38994895
submission
SquarePixel writes:
The nostalgic games seller Good Old Games has added Mac OS X support to its platform and a catalog of games. "During its much-ballyhooed news-a-thon, GOG drew back the curtain on a new version of its service tailored to Macs, which brings with it 50 games (eight of which you receive free just for signing up) and some rather tempting deals. Speaking of, there’s this insane 32-game pay-what-you-want Interplay special leading the charge in celebration of GOG’s fourth anniversary".
37863751
submission
SquarePixel writes:
Europe's competition watchdog is considering formal proceedings against Google over antitrust complaints about the way it promotes its own services in search results, potentially exposing the company to a fine of 10 percent of its global turnover. Google is accused of using its search service to direct users to its own services and to reduce the visibility of competing websites and services. If the Commission found Google guilty of breaking E.U. competition rules, it could restrict Google's business activities in Europe and fine the company up to 10 percent of its annual global revenue (US$37.9 billion last year).
37837453
submission
SquarePixel writes:
Facebook has disabled facial recognition features on its site for all new European users. The move follows stringent privacy recommendations made by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Facebook plans to delete all Tag Suggest information and delete the feature for existing EU users by October 15th at the latest. "The news comes as the DPC publishes a lengthy report on a re-audit of the company, which has its European headquarters in Dublin. The report is broadly positive, and the decision to disable Tag Suggest appears to have played a major role in assuaging the Commissioner's office."
37834315
submission
SquarePixel writes:
Bloomberg has an interesting story about Microsoft's efforts to simultaneously woo younger workers and to get more apps into its Windows Store. "Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, designed Windows 8 for touch-screen technology included in the company's first tablet, Surface, and other devices coming this year. To gain share in tablets, a market expected by DisplaySearch to reach $66.4 billion in 2012, Microsoft needs enough apps to challenge the more than 200,000 available for iPad. Using student recruits is one way Microsoft can woo app developers who are used to building programs for mobile phones and tablets, where the company has little and no share, respectively. Luring programmers before graduation is particularly critical for recruitment in the U.S., which lags behind countries such as India and China in its ability to crank out qualified engineers."
37833927
submission
SquarePixel writes:
Google has yanked its free music service in China after being unable to make it popular enough. The service offered Chinese people free licensed music downloads and was launched in 2009 to compete with the rival search engine Baidu. "Once China's second largest search provider, Google has now fallen to fourth place, overtaken by other local companies. — Google's popularity in the country has waned ever since 2010, when the company pulled the plug on its China-based search engine following disputes with the government over censorship and hacking concerns. Google's market share is at 5 percent, while Baidu's is 74 percent".
37786373
submission
SquarePixel writes:
Microsoft is urging Safari users to switch to Bing after Google was fined $22.5 million for violating Safari privacy settings. "Microsoft is keen to make sure that no-one forgets this, let alone Safari users, and the page summarizes the events that took place". It tells users how Google promised not to track Safari users, but tracked them without their permission and used this data to serve them advertisement. Lastly, it tells how Google was fined $22.5 million for this and suggests users to try the more privacy oriented Bing search engine.
