Obviously a quarter of a million or so is nothing to Apple, which has about $120 billion in the bank. But this episode does signify the end of this strange saga wherein Apple — for a while — refused to budge on selling AppleCare in the country. Read more »
David Drummond and Peter Fleischer, as well as former CFO George Reyes, had all been convicted over privacy offences relating to a bullying video. Their convictions have now been overturned on appeal. Read more »
The company has been fined almost a million euros for selling paid warranties to Italian customers who should have had free coverage. Apple seemed to get away with ignoring the law for a while, even as Italy got more aggressive in its enforcement. Read more »
The exclusive provider of ad services to a host of Italian online publishers is taking on money to fund development of new ad formats. Read more at paidContent »
One of the many digital content services going global is music video outfit Vevo. Certain new countries mean a mobile-first approach – but that puts services at the mercy of a mobile ad ecosystem they say is still playing catch-up to desktop. Read more at paidContent »
AOL’s Huffington Post launches another national edition in tandem with a leading newspaper publisher. But, when it’s not relying on existing local brands, how is HuffPo doing under its own steam against dominant newspaper publishers? Read more at paidContent »
European startups love to analyze their failures and look for reasons the continent finds it hard to build huge new businesses. Now a great, comprehensive piece in The Economist manages to show how the problems are deep, dangerous — and go back at least 50 years. Read more »
The Kobo e-reader looks like becoming an e-books success in Japan following its acquisition by Pinterest investor Rakuten. Read more at paidContent »
Another international legal snag for Apple: Italy is moving to add additional fines and even force the company to temporarily shut down its operations in the country until it complies with local laws that require two years of free warranty coverage. Apple has ignored previous warnings. Read more »
One day after Philipp Humm’s surprise resignation from T-Mobile, Vodafone announced he has joined its ranks. Humm won’t just be supervising one of Vodafone’s numerous European subsidiaries – he will take charge of eight carriers in Northern and Central Europe. Read more »
To Zinio and iTunes Newsstand, now add another iPad magazine aggregator. LeKiosk, which launched in France in January 2011, is now launching in the UK on Monday, and is seeking funding for further internationalisation. Read more at paidContent »
Japan’s largest mobile telco is about to buy in to mobile media content in Europe and farther afield, by acquiring one of the space’s pioneer companies. Read more at paidContent »
Google has started selling e-books in Italy through Google Play. It’s the company’s first foray into foreign-language e-books, and Google will be competing against Amazon’s Italian Kindle Store. Read more at paidContent »
Italian bloggers are up in arms after ministers secretly resurrected their attempts to introduce a new law that could see them fined thousands of Euros for not responding quickly enough to request for corrections — an approach dubbed the “blog killer” by critics. Read more »
Western Europe may be behind when it comes to rolling out LTE, but Italian operators are doing their best to catch up. 3 Italia unveiled an aggressive LTE plan on Monday in which it would construct and commercially launch its 4G network this year. Read more »
Kindle may launch in Japan and Brazil in 2012, according to reports published in the last week. Read more at paidContent »
Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) rival Populis is continuing to build up its non-English blog network and publishing business through acquisition, t… Read more at paidContent »
The Kindle Touch WiFi is now available in some additional countries, but not the biggest international e-reading markets that already have t… Read more at paidContent »
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 »
Considering the staggering results reported by Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) last night, this should come as little surprise: the company’s iPhone is b… Read more at paidContent »
Huffington Post today took one more step in its ongoing march for a wider international reach: it has now officially opened Le Huffington Po… Read more at paidContent »
The Huffington Post Media Group (NYSE: AOL) is partnering with Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso for the launch this year of an Italian edition,… Read more at paidContent »
Apple makes beautiful things, but sometimes Apple fans can make them even more beautiful. This new iPhone SJ concept from ADR Studios in Italy (the same folks who created that iCam mock-up) is a perfect example. Take a look and feel sad it isn’t real. 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 »
Up to 100 newspaper titles in Italy are facing closure because of the government’s subsidy cuts – down from €170m a year to €53m (£142/… Read more at paidContent »
Some more detail appears to be emerging in the lead-up to Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) launching in the UK next year: in the midst of signing a seri… Read more at paidContent »
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 »
Italians are twice as likely to pay for digital content as consumers in some other major nations. Read more at paidContent »
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 »
Smartphone penetration is slowly approaching the tipping point where it will be more common to have a smartphone than a feature phone among… Read more at paidContent »
Two more advances in the ongoing, international fight between Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Android tablet maker Samsung over alleged patent violat… Read more at paidContent »
Amazon’s Kindle Fire today is only on sale in the U.S., but according to one report that Fire could be spreading to the UK as soon as Januar… Read more at paidContent »
It’s taken a few years, but Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has really ramped up the number of countries where it is selling its Kindle products. Today… Read more at paidContent »
A reversal of fortunes, of sorts, for Samsung in its ongoing case against Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in Australia: today, an appeals court unanimous… Read more at paidContent »
Some of Europe’s leading investors gathered in Italy last week to discuss the problems and opportunities faced by startups across the continent. But what did they actually think? And what does it mean? Read more »
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has gained another victory in its ongoing worldwide legal battle against Samsung. The Korean giant says it will not seek… Read more at paidContent »
Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Orange have long been rivals in mobile phone markets in Europe, but as growth slows down in the region, the two are… Read more at paidContent »
A new twist today in the battle of media companies trying to stop their content from being distributed by illegal means online: the UK’s mai… Read more at paidContent »
We have seen time and again how the growing number of Android-based handsets from a plethora of OEMs — and the popularity of some specific… Read more at paidContent »
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) definitely didn’t break out Kindle Fire pre-order numbers in the investor call following today’s earnings report, but CF… Read more at paidContent »
