Google dealt the latest blow in its ongoing battle with Facebook, this time striking again in the fight over user data. The latest Android update for the Nexus S phone removes the ability to integrate Facebook contacts into the handset’s address book.
Apple, Nintendo in event face-off
Apple has shown its usual disdain for other events and companies’ plans in choosing to launch its second-generation iPad at the same time and next door to where Nintendo could make its own big announcement next Wednesday.
It is not inconceivable that a Wii 2 could be unveiled at the same time as an iPad 2, with Satoru Iwata, Nintendo chief executive, delivering the main keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
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iPad 2 slated for a March 2 debut
Apple is returning to its favourite venue for product launches on March 2, hosting an event at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts where it is expected to unveil the iPad 2, according to people familiar with the plans.
The company has reserved the main stage at the multifunction venue for next Wednesday, marking a return to the site where it last year launched the original iPad and the iPhone 4.
Square is zeroing in on the dog walkers and piano teachers of the small business world by removing another price obstacle from credit card processing: transaction fees.
The mobile payments company previously charged merchants 2.75 per cent of each purchase, plus a 15-cent flat transaction fee every time they used the tiny smartphone credit card reader. As of today, the company has dropped the extra flat fee.
China to overtake US gaming market
Powered by social networks and mobiles, Chinese video games are set to topple America’s lead as the world’s largest gaming market, according to research by Digi-Capital, a boutique investment bank.
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Spotify has stayed silent about the impact of Apple’s new subscription plans, perhaps because it was too busy negotiating $100m in new funding, but MOG has now joined the list of digital media start-ups and venerable publishers expressing consternation and confusion.
“From a principle perspective, I have a problem,” says CEO David Hyman. “We’ve spent years building this, and invested millions. It’s not clear to me why they deserve a bigger piece of my business than I get. It doesn’t feel right at all.”
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Dead Space 2’s mass effect
It was “Klingons on the starboard bow” time in video games in January, with the space genre dominating.
Eve Online introduced a major update to its online universe, Electronic Arts released Mass Effect 2 on the PlayStation 3 and launched Dead Space 2, which sold 440,000 units in the US, according to monthly figures released by the NPD research firm on Thursday.
David Gelles, Joseph Menn, Chris Nuttall and Richard Waters in the FT's San Francisco bureau upload their views - plus tech insights from writers in New York, London, Tokyo and Taipei. The blog includes a separate section on personal technology.
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