Archive | July, 2012

Facebook Better Get Mobile Quick. 102M People Accessed Solely From Mobile In June, Up 23% Since March

Posted on 31 July 2012

There’s a staggering new statistic in Facebook’s 10-Q SEC document today : 102 million people accessed Facebook solely from mobile in June, a massive 23% increase over the 83 million mobile-only users in March. That means if it can’t make its mobile advertising generate a lot more money within the next year, revenue could plummet

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We’re Having A Party, And There Will Be A Tiger, A Monkey And Snoop Lion (Not Really)

Posted on 31 July 2012

Guys, guys, so because everybody obviously wants to party with Josh Constine , tickets to the TechCrunch annual summer party at August Capital are sold out. In case you want a backdoor way in, don’t know a guy and don’t want to scale the fence, our Facebook Ecosystem CrunchUp tickets are still on sale , though we’ve only got a few left so yeah, roll the dice. In addition to giving you a pass to what promises to be a very intellectually stimulating CrunchUp, the tix offer you entrance to our Sand Hill Road shindig, a get-together which, in accordance with typical Silicon Valley party fare, we’re unofficially calling “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Monkey.” Okay, so while there won’t be any live animals, or even Snoop Lion   (née Dogg) there will be TechCrunch writers and editors and a gaggle of other VIP Valley peeps whom you’ll find fun to drink with.

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The New Digg Arrives Ahead Of Schedule, Features Tight Facebook And Twitter Integration

Posted on 31 July 2012

After just six weeks of hard work, Digg ‘s new owners at Betaworks just flipped the switch and re-launched the site . The new Digg was originally scheduled to launch tomorrow , but despite the tight deadline, the Digg team managed to get this completely rewritten version of the site out ahead of schedule. As promised, the new version of Digg puts a strong emphasis on images and is currently free of ads.

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Zynga Made Up 14% Of Facebook Revenues In 1H 2012, Down From 19% In FY 2011

Posted on 31 July 2012

Here’s another nugget from the release of Facebook’s 10-Q today: Zynga accounted for 14 percent of its revenues in the first six months of 2012, but that number is down from the 19 percent of revenue that Zynga made up in 2011. Revenues that Facebook collects from Zynga include payment processing for purchases made through its social games, advertising that third parties show on its gaming apps, and Facebook ads that appear on Zynga.com

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This DIY Lego Wheelchair Can Carry (Small) Passengers

Posted on 31 July 2012

Burf aka Simon Burfield is an iOS programmer and Lego experimenter who tries to take building blocks to the next level. Interestingly, if this wild rideable Lego wheelchair is any indication, he’s left the next level and is now firmly in the distant future.

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Verizon Can No Longer Charge For Tethering, FCC Declares

Posted on 31 July 2012

Verizon has been slapped with a $1.25 million fine for charging customers to use their cell phones as a mobile Internet hotspot , and has declared that it must allow tethering for free.

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Mozilla Will Nearly Double SF Office, Add 125 People In Early 2013

Posted on 31 July 2012

Mozilla announced today that they are expanding the size of their San Francisco office and will add 125 employees to the office’s current staff of 150 by early 2013. Mozilla currently occupies the seventh and part of the third floor of the Hills Brothers Building at 2 Harrison St. and will expand to include the first two floors

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Facebook Spent $24 Million On Acqui-hires, $633 Million On Patents During The First Half Of 2012

Posted on 31 July 2012

Facebook has become known for making a good number of talent-focused startup acquisitions, aka acqui-hires — but the cost of each deal is normally kept under wraps. In a regulatory quarterly filing the company made today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, though, it put an aggregate pricetag on all those “non-material” sized deals it made in the first half of this year: $24 million. Here’s the wording from the document : “During the six months ended June 30, 2012, we completed business acquisitions for total consideration of $24 million

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New Facebook platform industry hires: AdParlor, Badgy, Hearsay Social, Unified

Posted on 31 July 2012

If your company is hiring new people or making a notable promotion, please let us know. Email mail (at) insidefacebook (dot) com, and we’ll get it into our next post

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Google Delays The Nexus Q To Make It “Better,” But Pre-Order Customers Get A Free Dev Unit

Posted on 31 July 2012

Here’s hoping you weren’t planning on using one of Google’s Nexus Qs any time soon — the company has just revealed to pre-order customers that it has postponed the device’s consumer launch because users wanted more out of the curious little orb. That said, Google’s tiny media streamer has been unceremoniously yanked from the Google Play store.

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