Apple buys Topsy Labs for a reported $200m
Apple has bought Topsy Labs, a social media data analytics firm, which specialises in using data from Twitter to track user sentiment towards brands.
It is not clear exactly how much Apple paid for the company, but the Wall Street Journal predicted it would be approximately $200m.
Topsy Labs had recently created a searchable database of every tweet ever sent since Twitter launched, which is more than 400 billion.
This is Apple’s second acquisition in the past month, as the company recently announced that it had bought PrimeSense, which specialises in making 3D motion detection technology.
RBS and NatWest suffer Cyber Monday technical glitches
Millions of people who bank with NatWest and RBS were yesterday unable to use their credit cards due to technical glitches on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
The technical glitches were on Cyber Monday, a busy shopping day that predicted online sales of around $500m, which is more than four times the daily average.
The payment problems began at around 6:30pm. Customers were unable to pay for items using their debit or credit cards and were also unable to use online banking or mobile phone apps.
In a statement, RBS said: "We are aware of the technical issues being experienced by customers and are working to get them fixed urgently. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused".
Blackberry sales drop to near zero in US, China, Spain and Japan
Sales of Blackberry devices have become so low in several countries, that it has been recorded as zero sales.
According to new data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the company’s share of sales in the US fell to 0.8%. In China, Spain and Japan, Blackberry’s sales fell to less than a tenth of a percent, so it has been recorded as zero.
Blackberry was outsold by Windows Phone devices in every market according to research by Kantar.
