This is not a natural weakening. It means something different. It means the market for iPhone customers is slowing," Kagan said. (Apple on Tuesday night reported iPhone sales of 37.04 million, only slightly... newsfactor.com »

Apple set mobile-device sales records in the first quarter of 2012 by expanding its global iPhone shipments 88 percent year-over-year to 35.1 million units and boosting iPad shipments by 151 percent to 11.8 million units. Apple also outgrew the PC market overall by increasing its quarterly Mac desktop and portable shipments by 7 percent year-over-year to 4 million units. After Verizon Wireless reported lower than expected iPhone activation numbers last week, investments firms reduced their first-quarter iPhone shipment estimates to the range of 31 million to 33 million units. According to Apple executives, however, the iPhone experienced strong sales growth in the Asia Pacific and Japan markets -- where sales more than doubled year-over-year. First-quarter iPhone sales in Greater China, for example, were driven by huge demand following the January launch of the iPhone 4S and China Telecom's debut as an iPhone carrier in March. "On a macro basis, China has an enormous number of people moving into the higher income groups -- the middle class, if you will -- and this is creating a demand for goods, not just Apple's but other companies' goods as well," Apple CEO Tim Cook told investors Tuesday. "There's a tremendous opportunity for companies that understand China, and we're doing everything we can to understand it and serve the market." Huge U.S. Upgrade Opportunity Piper Jaffray said that Apple's record iPhone sales are proof that the iconic device maker's international growth is only just beginning. "Apple's March quarter results are particularly important as they are evidence that the company's growth story can be successful in these emerging markets," said Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Douglas Clinton. Nevertheless, the U.S. market continues to represent a huge iPhone sales growth opportunity for Apple and its carrier partners. "The bigger story for iPhone is the coming launch of iPhone 5, which we... newsfactor.com »

With Apple's iPhone drawing new customers to the third-largest carrier, Sprint Nextel is committed to a key differentiator in the market: unlimited data. The data-hungry iPhone, with nearly a half-million available apps, is likely a key reason AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless have phased out unlimited data plans for new customers in favor of metered plans. Sprint, which gained the iPhone with the introduction of the 4S last October, is the only iPhone carrier to offer so-called "all-you-can-eat" data. Match Made in Heaven And that's not likely to change any time soon. The company announced that it expects to keep unlimited data plans even if the next iPhone model is equipped for long-term evolution 4G high-speed data, as is widely expected. "I'm not anticipating the unlimited plan would change by that point," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told CNET. "That's our distinctive differentiator. Frankly, [the iPhone and unlimited plans are] a marriage made in heaven. We're clearly attracting customers from our competitors." Sprint sold 1.5 million iPhones in the first quarter, the company reported this week, which is far less than the 4.3 million sold by AT&T and 3.2 million sold by Verizon Wireless; but 44 percent of Sprint's iPhone sales were to new customers. Overall the carrier added 1.1 million newcomers, for a net gain of 263,000. Phones using LTE do not necessarily consume more data than 3G phones, but users are likely to download more and to download content such as HD video, which could eat away at data allowances. "LTE phones encourage people to use more data because the network's high bandwidth and low latency delivers a better consumer experience," wireless expert Alex Spektor of Strategy Analytics told us Wednesday. AT&T and Verizon customers who signed up for unlimited data plans before the change can still use them, but newer customers choose from plans starting from... newsfactor.com »

(Reuters) - Eight New York residents who accused the Chinese government and Baidu.com Inc of censoring their pro-democracy writings on Wednesday asked a U.S. judge for a $17.44 million default judgment. Reuters: Internet News »

Google Inc. announced Tuesday it was investing $300 million to build another data center in Council Bluffs, bringing the Internet search company's total investment in the western Iowa city to about $900 million. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said the center would bring about 50 new jobs to the city across the Missouri River from Omaha, Neb. Those will include jobs in computer repair, heating and cooling, and logistics, said Chris Russell, operations manager for the Council Bluffs Google data center. Construction will begin immediately on a 1,000-acre site south of Council Bluffs, where Google workers joined Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and other officials for the announcement. Russell could not say when the new center is expected to be completed or how large it would be. Google's existing $600 million data center opened in 2009, bringing about 200 jobs to the area. That center houses computer systems that support services such as Google Search, Gmail and Google Maps. The new center will provide the same support, Russell said. "We are glad to be in Iowa, and Google's future here is very bright," Russell said. Russell, Branstad and Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan all credited the state's competitive electricity rates and educated workforce for Google's expansion in western Iowa, but the approval of more than $9 million in tax credits certainly didn't hurt. The Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved the credits -- which include everything from property tax to sales and corporate tax breaks -- last week to help convince Google to select the Iowa site. Debi Durham, director of the state Department of Economic Development, said the move makes good economic sense. She noted that Google's proposal for its first Council Bluffs data center was for $300 million, but that it doubled to $600 million by the time the facility opened in... newsfactor.com »

(Reuters) - Software maker Aware Inc said it will sell some patents related to WiFi and 4G LTE to Intel Corp for about $75 million, sending its shares up 70 percent. Reuters: Internet News »

(Reuters) - Intuit Inc, the maker of tax preparation software TurboTax, said it agreed to buy Demandforce, a software-as-a-service application provider, for $423.5 million in cash. Reuters: Internet News »

(Reuters) - Books-A-Million Inc said the Anderson family, which includes Chairman Clyde Anderson, on Saturday made a non-binding proposal to take the company private. Reuters: Internet News »

Are some consumers losing interest in Pinterest? That appeared to be the trend last month, when meteoric growth for the overnight app sensation slackened, according to two market-research firms. The image-bookmarking site and social network drew 18.7 million unique visitors in the U.S. in March, compared with 17.8 million in February and 11.7 million in January, says ComScore. AppData, meanwhile, says the number of Pinterest users connected to Facebook in the past 30 days declined to 8.3 million from 12.2 million. "The numbers show slowing user growth, (the) negative impact of redesign and declining buzz level on Google Trends," IDC analyst Karsten Weide says. What impact, if any, those figures have on the hype surrounding Pinterest is anyone's guess. The 2-year-old start-up has an estimated value of as much as $1 billion and is a hot acquisition candidate, following Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram. The dip could be interpreted as a hiccup in the app's inexorable path to Internet riches, says ComScore analyst Andrew Lipsman. Pinterest did not comment directly on the reports but said in a blog post Wednesday that it had its "highest traffic days ever" on Monday and Tuesday. It did not provide figures, though market researcher Experian claims the site is the third-most-popular social network in the U.S., behind Facebook and Twitter. For historical context, Lipsman compares Pinterest's hockey-stick-like growth to Twitter's ascent a few years earlier: "After periods of major growth spurts, it's natural for things to subside." What the figures tell is that despite formidable numbers, Pinterest has a soft user core that has yet to solidify -- just as Twitter did in 2009, Lipsman says. Now, Twitter users are among the most fervent among social-media companies. For now, some consumers are re-evaluating Pinterest. "I need more time and motivation -- not more ideas and recipes," says freelance writer Cathie Ericson. newsfactor.com »

Rumors swirled last December about Nokia selling off its Vertu unit. Now, news reports suggest the wireless handset maker is in late-stage talks with European private equity group Permira to sell the asset for some $265 million. Nokia launched Vertu in 1998. The luxury phone unit sells devices that cost upward of $5,000 and as much as $315,000, rivaling exotic car brands and fine watches. The phones are made by hand, and often include diamonds and hand-stitched leather. Nokia doesn't offer specific earnings for Vertu in its quarterly reports. But the Financial Times reports the unit drives between $268 million and $402 million annually. Vertu has flagship boutiques in London, Paris, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York and Las Vegas. The phones are sold in more than 50 countries. Exclusive Mobile Phones We asked Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, his take on Nokia's rumored move to exit the luxury mobile-phone business. He told us the decision would represent Nokia getting out of a non-critical business as it focuses on its mainstream customers. "Nokia would be going to get some money out it, which is great, assuming this goes through," Greengart said. "For the private equity group, this is about luxury goods. The luxury market remains strong, particularly in Asia," he continued. "That market seems far more interested in status symbols than in platforms and apps. You don't buy a Rolex because it's your only watch and there's no other way to tell time." Vertu has relied on exclusivity -- along with celebrity endorsements from the likes of songwriter Seal, actress Michelle Yeoh and chef Alain Ducasse -- to demonstrate its appeal to the uber-rich. One of the key features of Vertu phones is the Concierge, a personal dedicated lifestyle assistance service that's available 24/7 in any language. When users press a dedicated button... newsfactor.com »

Yahoo plans to double its Olympics presence this summer, aiming to be the top Web site for the fourth straight Games. Yahoo is sending 25 people from around the world to cover the Summer Games in London -- about "twice as big" as it had in the Winter Games -- including U.S. gold medal winners Shannon Miller and Dan O'Brien and many of its sports columnists and reporters. It also plans to cover the games in dozens of languages. The move is an effort to outshine competitors. Despite not paying for exclusive rights to cover the games, Yahoo says it has been the No. 1 global destination for Olympics coverage for the past three games. In February 2010, Yahoo Sports had 32 million unique visitors and 254 million page views for the Vancouver Games, it says. Second-place NBC, which paid for exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to cover, had 19 million visitors and 251 million page views. NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp. that has agreed to pay $4.4 billion for the U.S. rights to carry the Games through 2020, lost $200 million on the Winter Olympics. By contrast, Yahoo's Olympics coverage is profitable, says Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's head of global media. "These games will be the biggest revenue driver we've ever had for an event by a long shot," he says. The Summer Games will represent a test of Levinsohn's broadened role of overseeing Yahoo's global media efforts. Previously, he oversaw media for the Americas. The event also represents Yahoo's bigger push into video. Levinsohn said the site will have five times the video coverage of the previous games. Proctor & Gamble Co. is a key sponsor for various projects, including one that features the mothers of Olympians. newsfactor.com »

Mobile-phone shipments fell 1.5 percent year-over-year to 398.4 million units during the first three months of 2012, IDC reported Tuesday. However, the smartphone segment continued to remain hot, with shipments soaring 42.5 percent year-over-year. Nokia lost its leadership position in the phone market overall for the first time since IDC began tracking mobile phone shipments. Samsung now owns the global top slot, thanks to the company's strong sales of Galaxy smartphones. Samsung also claimed the top spot in the red-hot smartphone segment by shipping 42.2 million units, which equates to a 29.1 percent market share. Samsung's smartphone sales grew at an astounding 267 percent clip in comparison with the 11.5 million units the company shipped in the same quarter last year. "Samsung has used its established relationships with carriers in a mix of economically diverse markets to gain share organically and at the expense of former high fliers such as Nokia," said IDC Senior Research Analyst Kevin Restivo. Samsung's Six-Month Window of Opportunity Apple shipped 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter and held a 24.2 percent market share at the end of March, followed by Nokia (8.2 percent), Research In Motion (6.7 percent) and HTC (4.8 percent). The smartphone race between Apple and Samsung remained tight during the first quarter, with both companies posting impressive growth in key areas of the world, said IDC Senior Research Analyst Ramon Llamas. "Apple launched its popular iPhone 4S in additional key markets, most notably in China, and Samsung experienced continued success from its Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet and other Galaxy smartphones," Llamas said. Samsung is to launch its new Galaxy III S smartphone later this month. The new model will be the first to run Samsung's new 1.4-gigahertz quad-core processor, which is based on ARM's Cortex A9 technology. Samsung's new Exynos 4 Quad chip reportedly... newsfactor.com »

Facebook will go public on May 18, a published report says, in one of the most highly anticipated tech initial public offerings since Google went public in August 2004. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the social networking company is set to start its roadshow on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. The roadshow, a series of meetings with prospective institutional investors, is designed to stir interest in the company's stock. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Facebook, will attend some of the meetings, The Journal reported. The Menlo Park, California-based company is seeking to raise about $5 billion in the offering, giving the entire company a value of about $100 billion. Officials for Facebook declined to comment. Facebook last month announced it is buying Instagram, the company behind a popular mobile photo-sharing application with the same name, for $1 billion, its largest acquisition ever. During the first quarter, Facebook's net income fell 12 percent, weighed down by higher expenses even as its revenue soared. Net income fell to $205 million in the three months that ended March 31, from $233 million a year earlier, while net income attributable to common shareholders fell to $137 million from $153 million. That amounts to earnings of 9 cents per share in the latest quarter, down from 11 cents a year earlier. Revenue rose 45 percent to $1.06 billion. The company had 901 million monthly active users as of March 31, up from 845 million as of the end of 2011. Facebook is listing its stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "FB." newsfactor.com »

The global tablet computer market was "robust" in the first quarter, but fell shy of projections as shipments of Android-based devices and Amazon's Kindle slowed, according to new data from market research firm IDC. The Framingham, Mass.,-based firm had predicted that tablets would fall by 34 percent after the busy holiday season, but its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker instead found a steeper 38.4 percent slump, or 1.2 million fewer units. iPad Still Rules Overall, worldwide shipments of tablets reached 17.4 million units in the quarter, a growth of 120 percent, up from 7.9 million units in the first quarter of 2011, the report said. But 11.8 million of those units were Apple's iPads, down from 15.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. The Cupertino powerhouse's worldwide share of the market grew from 54.7 percent to 68 percent sequentially. "Apple reasserted its dominance in the market this quarter, driving huge shipment totals at a time when all but a few Android vendors saw their numbers drop precipitously after posting big gains during the holiday buying season," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC, in a statement. He said the company was reaping benefits from its decision to keep making the iPad 2 after introducing its successor in March. Excitement over the new iPad version also figures into the results, as it was introduced near the end of the quarter. Amazon.com, on the other hand, saw declining post-holiday interest in its Kindle Fire devices, dropping from 16.8 percent of the market at the end of 2011 with 4.8 million shipments to "just over 4 percent" and third place in the market behind Samsung, maker of the Galaxy Tab, IDC said. Filling in the No. 4 and 5 spots were Lenovo and Barnes & Noble, respectively. IDC Vice President Bob O'Donnell told... newsfactor.com »

WatchESPN, the online and mobile version of Disney's popular sports TV network, was activated Tuesday for most of Comcast's 22 million video subscribers. It's one of the perks being offered to cable subscribers to convince them to keep paying for TV. Getting online or mobile access to shows you already pay for is known in the industry as "TV Everywhere." The new offering results from a 10-year deal between Comcast Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. that was announced in January. It doubles the number of customers able to access WatchESPN to about 40 million. "We think that's a fantastic start for only being at this a year and a half," said Matt Murphy, ESPN's senior vice president of digital video distribution. WatchESPN offers live feeds of four pay TV networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU. It also offers on-the-go access to feeds of ESPN Goal Line when college football is underway or ESPN Buzzer Beater during college basketball season. Its predecessor, ESPN Broadband, later renamed ESPN 360 and then ESPN3, was a separate channel started up in 2001. ESPN3 was only available online and offered streams of games that were a bit off the beaten path. WatchESPN gives users access to the regular ESPN channel, including shows like Monday Night Football, and its spinoffs. Customers of Time Warner Cable Inc., Bright House Networks, and Verizon FiOS also have access to WatchESPN. Its app, available on iPads and iPhones, has been downloaded about 8 million times. For now, the online and mobile versions come with few or no ads as the Disney subsidiary experiments with interactive advertising. During TV commercials, the online version often puts up a message that says "Commercial break. We'll be right back." "It's not a television platform, it's an (Internet protocol) based platform," said Murphy. "There are different and engaging things and we wanted... newsfactor.com »

Хабы: Wordpress Мой сервер, который и будет героем последующего повествования — это обычный арендованный у FirstDedic сервер среднего класса с процессором DualCore Xeon E3110 3.00Ghz. Оперативной памяти было установлено 4 Гб, жесткий диск 500 Гб. На сервере был установлен nginx 1.01 в качестве frontend, и apache 2 в качестве backend, с запуском скриптов в режиме CGI. История приключилась с сайтом, который был размещен на моем сервере, собственно, не сайт, а чужой личный блог. Ранее на блоге наблюдались пики трафика до 10000 в сутки, но с подобной нагрузкой сервер справлялся на ура абсолютно без оптимизации на стандартных файлах конфигурации. Читать дальше → habrahabr.ru »

Moms are 61 percent more likely to visit social pin-board site Pinterest, 38 percent more likely to become a fan or follow a brand online, and 27 percent more likely to visit Blogger than the average American. So says a new report from Nielsen. "Moms are at the center of their family's offline life, so it's little surprise that they're also at the center of many of the biggest trends online as well," Nielsen wrote in its report. "Whether to look up the latest product reviews or to connect with friends, families and even brands through social networks, American moms are particularly active and influential online." Pinterest Reigns American moms are clearly showing favorites when it comes to family and lifestyle sites. In a ranking of the top five sites in this category, 4.9 million moms choose Pinterest, 4.8 million choose Disney Online, 4.4 million go to iVillage Network, 4.2 million opt for WebMD, and 3.8 million go to Everyday Health. What about the top five social networks and blogs for moms? No big surprises here, but Nielsen did quantify it. More than 72 percent of moms in Nielsen's survey rank Facebook first (27.9 million). Three out of four American moms visited Facebook in March 2012. Facebook is followed by 24.3 percent who listed Blogger. Twitter, WordPress and Tumblr round out the top-five list. About one in three bloggers are moms and 52 percent of those bloggers are parents with kids under 18 in the household. Another 50 percent of moms actively participate in social-media access platforms via social-media devices. That compares with 37 percent of the overall general population. Implications for Advertisers "Moms who blog are more than twice as likely to follow brands and celebrities compared to the online average," Nielsen reported. "To help save time and money, many moms shop online; moms are 35... newsfactor.com »

Nvidia reported robust first-quarter results on Friday -- driven by high demand for products based on the company's graphics processor unit offerings as well as strong sales of quad-core Tegra 3 chipsets for smartphones and tablets. The big downside for Nvidia, which relies on overseas semiconductor plants to manufacture its products, is that its Taiwan-based partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is struggling to keep up with demand for new chips designed for production using TSMC's advanced 28-nanometer process technology. "Supply is still constrained, and our manufacturers are working their hearts out to catch up to our demand," said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. "But at the moment, demand still continues to exceed supply and we expect that to happen for throughout the year, Huang told investors on a conference call Friday. "Every chip that can come out of their fab is being shipped instantaneously." Nvidia reported a profit for the quarter of $60.4 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $135.2 million, or 22 cents a share. Strong Mobile-Chip Growth Demand for Nvidia's new GPUs, based on Kepler architecture, for desktop PCs was so strong in the first quarter that it exceeded the company's supply. Moreover, NVidia's Kepler-based GeForce 600M offerings for notebooks racked up record revenue in the quarter on the strength of the ramp of the Intel Ivy Bridge platform. Meanwhile, Nvidia's Kepler offerings are continuing to evolve. Two weeks ago, for example, the company unveiled a new computer graphics card powered by dual GeForce GTX 690 GPUs based on the company's Kepler architecture, which has been engineered to establish a new performance threshold for the gaming experience. Revenue from the company's consumer products business -- which includes Tegra chipsets for smartphones and media tablets -- rose 20.8 percent from the prior quarter, to $132.6 million. "The increase... newsfactor.com »

(Reuters) - Online stock photography provider Shutterstock plans an initial public offering of common stock to raise up to $115 million. Reuters: Internet News »

With some 900 million user accounts, Facebook would seem to be the perfect venue for advertisers. The question is, despite the amount of time people spend logged on, posting updates, chatting with friends and sharing pictures, how much does the advertising that has made Facebook a multibillion-dollar concern in a short eight years really move products? Not enough, the nation's leading automobile manufacturer has apparently concluded. In its case, paid advertising on the world's biggest social network hasn't justified the cost. $10 Million Campaign The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that General Motors was pulling its ads for cars on Facebook, while continuing to use free pages to publicize its products. The paid advertising had reportedly amounted to $10 million. The decision may reflect a mindset of "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" That could be troubling on some level for the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company as it heads toward an initial public stock offering Friday that hinges on future profitability and revenue growth. The company could be valued as high as $100 billion. "GM's move is certainly likely to give other advertisers pause, especially given the company's heft, its reputation for advertising savvy and its remarkable return from the grave," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told us. "There have also been numerous similar situations in the past, where an initially hot Internet property cooled swiftly -- in some cases, by Antarctic proportions -- when exposed to close scrutiny." One example, King said, was Second Life, the virtual world created by Linden Research in 2003 that allows users to interact through avatars. Virtual Showrooms Didn't Pay "At one point, the site's fast growth and its popularity among the technology elite made it a go-to venue for numerous vendors and manufacturers, many of which built virtual 'showrooms' to market and advertise their goods," King... newsfactor.com »

Two much-anticipated games, Max Payne 3 and Diablo III, [could] bring respite from a five-month slump in video game retail sales. The arrival of the third-person action game and the PC-based fantasy role-playing game will be welcomed by game fans and retailers, because the release schedule of potential hits so far in 2012 has been underwhelming. Another sign of slumping sales: Retailer GameStop reported last week that first-quarter sales fell 12.5% on a drop in store traffic due to fewer blockbuster titles. Overall April retail sales were $630.4 million, down 32% from $930.9 million in April 2011, reports market tracker the NPD Group. "When we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever," says NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "We just saw a lot less this April as compared to last." Other factors in the slump: growth in sales of downloadable games and add-on content, as well as a casual gamer shift to mobile and Web games. Some developers have turned design efforts to the next generation of video game consoles, even though only Nintendo's Wii U has been announced, says Geoff Keighley, host of Spike network's GameTrailers TV. "Really, the only big game this year," he says, "has been Mass Effect 3," BioWare's science-fiction role-playing game, which has sold about 4 million copies in two months. With Max Payne 3 ($60, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs, ages 17 and older), developer Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto) revived the police detective from two popular computer games out in 2001 and 2003. The success of the new game, coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs, "is critical for the video game market, not just for Rockstar," says EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich. Since the impact of mobile games on interest in premium-price console games is hard to quantify,... newsfactor.com »

(Reuters) - Pinterest, the increasingly popular online bulletin board, raised $100 million in a financing round that values the U.S. start-up at $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters: Internet News »

Samsung, the world's No. 1 mobile-phone maker, appears to have another hit device on its hands even before it goes on store shelves overseas at the end of the month. The Galaxy S III, the latest flagship phone from the South Korean electronics giant, has already racked up 9 million pre-orders, according to a report published in a South Korean business newspaper. The Korea Economic Daily, citing an unnamed Samsung official as its source, said the orders came from a hundred carriers and the company was producing about 5 million Galaxies per month. The phone will launch in Europe on May 29th but isn't expected in the U.S. until June. The price and wireless-carrier partners in the U.S. have not been announced. Timing Is Good Neil Shah, senior analyst for wireless mobile strategy at Strategy Analytics, told us the Android 4.0.4 device's reported pre-order figure is credible because of timing and past numbers. "Considering the iPhone 4S effect is slightly fading since it launched last year and a lot of people are anticipating the iPhone 5, the Galaxy S III numbers could be very healthy," Shah said. "Demand is going to be pretty high, considering the average selling rate for Samsung flagship devices the last two or three quarters have been between 5 million and 6 million per quarter," he said. "The Galaxy S II reached 20 million in February 2011 [after a year], which is an average of 5 million per quarter." The company's unique Galaxy Note, a cross between a tablet and smartphone, reached 5 million units shipped in March after only four months on the market, he noted. "If these two units can sell 6 to 7 million units per quarter and Samsung has a great distribution reach across more than 100 countries and hundreds of operators, 6 to 10 million [for the S... newsfactor.com »

Some Apples will be green. Apple data centers, that is. The technology giant has announced that its new half-million-square-foot data center in Maiden, N.C., will only use electricity that has been generated by renewable energy. The company said that the Maiden facility will be "the most environmentally sound data center ever built." This complements plans for a data center currently in Newark, Calif., and one planned for Prineville, Ore., to go 100 percent renewable. 'An Industry First' Two solar array installations are being built to support the North Carolina center, and both will use high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system. One array will be a 100-acre, 20 megawatt installation on the same site as the data center, and it will generate 42 million kilowatt-hours each year. The other, also 100 acres, is being located several miles away, and it will produce another 42 million kWh. A bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation is being constructed, and will become operational later this year. It will add another 40 million kWh. These Apple-owned energy generators will generate 124 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, which will account for 60 percent of the data center's needs. The remainder will come from area providers of renewable energy. Greenpeace Protests The data center planned for Prineville will use only renewable energy, purchased from local providers of wind, hydro and geothermal. The data center in Newark has received regulatory permission to purchase electricity from renewable sources, and expects to be 100 percent renewable by February of next year. In a section called "Apple and the Environment" on its Web site, the company pointed out that its operations center in Austin, Texas, has been using only purchased renewable energy for nearly a decade, and now its operations centers in Sacramento, Munich, and Cork, Ireland, do as well. The corporate headquarters in Cupertino,... newsfactor.com »

In ancient Greece, priests gathered at the Temple of Apollo on Mount Parnassus, the better to interpret the deity-inspired prophecies of Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi. Google, for all its omnipresence, is no deity, yet legions practice search-engine optimization in an effort to divine the secret algorithms that move certain Web sites to the top of an online search. Now comes candidate optimization, essentially the same idea applied to job seekers, with services that help them tweak their resumes so they end up at the top of a list generated by a company's computerized talent-management system. Hurdle No. 1? Dazzling the computers, which these days are more likely than people to be frontline resume readers. "Computers have a very specific way that they look at resumes," said Jon Ciampi, founder of California-based Preptel Corp. For a subscription of $25 a month, Ciampi's 2-year-old company will help a candidate reconfigure a resume so a computer can better spot the qualifications that make that candidate a good match for the job. With the recession and its lingering aftermath, the number of resumes generated for any job opening is so overwhelming that human-resource staffs can't handle them all. The U.S. Labor Department reported that in February there were 3.5 million job openings and 12.8 million people unemployed. No wonder recruiters turn to software created by companies such as Kenexa Inc., in Wayne, Pa., a leader in the field. "The volume is just too high," said Jeffrey Weidner, director of sourcing science at Kenexa, whose Web site describes a case study in which one wireless-communications company received five million resumes, leading to 50 hires. In 2011, companies worldwide spent $3 billion on talent-management systems that scan and sort resumes, schedule interviews, track follow-ups, and incorporate social media, according to Bersin & Associates L.L.C., a California consulting group that tracks the industry. All this... newsfactor.com »

LONDON (Reuters) - Online gaming firm 888 expects to pay a back-tax bill for its Spanish operations of less than $10 million, as Spain prepares to award its first online betting licenses in June, a source close to the company said. Reuters: Internet News »