Over the weekend some interesting news started appearing about iTunes accounts being hacked. One of the hackers is believed to be associated with Thuat Ngyun who might be the hacker, or associated with the group. Either way, the apps published accounted for at least 42 out of 50 in the Books category charts which is odd considering none of the books had any reviews at all with the exception of the odd rating here and there.

Right now the books are not in the app store any more, so it appears that Apple [AAPL] have responded although Engadget are still waiting for a response when they reached out a couple of days ago.

The main problem is not so much the books being raised in popularity, but the facts of how they got there. The books sold cost money and the money was spent by hackers breaking in to iTunes accounts leaving some users with over $100 of sales in their iTunes account. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] was asked recently if a Google Nexus Two Android device was going to launch. In short, the answer is no. The details came from an interview with Eric Schmidt where he was asked about the possibility of a Nexus Two smartphone branded by Google.

The reason for not creating a Nexus Two is due to how successful the Nexus One was, not in terms of how many sold, but more of moving hardware developers on to creating better hardware. We have certainly seen an amazing set of Android smartphones launch after the Nexus One, so in that respect we agree with them about that.

It is also believed that a Google branded Chrome OS netbook also wont be happening. Reasons for this is that the PC industry is used to working with Microsoft (a strong software provider) which means the hardware is more up to scratch unlike how Google felt about the Android hardware prior to the Nexus One. [Read more…]

Yesterday we mentioned that Apple [AAPL] could be launching a new version of iTunes that would bring both wireless syncing for iDevices and cloud-based music and video. Greg Sandoval of CNET has said that the “soon” mentioned for a launch isn’t quite the soon we hoped for as the top four music labels have yet to agree and hand out licences to Apple.

To stream music, Steve Jobs likely needs licenses, and he doesn’t have them yet.

Apple however, is believed to have started up talks with the labels so it could be a matter of months or perhaps even longer. We simply don’t know for sure just yet. [Read more…]

Facebook users upload 100 Million photos per day to the social network site. Numbers also suggest that 99% of users also have uploaded at least 1 picture. Facebook has decided to improve this part of the site by adding face detection to the upload process.

People love tagging their friends and family in photos, but we’ve heard that it can be a tedious process. You now can add tags with just a couple of clicks directly from your home page and other sections of the site, using the same face detection technology that cameras have used for years. We’re running a limited test of this technology so you may not see it yet.

[Read more…]

You might not be aware, but there is a movie about Facebook launching in the next few months and the first teaser trailer has just been launched (embedded below).

The tag line of the movie says “Get to 500 Million Friends Without Making a Few Enemies”. I can’t say I am convinced either way that it will be good or bad as the clip below doesn’t really reveal too much.

Check out the video below to get some idea of what it is about… [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] later on this year will be giving users the option of skipping over pre-roll ads on their videos. Pre-roll ads are the ones that play for 10 – 15 seconds before you watch the actual video. These in effect, will not be optional to view.

Ad selection is also to be implemented that will give users the option of choosing an ad to watch on the longer videos. Google will only pay out for those ads watched which puts emphasis on the advertiser to get some good ads on line.

Google has been testing ad skipping for about 9 months now and have seen results that indicate that better quality ads get viewed a lot more and the bad ones get skipped. [Read more…]

Yesterday, Kevin Rose the CEO of Digg, announced on Twitter that he heard Google [GOOG] was out to be a competitor of Facebook by launching Google Me. This information has been further strengthened by Adam D’Angelo who worked at Facebook as the CTO. He says…

* Here is what I’ve pieced together from some reliable sources: This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.
* They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.
* Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
* They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.

[Read more…]

StatCounter has reported that Google [GOOG] Chrome now accounts for 8.97% of the US market share which just beats Safari at 8.88% putting Chrome at the number 3 spot for browser usage in the US.

StatCounter is an analytics company who track visitors around the web on various websites. The data represented here is for the week beginning June 21.

‘This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10% of the US market in under two years, commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. ‘There is a battle royal going on between Google and Apple in the internet browser space (Chrome v Safari) as well as in the mobile market (Android v iPhone). Chrome with 8.97% took third place in the US browser market ahead of Safari with 8.88%. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still dominates the US Internet browser market with 52%, followed by Firefox (28.5%).

[Read more…]

Kevin Rose sent out a tweet recently that said…

Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon “Google Me”, very credible source

No other information is known other than what Kevin Rose says above which has led to some speculation about what Google could be up to. Google [GOOG] is a large company who often experiments in different areas. It’s primary business is with search and ads, but it also expands out to Google Buzz, Google Mail, Google Wave amongst tons of other offerings. [Read more…]

Google Voice was launched last year. To use the Google Voice service you had to have an invite. This requirement is now gone and Google [GOOG] has now opened up Google Voice to all people in the US.

The Google Voice service is a platform that manages your communications. It allows you to have a single number that when people call, it will ring all phones connected to that number. By doing this it lets callers more easily contact you rather than chasing you around on various numbers.

Other features include cheaper international calls, free texts and calls to those in the US and a voicemail service that works like email. [Read more…]

Google TV was announced officially a few weeks back. Google TV comes in two forms. The first is Google TV built in to new TV’s and the second is a companion box for those who buy a new TV that isn’t powered by Google [GOOG] or for those with an older TV.

Logitech is the first company to make a Google TV companion box which we saw a few weeks back. At the time it was just called the CE4100. Now it has been renamed to Revue with Google TV.

Nothing else new has been provided about the Google TV companion box and for now we only have the standard information that says it exists and that it will arrive in the future. No pricing or exact dates are known just yet. [Read more…]

Just recently HP purchased Palm so that it could use webOS integrated in to it’s systems. We now hear that they are purchasing some software called HyperSpace for around $12 Million.

HyperSpace is an operating system that allows users to quick boot. It is developed by Phoenix Technologies and is based around the Linux OS. What makes the software stand out is that it can boot in to the OS and launch a program such as Skype within 10 seconds which is quite impressive considering that software loadup is from hitting the power button on the laptop or PC.

$12 Million isn’t a lot compared to the $1.2 billion HP spent on Palm but the software if used correctly will be a big benefit to HP in that systems will be able to boot far quicker than they currently do. [Read more…]