In This Update:
• Nokia Takes on Apple’s iTunes and iPhone
• Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China
• Socialtext 3.0: Bringing Facebook, Twitter to the Enterprise
• Vudu Takes High Definition Movies Higher
• Report: Fujitsu to Sell HDD Business to Western Digital
• Mail.ru Owner Wants Czechs’ Google Beater Seznam, $850 Million Price Tag
• SlingMedia Prepares To Launch Their Video Portal at Sling.com
• H.P. Buys LeftHand Networks for $360 Million
• Bezos, Benioff Back Health-Care Web 2.0 Startup
• Spotify Raises €15m Round for Bittorrent-meets-Last.fm Service
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Nokia Takes on Apple’s iTunes and iPhone
REUTERS
Nokia is expected to unveil more details of its “Comes with Music” package at an analyst and media event in London. The Finnish firm will also launch its first touch-screen phone. Nokia’s package will differ from others on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during a 12- month subscription period. There are no charges for tracks downloaded, since the cost is bundled to the phone price.
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Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China
NEW YORK TIMES
A group of Canadian human-rights activists and computer security researchers has discovered a huge surveillance system in China that monitors and archives certain Internet text conversations that include politically charged words. The system tracks text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture between a Chinese wireless operator and eBay, the Web auctioneer that owns Skype, an online phone and text messaging service.
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Socialtext 3.0: Bringing Facebook, Twitter to the Enterprise
NEW YORK TIMES
Socialtext, a Web 2.0 vendor that has sold social software (primarily wikis) to businesses for internal collaboration and knowledge management, officially launched Socialtext People (enterprise social networking profiles) and Socialtext Signals, an application that allows business users to share short messages (in 140 characters or less) inside the enterprise like consumers do on Twitter, the microblogging service.
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Vudu Takes High Definition Movies Higher
MULTICHANNEL
Startup Vudu this week will begin offering 65 feature movie titles in 1080p high-definition video format via its Internet-connected set-top, in a bid to peel home-theater aficionados from cable and satellite video-on-demand services. Vudu calls the service “HDX,” with video encoded at variable bit-rate in MPEG-4 H.264 in 1080p at 24 frames per second-the highest HD format currently defined. The average bit-rate for an HDX-encoded title is 9 to 10 Mbps, compared with about 4 Mbps for Vudu’s regular 1080i HD titles, said chief technology officer Prasanna Ganesan.
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Report: Fujitsu to Sell HDD Business to Western Digital
INTERNATIONAL DATA GROUP
Fujitsu is in talks to sell its hard-disk drive business to Western Digital, according to a report in the Thursday morning edition of the Nikkei business daily. The two companies are in the latter stage of negotiations over the deal and hope to reach agreement before the end of this year, the report said. The proposed deal would see Fujitsu sell its entire hard-disk drive unit, including plants in Japan, the Philippines and Thailand that employ around 15,000 people, for between ¥70 billion to ¥100 billion (US$661 million to US$944 million), the newspaper reported.
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Mail.ru Owner Wants Czechs’ Google Beater Seznam, $850 Million Price Tag
PAIDCONTENT
Russian tech investor Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which took a controlling stake in its native Mail.ru portal in July, is amongst the leading contenders to buy the top Czech search site Seznam, according to a local report. The Financni Novini paper also said Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus, which owns the competing Centrum.cz and Atlas, were interested in bidding but may not be able to make an $850 million asking price due to the credit crunch.
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SlingMedia Prepares To Launch Their Video Portal at Sling.com
TECHCRUNCH
Sling Media , the creators of a hardware device that lets users stream their home television signal to an Internet connected device anywhere (with a software download), is preparing to launch their new video portal, Sling.com . The company first mentioned the new portal earlier this year but has been quiet since then.
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H.P. Buys LeftHand Networks for $360 Million
NEW YORK TIMES
The rise of virtualization software made by companies like VMware and Microsoft has forced hardware companies into drastic action. Hewlett-Packard, for example, said it was spending $360 million in cash on LeftHand Networks, a company that makes storage software which plays well with virtual servers. The LeftHand code stretches across the disk drives found in standard servers and turns them into what looks like a single, large system for storing data.
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Bezos, Benioff Back Health-Care Web 2.0 Startup
INTERNATIONAL DATA CENTER
A New York-based startup called ZocDoc that provides people with a way to schedule health-care appointments online got some backing from two industry heavy-hitters Wednesday Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff. ZocDoc did not disclose the exact amount it is receiving from Bezos and Benioff, but said it is on top of US$3 million in Series A funding, led by Khosla Ventures, it unveiled last month. Bezos is CEO and founder of Amazon, and Benioff is CEO and founder of Salesforce.com.
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Spotify Raises €15m Round for Bittorrent-meets-Last.fm Service
TECH CRUNCH
Spotify, founded by the former Tradedoubler team, is understood to have raised €15.3m from Northzone Venture Partners at a monster €71.6m pre-money valuation. The service is still in private beta. Northzone themselves have declined to comment, but Creandum, another of Sweden’s top VCs, is also understood to have taken part in the funding round.
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