Research
in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis had his “one more thing” moment today at the company’s 2010 DevCon conference. Near end of his opening keynote address, Lazaridis--after making a number of big announcements, including in-app payments for BlackBerry apps, a BlackBerry Advertising Service and the opening of BBM as a social platform--uncrated the PlayBook, RIM's long-rumored tablet.
AOL, the New York-based company is on the verge of acquiring TechCrunch, the online blogging network started by former attorney, Michael Arrington. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is likely to make an appearance at Disrupt, and that is when the deal is likely to be announced.
Yandex, operator of Russia's largest search engine, has invested in Tel-Aviv based facial recognition technology startup Face.com, marking its first investment in an Israeli company. In total, Face.com has raised $4.3 million in Series B funding in a round led by previous investor Rhodium.
The news was first reported by TheMarker (in Hebrew) but we've confirmed the news with a Yandex representative, who declined to say how much it is investing in the startup.
The US Copyright Group, which has sued 14,000 people for sharing various films online, hits a snag. An ISP successfully argues that a Hurt Locker subpoena is invalid, in part because it was simply sent by fax.
Earlier today, after several tips, we guessed that Amazon may be close to launching its own app store for Android -- yes, another Android app store. Sources we reached out to weren't sure about what exactly Amazon was launching, but many had been asked to sign NDAs about something. Now
we seem to know a bit more. And yes, it appears that Amazon is on the verge of launching its own app store for Android.
We're still going over the details, but if the information we've obtained is accurate, it appears there are a number of interesting tidbits around payments paid out through this store. And a number of new restrictions. Ugh.