Google, Facebook, Yahoo and IBM all make news today
IBM kills Apple Siri
Around 80000 IBM employees use their own mobile devices on the IBM network. Among the requirements IBM have is that Siri, the digital assistant, be permanently disabled. IBM says that it has privacy concerns regarding the use of Siri. Among the concerns are that what is said is transferred to Apple servers, to better understand user requests and Siri storing data on devices. IBM has implimented a range of security rules for mobile use, including remote software wipe and other use restrictions.
Google announces new interface for iPhone
Google says: ‘Starting today, when you use the Google Search app on your iPhone, you’ll see a completely redesigned interface that gives you faster results, beautiful full-screen image search, and a simple way to access all your Google apps in one place.’ In other it news, Google also announced that they have made Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome available for download in Syria.
Facebook
Facebook still dominate IT News all over and not just because of the IPO. Shares have closed again us$7 cheaper than issue price and some Facebook investors are now suing Facebook for making information of decreased revenue expectations due to mobile user growth, only available to certain groups of investors, prior to listing. Other investors have also now started understanding the risks of A and B shares in Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg set up Facebook shares so that the A shares have far more voting power than the B shares. Even though he only owns around 18 percent of the companies shares he controls more than 50 percent of the vote.
Yahoo launches Axis
Yahoo launched its mobile search and browser called Axis into an already crowded and competitive space. As is the case with most mobile apps, Yahoo launched in the Apple app store first with it’s Axis Android app to follow in the future. yahoo claims that bringing up search results visually, instead of in blue links, will increase user experience. Axis cannot display inline videos and does not support flash. Also it does not support Facebook sharing of web pages, yet.
