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Apple Chasing Hulu?, Google+ Games Plan, Android Apps Leak, Google+ Brands Mistakes, Microsoft’s Record Quarter

This and other breaking news, updated throughout the day by Fast Company’s editors.

BY Kit Eaton3 minute read

Spotify’s Solid Start. Billboard reports that Spotify has already raked in a whopping 70,000 paying subscribers in the first week in the U.S. In comparison, veteran streaming service, Rhapsody, has 800K paying customers, which it has slowly been gaining since 2001.

–Updated 7:37 p.m. EST

Verizon Loves iPhones. Fresh from Verizon’s newest quarterly report, we learned that the U.S.’s biggest mobile network had revenues of $27.53 billion (beating analyst expectations) and that it activated 2.3 million iPhone 4s. Over the same period, AT&T activated 3.6 million–but this also includes the cheaper iPhone 3GS. With rumors that Apple may be aiming at a cheaper iPhone targeting the pre-pay market in the coming months, the next few quarters’ stats may be even more interesting. –KE

–Updated 1:00 p.m. EST 

Google mobile doodle

Google’s Mobile Doodle. Today’s Google artwork is a celebration of the birthday of Alexander Caulder, a U.S. artist best known for creating the mobile. As such, the doodle is animated and will react to your “blowing” mouse-clicks and the wiggles of an accelerometer-enabled computer. But it’s also the first one Google’s built entirely on an HTML5 canvas, which means it’ll only work on newer-tech browsers–all the physics and graphics rendering happens in real time. –KE

–Updated 8:40 a.m. EST

Apple Wants Hulu. We know Hulu is making the rounds at the moment, looking for a buyer–or big names like Google and Yahoo are circling the firm, whether it wants a buyer or not. Now there’s a hot rumor Apple’s in the game too, and this makes a huge amount of sense. Apple’s embracing cloud-based storage for music and other content, and merging Hulu’s successful TV content streaming system into iTunes could add in functionality Apple hasn’t achieved itself. Plus, as we know from its recent finances, Apple’s not short of hard cash–and could easily outbid rivals. –KE

–Updated 8:20 a.m. EST

ms

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Google+ Games Will Cost Developers Less. Google has games coming for Google+, we know… but now it’s emerged that the way Google may try to unseat Facebook’s status as king of online casual gaming is by charging developers less than the now-usual 30% cut of the income. It’s a simple business decision, and it’ll mean developers may actually make more money out of G+ games, assuming the userbase exists and the developer framework is good. –KE

Android Apps Leak Personal Data. Another security researcher has examined Android apps to see if they’re secure or not. After looking at over 10,000 apps (representing a decent percentage of the total) has discovered 8% of them are actually sending private data concerning the phone’s owner to a remote server. Eleven of the apps were even sending unauthorized SMSs. This is a violation that contradicts Google’s terms and conditions, but because the Android marketplace is open, the offending apps can remain in use until someone complains about them. –KE

Google Says Brands On Google+ A Mistake. Google’s Vic Gundotra has responded to the controversy over brands on Google+ by saying the way Google treated brands was probably a mistake (referring to the fact that brands like Mashable and Ford actually had their “banned” profiles reinstated, while other brands are still barred from having a G+ presence). Will lawsuits follow? Or will Google+ go the way of Wave and Buzz before it becomes an issue? –KE

Microsoft’s Record Quarter. Microsoft’s just reported a massive quarter–with revenues of $17.37 billion, up 8% on the same period for 2010, a net income $5.87 billion, which was up 30% from 2010’s figure, and overall earnings for the now-ended fiscal year standing at $69.94 billion, up 12% year-on-year. Impressive. But how has Microsoft pulled this off in a market where PC sales are slow or contracting and it has no credible share of the smartphone or tablet market? It’s those long-term, ten-thousand-user contracts it has with big business and government, the ones Google is suing the government for on monopolistic grounds. –KE

–Updated 6:10 a.m. EST

[Image: Flickr user pcsiteuk]

Yesterday’s Fast Feed: LulzSec-Anonymous vs. the FBI, The Hacked Murdoch Emails, Acer’s Cloud Effort…and more…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I'm covering the science/tech/generally-exciting-and-innovative beat for Fast Company. Follow me on Twitter, or Google+ and you'll hear tons of interesting stuff, I promise. I've also got a PhD, and worked in such roles as professional scientist and theater technician...thankfully avoiding jobs like bodyguard and chicken shed-cleaner (bonus points if you get that reference!) More


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