The recruiting feat is historic since Google has never hired such a senior person away from Apple. The hiring is also interesting because the Department of Justice is investigating Google and Apple for allegedly working out a “no poach” agreement where the companies — along with Pixar, Lucasfilm, Intel and Intuit — allegedly conspired to suppress employee compensation by not poaching each other’s employees.

Simon Prakash worked at Apple for more than eight years and was most recently the senior director of product integrity at Apple, according to his LinkedIn page. That means he was responsible for product quality across all of Apple’s products, from iPhones to Macs. Apple has the best reputation for product quality, according to consumer satisfaction surveys by J.D. Power.

Now he’ll be working for Google on a secret project, presumably run by Google co-founder Sergei Brin, who is in charge of a variety of secret research and development projects at Apple. Google recently acquired Motorola Mobility and it has a wide variety of hardware projects under way that Prakash might be working on.

Prakash started at Apple more than eight years ago as a senior reliability manager. Before that, he was director of engineering design validation at Cielo Communications. He was also a reliability and FA manager at 3Com. Prakash is scheduled to begin work on Monday. We’re checking with Google and Apple for comment.

If there really was a “no poaching” agreement between Apple and Google, it’s clear that it no longer exists. That’s probably a good thing, considering that the Justice Department is now paying attention.

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The information came from a FCC application Google submitted in December, which was uncovered by Gigaom. The device will connect to the Internet over a home Wi-Fi network and then sync up with other (probably mobile) devices via Bluetooth.

While details of what the actual device is aren’t included in the application, it almost certainly has something to do with Google TV. Using the data transfer process described in the application, the device could be a way for people to grab video content from the internet and distribute it to all the other mobile devices. The benefit of transferring content in this way would be that people wouldn’t be exhausting their broadband internet connections, meaning it wouldn’t slow down the connection for anyone else on the network. Also, wireless plans wouldn’t have to worry about hitting data caps just because they wanted to download a few episodes of a TV show once or twice a week.

The application indicates that over 250 devices will be used in Mountain View, Calif.; New York City; Los Angeles Calif.; and Cambridge, Mass.

We’ve pasted the full description from the FCC application below. Let us know your theories in the comments section.

Testing throughput and stability of home WiFi networks using an entertainment device. Testing will include functional testing of all subsystems, including WiFi and Bluetooth radio. Users will connect their device to home WiFi networks and use Bluetooth to connect to other home electronics equipment. This line of testing will reveal real world engineering issues and reliability of networks. The device utilizes a standard WiFi/Bluetooth module, and the planned testing is not directed at evaluating the radio frequency characteristics of the module (which are known), but rather at the throughput and stability of the home WiFi networks that will support the device, as well as the basic functionality of the device. From this testing we hope to modify the design in order to maximize product robustness and user experience. Utilizing the requested number of units will allow testing of real world network performance and its impact on applications running on the device, so that any problems can be discovered and addressed promptly. All devices will be used by and registered to specific individuals (all Google employees), and Google will maintain a record of each device, so that they can be easily recalled at any time during testing and when testing is complete. The devices will be tested at Google facilities and within employees residences in the following areas: Mountain View, CA: 37.421265 N, -122.085314 W; Los Angeles, CA: 33.995388 N, -118.477035 W; Cambridge, MA: 42.362754 N, -71.088023 W; and New York, NY: 40.741872 N, -74.004579 W.

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VentureBeat

Kersting’s Karlsruhe, Germany-based Flaregames is focused on free-to-play mobile games where users play for free and pay real money for virtual goods. Previously, the company was focused on mobile reality games that blended virtual and real worlds, but the company decided that free-to-play mobile games had more potential.

Kersting plans to launch five games by the end of the second quarter. As the founder of Gameforge, Kersting created a downloadable online games company that grew to more than 400 employees, $ 150 million in revenue, and 200 million registered users.

“Our first focus is on getting fun, high-quality games to market, and
reaching the mass-market as well as mid-core gamers with our line-up this year,” said Kersting. “Our investors see the opportunity for mobile game companies to grow fast and the team’s extensive knowledge of the free-to-play gaming market is an asset that will enable us to create new mobile games that are both fun and commercially successful.”

Kersting started the company in April 2011 along with Andreas Suika, former lead game designer for Ubisoft Blue Byte. Flaregames now has 30 employees.

“The mobile games business will likely be larger than the social games
business,” said Harry Nelis, partner at Accel Partners. “We’re backing
Flaregames because we believe in the team, technology, business model and
most of all know that Klaas will drive the company to its full potential as
it strives to become a major mobile games company.”

Accel has backed more than 300 successful companies, from Admob to Facebook. In gaming, it has invested in Rovio, maker of Angry Birds, and Playfish, which was acquired by Electronic Arts.

Filed under: games, mobile

VentureBeat

“Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a statement. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.”

Browett has been the CEO of Dixons Retail since 2007. Dixons is Europe’s largest specialty electronics retailer and it operates more than 1,200 stores in 13 countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Norway, Sweeden, Greece and the Czech Republic. So it only makes sense that Apple has picked up Browett to run its retail division, which earned Apple $ 14 billion in revenues in 2011.

Browett will replace Ron Johnson, who departed last June to become the CEO of department store chain JCPenney. In 11 years at Apple, Johnson helped the company launch over 300 stores worldwide and successfully grow its dominating physical presence. That means Browett will have some big shoes to fill.

John Browett photo via Dixons Retail

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VentureBeat

Google is best known for its web search product, which has completely overturned how we research and find answers. But the search itself is only the basis upon which its golden empire has been built. Advertising based on search, as well as banner advertising on websites touches nearly every industry. It even created the jobs of the search engine and display marketers, whose responsibilities include understanding Google AdWords and Adsense, as well as navigating the strategy behind bidding and maintaining ad campaigns.

In 2011 the industry which used Google’s advertising the most was the finance and insurance industry with $ 4 billion handed over to Google. State Farm topped the charts at a whopping $ 43.7 million spent. The most common search term in this industry with the highest cost per click was “self-employed health insurance,” which charged advertisers around $ 43 for every time someone clicked their advertisement.

The retail and general merchandise industry holds second place for most spent on Google ads, with Amazon leading at $ 55.2 million spent. You would think that number would be so high to accommodate Amazon’s recent debut of the Kindle Fire, but the most commonly search for keyword in the retail industry was actually “Zumba dance DVD.” If we learn anything from common keywords it’s that the economy is down, so people are self-employed and want to dance at home for exercise.

Travel and tourism came in third with $ 2.4 billion spent on Google advertising. Jobs and education came in fourth, and home and garden in fifth.

Check out the infographic below for more on who contributes to Google’s huge wealth.

by NowSourcing via

Rich man image via Shutterstock

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VentureBeat

Symantec claims to have found a string of “malicious” applications in the Android app store that resemble botnets.

According to a blog post by the company, these applications are pushing out a type of malware called Android.Counterclank, which is said to be related to a botnet-like virus called Android.Tonclank. Botnets generally extend from a commanding device, which then takes control of other devices via spam messages. On mobile, this control can be achieved through malicious applications.

Symantec says that Android.Counterclank has already affected 1000′s and considers its damage level to be a “medium,” for stealing personal information off of the phone. Thus far the company has isolated 13 potentially harmful applications in the Android Marketplace. The majority of which seem to be gaming applications as well as porn or applications with explicit content.

Mobile security firm Lookout Mobile, however, does not believe these applications to be malicious or botnet-like.

“Some companies are calling this a botnet or malware. Lookout has some concerns about the functionality, however at this time, and as far as we can tell, it does not meet the standard to be classified as malware or a ‘bot,’” said a Lookout Mobile spokesperson in an e-mail. “Consumers should take these apps very seriously as they appear to tread on privacy lines, but they are not necessarily malicious.”

Mobile botnets recently made Lookout Mobile’s threat predictions for 2012. The tactic thankfully hasn’t been used to its full potential yet, but some small scale botnets have already been detected. In 2011, Lookout Mobile found a botnet string called Geinimi originating out of China. This malware was able to receive commands from a remote server, as well as extract information from your phone, and attempt to infect others using your phone.

The company also warns that most common carriers of mobile malware are gaming and porn applications, which make up Android.Counterclank’s roster. See Symantec’s list of infected apps below:

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The “our” he speaks of may actually apply more directly to brands embracing the social network for social marketing.

New data from comScore, revealed during the Monday morning presentation, highlights traffic gains big name brands recently experienced thanks to a combination of paid and earned media efforts on Facebook.

Mega-retailer Walmart, which launched a Shopycat Facebook application prior to the holidays, saw 275 million display ad impressions as a result of a paid media campaign on Facebook, but experienced an additional 117 million social media impressions thanks to the organic sharing activities of its Facebook fans and their friends, co-presenter and comScore CMO Linda Abraham shared.

comScore also looked at the percentage of people who visited retailer websites during a key week in the 2011 holiday season and found that for Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart a high percentage of visitors to these sites were either Facebook fans or friends of Facebook fans (as seen in the presentation slide deck below).

Sixty-four percent of visitors to Amazon during the week ending November 30 were brand-exposed Facebook fans, for instance, and 36 percent were friends of fans, according to comScore. Leading Black Friday retailers also saw significant year-over-year traffic lift thanks to their various Facebook and social campaigns, Abraham said.

The data, Abraham concluded, shows that brands that know their Facebook fans, know their fans’ friends and push out the right creative message are seeing quantifiable results from their social campaigns.

Brands, she heeded, should keep in mind that Facebook users spend a majority of their time on Facebook on their News Feeds (27 percent). They should alo note that Facebook fans are often a younger demographic group than their average customers, and remember that friends of Facebook fans are an equally important audience to reach.

Disclosure: The Digital Life Design conference paid my way to Munich. VentureBeat’s coverage of the conference remains objective and independent.

[Image via DLD/Tumblr]

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VentureBeat

It may sound crazy to put a display on a window, particularly one that could get smashed. But the transparent display market is expected to grow from $ 900 million in 2015 to $ 87 billion by 2025, according to Display Bank.

“We look at it as a smart window,” said Bill Beaton, senior manager for LCD marketing at Samsung, in an interview. “You can think of jewelry displays with it or freezer windows at the grocery store that tell you where to find the ice cream. “

The touchscreen could turn what were once boring window displays into interactive experiences and pump new life into the LCD business. It has a contrast ratio of 4,500:1 with high-definition resolution (1,366 x 768 pixels) and a 70 percent color gamut, which means it is as vivid as a lot of TVs in displaying color.

The tough thing is that the greater the transparency, the lower the color. The greater the color, the less the transparency. So Samsung had to strike a balance through experimentation, Beaton said. And since the displays use ambient lighting, such as sunshine, as a backlight, they don’t work in the dark.

It has a TFT display and is 46 inches. Samsung introduced a 22-inch version last year that is just beginning to make it into stores such as jewelry and luxury vendors.

The display is 9 millimeters thick and weighs about 10 pounds. Samsung says it could be used in product showcases, commercial freezer doors in grocery stores, and platform doors of subway stations. It can also be used in other work or home applications including electronic boards, information windows, medical equipment, electronic signs, and, once the displays get smaller, mobile devices. Samsung also showed off a prototype laptop with a transparent display.

Pricing isn’t available yet but the products will ship soon. But Beaton said the manufacturing process is not particularly complicated for the transparent displays, as they can be made in the same factories as other LCD displays. It’s not unlike a technology showed off by General Motors for car windows. Here’s a video of the display.

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VentureBeat

The company launched a new version of its iBooks (iBooks 2) iOS application for the iPhone and iPad app, which will offer highly interactive electronic textbooks, as well as a new textbook section in the iBookstore. It also debuted an updated version of its education-based service iTunes U, which gives teachers the ability to do much more than create lectures for download.

While all of these additions are great, some people are skeptical that Apple’s new initiative can do much to improve the country’s education system.

Entering the textbook industry alone is definitely worth Apple’s time if the company’s only motivation is to make money. As VentureBeat previously reported, the education book publishing industry is mammoth, bringing in annual revenue upwards of $ 5.5 billion for sales of lower education (Kindergarten to 12th grade) and $ 3.7 billion for sales of scholarly/higher education in 2010, according to statistics from the Association of American Publishers.

It’s true that Apple is a business, and the principle reason for every business is to turn a profit. But as history has proven with the iPod (a.k.a. digital music revolution), Apple’s business strategies revolve around improving an entire industry to gain long-term, stable profit. This business strategy is also how Apple plans to approach education and textbooks.

There is also plenty of proof that suggests Apple wants to revolutionize education. Dearly departed former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs discussed the topic in Walter Issacson’s official biography of Jobs, as VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi recently pointed out. But Apple also owes much of its early success to education, as Apple marketing senior vice president Phil Schiller said at the education event today. (And for what it’s worth, I did use Mac computers almost exclusively while attending public school in the ’90s.)

Ultimately, its impossible to know if the American education system will improve as a result of Apple making its platforms and devices more accessible to learning or teaching in the classroom. It’s reasonable to assume that making Apple platforms/devices more education-friendly will entice more school systems to use Apple products. And it’s highly likely that when teachers or students do used these more classroom-friendly Apple devices, it will improve the learning process.

But if there’s one thing that won’t improve the U.S. education system going forward, its spending an exuberant and unnecessary amount of money on paper textbooks year-after-year. If nothing else, school boards across the country may eventually divert the money they spend on textbooks to spending money on Apple technology as a more efficient use of resources.

Check out the fact-filled infographic below for more information regarding Apple’s ability to save the U.S. education system.

[Infographic via Online Education]

(Click image to enlarge)

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