Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on two particular stories of interest today.
Facebook Valued at $33.7 Billion on Secondary Market
Facebook may now be worth $33.7 billion, if secondary market transactions are anything to go by. That’s more than triple the $6.5 billion valuation the company received in July 2009. Investors are looking to snatch up stock before the company’s rumored IPO in 2012 [via FT].
Apple Ceases Business with Tablet Design Firm
Apple has ceased business relations with 50-employee Silicon Valley design firm SurfaceInk, which has worked on the development of some of Apple’s products over the last decade.
According to President and CEO Eric Bauswell, Apple decided to sever ties after the company debuted a 12.1-inch tablet prototype during an electronics trade show. Bauswell claims that the device was intended to advertise SurfaceInk’s design capabilities to potential clients; Apple, however, viewed the prototype as a competitive threat [via NYT].
Further News
- Google has upgraded its realtime search capabilities, including three new tools and a standalone URL: google.com/realtime.
- Foursquare has launched a new feature that lets users determine how close they are to becoming the mayor of any given venue.
- Diaspora, the much-hyped open source alternative to Facebook, will release its code to the world on September 15, the fledgling startup announced.
- Facebook has announced a partnership with venture company Y Combinator, giving the social network insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, and providing Y Combinator startups with special access to Facebook resources.
- YouTube has debuted a Movies section for UK residents with 400 free films in the catalog.
- Gmail users placed more than one million calls in the first 24 hours after Google Voice became available in their inboxes.
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This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.
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