Al Jazeera English has today launched a news app for BlackBerry 10 and Android tablets, with a new iPad app coming soon. Although the BlackBerry and Android apps were developed separately to complement the respective platforms, both include key features such as background audio, livestreaming and sharing. BlackBerry users will be able to share links and pages from the app through BlackBerry Messenger, while it also uses native features for ease of navigation.

Brands will have welcomed at least four changes announced by Facebook for the overhaul of its News Feed feature, according tomarketingweek.co.uk. The redesign aims to make News Feed seem more visually pleasing by reducing clutter and is the first to take place since 2009. The changes appear to be a win-win for users looking to customise what they see on their Facebook homepage, while brands are expected to take a lot of positives from the update.

PepsiCo's CMO, Salman Amin, is leaving the company for S.C. Johnson on a high note, having helped CEO Indra Nooyi deliver over the last year on a number of crucial, marketing-based promises, including something of a turnaround for the company's flagship Pepsi brand, which is still duking it out with Coca-Cola and other beverage giants. The departure of the company's Global Chief Marketing Officer from PepsiCo's Purchase, N.Y., HQ to Racine, Wis.-based S.C. Johnson-maker of Pledge, Glade and other household products-was disclosed in an internal memo at PepsiCo, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Wrigley's is targeting consumers 25 and older with Alert Energy Caffeine Gum. The company already has a Web site and is set to put the product on sale next month at convenience stores, supermarkets and big retailers in the U.S. Wrigley says it's marketing the gum in a way to discourage misuse or overuse and won't link the gum to any existing brands that teens and kids might know. It reportedly doesn't taste so great to the younger set and is also more expensive than normal gum at $2.99 a pack and bears a label stating it's not for kids.

Even as the NBA continues to build what it describes as a profitable alliance with China, Tyson Chandler of the New York Knicks stars in a new PSA, supported by NBA Cares and WildAid, that focuses on the massive number of African elephants being killed for their ivory tusks, half of which end up in China for jewelry, figurines and other objects of desire.

Samsung's UK and Ireland corporate marketing director Andrew Garrihy is leaving the company after less than two years at the company. The Korean electronics company says the role is being made redundant as "a result of a change in our strategic direction." Samsung said in a statement Garrihy has decided to leave the business to "pursue new opportunities."

Just in time for March Madness, Charles Barkley, who will be part of the on-air CBS/Turner broadcast team, joins forces with NCAA corporate partner Capital One spokesman and actor Alec Baldwin for a humorous multi-media marketing campaign anchored by as many as nine TV spots and social media activation in which tweets can be turned into tickets for the Big Dance.

ConAgra Foods is distributing to retail some 300 million packages of foods across 19 brands identified with a red pushpin for its fourth annual "Child Hunger Ends Here" campaign. Each package also carries a code that when entered triggers a monetary donation from ConAgra Foods to Feeding America as part of its $10 million five-year commitment to the hunger-fighting organization.

Like all things that make you gag, this will be good for you. Teasing corporations and their ingratiating web sites have been fodder before, e.g., Facebook-mockery site "Condescending Corporate Brand Page." The latest in this genre of brand lampooning is "Every F[...] ing Website, that makes fun of corporate brand site design.

Those who think batteries are for pint-sized electric vehicles and hybrids need to visit this year's Geneva Motor Show, where "electrification" has become the buzzword among high-line makers like Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren - and Bentley. In an exclusive conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com, the Bentley's technology chief confirmed that the luxury brand will go into production with a long-rumored gas-electric driveline.