Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
Nokia’s Bet On Windows Phone Looks Like A Good One So Far (Forbes)
Nokia’s faith in Windows Phone seems to be paying off for now. The company continues to not only dominate the Windows Phone market but also take away market share from rivals such as Samsung and HTC, according to a recently released report by AdDuplex. The usage stats for April show that Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) has increased its share of the Windows Phone market to 80%, up from about 78% a month ago.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is bowing for the first time to legally binding constraints on how it presents search results, according to a draft agreement with the EU’s top competition authority. Several people familiar with the deal told the Financial Times that the US internet giant will revamp its results page to include prominent links to rival search engines and clearer signposts for its own in-house services. The settlement marks the final act of a sprawling and contentious three-year investigation – involving US and EU authorities – that was triggered by complaints from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s rivals, such as Microsoft.
Facebook Home opens to poor reviews (VentureBeat)
User reviews of Facebook Home, the social network’s new home screen feature for Android phones, are coming in pretty weak. A day after Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) released the software on Google Play, the app has garnered 2,219 reviews, with an average rating of 2.5 stars. Some 976 people left a one-star rating. Bottom line: 43 percent of all reviewers are giving the poorest rating they can.
Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK): Low-Cost Phone Released In This Gigantic Market (Insider Monkey)
Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) is doing everything it can to regain share of the mobile phone market. While the company may not be making much progress in the United States, it appears to be picking up steam elsewhere. For example, Nokia has released its entry level Nokia 105 in India. While this may not sound like that big of a deal, first time buyers are falling in love thanks to a low starting price of $22.90 (or 1,249 rupees). This smartphone will replace Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)’s 1280 model, which was wildly successful, selling more than 100 million units.
Google gains team behind Behavio, a startup that uses smartphone data to make predictions (The Verge)
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has added a few more employees to its roster. The new hires come from the team behind Behavio, a company works on recording and analyzing the data that smartphones are capable of keeping track of: location, speed, nearby devices and networks, phone activity, noise levels, and much more. The idea is that the software can keep track of all of this data and be able to watch for any deviant behavior — and make educated guesses based on what’s going on. To do all of this, Behavio created Funf, an open source framework that allows developers to leverage this data on Android.
Designer Nicholas Felton Leaves Facebook After Pioneering Timeline Overhaul (TechCrunch)
Nicholas Felton, who came to fame through many super-detailed infographics and reports about his life as quantified through data, is leaving Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) almost two years after being acq-hired to work on projects like Timeline. His early work, which compiled data on things like all the songs he had listened to or everywhere he had been in a single year into a “Feltron Annual Report,” became the basis for Timeline.
New Nokia Conversations app is better than ever (Nokia Conversations)
We were thrilled last year when Nelson Carillo, a developer in the United States, took the initiative to create a Nokia Conversations app for the Windows Phone Store. The app was slick and showed off our content brilliantly. It was the perfect way to…
…stay in touch with all things Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) on your Lumia smartphone. We are now equally delighted to say that Nelson has now updated the app for Windows Phone 8, which takes advantage of the platform by adding new features, such as multiple-size Live Tile support. I have the wide Tile on my Nokia Lumia 820’s Start screen right now and it looks great!
Facebook Inc (FB) Home: Why It Could Bomb & Why That Would Not Matter (Insider Monkey)
Will Google’s Ray Kurzweil Live Forever? (Wall Street Journal)
Ray Kurzweil must encounter his share of interviewers whose first question is: What do you hope your obituary will say? This is a trick question. Mr. Kurzweil famously hopes an obituary won’t be necessary. And in the event of his unexpected demise, he is widely reported to have signed a deal to have himself frozen so his intelligence can be revived when technology is equipped for the job. Mr. Kurzweil is the closest thing to a Thomas Edison of our time, an inventor known for inventing.
Nokia is developing a Windows tablet: Report (Hindustan Times)
Tech site Engadget has unearthed a patent application filed by Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) for an “apparatus cover with keyboard” which looks suspiciously like a Microsoft Surface tablet, even offering support for a stylus. Though only published this week, the application was filed on October 11, 2011, more than a year before Microsoft launched its first tablet. And though it is merely a patent application and therefore may never materialize, this week also saw a set of images leak online detailing mock-ups for the Adidas miCoach app that were presented on a Nokia-branded tablet.
Mark Zuckerberg stars in new Facebook Home ad, only to be ignored by his employees (The Verge)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has released a new commercial with an unusual star — CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company’s “Launch Day” ad, published to the web yesterday, sees Zuckerberg deliver an address to his employees prior to the release of Facebook Home, Facebook’s new Android-integrated mobile operating system.
