Market takes a U-turn and trades lower; Google can’t make investors forget Spain

NEW YORK — For the past few days, the U.S. stock market was able to forget about problems in Europe.

Friday put Europe squarely back in the spotlight.

U.S. stocks fell sharply as escalating problems in Spain jolted investors. Spain’s stock market plunged 6 percent and its borrowing costs spiked after a regional government asked for a financial lifeline.

The drop on Wall Street, which sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 133 points, marked a U-turn for the market. Stocks had risen over the past three days as investors focused on healthy earnings from U.S. companies like Mattel, Honeywell and Coca-Cola.

On Friday, talk of sluggishness in Europe was prevalent as more companies turned in their quarterly results.http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-stock-futures-tumble-with-economic-crisis-in-europe-overshadowing-strong-us-corporate-earns/2012/07/20/gJQAB0GpxW_story.html

Google is up and Microsoft down? Not quite

(MoneyWatch) With Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) both reporting earnings yesterday, it's impossible to avoid comparing them. At the highest level, Google would seem to be the obvious winner, with 21 percent year-over-year revenue growth and Microsoft sales rising only 4 percent. But that's too simple a take, given that both companies are in important transitions and that, as usual, things aren't quite as they seem.

Google
That 21 percent hike in revenue doesn't count Google's acquisition of Motorola, and that's the right way to consider it. There may be some cost savings to be wrung out, but a hardware-based business is not Google's core. It's an important growth area, because the search company has gotten between 96 percent and 97 percent of its revenue from ads for many years. Turning Motorola into a profitable enterprise -- not an easy task, as management there has found -- would help make Google more financially independent from its ad business.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57476957/google-is-up-and-microsoft-down-not-quite/

Google To Help Take On Mexican Drug Cartels

Normally when we talk about Google 'round these parts, it's to discuss issues of privacy andpiracy. But, according to an ABC News report, Google is going on the offensive to help take down Mexican drug cartels.

"Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, has taken a keen interest in Mexico, where more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against the cartels in 2006. Schmidt recently visited most of Mexico's most violent cities, Ciudad Juarez, where civic leaders asked if he could help.

"Defeated, helpless, these people have been so hardened in their experience with cartels that they have lost battles and they have lost hope," Schmidt told a conference on international crime this week. "They were looking for a universal hammer to protect them. For me the answer was obvious. It was technology."

At the conference in California, put on by both Google and the Council on Foreign Relations, a variety of ways technology and Google could help the Mexican authorities tackle their drug cartel problem were discussed. Some of the strategies may raise eyebrows for privacy-minded citizens of any country: sharing real-time intelligence with police, identifying through Google's data how individuals are connected with one another, and even showing links between criminals or corrupt politicians and potentially implicated bank accounts.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120719/10124819761/google-to-help-take-mexican-drug-cartels.shtml

Google Corporate IT Builds Before Buying

Bucking the corporate practice of buying instead of building internally, Google's corporate IT department will typically build management software itself, or adopt an open source software package, before investigating the feasibility of purchasing proprietary software.

"In the long run, it is cheaper to build and not buy," said Justin McWilliams, a software engineer in Google's corporate engineering department, which provisions and manages computers and other technology for Google employees. McWilliams shared some of the company's practices at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON), being held this week in Portland, Oregon. "We typically don't default to buying a commercial offering. We think about building it from scratch first, or look to the open source world," he said.

Google uses a number of home-built or modified open source programs for IT management, including software for full disk encryption (FDE), remote computer management, compliance management, virtual private networks (VPN), video teleconferencing, and for single sign on (SSO).

Over the past few decades, IT departments at large organizations have learned to purchase commercial, off-the-shelf software to manage their infrastructure, typically because it is less expensive than writing and maintaining the software in-house. Due to a number of factors, however, this approach does not work well at Google, McWilliams explained.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259607/google_corporate_it_builds_before_buying.html

Daily Report: Google and Microsoft Face Changing Markets

Two tech titans — Google and Microsoft — released their quarterly results on Thursday. The news at Google was all about mobile advertising, and the challenges the company faces as users move from the big screen on their desktops to the small screen in their hands. Microsoft, meanwhile, had a loss, its first in more than two decades as a public company.

Google’s results reflected the growing pains that have accompanied its transformation into a mobile company, reports Claire Cain Miller on Friday in The New York Times. Advertisers pay less generally for ads on mobile devices than they do for ads on desktop computers. So with the increasingly dominant role that smartphones play in daily life, the price that advertisers pay for clicks on Google ads has decreased 16 percent since last year. The results also included figures for Motorola Mobility, the mobile device maker that Google now owns; that company is losing money.

Nonetheless, it was a profitable quarter for Google. The search giant reported that its net income climbed 11 percent. Google shares were up 2 percent in after-hours trading.

At Microsoft, an accounting charge related to the company’s ill-fated acquisition of an online advertising business led to the loss in the software giant’s last quarter, reports Nick Wingfield on Friday in The Times. But while that loss can be played down as an anomaly for a company that has been a reliable moneymaker for decades, weak sales in Microsoft’s Windows business cannot.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/daily-report-google-and-microsoft-earnings/

Google buys Sparrow for 'new Gmail project'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- With $43 billion of cash in its coffers, Google can afford to spend millions on companies just to mine them for talent.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) struck again on Friday, buying popular iPhone and Macintosh e-mail app Sparrow. But Google has no interest in the company itself.

A spokeswoman for the search giant said Google will keep Sparrow up and running, and it will continue to support the application. But the company doesn't plan to offer any significant Sparrow updates in the future.

In their new roles at Google, Sparrow's five employees will work on "new projects" for Gmail.

If Sparrow's team has any hard feelings about ending work on its creation, it didn't say so.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/20/technology/google-acquires-sparrow/ 

First images of midrange Samsung 'Jasper' surface

The first images of the Samsung SCH-I200 Jasper have appeared online, giving us a decent look at the midrange Android smartphone. This time, rather than the usual blurry "in the wild" photos, we're actually treated to press-ready renders of the front and back sides.

The details of the Jasper first surfaced a few months back when we heard that the it would include a dual-core 1.5GHz processor. Then, rumors over the next few weeks suggested that the handset would end up on Verizon's 4G LTE network and feature a WVGA (800x480 pixels) display. Beyond that, though, specifications are unclear.

As for a design, the Jasper calls to mind both the Samsung Droid Charge and the Nexus S. Factoring in the design and early details, it stands to reason that Verizon customers will soon be in for a low-cost alternative to the Galaxy S III.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57476923-251/first-images-of-midrange-samsung-jasper-surface/

Strategy Analytics: Nokia Lumia Smartphone Outships Apple iPhone and Samsung Android in First Three Quarters after Launch

BOSTON, Jul 20, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, the Nokia Lumia smartphone family with Microsoft operating system has outshipped Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Android family in the first three quarters after their respective commercial launches. It is an encouraging start for Nokia and Microsoft.

Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, "We estimate Nokia shipped 6.9 million Lumia smartphones with the Microsoft Windows Phone operating system cumulatively worldwide during the first three quarters after commercial launch, from Q4 2011 to Q2 2012. This compares with 3.7 million units of the rival Apple iPhone family in its first three quarters during 2007, and 1.3 million units for the Samsung Android family in its first three quarters during 2009. It is an encouraging start for Nokia and Microsoft.".

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/strategy-analytics-nokia-lumia-smartphone-outships-apple-iphone-and-samsung-android-in-first-three-quarters-after-launch-2012-07-20

Samsung unveils flagship 75-inch 3D TV with gesture-controlled Angry Birds

Samsung has unveiled a new flagship 75-inch television, named the ES9000 LED Smart 3D TV. While the TV sports a curved bezel of just 0.31 inches (0.78 cm) and boasts plenty of on-board features, most eyes are turned toward the game that ships with the colossal product: a gesture-controlled version of Angry Birds. Though the ES9000 enjoys the benefit of debuting the gesture-controlled game, owners of existing Samsung Smart TV's will soon also get to battle those perennially pesky critters while gesticulating wildly, as the new iteration of the title will eventually be rolled out to both the Plasma 8000 and Samsung's 2012 LED 7500, and superior, models.

The ES9000 will retail at an eye-watering US$9,999 when it arrives in some U.S. stores next month and for all those hard-earned dollars, the consumer receives some top-end features, such as an integrated camera for use with video calling apps like Skype, in addition to Samsung's Micro Dimming Ultimate and Precision Black Local Dimming technology. As part of the Smart TV range, the ES9000 also receives the complete suite of Smart TV features, which include voice-control, facial recognition software, gesture control and apps like Facebook and Tetris.

http://www.gizmag.com/samsung-75-inch-tv-gesture-controlled-angry-birds/23394/

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 impresses on benchmark site

Samsung in recent months has enjoyed the levels of rumours and speculation that is normally only seen with upcoming Apple products, especially leading up to the release of the Galaxy S3. The Samsung Galaxy Note is another handset that gets consumers looking out for news, and in the last couple of months the rumour mill has cranked up about the next version of the handset. New reports are now claiming that the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has impressed on a benchmark site.

Previously we reported that the handset is being tipped to be making its first appearance at an event planned for the end of August, and now as Mobile Syrup are reporting it seems the handset will come packing a 1.6GHz quad core Exynos processor following an entry on the popular GLBenchmark database.

This is the same processor that is found in the international version of the Galaxy S3, but clocked at 200MHz higher. The company did the same thing with the original Galaxy Note and took the dual core Exynos processor but clocked it at 200MHz higher. The results from the site are slightly higher than the GS3 i9300, so there is a chance the Mali-400MP GPU is also overclocked a bit too.

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/07/20/samsung-galaxy-note-2-impresses-on-benchmark-site/

Samsung Series 9 NP900X3C-A01 review (13-inch, 2012)

The first version of the Samsung Series 9 debuted before the word "Ultrabook" had even been coined by Intel. It was a proto-ultrabook, a thin-and-light 13-inch laptop that looked like a Windows variation of theMacBook Air, clad in black duralumin. The original 2011 Series 9was far from affordable for a laptop -- it actually exceeded the cost of an Air at the time by several hundred dollars -- but few who saw it didn't lust after it.

We actually got a sneak peek at the new 2012 Series 9 back in January, but it's taken until now for Samsung's elite laptop to become a reality. After a long wave of ultrabooks and the debut of new Intel processors, the new Series 9 is sleeker, lighter, and more affordable than last year's version. Still, at $1,299 it's $100 more than the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air, and it's considerably more expensive than the average 2012 Windows ultrabook sticker price of $999 or less. (Even though Samsung doesn't call the Series 9 an ultrabook on the box, it is one.)

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/samsung-series-9-13/4505-3121_7-35374674.html

Colorado shooting: Android phone captures first images of aftermath

The shaky shots of confused patrons -- some in Batman costumes, others bloodied and in shock -- leaving the Colorado theater where gunfire erupted were posted on YouTube by a person with an Android phone.

The scene outside the theater was relatively calm as captured by the phone, with a handful of people sporadically running out.

We've reached out to 13shantyltoledo, to find out more and will update if we do hear back.

Also posted to YouTube are purported recordings of scanner audio from the police (the first video below) and medics (the second video below) receiving the call about the shooting.

In the police call, the dispatcher says that "somebody is still shooting in the theater."

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-colorado-theater-shooting-video-20120720,0,7729586.story

Sony Hopes Android 4.0 Will Save the Walkman

Sony hopes it can offer Apple's iPod Touch sterner competition with the announcement of a new Walkman model powered by the latest version of Google's Android operating system.

The Walkman 3.5 inch F800 is not the first media players to use Android -- the "Z" series started this trend for Sony back in May and Samsung has a similar product -- but the version included on those models was 2.3. The F800 which replaces these will use 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Three capacities are offered, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB, promising 4.5 hours of video playback and 20 for music. Inside, the F800 features a 1GHz dual-core CPU.

Do music players need Android to work well for their intended task? Not really but it allows the device to access apps on Google's Play Store via the Wi-Fi connection.

The bigger question is whether users actually want old-fashioned music players at all, even Apple's iPod.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259571/sony_hopes_android_40_will_save_the_walkman.html

Android Smartphone Case Review: iSkin Vibes for Samsung Galaxy S III Review

What's Hot: Covers the back and sides of the large phone, comes with screen protector, easy to use.

What's Not: None.

Reviewed by Tong Zhang

The iSkin vibes is one of the first Samsung Galaxy S III cases launched by iSkin. While it doesn't have the aluminum back plating as the one on the iSkin aura, we actually find this case protecting the large Android smartphone better in several ways. The case is well designed, form fitting and easy to put on and take off. The iSkin vibes comes in four popular colors: Gravity (Black), Ultra Violet (Purple), Cosmic (Pink) and Lunar (Blue).

Design

The iSkin vibes is made with thermoplastic that combines polymer and polycarbonate. The material feels grippy but remains thin and light. The fluid lines on the back of the case adds pleasing aesthetics but more importantly they break the large surface to give you a better grip. The large part of the back also has a more textured surface than the surrounding area, and the cutout cluster for the rear ports is made with hard plastic for additional protection. We love this design, which protects more vulnerable parts of the phone without compromising the thickness of the case. Another more protective design is that the case covers the entire back and sides of the Galaxy S III, unlike the iSkin aura case that leaves the top and bottom edges open. The iSkin vibes is very form fitting, and the thermoplastic has enough flexibility for you to put on or take off the case easily. And it keeps the form better than most silicone cases.

The iSkin vibes for Samsung Galaxy S III wraps around the phone and covers the edges of the front bezel. This is another great design point for better protection: the case will keep the Galaxy S III's display off of flat surface should you put the phone face down. As with the iSkin aura, the vibes case comes with a film protector and a cleaning/installation kit. The film protector covers the display and most part of the front glass on the Galaxy S III, but not entirely.
The iSkin vibes comes in four colors that are popular enough for most people to choose their favorite from. The hard plastic plate for rear cutouts comes in different colors from the case, adding a visual break. The blue and pink cases have a white plastic plate and purple and black cases have a black plate.

Features
The iSkin vibes for Samsung Galaxy S III is more protective for the buttons on the phone. It protects the volume rocker and the power button under the plastic cover, and they're easy to use. Other ports and buttons get cutouts. The 3.5mm audio jack on top and the charging/syncing port on the bottom have generous cutouts that allow any cable to connect. Both the top and bottom mics get small cutout holes to let the sound through. Three cutouts on the hard plastic plate gives plenty room to the camera to have a full view and the flash to fully illuminate. The cutout for the speaker is perfect as well.
Conclusion
The iSkin vibes for the Samsung Galaxy S III is a well thought-out and well designed case. It's form fitting and easy to use. The case is grippy, and thin and light. You have access to all ports and buttons easily, and it offers extra protection for the buttons and the display when you put the phone face down thanks to the front barrier. We like that the case comes in four colors and a nice film protector for the front glass.
Price: $29.99
Web site: iSkin
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=43019

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean could be headed to more devices

Google's latest sweet Android 4.1 update, better known as Jelly Bean, looks to be rolling out to more devices, even as many are still waiting to be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Earlier today, HTC confirmed that Android 4.1 is coming to its HTC One X, One S, and One XL.

Not confirmed but just as compelling is the report from SamMobile that Samsung has begun testing Jelly Bean for the Galaxy S3 and could push an update to its new flagship phone later this summer. A little harder to believe is the report's additional contention that testing is also under way on the Galaxy S2, and that it could also receive Android 4.1 if all goes well with its successor device.

Jelly Bean could also come to dominate the low-end tablet market as well, with word that devices using chips from ARM-competitor MIPS will soon be able to run Android 4.1. IDG News Service reports that the effort to port Jelly Bean onto the hardware is coming directly from MIPS itself.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57476715-1/android-4.1-jelly-bean-could-be-headed-to-more-devices/

Facebook and its changing metrics

Brand marketers may 'like' Facebook, but the world's largest social network has created numerous challenges. ROI is often hard to find; Facebook says it can take a year to produce. And despite the promise, certain kinds of initiatives may simply not work.

Now that it's a publicly-traded company, Facebook is under even greater pressure to live up to its valuation, which currently reflects the fact that investors believe the social network has significant room to grow. To deliver the necessary growth, it has to find ways to convince marketers that it's a productive marketing platform.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, that may not be easy, and it may create big headaches.

Case in point: Dan Wilkerson, a social media project manager at analytics consulting firm LunaMetrics raisedsome interesting questions about recent changes Facebook made to how it calculates its reach metric. Wilkerson explains that "As of July 3nd, Facebook’s reach metric will include both mobile views and will now only count a ‘reach’ if a user scrolls down and loads a Page’s story."

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10391-facebook-and-its-changing-metrics

Social media: WWE to honor 1,000th 'Raw'

The WWE will celebrate its 1,000th episode of “Monday Night Raw” on Monday, making the show the longest-running weekly program in the United States. By comparison, “Monday Night Football” has aired more than 600 broadcasts in its four-plus decades on the air.

But before the wrestling organization hits 1,000 broadcasts, it reached another major media milestone: 100 million. The company and its wrestlers have amassed a combined 100 million-plus followers across various social media platforms and pages, leveraging video (Tout), photo (Instagram) and audio (Shazam) in addition to the “old” standbys of Twitterand Facebook.

WWE has built itself up as one of the most popular sports entertainment brands on the Web. (Let’s acknowledge here that everyone is going to have his own take on where WWE fits into the world of sports, just like the never-ending debate with NASCAR. That said, the tremendous amount of success WWE has had with social media is indisputable.)

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/trending/post/_/id/5179/social-media-wwe-celebrates-1000th-raw

Facebook, Wal-Mart chiefs meet to "deepen" relationship

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is about to add the biggest retail players to his list of friends.

Zuckerberg and his senior management team will spend two days at Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Bentonville, Arkansas home office this week, meeting with executives of the world's largest retailer and discussing ways to "deepen" their relationship.

The Facebook team will meet with Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke and his lieutenants on Friday, in the first such meeting between the two corporations' senior management teams. Zuckerberg and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will then speak to hundreds of Wal-Mart employees on Saturday at the retailer's monthly meeting.

Representatives at both companies declined to discuss the specific agenda for Friday's meeting other than noting that the summit is intended to bolster the relationship between the world's No. 1 social network and the world's largest retailer.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-19/business/sns-rt-us-facebook-walmartbre86i1er-20120719_1_retail-behemoth-wal-mart-ceo-mike-duke-zuckerberg 

Why the Internet Failed in the Search for the Batman Shooter

The Internet has trained us to assume that the intimate details of people’s lives must be out there on the Web somewhere, just waiting for us to enter the right Google search term or trawl the right social media platform.

News of the massacre at the Batman screening in Aurora, Colo., this morning sent a thousand journalists (and “citizen journalists”) to their browsers, racing to be the first to uncover the telling detail about the suspect. Would James Holmes turn out, like Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner, to have confessed in an online gaming forum to “hav(ing) aggression 24/7?” Might he have penned online political screeds, like Norway shooter Anders Behring Breivik?


Maybe. But if so, they weren’t forthcoming Friday morning. Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff writes of spending all morning scouring Facebook, Twitter, even MySpace for clues and coming up with absolutely nothing. “I cannot get over what an online ghost Holmes appears to be,” Ulanoff wrote.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/20/james_holmes_facebook_mistaken_identity_why_social_media_won_t_tell_us_the_batman_shooter_s_motive.html

Deep Inside a Facebook Hackathon, Where the Future of Social Media Begins

Queen’s “Under Pressure” blasts from the speakers in Facebook’s Building 18 Cafe. A DJ spins on one side of the room, and on the other end there are two kegs of beer next to a rack of granola bars, chips, and snacks. It’s a set-up that would make total sense for a dance party, were it not for the clusters of engineers ripping up their laptops, fingers tapping away at code.

This is no casual Silicon Valley feel-good party. This is the scene at Facebook’s 32nd hackathon, where company engineers and even interns are hoping to create the next big product features for the world’s most popular social network.

Wired received an exclusive, inside look at the first few hours of Facebook’s first hackathon since the company went public in May. But what makes this hackathon especially unique is its extended, multi-day length. Dubbed Camp Hackathon, the event takes place across three days and two nights, which means employees literally set up camp (yes, with tents) at the Menlo Park campus. ‪

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/facebook-gears-up-next-big-thing-in-three-day-camp-hackathon/?pid=3573&pageid=110376&viewall=true

Facebook acquires Mac, iOS developer Acrylic Software

Facebook has acquired Acrylic Software, a Vancouver-based developer of Mac and iOS apps.

The small firm is known for the RSS app Pulp (a personalized newspaper) and the secure database app Wallet (for securely storing passwords, credit-card numbers, etc.).

The company has decided to cease development of the two apps, which Facebook itself has not acquired. This means that the apps will continue to be available for download and purchase, but will no longer be updated.

Acrylic has two employees and both are moving to work on the social-networking giant's design team in San Francisco. Additional details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but this appears to be mainly a talent acquisition; Facebook will not be getting the technology behind the service, or its user data.

Here's the full announcement from Acrylic:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57476876-93/facebook-acquires-mac-ios-developer-acrylic-software/ 

Google, Facebook acquire Apple-focused companies [San Jose Mercury News, Calif.]

July 20--The race for engineering talent in Silicon Valley continued Friday, as two of the area's most well-known companies agreed to acquire foreign companies that focus on Apple's (AAPL) ecosystem.

Google (GOOG) purchased Paris-based Sparrow, which makes an email client for Mac desktops and the iPhone, while Facebook acquired Acrylic, a Vancouver app-design studio

that created the Pulp news reader and Wallet personal-information storage apps for Mac and iOS devices. Acquisition prices were not disclosed, though tech blog The Verge reported that Google paid less than $25 million for Sparrow.

Google verified the acquisition Friday, saying that the Sparrow team will join the Mountain View search giant's webmail team.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201207201511KRTRIB__BUSNEWS_17098_4898-1&params=timestamp%7C%7C07/20/2012%203:11%20PM%20ET%7C%7Cheadline%7C%7CGoogle%2C%20Facebook%20acquire%20Apple-focused%20companies%20%5BSan%20Jose%20Mercury%20News%2C%20Calif.%5D%7C%7CdocSource%7C%7CKnight%20Ridder/Tribune%7C%7Cprovider%7C%7CACQUIREMEDIA%7C%7Cbridgesymbol%7C%7CUS;GOOG&ticker=GOOG:US

Facebook's Facial Recognition Draws US Senate Scrutiny

Members of a Senate subcommittee sought answers from a senior Facebook official about the social network's usage of facial-recognition technology at a hearing this week, marking the latest phase of the ongoing scrutiny the company has faced from privacy-conscious lawmakers and regulators.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, challenged Facebook's policy of setting the tag suggestions facial-recognition feature as a default, and then allowing users to opt out.

Franken was also critical of the privacy controls the company makes available to its users, saying at one point that it takes six clicks to navigate to the first page that mentions the term "facial recognition." Similarly, he suggested that the company has not been as forthcoming as it could be about how much data it collects and how that information is used, a familiar refrain from critics of the social network's privacy policies.

"I think Facebook could still do more to explain to its users how it uses facial recognition," Franken said.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259579/facebooks_facial_recognition_draws_us_senate_scrutiny.html

Samsung takes Q2 smartphone lead

Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s biggest vendor of mobile phones, repeated its first-quarter feat of leading Taiwan’s smartphone market in the second quarter, trailed by HTC Corp (宏達電), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing data collected from sales channels.

Samsung grew 7.4 percent from 28.4 percent in the first quarter to account for 35.8 percent of the 1.35 million units of smartphones sold in the second quarter, while HTC grew 3.7 percent to 28.1 percent from the first quarter, the report said.

Apple Inc’s local market share dropped from 24.3 percent in the first quarter to 10.7 percent in the second quarter, the report showed.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/07/21/2003538237

ObjectVideo Drops ITC case against Samsung Techwin By Samsung

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2012 --/PRNewswire/ -- Just one day before a July 18, 2012 trial, ObjectVideo, Inc. dropped its patent infringement case against Samsung Techwin Co, Ltd. and Samsung Opto-Electronics America, Inc., in the International Trade Commission (ITC). The patents in suit dealt with video analytic software for security camera systems, such as virtual tripwire technology, and included US patent numbers 6,696,945; 6,970,083; and 7,424,175 (the '175).

The case was originally filed in June 2011 against three Respondent groups: Samsung Techwin, Bosch, and Sony. Sony settled in February 2012 and the trial against Bosch began on July 18, 2012. ObjectVideo has also more recently filed a separate ITC action against Pelco on the same patents, and has approached the entire security camera industry about licensing its patent portfolio.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/20/4645200/objectvideo-drops-itc-case-against.html#storylink=cpy

Nokia: Lumias outshipped iPhone, Samsung Android phones through first three quarters

Nokia (NOK) has hit a bit of a rough patch lately, having just reported its third consecutive billion-dollar quarterly loss earlier this week. Of course, investors saw some promise in Nokia’s earnings report, and it turns out there may be even more cause for optimism than they initially thought. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, Nokia’s Windows Phone efforts are off to a better start than Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone or Samsung’s(005930KS) Android smartphones at this point in their respective product cycles.

UPDATE: A reader notes that Strategy Analytics’s figures include the third fiscal quarter of 2007, a quarter during which the iPhone was on sale for two days, as the first of three counted quarters. When counting cumulative iPhone sales through the end of the second fiscal quarter of 2008, the iPhone’s total becomes 5.4 million units — still below the estimated 6.9 million Lumia phones shipped. Regardless, as noted in the final paragraph of this post, the comparison is flawed to begin with.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/07/20/nokia-lumia-sales-q2-2012-vs-iphone-samsung/

Google biz defies worries, ad clicks rise

Google Inc’s core internet business increased revenue by 21 per cent in the second quarter, easing Wall Street worries that a slumping global economy would take a toll on the company’s online advertising.

Shares of the world’s No1 search engine were up about three per cent in after-hours trade. Google said revenue for its internet business totalled $10.96 billion in the quarter, up from $9 billion a year earlier. Google posted revenue of $12.2 billion for the quarter and net income of $2.79 billion, or $8.42 per share, on a consolidated basis.

Headcount swelled to 54,604 employees at the end of the second quarter, due to the Motorola acquisition.

Google, which reported its first set of quarterly results since its May acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, offered few details about plans to expand into the hardware business, focusing instead on what it described as healthy trends in its traditional online advertising business.

Google’s advertising rates continued to be pressured by adverse macroeconomic and currency conditions and by consumers’ increasing use of smartphones to access mobile versions of the Web.

But investors took comfort in the 42 per cent surge in overall clicks on Google’s search ads during the second quarter.

“Paid-click volume is really strong; it’s a good thing. The volumes are accelerating and usage of Google has not stopped, it has just continued,” said Susquehanna Financial analyst Herman Leung.http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/google-biz-defies-worries-ad-clicks-rise/481020/

A lavish pay package helped Yahoo lure Marissa Mayer from Google

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo lured Marissa Mayer from Google with a lavish pay package that could total $129 million over five years - if she is able to get the company growing.

Yahoo disclosed details of its new chief executive's compensation package in a regulatory filing on Thursday. It is larger than the pay package of the average chief executive in Silicon Valley, but not the largest among chiefs of publicly held technology companies.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-20/news/32764597_1_google-stock-carol-bartz-larry-page

Google shakes up Android Jelly Bean to fend off malware meanies

Android Jelly Bean 4.1 promises to be more secure than previous versions of the Google's mobile OS.

The big news is that the software now properly implements Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), a technique designed to make malware-based attacks more difficult. The latest Jelly Bean iteration was released to select devices last week but is not due to come bundled with mainstream Android smartphones and tablets much before the end of the year.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/20/android_jelly_bean_security_revamp/

Google Buys E-mail Technology Start-Up Sparrow

Google Inc. has acquired e-mail productivity app developer Sparrow, as the Internet search giant seeks to bolster its Gmail service.

“We’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google,” Sparrow Chief Executive Dom Leca wrote on the company’s website. The Paris-based company has five employees, according to its site. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Sparrow’s app only works on Apple’s iPhone and Mac computers, not on phones powered by Google’s Android software. But it is compatible with Gmail. The $9.99 app lets users streamline their use of multiple email accounts in one place.

Mr. Leca said the firm will continue to make its service available to users, though a note on the Apple iTunes site where the app is available says “there will be no new features released for the Sparrow apps, other than minor maintenance and bug fixes.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/07/20/google-buys-e-mail-technology-start-up-sparrow/

Motorola Boosts Google Revenue

Google has reported a profit of US$2.79 billion in the second quarter, up 11 percent over the same period of last year, in the company's first financial statement since it finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility in May.

Motorola brought in $1.25 billion in revenue in the quarter that ended June 30, about 10 percent of Google's total revenue. But Motorola also accounted for an operating loss of $233 million, which brought Google's total operating income down as a percent of its revenue by 6 percentage points.

Google's total revenue, including Motorola sales, was $12.21 billion compared to $9.02 billion a year earlier.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259532/motorola_boosts_google_revenue.html