Google increases search market share lead as Yahoo falls
Online advertising broker Google has managed to grow its search market share yet again, with Microsoft and Yahoo faltering. Industry watcher Comscore reported that Google's share of the US search market increased by 0.5 per cent to 65.3 per cent in September, with Yahoo being the victim, which still managed to cling onto second place ahead of Microsoft's Bing. While Bing retained its 14.7 per cent market share, Yahoo fell 0.8 per cent to 15.5 per cent. For Google's rivals, Comscore's figures are a slap in the face after Microsoft and Yahoo joined forces, with Bing powering Yahoo's search results.
The Inquirer

iPhone 4S pre-orders top one million and set new record
Apple says first-day pre-orders of the iPhone 4S topped a million, breaking the record set by last year's model. Apple and various phone companies in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Japan started taking orders for the phone last Friday. It hits stores this Friday. The base model of the iPhone 4S costs 200 dollars with a two-year contract in the US. It has a faster processor and an improved camera compared with last year's model. However, some customers and investors were disappointed that Apple did not launch a more radical new model. It's been more than a year since the previous model was released.
Mirror.co.uk

Facebook launches iPad app
Facebook has launched its first app dedicated to the iPad. The new free download, available from Apple's App Store, was described on the company’s blog as more “immersive” than its previous offerings, and offers an improved interface for touchscreens. Leon Dubinsky, a software engineer at the social network, said that the app had been designed to create a “fun” experience on the tablet and highlighted the improved use of multitouch gestures. Previously Facebook has encouraged people to use touch.facebook.com, but the web interface does not offer such advanced features. “Use your fingertips to scroll through your News Feed. Give the screen a swipe to page through albums. Pinch a picture to zoom in,” wrote Dubinsky.
Telegraph

4G spectrum auction: time for the networks to grow up
The horse trading has escalated and the name-calling has begun. In a punchy put-down this weekend, Vodafone's UK chief accused rival network Three – the smallest and newest entrant to the market, of "dressing up in short trousers as they run around the playground complaining that they're being bullied by the older boys". Guy Laurence is worried about the next big auction of British airspace. He thinks the regulator, Ofcom, is giving too much protection to Three and the UK's largest network, Everything Everywhere. On Friday the proposed rules were torn up and the auction date was postponed for a further six months to the end of 2012, although even this is not set in stone.
guardian.co.uk

Steve Jobs' official cause of death released
Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple, died of respiratory arrest caused by a pancreatic tumour, according to the death certificate. Jobs died last Wednesday at his home in Palo Alto, California, at about 3pm, according to the certificate, which lists "respiratory arrest" as the immediate cause of death with "metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumour" as the underlying condition that caused the respiratory problem. No autopsy was performed on Jobs, who was listed as an entrepreneur in the high tech industry with "some college" education on the certificate released by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.
Telegraph

Orange and T-Mobile to start sharing 3G signals
Everything Everywhere is to let customers of its T-Mobile and Orange brands use both networks' signals for 3G mobile broadband, the company has said. One year ago, T-Mobile and Orange began allowing customers to use both networks for 2G voice and SMS services. On Monday, parent company Everything Everywhere said the "big 3G switch-on" will start next week, making it possible for those customers to get wider mobile broadband coverage. "Not only will customers be able to talk in places they weren't able to before, they'll also now be able to access the internet, social networks or download emails at improved speeds, in more places," Everything Everywhere chief Olaf Swantee said in a statement.
ZDNet UK

NYSE might have been hit by hackers
Online hacktivists Anonymous could have hit the New York Stock Exchange computer systems yesterday. The NYSE.com web site went down briefly yesterday afternoon and as soon as it happened fingers began pointing at the hackers, some of whom are camping out in the New York financial district as part of the Occupy Wall Street protests. The group, or at least one part of it, had called for attacks on the stock exchange financial systems, but the idea seemed to divide the group, not least because it was targeted for Columbus Day, a national holiday in the US.
The Inquirer

Microsoft Zune HD killed off
The days of Microsoft’s slow-selling Zune HD are finally over, after the Big M said it was stopping production and switching its focus to Zune software instead. Microsoft has read the Zune HD its last rites for the second time in less than a week. The struggling PMP has been killed off, with Microsoft instead deciding to train its eye on Zune software for Xbox and Windows Phone. Just last week, a support page suggested the same thing, but was yanked from the web, with the Big M saying they’d made an error. However, this time it looks like it’s for real. The Zune and Zune HD were never properly launched in the UK. Even in the US they failed to do the business, thanks to Apple’s iTunes and iPod range cornering the market.
T3

BlueStacks' App Player tool brings Android apps to Windows
Mobile compatibility specialist BlueStacks has released the first version of its App Player software. The company said the App Player tool would allow users to run Android mobile applications on their Windows PCs. John Gargiulo, vice president of marketing for BlueStacks, told V3 the application would offer higher performance than traditional emulator platforms. "We don't like to use the 'e-word' because we feel it blends us in with other developers out there," Gargiulo said.
V3.co.uk

Amazon’s Fire tablet is hit with a patent lawsuit
Bookseller Amazon has had a patent lawsuit filed against its Fire tablet just weeks before it was set to go on sale. The online retailer is the target of a lawsuit from Smartphone Technologies, a company that has already sicced its lawyers on Apple, RIM and others, according to the Paidcontent web site, and is accused on infringing four of its patents. According to the report the firm, which is owned by patent collection business Acacia Research group, has a haul of patents that it licenses to companies. Apparently Amazon did not accept its offer and infringed patents that involve things like touching a screen or tapping an icon.
The Inquirer