The company, which lets users alert their friends to their location by “checking in” via smartphone from coffee shops, bars and other locations, revealed for the first time that it plans to let merchants buy special placement for promotions of personalized local offers in July in a redesigned version of its app. All users will be able to see the specials, but must check into the venue to redeem them.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

A growing number of start-ups are providing easy ways to share videos taken from a smartphone, enabling people to add music and text and to share the results on Facebook or another social network.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

It was the first the board heard of what, later that day, would become Facebook’s largest acquisition ever, according to several people familiar with the matter. Mr. Zuckerberg and his counterpart at Instagram, Kevin Systrom, had already been talking over the deal for three days, these people said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Now comes the true test: Actually delivering the revenue and profits to back up those numbers.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

The potential new valuation — roughly 20 times what the fast-growing company was worth around a year ago — highlights the promise and pitfalls of technology start-ups that have built their business around users of mobile devices, such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

The problem is such asset sales have a shaky track record of preserving competition. In the Black Hills gold rush town of Deadwood, the upshot of such an order has been spotty service.

Over the years, Deadwood has seen devastating fires, a smallpox epidemic and the saloon shooting of lawman Wild Bill Hickok. In April came a new problem for some residents in Deadwood and elsewhere: On the heels of a federal order, Alltel Corp. customers had to switch to cellphone service provided by AT&T.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

The reversal comes more than a year after Microsoft lost its crown as most valuable technology company to Apple Inc. Microsoft’s market value peaked in late 1999 around $600 billion and has trended downward ever since, as the company has failed to replicate its dominance of PC software in markets like Internet search and mobile.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Mr. Icahn disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday he had talks with Motorola Mobility this week. In the filing, he said Motorola’s patent portfolio is “substantially larger” than Nortel’s and includes patents for so-called 4G telecommunication technologies that have “significant” value.

“I am concerned that the tail is wagging the dog,” Mr. Icahn said in an interview. “They should maximize the monetization without being overly concerned on the effects of the operating company.” Mr. Icahn added that he believes the company’s patents are worth more than $4 billion.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

When daily-coupon website LivingSocial Inc. said it raised $400 million in April, the firms putting up cash included hedge-funds Tiger Global Management, Lone Pine Capital and Brookside Capital, people familiar with the matter say. Tiger’s name popped up again in late June, when the New York firm grabbed a piece of the $100 million financing round for Square Inc., a mobile-payments start-up led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

A handful of hedge funds already had a history of such investments, but the activity has increased recently as investors try to cash in on the surging valuations of Facebook Inc., LinkedIn Corp., Zynga Inc., Groupon Inc. and a smattering of smaller companies

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

According to a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal dated June 22, lawyers from New York’s Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP requested that San Mateo, Calif.-based GetJar stop using “App Store” on its website and elsewhere, and refrain from using the term in the future. The lawyers suggested that the company instead use the terms “mobile download service” or “application download service”.

The letter highlights the importance of Apple’s App Store to its mobile strategy and how much it views the storefront as a way to differentiate itself from competitors.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

People familiar with the thinking of Chief Executive Samuel J. Palmisano say he is seeking advice on how to handle the transition and that they expect him to designate a successor by appointing a president or operating chief in 12 to 18 months.

Whoever takes over will face the challenge of extending a rising stock price and a streak of profitable quarters while navigating shifts in mobile computing and emerging markets.

The top candidate is sales chief Virginia M. Rometty. The 53-year-old executive has separated herself from the pack over the last year, according to recruiters and former and current IBM executives. Global Services boss Michael E. Daniels, 56, is seen as the No. 2 choice. Rodney C. Adkins, 52, who is senior vice president for hardware, faces longer odds. None of the candidates was available for comment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

The concerns were expressed in a letter released Thursday by Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas) and Rep. Edward Markey (D., Mass) after the lawmakers asked the four main U.S. wireless carriers to explain their policies for collecting and storing location data.

The carriers–AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA–said they seek subscribers’ consent before tracking their location, but said they can’t control how applications developed by third parties use location information that the carriers don’t provide.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The company behind the now ubiquitous Android operating system came under fire after computer-security experts last week uncovered more than 50 malicious applications that were uploaded to and distributed from Google’s Android Market.
Some security experts said the incident shows Google, which doesn’t inspect Android apps before they are published, needs to do more to try to ensure the apps are safe before they are offered to smartphone users.

Google largely relies on users to rate apps and raise the alarm about any problems with them. It also requires consumers to give their consent for an app to access their personal data. But that approach isn’t enough, according to Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of computer-security firm Veracode. “App stores need to get serious about vetting code before it is available for customer download,” Mr. Wysopal wrote on his blog.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The new funds stand out in what is a bleak environment for most venture firms. Hit by the financial crisis and poor returns over the past decade, just 119 new venture funds were raised in the U.S. last year, totaling $11.6 billion in assets, according to research firm VentureSource. That was down from 215 new venture funds totaling $40.1 billion in 2007.

“Today’s fund-raising market is a have and have-not market,” said Christopher Douvos, co-head of private-equity investing for the Investment Fund for Foundations, an organization that invests in venture-capital funds on behalf of nonprofits. “The capital is really focused on accessing the best-performing funds.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Carriers are deploying new services and cutting deals with start-ups to help protect people from malicious attacks and misuse of their personal data stored on a smartphone. Meanwhile, handset makers and chip firms are taking steps to fortify their hardware as the number of attacks on mobile devices grows larger and more sophisticated.

“Everyone is realizing that this is an uncontrolled environment,” said Edward G. Amoroso, chief security officer of AT&T Inc. “We don’t want to have the same problems that we had with PCs.”

Security researchers and technology executives say their moves to improve security mark the start of an effort that will take years to play out because the wireless industry until recently was more focused on signing up customers than hardening mobile devices against attacks.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Air Force users who try to view the websites of the New York Times, Britain’s Guardian, Spain’s El Pais, France’s Le Monde or German magazine Der Spiegel instead get a page that says, “ACCESS DENIED. Internet Usage is Logged & Monitored,” according to a screen shot reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The notice warns that anyone who accesses unauthorized sites from military computers could be punished.

The Air Force said it had blocked more than 25 websites that contained the documents, originally obtained by the website WikiLeaks and published starting late last month, in order to keep classified material off unclassified computer systems.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The effort comes just months after Firefox’s creator, Mozilla Corp., killed a powerful and new tool to limit tracking under pressure from an ad-industry executive, The Wall Street Journal has learned. Mozilla says it didn’t scrap the tool because of pressure, but rather out of concern it would force advertisers to use even sneakier techniques and could slow down the performance of some websites.

Meanwhile, online advertising company Lotame Solutions Inc. is also supporting efforts for an industry-created do-not-track mechanism. Lotame’s powerful tracking technologies were featured in a front-page article in the Journal earlier this year.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The hole stems from the app’s failure to confirm the authenticity of PayPal’s website when communicating over the Internet–a basic lapse that the security researcher who found the flaw said would allow someone to intercept passwords from unsuspecting users.

PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said the eBay Inc. unit verified the vulnerability Tuesday night and has fixed the problem after being notified by The Wall Street Journal. PayPal sent the fixed version of the app to Apple Inc.’s App Store. “To my knowledge it has not affected anybody,” Ms. Pires said. “We’ve never had an issue with our app until now.”

A hacker would need skill and luck to make use of the vulnerability, which only affects users of the iPhone app connecting over unsecured Wi-Fi networks. It doesn’t affect the company’s Android app or users of the PayPal.com website.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Some U.S. officials have accused smaller peer ZTE Corp. of being a potential security threat as well. Four lawmakers sent a letter Oct. 19 urging the Federal Communications Commission to take a closer look at ZTE and Huawei, and to consider restrictions that would make it harder for them to do business in the U.S.

ZTE, hardly a household name, is now the world’s sixth-largest seller of telecom gear, according to research firm IDC, and a frequent bidder for U.S. telecom work. It was founded in 1985 by a group of Chinese state-owned companies, which still hold a 17 percent ownership stake. But executives from ZTE’s U.S. arm say their company isn’t a security threat, and they are taking a series of measures designed to allay the fears of U.S. officials.

ZTE executives say they plan to set up a U.S. manufacturing facility within the next year or two, let third parties audit the company’s hardware and software, and are willing to share the company’s software code with U.S. officials. ZTE said Friday it has taken an initial step toward receiving the validation required for federal civilian agencies seeking to use the company’s technology.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Mainstream business tasks from sales and marketing to customer service and consumer research are quickly making their way from desktops to smartphones, as companies try to take advantage of increasingly powerful mobile devices to free up sales staff and pare back paperwork.

Insurance company Aflac Inc. offers its 70,000 sales employees the option of uploading a dozen different mobile apps to their personal smartphones. The apps were designed by Aflac to help its sales force access Aflac’s customer database, claims or policy information while on the road.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The comments by Motorola (MOT) co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha were his company’s first detailed remarks on the lawsuits filed by Microsoft at the International Trade Commission and federal court in Seattle.

The suits were viewed as an attempt to slow the explosive growth of Google Inc.’s (GOOG) competing mobile operating system, Android, which Motorola uses exclusively on its smartphones.

In an interview Tuesday at a technology conference in San Francisco, Mr. Jha said he is willing to look at using Microsoft’s operating system if the software company gets it right.

“I am open to finding ways to work with Microsoft,” Mr. Jha said. “But it has to be a compelling offering.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

“The NFL will be on a tablet,” said Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s senior vice president of media strategy. “It’s a question of what shape or form. We are currently talking to Verizon about it.”

Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Debra Lewis declined to comment on the talks.

The discussions underscore the growing importance of video to the wireless industry as it begins a major shift to speedier fourth generation broadband networks. The U.S. wireless industry has been touting video for many years but it has yet to take off in a major way.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The firm, Amerilink Telecom Corp., in recent months has recruited former congressional leader Richard Gephardt and former World Bank President James Wolfensohn as directors. It hopes the appointments will help overcome U.S. officials’ skepticism about Huawei, which has hired Amerilink as a consultant and distribution partner.

Huawei is one of the world’s top suppliers of telecom gear, but alleged ties to the Chinese military have stymied its ambitions in the U.S. market. It is currently trying to win part of a multibillion-dollar network upgrade at Sprint Nextel Corp (S).

Sprint says the bidding is entering the final stages and six vendors are submitting proposals. It declined to comment on Huawei or Amerilink, which have made a joint bid.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday, the IBM CEO said he doesn’t worry about companies like HP that have slashed their investments in core technology. “HP used to be a very inventive company,” Mr. Palmisano said.

IBM would never have paid as heavily as HP did to acquire a company such as computer-storage provider 3PAR, he said. “[HP] had no choice,” said Mr. Palmisano. “Hurd cut out all the research and development.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

But Clearwire has a problem: It needs billions of dollars to finish building its nationwide network. And now Sprint, which owns 54 percent of Clearwire, must decide whether to fund the project itself or turn to a competitor for help.

Sprint’s board of directors is debating whether to let rival cellphone operator T-Mobile USA invest in Clearwire, three people familiar with the situation said.

Such a decision would consolidate the U.S. telecom landscape by enabling the country’s third- and fourth-largest wireless operators to use the same next-generation network.

T-Mobile USA Chief Executive Robert Dotson said early this year that his carrier is looking at its options for 4G, including having conversations with Clearwire. However, T-Mobile USA hasn’t put a proposal on the table, so no decision is imminent, and some Sprint board members are adamantly opposed to the idea, these people said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site