It’s no secret that Facebook is worth about $100 billion because it collected personal data about its users. A lot of data. Although Twitter tracks its users too — albeit in a much less aggressive way — the company has decided to take a different route. It announced Thursday that it is joining Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox Web browser, and giving its users the ability to opt-out of being tracked in any way through Twitter. Twitter is doing this by enabling the Do Not Track feature in the Firefox browser that enables people to opt-out of cookies that collect personal
Read MoreWith their patent war raging on, Apple and HTC have been ordered into face-to-face mediation talks to settle their legal differences. Issued by the U.S. District Court of Delaware on Thursday, the order requires counsel and key decision makers from both companies to attend a session on August 28, 2012. It follows by a single day the enforcement of an International Trade Commission import ban on two HTC smartphones won by Apple in December of 2011.
Read MoreThere’s no question that every venture capitalist within 100 miles of Silicon Valley wanted to squeeze their khaki-clad selves into what had become tech’s hottest deal of late. That would be to get a piece of the new round of funding for social bookmaking phenom Pinterest. But while piles of VCs and other investors tried to work every angle possible to noodge into the action, the iconoclastic CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann decided to go big and go global by hooking up with a Tokyo-based Internet giant. That would be Japan’s Rakuten, which will invest upwards of $50 million in a $100 million round that values the social bookmarking phenom at $1.5 billion. Rakuten is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, with a flagship site Rakuten Ichiba, among others. It was founded in 1997 and had revenues of $4.7 billion in 2011. Most important in Pinterest’s calculation was apparently the link with its CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, whose nickname is Mickey. One the richest men in Japan, Mikitani is one of the best known entrepreneurs there where he’s been described as “Richard Branson meets Jeff Bezos.” I briefly chatted with Mikitani last night about why he decided on the Pinterest deal, in a conversation where he focused a bit on Rakuten’s famed “omotenashi” or “empowerment” philosophy. Simply put, the concept is that — unlike an Amazon — Rakuten is a facilitator of commerce, much like its shopping mall metaphor beginnings. The approach is to aid merchants rather than compete with them. It’s a little eBay, a little Alibaba and even a little Amazon Web services mixed in.
Read MoreWith 50 percent of the mobile browser market in its home market of China, UCWeb is now looking across the Pacific. UC’s next target is the U.S., where the company released localized Android and iOS versions this past week and plans to open up a Silicon Valley office later this year. (It has already made inroads into India, where it has 20 percent share and is close to knocking off market leader Opera, execs said.) UCWeb's Roy Rong and Yu Yongfu visit AllThingsD. UC Browser is more than a just dumb container for Web sites; in China, the browser includes its own virtual currency accounts, identity system, social network and navigation services. In a way, it’s more like a mobile-only Facebook platform than the pure Chrome or Safari browsers. Plus, UC browser is quite fast, because the company maintains local data centers from where it compresses Web sites and sends them to phones. Opera Mini and Amazon’s Kindle Fire Silk browser use similar techniques. Bridging to the U.S. market won’t necessarily be easy, but UC’s design and experience across the spectrum of low- to high-end phones could be instructive. CEO Yu Yongfu — who’s on a grand tour of Silicon Valley this week — emphasized that while his company started doing all this in 2004, the U.S.
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From Foursquare to Tumblr, lots of today's hot tech companies are being grown in New York City. The fifth annual Internet Week NY, which began Monday and will run through May 21, is designed to, among other things, recognize companies like them and help foster startups shooting for similar success. "The cool thing about Internet Week NY is it's entirely programmed and curated by the city's internet community," said Internet Week co-chairman David-Michael Davies. "We have about 225-250ish events happening throughout the city and they really range. We have some art events happening in galleries in SoHo, we have conferences happening
Read MoreChina Mobile told its shareholders on Wednesday that the company is in talks with Apple on carrying the iPhone. “China Mobile and Apple both have the will to strengthen cooperation,” Chairman Xi Guohua said, according to Bloomberg . “When there is more specific news, we will disclose it.” The company reportedly indicated it is unclear whether a deal will be reached this year. An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment. However, sources have said that a meeting with China Mobile was among the stops CEO Tim Cook made during a China trip earlier this year . With roughly two thirds of a billion users, China Mobile is the biggest carrier in the world, as measured by number of customers. The company’s current 3G network doesn’t work with today’s iPhone, but a next generation iPhone could well work with China Mobile’s 4G network, which is currently in a few spots. China Mobile has also applied to offer service in the United States, Reuters said , but it is unclear how well that bid will be received
Read MoreHTC confirmed late on Tuesday that availability of two of its latest smartphones will be delayed as U.S. Customs ensures the phones aren’t in violation of an International Trade Commission exclusion order. “The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order,” HTC said in a statement to AllThingsD. “We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.” HTC has been in a patent battle with Apple, which won an exclusion order late last year for certain HTC phones. The HTC One X is bound for AT&T, while the HTC Evo 4G LTE is headed to Sprint and was due to go on sale on Friday . Sprint declined to comment beyond HTC’s statement. An AT&T spokesman was not immediately available for comment. HTC has been counting on its One line (along with the Evo for Sprint and a new Droid Incredible model for Verizon) to help it regain its footing .
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Report by Todd Zander, Vice President of Mobile and Emerging Media for WebMD Health Corporation Last week the Mobile Media Upfront 2012 event convened mobile agencies, brands, technologists and publishers to reflect on the state of mobile advertising, identify all the pain points and challenges, and offer solutions and ideas on how to take mobile buying into the next phase of growth and adoption. Collectively the agency panelists seemed to agree that mobile is a powerful force and it's not going away anytime soon. But contradictory perspectives and opinions were pervasive among the buying community. One agency exec said that mobile advertising
Read MoreAiming to bolster its position in low-end devices, Nokia on Tuesday offered up two new phones for emerging markets. The Nokia 110 and 112 are both dual-SIM, 1.8-inch screen phones that offer basic Internet access as well as connections to Facebook and Twitter and a collection of bundled games from Electronic Arts. Compression technology can help cut data use by as much as 90 percent, Nokia said. “Today’s mobile phone users want a quick internet experience that allows them to discover great content and share it with their friends – but without being held back by high data costs,” Executive VP Mary McDowell said in a statement. The 110 is priced at 35 Euros and set to ship this quarter, while the 112 is estimated to sell for 38 Euros and is due to ship next quarter.
Read MoreJohn Mardini still has another year left before he gets his college degree, but he’s already onto his third business and this time he’s aiming big. Mardini, with the backing of family and friends, is launching Voyager Mobile, a start-up that aims to bring cut-rate cell phone services to the masses. The company is launching with two rate plans with service via Sprint’s network. The company will charge $19 a month for unlimited talk and text and $39 (plus tax) for unlimited talk, text and Web. The 22-year-old, who is entering his senior year at New York University, told AllThingsD he decided to get into the cell phone business after noticing how high his bill had gotten. “It was just one of those things,” Mardini said in a telephone interview. “I pay so much for my cell phone. I was thinking there has to be a better way to make it cheaper for everyone.” Despite the low prices, Mardini said he believes he can offer a range of phones including some fairly high-end Android devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy S II, also known as the Epic 4G Touch. The company will also sell tablets, data cards and hotspots, though the rate plans for those have yet to be finalized. Voyager is the latest in a growing number of companies looking to resell service on another carrier’s network. Among the most high-profile such startups are Republic Wireless and FreedomPop . The notion of a virtual mobile network operator has been around for a while. Some have persisted while others, such as ESPN Mobile and Disney Mobile have faded. In recent months, though a new wave of companies have cropped up promising to bring new business models and economics to the wireless business.
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