Apple is now only $16 billion short of surpassing energy company Exxon Mobil, to become the most valuable company in market capitalization. Despite taking a $15.20 hit to its stocks yesterday, bringing it to $350 billion market capitalization, it fared better than others. Exxon Mobil fell $3.88 and closed with a market capitalization of $366 billion. READ MORE
A German data protection supervisor has asked Facebook to disable its new photo-tagging feature, warning that it could violate privacy laws. READ MORE
McAfee, an Internet security company, uncovered the largest series of cyber attacks to date, which infiltrated networks of 72 governments, companies and organizations around the world, including the United Nations. READ MORE
The annual Amazon Web Services (AWS) Start-Up Challenge has returned for its fourth year, with a new twist. American start-ups will now compete with challengers from all across the world for the grand prize of $100,000 in cash and AWS credits. READ MORE
Spotify’s U.S. launch has been met with fanfare, acclaim, and one sure sign that the Sweden-based company has “made it” in America: litigation. PacketVideo is suing Spotify for patent infringement, claiming that the company has violated patent No. 5,636,276, “a device for the distribution of music information in digital form.” PacketVideo, which is was acquired by Docomo in 2010, obtained the 1995 patent “a few years ago,” according to TechDirt. READ MORE
Apple and Samsung Electronics have pushed Nokia from the top of the smartphone sales rankings. According to sales figures released last week, Apple sold a record of 20.3 million iPhones last quarter, and analysts estimate that Samsung sold 19 million. South Korea-based Nokia’s sales slumped at 16.7 million phones. READ MORE
LiveChat, a provider of live chat software for websites, announced today that its service would offer an option to allow e-commerce sites to connect with users’ Facebook profiles. The capability will allow LiveChat’s clients to gather personal information about visitors to their sites. READ MORE
Airbnb, a website that helps users find short-term accommodations in the living rooms and recreation rooms of cities around the world, announced today that it has raised $112 million in second round funding from Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and General Catalyst on a valuation of $1 billion. The company’s previous round of funding totaled $7.8 million. READ MORE
Though Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, has struggled to distinguish itself recently against competing products like the iPhone and Android, the company is still in the good graces of major wireless carriers. RIM is favored among carriers who are looking for a dark horse in the smart phone market, a third candidate to keep the race between front runners Google and Apple competitive. READ MORE
TED has a well-deserved reputation not only as a home for big ideas and great networking, but as an exceptional production. Everything from the stage lighting to the program guide is carefully crafted to optimize the experience they want to provide attendees. While much of the magic is in the arrangement of elements, there are some strategies that they’ve employed over the years that any conference or event planner can learn from. READ MORE
