Hayley Tsukayama
LEADING THE DAY: Only hours after it launched, the Mac App Store ran into some serious piracy problems. Hackers claimed to have found a way to download pay apps for free from the new store by cutting and pasting code from free apps to paid apps. As Apple Insider reported, the fault only seems to show up in apps designed by developers who didn’t follow Apple’s app validation instructions.
Apple denies it’s looking for a new CFO: On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Apple had approached Blackstone Group CFO Laurence Tosi about replacing current Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. Bloomberg said three sources told the news service that the company was conducting a CFO search, something Apple denied in the article. Both Oppenheimer and Apple said they are happy with each other. Oppenheimer has been Apple’s CFO since 2004.
Skype acquires Qik: Internet telephony company Skype has confirmedits purchase of Qik, a mobile video company that lets users capture and share video over its network. In a blog post, Skype CEO Tony Bates said that the acquisition allows Skype to take advantage of Qik’s Smart Streaming technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks, and will let Skype users begin storing video for later viewing.
FCC Chair to speak at CES: Federal Communication Chair Julius Genachowski will speak at the Consumer Electronics Show Friday at 1:30 p.m. PST (4:30 p.m. in Washington) in a one-on-one with CEA President Gary Shapiro. They will talk about broadband, spectrum reform and competition policy as it relates to the industry.
Faster Forward’s Rob Pegoraro will also be moderating a panel on 2011 tech policy with the FCC commissioners today at 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. in Washington). Cecilia will be live-blogging that here at noon, so don’t miss it.
Commerce, WH to talk cybersecurity: U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt will discuss the Obama administration’s efforts to enhance online security and privacy at Stanford University this afternoon. The men are meeting with local industry and academic leaders in Silicon Valley. The event will be webcast hereat 11 a.m. PST — 2 p.m. in the Eastern Time Zone.
Facebook changes rules for state governments: Facebook agreed to change some of its privacy rules after wrapping up negotiations with state governments. The changes will allow more state government agencies to use the social networking site, which is quickly becoming a valuable political tool. According to the AP, the changes include striking a clause that requiring users to pay legal fees to Facebook for harm or loss in cases where a state’s constitution does not allow it. The change is similar to the one Facebook enacted to help federal agencies use the site. The changes do not affect individual users.
Quora sign-ups booming: In an explanation of why the Q-and-A site experienced such significant slowdowns at the end of December, Quora engineer Albert Sheu explained that two big sign-up spikes in December and January led to five to 10 times more activity on the site than before.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com
