Facebook and Social Startups Meme.

Over the weekend, Apple finally introduced some changes to the App Store, though the underlying issues still remain at large. Changes in affect allow reviews for the App Store applications to be filled out by someone who has actually purchased the application in question, making it even more difficult for developers to up their own apps. Furthermore, the way the apps are listed in the App Store has been changed and now they show according to their original release date.

This shows that Apple is allowing in some queries from developers over how the App Store is run, though the major concerns are yet to be addressed. Closing in on the three-month anniversary of its launch of the App Store, Apple should be focusing on listening to queue of frustrated developers, apart from just concentrating on their product sales. Read More »

After introducing the new layout for the user profile, Facebook in a bid to change its over all appearance has come out with the redesign for the login page. The redesign has brought the login boxes to the right along, giving it a much neater appearance compared to the scattered that it had previously .

Plus a lot of white space has been taken over with a map that shows the global reach Facebook has. It has done good to remove the section that read; Use Facebook to, for it appeared clumsy to say the least.

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As promised by Facebook, their second version for the iPhone has been made available now, just a few hours ago. The application is available in the App Store, having a range of fresh features, and a whole new user interface; doing all this while containing almost everything Facebook has to offer, in the app.

Previously, the Facebook app showed mobile photo uploads and status updates in the News Feed, though now with the upgrade in place, the News Feed includes all the stuff that it would show in a regular PC browser. Whereas, users will also be able to comment on every news item, and also edit the feed to minimize categories. The features for people and inbox search has also been added, providing more ease of access to iPhone users; also, now you can also send a friend request to whoever you’re searching.

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Parents love to keep the countless moments of their baby’s life stored away, preserved for all times to come. Be it the birth, the first time their baby speaks or walks right to the first day at school etc. If it were a possibility for them to capture every instant of their baby’s life they would do anything to do so.

LittleGrams is the online portal that let’s you keep track and share everything you have to share about your baby with friends and family.

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Widespread of book piracy is noted in Sweden according to the analysis-based report submitted by the Swedish book publishers organization. The organization says that the act of copyright infringement is quiet devastating as it is adversely effecting the income growth of booksellers. But the most astonishing part of the story is, the Sweden publishers illegally used The Pirate Bay’s database that is actually violating BitTorrent’s privacy law.

The publisher’s organization is claiming in its report that 85% of the best-selling books in Sweden are available on The Pirate Bay. They had coded a specialized tool to scrape TPB database for book titles. Apparently publishers’ claims and frustration does make sense but their technique to gather data illegally by giving a lame excuse about the unavailability of ready-made tools is highly inappreciable and TPB has full rights to take action against such kind of acts. Co-founder Peter Sunde wrote on his blog that it is done for commercial purpose:

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eMusic which is considered as one of the world’s largest independent music retailer and sells digital downloads through monthly subscriptions, is now seeing its CEO David Pakman departing for an unnamed venture capital firm. According to the company’s press release, that venture capital firm is premier. David’s substitute is yet to be named. So far this year eMusic has grown 40% and is expected to generate a revenue of $70 million.

Following is the press release by the company on David Pakman’s departure:

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A New York-based startup Send Word Now, raised $14M in a fourth round of funding. The funding round was led by Palisade Concentrated Equity Partnership, with participation from Southpaw Asset Management and Ascend Venture Group.

Send Word Now is based on providing government agencies, universities, non-profit groups and others with a way to disseminate information, and most effectively in emergency situations. Its customers include Wal-Mart, Tufts University, Boston University, and the U.S. Postal Services.

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Microsoft has been on the hunt for the right person to head its online properties ever since it was split and the departure of Kevin Johnson, but has failed thus far. Presently Microsoft has currently moved its long time executive, Yusuf Mehdi to be a part of Microsoft’s online audience business development and management for MSN.

he had previously been the SVP for strategic partnerships under Kevin Johnson and will now be a part of a three man team that also includes Bran  McAndrews, SVP for advertiser and publisher solutions group and Satya Nadella, SVP Microsoft’s search, portal and advertising platform group.

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Facebook hired lawyer Ted Ullyot as their new general counsel. Washington D.C.’s Ullyot has previously worked at law firm: Kirkland &Ellis, AOL (at senior legal positions), and under U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (as chief of staff). As handling the range of newness of legal issues attached with Facebook, Ullyot is excited to take on this new responsibility. Though he states that his jobs at AOL and in the government gave him plenty of exposure with novel and interesting legal questions.

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It appears that the economic crisis down Wall Street is having its toll on the tech companies as well. Be it Apple whose stock shares have taken a plunge by 16% and have been valued at $110 a share compared to the $200 tag they had been carrying for quite some time. Google on the other hand has fallen down the $400 mark for the first time ever since 2006.

It’s interesting to note that for Google the market opened up at around $420 a share and within 24 hours the prices had taken a significant 8% drop to hover around $390 a share. The current ratings are almost half of what they had been i November last year, when Google’s share price soared at $747. The picture of the day shows a downside and the tech world taking a bash as well.

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