Mobile ad start-up xAd just raised $50 million to rapidly expand its location-based ad targeting technology. “xAd is already profitable, [and] growing fast,” TechCrunch reports. Looking ahead, however, “Location has the potential to become the next multibillion dollar business,” xAd CEO Dipanshu Sharma tells TechCrunch. “Today, it already serves ads that cover 40 billion impressions per month across some 7 different ad networks,” by Sharma’s reckoning. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners. 

Apple is about as tight-lipped and restrained as tech companies come. According to The New York Times, however, Apple design chief Jony Ive is telling colleagues that its forthcoming smartphone is going to shake Switzerland to its core. “According to a designer who works at Apple, [Ive] … gleefully said Switzerland is in trouble,” NYT reports. “Though he chose a much bolder term for ‘trouble’ to express how he thought the watchmaking nation might be in a tough predicament when Apple’s watch comes out.” 

Reddit is rolling out its first mobile app, which is an extension of its popular Ask Me Anything (AMA) interviews. “The app simplifies AMAs to make them easier to read and ask questions in real time,” Variety reports. “The new product is perhaps the most significant indication this year of Reddit’s interest in broadening its user base and improving its monetization strategies, which have kept the company from turning a profit as its 10th birthday approaches next year.”

Not to be outdone by Samsung, Apple and other tech giant, Swatch Group is adding “smart” features to its watchers, from distance tracking to calorie counting. “The world's biggest watchmaker, which sees the advent of smartwatches as an opportunity rather than a threat, will unveil its new Swatch Touch next summer,” Reuters reports. “All the big technology firms want to work with us, and I don't rule out that we are or could be collaborating in some areas,” according to Swatch CEO Nick Hayek.