Cloud collaboration software company Huddle is launching a new sync option for its hundreds of thousands of business users — centered on a smart matching algorithm that makes sure you only get the files you need Read more »
Finnish startup ThingLink has been trying to find ways to encourage users to get excited about its “rich pictures.” Now it’s hoping it may hit the mother lode by helping advertisers and marketers build interactive images inside Facebook pages. Read more »
Search engine Yandex is looking to extend its dominance in Russia through a deal to access Twitter’s firehose — allowing users to search millions of incoming tweets in real time. Read more »
In a move that echoes Amazon’s purchase of Zappos back in 2009, Russian web store Ozon is buying online shoe seller Sapato.ru — a deal that Ozon CEO Maelle Gavet says will turn it into a “powerhouse online retailer”. Read more »
French startup Pearltrees just scored another $6 million to help scale up its social curation service that helps people save, sort and share what they find on the web. But with dozens of services in play, is this a bubble waiting to pop? Read more »
Europe’s most notorious cloners have built their reputation by copying big American companies. But now they appear to be readying a new rival to small Swedish startup Wrapp — a change of tactics that has ‘surprised’ Wrapp CEO Hjalmar Winbladh. Read more »
Remember Crazy Frog? The bike-riding amphibian and his irritating, ubiquitous song symbolized the premium ringtone market a few years ago, before fading into obscurity. The frog has disappeared, but one startup thinks it has found a way to evolve the idea for the modern mobile user. Read more »
Roku has filled a vital gap in its lineup by announcing the addition of a channel for the BBC’s popular iPlayer service, just as it starts shipping its media streaming boxes to Britain for the first time. Read more »
Advertisers and publishers have swarmed over QR codes as they try to add interactivity to analog media. Now the Swiss team behind retooled mobile app Shortcut hopes they can help make the black-and-white glyphs a thing of the past. Read more »
London-based art discovery service Artfinder is set to step up its plans for taking high culture to the web, after bringing in a second round of funding from Northzone, Greylock, and Wellington Partners. Read more »
Embattled Nokia is hoping it can become faster and more competitive by shifting the heart of its manufacturing operations to Asia, a move which will see 4,000 jobs cut in Finland, Hungary and Mexico but will be seen as long overdue. Read more »
More details have emerged about Google’s intriguing plan to open a co-working space in London’s trendy startup district — but businesses and the authorities should be careful of reading too much into the move. Read more »
Italian computer scientist Massimo Marchiori became famous after inspiring the code that underpins Google. But is his new search engine Volunia — the ‘innovative’ new service he launched today — solving a problem that anybody has? Read more »
One of the world’s most popular BitTorrent search engines has closed down voluntarily, as the domino effect brought on by recent moves against Megaupload and the Pirate Bay starts to hit other filesharing sites. Read more »
Swedish iOS studio Toca Boca has become a hit with parents and kids around the world, thanks to its smart suite of simple, open games. Now it plans to open a U.S. office and target the American market in 2012. Read more »
Peter Sunde, one of the Pirate Bay founders convicted of aiding copyright infringement, has told GigaOM that the group could go to the European court, after Sweden’s top judges refused to hear their appeal against a guilty verdict handed down in 2009. Read more »
A new portal that lets British citizens access government services online has just launched in beta. It’s fast, easy, accessible — and should save the tax payer bundles of cash. Is this a model for the future of connected government? Read more »
Tim Cook has made his first major appointment at Apple — by handing over control of the company’s retail stores to a British businessman who has built his reputation largely through pile-em-high tactics and aggressive expansion. Read more »
Startups often rail against copycat companies, arguing that they steal their business and their ideas. But maybe the secret to beating clones isn’t to waste time trying to shut them down — it’s to accept them and focus on being bigger, better and faster. Read more »
Britain’s Daily Mail has eclipsed rivals including the New York Times to become the web’s biggest newspaper. But other media companies hoping to emulate its success will have their work cut out — unless they’re prepared to play fast and loose with the normal rules of journalism. Read more »
Music subscription service Rhapsody is going to Europe, but not under its own name. The company will use the Napster brand in the U.K. and Germany to compete with Spotify. The company announced the acquisition of Napster’s foreign assets three months after it bought Napster USA. Read more »
The team behind design sales site Fab.com was outraged to discover a U.K.-based rival that seems to mimic not only their business but also their look. But outrage may not be enough to stop Germany’s Samwer brothers from going big with their latest clone. Read more »
Cloud collaboration service Huddle is targeting huge corporate customers, bringing them a new tier of service that allows an unlimited number of users for no extra charge. Can it help win new business and take on the industry’s biggest beasts? Read more »
Globally, nearly one-in-five wired workers telecommute on a frequent basis, but the number working from outside the office varies enormously between regions, with those in the developing world reporting far more mobility than Europeans and North Americans. Read more »
Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs shared his mobile vision at CES Tuesday, with much of the focus on emerging markets. With half of all smartphones expected to be sold in emerging markets by 2015, it’s no wonder the chipmaker is looking to innovate beyond traditional borders. Read more »
Netflix wants to recover from a disastrous few months by launching in the U.K. and Ireland — but the company will have to overcome many obstacles to achieve success, not least competition from broadcasters who have very different priorities from their American counterparts. Read more »
London-based startup Pusher began life in unusual fashion — but now, thanks to its tools to let developers build real-time services quickly and easily — it is hoping to become the foundation for a new generation of online apps. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone 4S won’t be blocked for sale in Italy, at least not in the near-term. A Milan court rejected Samsung’s request for a preliminary injunction against the device on Thursday. It’s the third time Samsung’s attempts to hobble Apple in Europe have been blocked. Read more »
Reports suggest Nokia could be preparing to elevate F-Secure founder Risto Siilasmaa from its board to the role of chairman — and a speech from 2009 gives an intriguing insight into how he could view his role at the top of the troubled mobile giant. Read more »
After much deliberation, Spain’s Sinde Law — an antipiracy initiative similar to America’s proposed SOPA legislation — has passed. But it is not entering the statute books without controversy over its reach, remit and the threats made by the U.S. government to force it through. Read more »
Controversy in Northern Ireland after an investigative reporter uncovered the criminal background of a prominent new business investor — a revelation which has led to a series of critical questions about his activities and relationship with the region’s startups. Read more »
Sources have confirmed that work on an iPad app specially designed for British Prime Minister David Cameron has been underway for several months — and that, once completed, officials plan to make it available to the public. Read more »
Apple’s iOS devices were popular gifts during the holiday weekend, as you might expect. According to a new study, there were 12.5 times more devices accessing games and apps using one major analytics platform than during previous weekends, in fact. Android fared almost as well, too. Read more »
“Cloud first” markets — those where companies’ first serious engagements with information technology are in the form of cloud computing — are beginning to emerge. For the BRIC economies in particular, this might mean a chance to adopt low-cost solutions that will give companies a clear ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple’s iPhone 4S has propelled Cupertino’s smartphone share back to growth in many markets, including Britain, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech released Thursday. But Apple’s latest smartphone isn’t leading to runaway success everywhere, owing in part to economic concerns. Read more »
Recommendations have become the holy grail of the social web, sparking competition between small services like Pinterest to Amen and large ones like Facebook and Google+. So how can Italian website Circleme elbow in on the action? Read more »
The extent of corruption in Russia’s technology industry has been revealed by a survey which says as much as 60 percent of payments made are bribes. Is that a stark warning for startups wanting to tap into a lucrative market — or simply the cost of operating? Read more »
Cloud-based presentation service Prezi kicked up a fuss when it offered a dynamic alternative to dreary formats. Now, two years after launch, the Hungarian startup has scored a serious round of funding to take the battle to PowerPoint. Read more »
London startup Transferwise wants to be the Skype of currency exchange, disrupting existing services that charge customers heavily for moving their money. But can its low-cost, peer-to-peer approach really succeed? Read more »
Swedish banks are fighting off rumors of financial difficulties amid reports that online rumors led to a $29m bank run in Latvia over the weekend. But was it really a Twitter-induced panic? Read more »
