Gay dating app Grindr goes straight to help women find a tennis mate
Grindr, the mobile dating app for gay men, is not just about sex, its founder has insisted as he prepares a marketing campaign aimed at straight women. Joel Simkhai, who was in London this weekend to prepare for the launch of a version for straight people, is trying to shed the app's sleazy reputation. Grindr, which has more than two million gay users, had hoped to launch its straight version this spring but difficulties adapting the app for heterosexuals have delayed it until next month.
Parents fear children getting addicted to Facebook
A third of all UK parents believe that their children are in danger from the internet and 80 per cent think it is possible to become addicted to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, a new study suggests. It also found that a third of parents even believe that the web can “rewire” a person’s brain. Internet charity the Nominet Trust, who commissioned the research, say there is no evidence that social networks are harmful in themselves, and that there is no neurological evidence of the web changing brains. Facebook and Twitter, they suggested, usually in fact reinforce existing friendships, while even playing video games has been show to improve coordination and ‘visual processing skills’.
A new tech bubble? Not quite, say US investors
More than a decade after the dotcom crash of the Nineties, which saw investors lose millions of pounds and web companies floated as often as they disappeared, the spotlight has returned to this buzzing valley which is also home to Stanford University and the biggest online players. A series of high-value IPOs have already happened this year, with the likes of the profit-free digital music service Pandora floating for $2.6bn last month and LinkedIn going public with a market valuation now touching $9bn. The new generation of the internet is here. Gone are the days of the information web – it is now all about the social internet and companies like Groupon and Zynga are the new hot tickets for investors.
BBC acts to stop Twitter leaks by stars and writers
A group of senior BBC executives are campaigning to introduce a BBC-wide ban on actors, writers and other talent involved in its productions using social networking sites such as Twitter to disclose details of their work. According to senior sources, the need for a ban "was a widely held view" and "conversations have started" regarding a change to contracts to forbid talent from using Twitter and other public internet forums to discuss details of their involvement in BBC productions if the information is confidential or sensitive. The campaign follows a spate of revelations on Twitter which, the executives claim, have disrupted press and marketing campaigns. They hope a ban will prevent storyline spoilers, casting news or press announcements from leaking out.
Ericsson Exec Rene Summer Calls For New Approach To Digital Rights In Europe
Writing in the latest issue of Ericsson Business Review Summer says, "Through a series of legislative Checkpoint Charlies‚ of which copyright abuse is the most prominent example, these economic-rights holders determine how, when, where and by whom legal digital content can be accessed in Europe." Despite numerous calls from a wide range of consumer organisations, Summer continues, "The gatekeepers refuse to relinquish their posts or look beyond their immediate self-interests. By clinging to outdated business methods such as windowing and territoriality, economic-rights holders are in fact creating the consumer behaviour against which they so violently protest.
PapayaMobile Launches Gateway to China Program
PapayaMobile, the mobile social gaming community on Android that has more than 19m active users, has launched its ‘Gateway to China’ programme, which it says is the only turnkey solution for Western developers to launch their games in China. The company notes that as Western mobile developers look to extend their reach, the Chinese market offers new opportunities for rapid growth, consisting of more than 800m wireless subscribers and a virtual goods market projected to reach $4bn (£2.5bn) in 2011. The first wave of developers will be participating in the program includes BulkyPix, Kiloo, Connect2Media, Mindstorm Studios and Digital Prunes.
Britons Clueless About Data Roaming Charges Says Carphone Study
A new survey conducted by retailer Carphone Warehouse has found that a majority of Britons have limited or no knowledge about data roaming charges. According to a survey of more than 2,000 customers, only six percent people were aware about the per mega-byte rate while travelling abroad. The company also said that only 11 percent customers actually bothered to check the data roaming charges before they go for a trip abroad. Predictably, around 81 percent of the customers incur a bill of approximately £100 more than normal, due to data roaming charges.
Cisco creates apps platform for Cius tablet
Just days before Hewlett-Packard launches its TouchPad tablet, running the webOS system acquired with Palm, Cisco has drawn attention to its own competitive tablet activities, with an application store for its Cius enterprise device. Although Cisco recently streamlined its operations to focus on its core strengths, and is expected to back away from most device and endpoint products, the Cius seems to have escaped the cull. Now it has gained AppHQ, a software ecosystem to help enterprise users create, manage and deploy apps for the tablet, and to set up internal corporate app stores in partnership with developers and partners.
ARM: We're the neutral Switzerland of the IT industry
ARM is in a very good position. As the industry quibbles within its inner circles, be it about patents or the much publicised desertion of the BAPCO benchmark standard, ARM has become the neutral, wealthy Switzerland of the IT industry. When asked whether the patent spat between Samsung and Apple will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the industry - whatever the outcome - the answer from ARM's Jem Davies, ARM Fellow, VP of technology, media processing at the company, was clear. Much clearer than his catchy title. "We don't see it affecting ARM directly because of the nature of who's suing whom over what," he told us. "Clearly patents is something we take very seriously as an IP company - something we spend a lot of time working on and pay attention to very carefully."
Polish media mogul buys Polkomtel
Poland’s second largest carrier, Polkomtel, has been sold to media mogul and Forbes rich-list regular Zygmunt Solorz-Zak for a reported €4.5bn. The sale brings an end to what’s been a fairly lengthy saga; the telco’s multiple shareholders have been looking to sell the company for several years but opportunities for a clean sale were regularly marred by in-fighting and disagreement over how the sale should proceed. The company was owned by a mix of Vodafone and Polish mining/energy companies Orlen, Polska Miedz, Polska Grupa Energetyczna and Weglokoks.
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