Google enhances search with Metaweb acquisition
Late last week web giant Google improved its search capabilities with the acquisition of San Francisco-based Metaweb an open database of ‘things’. Founded in 2005, Metaweb is a community driven database of entities that attempts to aggregate all content related to one person, place or thing in the one place and then link it to all relevant material. The company maintains an open database, called Freebase, of over 12 million things, including movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations and companies, which Google plans to contribute to and further develop.
Telecoms.com
Nokia Siemens confirms Motorola network assets purchase
Infrastructure vendor Nokia Siemens Networks has announced that it is to acquire certain network infrastructure assets from US competitor Motorola for $1.2bn. The Finnish-German joint venture said that it expects to gain new relationships with 50 wireless carriers and strengthen existing commercial ties as a result of the deal, which the two firms expect to close before the end of 2010. Motorola’s networks portfolio caters to a range of technologies, from GSM and CDMA, through WCDMA to WiMAX and LTE. The US vendor will be keeping hold of its iDEN business, however, and will also retain substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business and other selected assets, the firms said.
Telecoms.com
Nokia looks to ditch its CEO
A report claimed that massive Finnish phone combine Nokia has begun a man hunt for a CEO to replace the current boss, Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo. According to the Wall Street Journal, which quotes "people familiar with the situation", the powers that be aren't happy with Nokia's performance, particularly at the smartphone end of the market. Nokia is still the biggest supplier of mobile phones but it has lost face by having Apple snatch the top end of the smartphone market.
Tech Eye
Intel claims it is close to deal with FTC
Intel claims that it is close to a deal with the US Federal Trade Commission on the chipmakers antitrust case. The FTC and Intel have been negotiating since last month to meet a self-imposed July 22 deadline to reach a settlement. Reuters have mentioned that Intel and the FTC had reached a preliminary agreement that wouldn't include a fine. Under the deal Intel would be limited in is use of volume discounts for its central processing units, the main chips in personal computers, as well as chips that run graphics.
Tech Eye
Yelp approaching 1m Android users
Local search app now has 2.5 million active users a month across all platforms. It launched last December on Android, and Yelp says downloads have been given a boost by an upgrade that allows users to tweet recommendations or share them on Facebook. The number of active users is now growing 50 per cent week over week, it says.
Mobile Entertainment
Mobile app store downloads to hit 25bn in 2015
Juniper Research has forecast that app store downloads will reach 25 billion annually by 2015, up from 2.6 billion in 2009. The market analyst attributes the growth to operators launching their own app stores alongside those already in the market from the various handset vendors and indies like GetJar. Specifically, the report cites the likes of China Unicom's Mobile Market, Bharti's Airtell APp Central and Vodafone 360's Apps & Games Shop.
Mobile Entertainment
Police crack down on computer support phone scam
Nineteen websites which were used to perpetrate a phone scam offering "computer support" that defrauded people across the English-speaking world have been closed down by police. In the scam, reported by the Guardian today, teams at Indian call centres rang computer users claiming to be from tech support. The computer users were then told there were problems with their PC, which could be fixed.
Guardian
Google to abandon Nexus One web store soon
Google is to abandon its online web store and stop selling the Nexus One Android handset. The phone, which was the first Android handset designed by Google itself, was initially sold only at google.com/phone, but in a blog post the company’s vice president Andy Rubin said that the method had not worked and that the company had now received its last delivery of the handset.
Telegraph
Amazon says price cuts bolstering Kindle eBook sales
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has said that the recent price cut to its Kindle electronic reader has spurred sales of both the device and e-books. Amazon last month cut the price of the Kindle to ward off competition from Apple's iPad tablet and from Barnes & Noble's Nook device. In a statement, Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos called the lower price "a tipping point," and the company said it sold three times as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009.
Independent
Mobile data worth $340bn by 2014
Global revenue from mobile value-added-services (VAS) will increase from $200 billion in 2009 to $340 billion in 2014, according to new research from Informa Telecoms & Media. Unsurprisingly, most of the growth will be driven by emerging markets - China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Poland and the Ukraine are expected to account for 36 per cent of mobile data revenues in 2014.
Mobile Entertainment
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