Google embeds indoor Street Views in search results

Google has added indoor Street View results to general searches, allowing you to see if the ambiance of that downtown restaurant matches the online review. Google began mixing indoor business Street Views in search results this week for those companies that have supplied the Google with panoramic interior imagery. The 360-degree tours inside businesses and shops are not actually taken with Google Street View cameras....

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EC: Samsung may have abused FRAND patents

Samsung's efforts to seek injunctions against Apple for standards-essential patents in the mobile phone market may be an abuse of its dominant position and a violation of European Union antitrust rules, the European Commission said Friday. The commission, in releasing a statement of objections to Samsung's patent conduct, said it was concerned that Samsung was seeking injunctions on patents where Apple is willing...

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Facebook's $1 message test opens inboxes to strangers

For a small number of Facebook users, a buck is now all it takes to get a message into someone's inbox, even if the recipient isn't a friend. The experiment seems enabled in part by Facebook's new policies, which remove the capability to block messages from people you aren't friends with. Under this policy, the main Inbox is reserved for messages from friends, or for other messages that Facebook's algorithms deem important....

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Facebook launches Poke app, reinventing feature

Facebook has reinvented its Poke feature with a new standalone iOS app that lets you send messages, photos and videos to your friends on the social networking service that disappear within 10 seconds of someone opening them. While it might have been a while since any of your friends on Facebook have used the feature, now you can check out the app released Friday. Supposedly coded with help from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Poke joins...

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After claiming Verizon attack, hacker and the spoils disappear

Hours after boasting about the theft of 3 million records from Verizon Wireless, the hacker claiming responsibility for the attack and the purloined data posted to Pastebin have disappeared from the Web. A search for the hacker's Twitter handle, @TibitXimer, produced a "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!" message. Meanwhile, the data claimed to belong to Verizon Wireless appears to have been removed from Pastebin, a popular...

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Craig Mundie takes new role at Microsoft, will retire in 2014

Craig Mundie has left his role as Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer to become senior adviser to the CEO, as he winds down before retirement. Mundie had led strategy since founder Bill Gates stepped down from full-time work at the company in 2006. Ina Fried of All Things D first reported the move Monday morning, noting that it was announced in an internal memo from CEO Steve Ballmer on Dec. 14, which also...

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Windows 8's uptake falls behind Vista's pace

With just a week left in the month, Windows 8's usage uptake has slipped behind Vista's at the same point in its release, data from a Web measurement company showed. According to Net Applications, Windows 8's online usage share through Dec. 22 was 1.6% of all Windows PCs, an uptick from 1.2% of November. Windows 8 publicly launched on Oct. 26. At the same two-month mark in Vista's release timetable, that OS accounted for...

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Toshiba to launch 20-megapixel image chip for digital cameras

Toshiba is preparing a 20-megapixel image sensor for digital cameras that it says will be the highest resolution of its kind. The Tokyo-based firm said the new chips will be able to support capturing 30 frames per second at full resolution. They will also be able to shoot video at 60 frames per second at 1080P or 100 frames at 720P. Toshiba said it will begin shipping samples of the new CMOS chips from next month, with mass...

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Apple gives Tim Cook 51 percent salary rise, but his total compensation drops 99 percent

Apple CEO Tim Cook received compensation totalling US$4.17 million in 2012, down 98.9 percent on last year -- although his 2011 compensation of $378 million consisted mostly of a one-off stock grant, worth $376.2 million at the time. Cook's salary, on the other hand, rose 50.8 percent, to $1.36 million, and his additional incentive payments more than tripled, to $2.8 million, the company revealed in a filing to the U.S. Securities...

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Apple drops bid to add Samsung Galaxy S III Mini to patent lawsuit

Apple has dropped its patent-infringement accusations against the Galaxy S III Mini, a mid-market Android smartphone that Samsung Electronics says it is not selling in the U.S. In a filing in the U.S. District Court for Northern California on Friday, Apple said it would withdraw its request to include the Galaxy S III Mini in a patent infringement case against Samsung that is set for trial in 2014. On Nov. 23, Apple had asked...

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iOS app revenues still four times higher than Android, but Play store growing fast

A new report from mobile app analytics firm App Annie shows that, while revenues for iOS apps are still four times higher than those of Android apps, the gap is beginning to close, thanks to spiking sales in the Google Play store. The report is the first of a monthly series that the company will make publicly available via its blog. MORE MOBILITY: Exclusive: Nokia seeks to block sale of some RIM products SMARTPHONE...

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OLPC cancels XO-3 tablet, downplays need for new hardware

One Laptop Per Child has cancelled plans to release its XO-3 tablet, although technology from that project could still be used in other products, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said. "The XO-3 is by no means gone. It may emerge in its constituent parts rather than as a whole," Negroponte said via email. OLPC started off in 2005 as a laptop project and is well known as a hardware innovator, with its first XO-1...

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Facebook loosens ties with Zynga

Facebook and Zynga have loosened their ties in an amended agreement that does away with most of Facebook's exclusive rights to Zynga games, but also permits Facebook to develop its own games from March next year. The social networking company, however, said it did not plan to develop its own games. "We're not in the business of building games and we have no plans to do so. We're focused on being the platform where games and...

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Sony sells 160,000 PS Vitas in first week of US holiday season

Sony sold over 160,000 PlayStation Vitas during the opening week of the holiday shopping season in the U.S., a key test for its flagship handheld game. The Vita launched in December 2011 in Japan, but several months later in most other markets, so the next few weeks will mark its first holiday season in much of the world. The Vita is increasingly competing not just with Nintendo's portable 3DS console, but with the growing...

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Adidas Heads to the Cloud to Control IT Spending

Adidas Latin America decided to implement cloud-based procurement software to improve internal compliance and consolidate spending management. The company is a regional subsidiary of theAdidas Group sporting goods empire, which includes brands such as Adidas, Reebok and Rockport. Procurement at $1.4 billion Adidas Latin America was complex--involving different currencies and languages--and disjointed. Some countries had developed...

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Apple starts selling thinner, higher-priced iMacs

More than a month after Apple unveiled new all-in-one desktops, the company today started selling its redesigned iMacs. The 21.5-in. iMac, with standard configurations prices at $1,299 and $1,499, will ship in one to three days from ordering. The larger 27-in. iMac, which costs $1,799 and $1,999 for its two models, can be pre-ordered starting Friday, but won't ship for two to three weeks, Apple's online store showed. The...

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