FTC Inquiry Hinders Google’s Acquisition of AdMob

When Google formally announced their plans to acquire mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million, they didn’t expect any regulatory interference to impede upon the processing of the deal. Unfortunately they were wrong.

Today Google () has released a statement on their Public Policy Blog admitting that they’ve been in ongoing talks with the FTC for weeks. This week the FTC even went so far as to make a “second request” for more detailed information on the deal.

The bottom line is that deal isn’t done, nor is it a sure thing, though Google still anticipates it to be completed eventually.

Google writes:

“This week we received what’s called a “second request,” which means that the FTC is asking for more information so that they can continue to review the deal.

While this means we won’t be closing right away, we’re confident that the FTC will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes. And we’ll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review.”

December 23rd, 2009 | by Jennifer Van Grove

Want to Buy a Dual-Screen Laptop? Now You Can

Remember that snazzy dual-screen laptop prototype from Kohjinsha from about a month ago? While we still can’t decide if it’s a productivity boost or an unnecessary toy, things have gotten a bit more serious, because now you can actually buy it.

Looking at the price and the specifications, it actually sounds like a very good deal. The device sports two 10.1-inch TFT displays with a combined resolution of 2048×600 pixels; it’s powered by a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo, 1 GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD 3200, a 160 GB hard disk, and it all weighs 4.09 pounds. If you don’t mind having Linux () as the operating system (you can have it with Windows 7 if you add 58 bucks to the price), the price is about $1,110, which is very cool for a novelty gadget like this.

November 27th, 2009 | by Stan Schroeder

Fishbowl Puts Facebook on Your Desktop

If you’re looking to bring Facebook to the Windows desktop and Twitter-centric update tools like Seesmic or TweetDeck are too limiting for you, you might want to take Fishbowl for a spin.

The app, built on Microsoft Silverlight 4, features photo browsing and zoom, photo slideshows, drag-and-drop image uploads and a completely ad-free way to browse and update the news feed. It works on XP, Vista and Windows 7, and just became available for download.

We’re already more addicted to Facebook () than could be considered healthy, not to mention our affection for the Mac, but for those Windows users looking for a rich desktop experience, our friends at Download Squad are calling Fishbowl a “kick-ass Facebook client for Windows 7” – it’s free and built by Microsoft’s own developers, so it might be worth taking for a spin.
November 21st, 2009 | by Pete Cashmore

Top 10 Twitter Photo Sharing Services Judged by Mashable Readers

Each Friday we choose a Lunchtime Poll topic to get a sense of how Mashable readers feel about the chosen topic of the week. Below are the results from last Friday’s poll, where we asked your favorite Twitter photo-sharing service.

Is your favorite service not represented — or not high enough! — in the list? Let us know in the comments! And to make sure your vote counts next time, be sure to check back tomorrow for the next edition of the Lunchtime Poll.

---

Top 10 Mashable Twitter Photo-Sharing Services

---

10. TwitrPix ()

9. Twitgoo ()

8. yfrog

7. twic.li/

6. Flickr ()

5. Mobypicture

4. Posterous ()

3. SmugMug

2. ow.ly

1. Twitpic (
November 12th, 2009 | by Barb Dybwad

Google Latitude Now Tracks Location History, Alerts You to Nearby Friends

One of the hottest trends right now is the rise of location-based services (LBS), which helps friends network and find each other based on their location. Foursquare and Loopt are prime examples of these growing networks.

Google () has its own LBS service as well: Google Latitude. Today, the search giant announced some major additions to Latitude that bring it in line with its fast-rising competitors. Primarily, Google Latitude has added location history and location-based alerts.

Location history is fairly straightforward: Google will store all of your past locations and will use that information to create visual histories of your trips and adventures via Google Maps (). If you take a bike ride across Indiana for example, you can track the route you took along with the times in which you arrived.

The other feature is Google Location Alerts, which sends you notifications when your friends are nearby via email or SMS. To make sure you don’t get a text every time you go to work and see your Google Latitude-using co-workers, Latitude utilizes your location history to eliminate notifications when you’re in a location you regularly visit. It even incorporates time, so if you’re at work but at 3 AM, you’ll get notifications once again.

---

Google Needs to Push Apple for a Latitude App

---

Both features are good additions to Latitude, but we can’t help but feel that Google’s coming short in the LBS space. While Latitude has an Android () app, it doesn’t have an iPhone equivalent, just a mobile site. This leaves Latitude without the ability to send push notifications, a major reason why Foursquare () has been a red-hot product.

For Latitude to make deeper inroads, we believe that it needs an iPhone app. There is a complete difference to the user when they download an app versus opening it up in the mobile web. It could even automatically send your location utilizing the same method that Loopt is testing. Google could turn into an even stronger competitor in the LBS space.

Whether Apple would cave into Google pressure is, of course, another matter. They’ve told Google that they didn’t want a Latitude app, and the search giant complied. Things have changed though, especially in the relationship between the two companies. Thus we wonder if Google should now try to force Apple’s hand, especially in light of the Google Voice debacle.
November 10th, 2009 | by Ben Parr

Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You

There’s no two ways about it: if you use a lot of Google services, then Google knows a lot about you. Google has received a solid amount of criticism because of this, and they’ve decided to alleviate the issue by launching Privacy Dashboard; a one-stop-shop with all the information that Google knows about you and your online habits collected in one place.

Dashboard covers more than 20 products and services, including Gmail (), Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut (), YouTube (), Picasa (), Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and others. It’s quite a scary list; personally, I’m using all of these, and I was quite interested to see what exactly I’ve told Google () about myself without even knowing.

Google calls the “scale and level of detail of the Dashboard unprecedented,” but I was a bit disappointed. The dashboard is nothing more than a selected list of privacy-related settings from the services listed above. You can find some interesting tidbits of info about your various Google account that you may have forgotten. For example, you can see which calendars you’ve shared with other people. But all of this info was already available in the Calendar settings.

Sure, it’s nice to have all these in one place, should you ever want to review all your private information stored at Google at once, but there’s nothing really new about this list; you could even call it a privacy-related compilation. Unfortunately, it’s also an unpleasant reminder of just how much data you’re giving out to Google (and other online services).

You can find the dashboard over at google.com/dashboard, or by login into your Google account, clicking on Settings, choosing “Google Account Settings” from the dropdown, and then clicking on the link next to “Dashboard”.

November 5th, 2009 | by Stan Schroeder

Apple Holds Entire Beatles Catalog. No, Not That Apple.

Although it made us remember the decades long legal dispute between Apple Inc. and Apple Corps, settled in February 2007., this apple doesn’t have anything to do with Apple, the computer company (although we reckon that Apple Inc. won’t be particularly fond of this release).

We’re talking about a limited edition USB containing remastered Beatles songs and other goodies, shaped like an apple. There will only be 30,000 of these, so if you want one, line up for the release date on December 7 (December 8 in North America).

Here’s what the package contains: “re-mastered audio for The Beatles’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.”

When you plug the USB into your computer, a Flash interface will pop up for easy navigation. It’s compatible with PC and Mac, and if the price of 279 bucks sounds OK to you, you can preorder it here
http://mashable.com/2009/11/04/beatles-apple/
November 4th, 2009 | by Stan Schroeder

Out of Control Forklift Driver Destroys Vodka Warehouse [VIDEO]

Out of Control Forklift Driver Destroys Vodka Warehouse [VIDEO]

Posted using ShareThis

Barnes

Barnes & Noble Sued Over Nook Design

Posted using ShareThis

Could the Web Run Out of Addresses By 2010?

If businesses, governments, and education institutions don’t upgrade to a newer IP address standard relatively soon, we could experience an unnerving scenario: the world running out of Internet addresses.

The report, released by the European Commission, states that only 17% of 610 institutions surveyed have upgraded from the IPv4 protocol to IPv6. Without this upgrade, the Internet can only support between 4 and 4.5 billion IP addresses, the unique string of numbers associated with every website in existence. According to The Telegraph, the web will be close to the critical point by the end of 2010.

For those who may not be familiar with the structure of the web: every website is assigned a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address, usually a string of numbers such as 98.129.174.16. The “www.mashable.com” you usually see is meant to make it easier to find your favorite websites. Currently, we use two version of the IP – IPv4 (the original version) and IPv6 (developed in the mid-1990s). IPv6, with its 128-bit web addresses, can support far more IP addresses than the 32-bit IPv4 protocol. Thus, if we don’t all upgrade to IPv6, we will run out of Internet addresses.

While this entire scenario sounds potentially cataclysmic, we don’t think you should be panicking yet. This problem isn’t new – experts saw this coming years and years ago – and is already being addressed. As we get closer and closer to the critical point, more and more businesses, organizations, and individuals will upgrade their equipment for the IPv6 protocol.

Don’t go unpacking your emergency Y2K kit just yet. Just be prepared for one giant, rolling upgrade to the Internet.

November 2nd, 2009 | by Ben Parr

Halloween 2009: Google Doodle Goes Click or Treat [PICS]

If you’ve hopped over to Google.com this Halloween, you might have spotted the world’s favorite search engine has a special Halloween logo.

Actually, it’s not just one logo: clicking on the Google () image delivers a series of images related to Halloween candy.

Another thing to notice from these shots: Google is trying a new layout with a subset of users that removes the “Search” button entirely, reminding visitors they can just hit Enter to search for something. That’s spookily simple, we think.
October 31st, 2009 | by Pete Cashmore

Nokia Gives Up on N-Gage Mobile Gaming Phone

On October 7th, 2003, Nokia made a splash as it attempted to challenge Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld gaming market. Its entry was the N-Gage, a dual mobile phone and gaming system. However, the funny look it had when you used it as a phone (”taco phone” was a popular comparison), as well a weaker game library doomed it from the start.

Today, Nokia announced that it is ending the N-Gage line of phones and games, instead opting to push forward its gaming agenda via the Ovi app store.

October 30th, 2009 | by Ben Parr

Marvel Comics on the iPhone

Comics lovers, rejoice (to a varying degree, depending on where you live)! Comixology, the creator of free comic reader for the iPhone, Comics, have added a bunch of Marvel titles to the library available for in-app purchase.

The comics cost $2 each; the 71 currently available titles include the Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Marvel Zombies, X-23 and X-Men Age of Apocalypse.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case due to copyright restrictions, all of these are only available in the US. The folks at Comixology wrote only a short post about the addition to their catalog, which also includes comics by publishers such as Arcana, Asylum Press, Evil Twin Comics, Red 5 and Studio 407, so it’s hard to say when (if ever) the US-only limit will be lifted and whether any additional Marvel titles are coming.

Twitter Launching “Twitter Wine”

http://mashable.com/2009/10/15/twitter-launching-twitter-wine/ Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced today that Twitter will launch two wines – a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay – in partnership with Room to Read, a San Francisco-based non-profit that helps improve literacy rates in poor countries.

Stone describes the project, titled “Fledgling Wine“, in the video below. It’s certainly a departure from the site’s microblogging roots, but all for a good cause.