iOS apps see Christmas sales spike shrink in 2012

Distimo just released its statistics on Christmas Day app downloads and revenue growth… and the download spike is far smaller than it was last year. Back in 2011, Christmas Day iOS app download volume spiked 230% above the December average. This year, the increase was just 87% — far below industry expectations. The revenue spike came in at 70%.[More from BGR: Google names 12 best Android apps of 2012]Interestingly,...

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Leaked BlackBerry 10 slides show video calling and screen sharing for BBM

Research in Motion (RIMM) recently updated its BlackBerry Messenger application to include free Wi-Fi calling. With the release of BlackBerry 10 just around the corner, RIM is looking to add even more features to its flagship messaging app. Slides from a purported internal BlackBerry 10 presentation that were originally posted on the CrackBerry forums suggest that the company is planning to update...

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Publisher Bonnier, Flingo partner to make Smart TV Apps

 Bonnier, the publisher of magazines like Savuer and Popular Science, and Flingo, the largest publisher of apps for Smart TVs, have partnered to create a series of apps extending Bonnier's titles onto Internet-enabled TV sets and set-tops boxes like the Roku.Together, they will release a new app for each magazine, offering videos, images and archival content for fans. Savuer has a couple of web...

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Facebook unveils new privacy controls

Facebook Inc began rolling out a variety of new privacy controls on Wednesday, the company's latest effort to address user concerns about who can see their personal information on the world's largest social network.New tools introduced on Wednesday will make it easier for Facebook's members to quickly determine who can view the photos, comments and other information about them that appears on different...

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U.S. gun website sued for alleged ties to slayings

A prominent U.S. gun control group on Wednesday sued a gun auction website it says is linked to a mass shooting at a Wisconsin spa in October and the stalker slaying of a woman near Chicago in 2011.The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence alleges that the design of armslist.com facilitates illegal online sales to unlawful gun buyers with no background checks, and enables users to evade laws that permit...

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Obama election tweet most repeated but Olympics tops on Twitter

An election victory tweet from President Barack Obama -- "Four more years" with a picture of him hugging his wife -- was the most retweeted ever, but the U.S. election was topped by the Olympics as the most tweeted event this year.Obama's tweet was retweeted (repeated) more than 810,000 times, Twitter said as it published a list of the most tweeted events in 2012. (http://2012.twitter.com/)"Within...

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Judge asks Hostess to mediate with union

 Twinkies won't die that easily after all.Hostess Brands Inc. and its second largest union will go into mediation to try and resolve their differences, meaning the company won't go out of business just yet. The news came Monday after Hostess moved to liquidate and sell off its assets in bankruptcy court citing a crippling strike last week.The bankruptcy judge hearing the case said Monday that...

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