Rugby-loving couch potatoes beware: RBS expects you to flex your brain, if not your muscles, during the Six Nations tournament this year. The sports-sponsoring bank has created an interactive quiz, fixtures and social app for 2012, with game-related questions, score tables and Facebook integration for those particularly competitive. Available in versions for iPad, iPhone, Android and Facebook, we grabbed some hands-on time with the free Live Challenge app before its full release.
Facebook's mobile advertising push is incoming, marketing agencies suggest, as the social network attempts to close off one of its weak spots ahead of the much-anticipated IPO. The dramatic rise in mobile users who, currently, don't see any adverts whatsoever was cited in Facebook's IPO documentation as one of the company's key weaknesses, meaning paradoxically that even as membership increased, revenues could dip. Not for much longer, though, with agency Razorfish confirming to Digiday that it was involved in Facebook ad pilots for mobile.
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Apple has been granted a suspension of the German injunction against 3G-enabled iOS devices, with the iPad WiFi + 3G, iPhone 4 and other gadgets back on sale through the company's online store. "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly" the company told us in a statement. "Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."
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Anonymous has intercepted a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard investigators, it's been confirmed, authenticating a 15 minute audio clip released by the hacker collective. The group reportedly accessed the call using a dial-in code and password from an email sent by an FBI member, allowing Anonymous to listen in and record the security discussion; that information "was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained" the FBI said in a statement today, the AP reports.
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RIM is likely to abandon any ambitions of licensing BlackBerry 10 to rivals and ditch the possibility of a BlackBerry Messenger client for iOS and Android, it's suggested, as the company attempts to leverage its "integrated solution" instead. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek says his company's checks found RIM "will delay and possibly abandon its OS licensing plans," Forbes reports, and that despite having met - and liked - new CEO Thorsten Heins, he believes his near-term strategy is significantly flawed.
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Microsoft is dogfooding its Windows Phone Skype app, it's suggested, with employees supposedly able to download a test version of the VoIP software to their smartphones ahead of a potential MWC 2012 debut. The much-anticipated app has been brought up to speed with Windows Phone's Metro UI, insiders tell The Verge, with a dual-column contacts grid, though no integration with the platform's People hub.
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Weighting of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's shares in the social network to ensure he keeps majority control after the IPO could present accountability issues, experts warn, and could prove a turnoff to investors. Zuckerberg will hold over 28-percent of Facebook once it floats, but thanks to a double tiered stock structure his shares will be worth 10x more in voting power than common stock. That will give him 56.9-percent of overall voting power, or in effect the power to veto any decision he doesn't think is right for Facebook.
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More details and a clearer image of the Olympus OM-D interchangeable lens camera have leaked, with the retro-styled mirrorless compact promising to revolutionize the DSLR world. Following on from the first leaks last month, the new image shows a clearer view of the top panel of the OM-D, 43 Rumors, reports, with plenty of knurled dials and what looks to be the beginning of a flash hot-shoe.
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A European privacy watchdog has demanded Google halt its privacy policy changes, while it looks into "the possible consequences for the protection of the personal data" of users in Europe. The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party requested the delay in a letter to Google [pdf link] this week, claiming that a French data protection authority had agreed to investigate Google's changes. The controversy follows similar concerns in the US, which saw Google execs meet with members of Congress earlier this week for a less-than-satisfactory show and tell session.
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MegaUpload founder and CEO Kim Dotcom has again been denied bail by a New Zealand court, after his appeal to the High Court was rejected over fears he might abscond to avoid extradition. The appeals judge agreed with a lower court decision in late January that Dotcom - who has a track record of avoiding arrest, as well as multiple passports and bank accounts - was highly likely to flee the country to Germany, where he would be safe from extradition to the US. Dotcom protested that he wanted to spend time with his pregnant wife, Reuters reports, as well as alleging that he had been mistreated by police during his arrest.
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Apple has yanked the majority of its 3G-enabled devices from its German online store, including the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 WiFi + 3G, after Motorola Mobility secured a sales injunction over 3G/UMTS patents. The move, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports, is a response to a court win back in December 2011, rather than Motorola's permanent injunction success earlier today over a different patent, with the company apparently posting a €100m ($131m) bond to enact the late-2011 ruling.
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Spilled details on Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" have opened the floodgates on Microsoft's next significant update to its smartphone software, with more tidbits on the Windows 8 kernel based platform slipping out. Paul Thurrott confirms the shared kernel, along with the multi-core processor support, sensor fusion, security model, network, and video and graphics technologies from Windows 8, though says Skype will remain a separate app rather than baked in at the OS level.
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