Can media companies exist without Apple's App Store? Not only that, but they can thrive, as evidenced by the success the Financial Times is having sans Apple. According to Reuters, more than 700,000 people now use the Financial Times' Web-based mobile application to access news and other content -- making it more popular than the version sold in Apple's App Store. "The business newspaper ... made a gamble in June when it prepared to ditch the App Store with the introduction of its Web-based app," Reuters reminds us. "The FT was one of the first major publishers to …

Business Insider just raised about $7 million -- or just enough to earn the ire of Reuters columnist Ryan McCarthy. Not pulling any punches, McCarthy essentially calls Henry Blodget's media company an unprincipled, blood-sucking, over-aggregatoring chop shop. Sure, McCarthy commends Blodget's staff of 60 for attracting 12 million visitors a month, citing BI's internal stats. "But there's reason to be concerned about what Blodget's team has sacrificed along the way," McCarthy writes. Ethics and good journalism -- that's what BI is sacrificing for rapid growth, according to McCarthy, who strongly suggests that BI's aggregation techniques regularly "go against …

Google just debuted its latest Product Search homepage, which, Search Engine Land admits, looks quite "stylish." Along with short text descriptions for each product image and rows of featured products below the fold, "It looks like an actual major department store Web site," Search Engine Land writes. According to Google, additional search product search pages are being redesigned, beginning with the apparel category, "where images are larger and new options such as searching by color, silhouette and genre are available," notes SEL. Also, a "visually similar" search has been added to show apparel and accessories from other designers …

This afternoon, All Things D expects Dish Network to debut a Netflix-style streaming service a la Netflix. Any such service would be bad news for Netflix, which has already had a rough past few months. "You don't have to be terribly perceptive to see this one coming," according to All Things D, explaining that Dish's invitation for today's event jokes that Dish and Blockbuster - which it recently acquired -- plan to offer a "stream come true." It was also widely assumed that the only reason Dish paid $320 million to buy Blockbuster out of bankruptcy back in …

Leaving more time for the Web, social game players are spending less time and money on traditional console games, according to a survey conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of social game firm Kabam. And when say social gamers, we're not just talking about middle-aged women. On the contrary, the online survey of 1,412 gamers found that one of the rapidly growing segments on social platforms is the "hardcore social gamer," who plays titles such as strategy, role-playing, or other hardcore games. "The survey is very self-serving, but it points to little-known facts that show why Kabam, …

In the world of serial entrepreneurs, Steven Fruchter and Jake Gold just debuted a new shopping-centric question-and-answer site named Get.com. "Get.com is simple in its execution, but that's part of the genius behind it," The Next Web writes. "Whereas most online reviews sites will give you in-depth details about a product, there's no ability to modify your searches semantically. That's where Get.com is highly different." Along with asking for specific products, users are also encouraged to seek out product recommendations built around specified desires. Users get their own profiles, about -- adding a bit of "gamification play," as …

Facebook founding president Sean Parker and Napster co-founder Sean Fanning are busy at work on some top-secret start-up, Forbes reports. Dubbed Airtime, Parker tells Forbes that it's a live video site that will meet the need for real-time sharing and communication by allowing users to post videos and react to them live. Airtime's working mission statement? Only to "eliminate loneliness," according to Parker. "Parker has been coy about the platform's specifics, but says it will offer communication and sharing in real time -- something he thinks is underserved on the Web," Forbes writes. "Airtime will likely be a …

Rather than go public, LivingSocial could raise over $200 million at a valuation approaching $6 billion, Bloomberg reports. "The proposed funding round may include both equity and debt," Bloomberg reports, citing two sources. The daily deal site was reportedly in talks with banks earlier this year about raising $1 billion in an IPO, but is reconsidering the strategy given the volatile stock market. Rival and market leader Facing the same factors, Groupon recently reconsidered its own IPO, but is now reportedly back on track to go public. Across sectors, companies have sidelined U.S. public offerings at a faster …

The government is investigating whether Google illegally increased ad rates 50-fold on rival Microsoft, a single source tells Bloomberg Businessweek. "The Federal Trade Commission is probing the increase, along with other allegations against Google related to advertising, as a result of complaints from Microsoft." The complaints are being handled as part of a larger antitrust probe into Google that began earlier this year, and about which little is still known. "If true, the Microsoft allegations could be used to help the FTC build a case showing that Google abused its power as the owner of the world's most …

Netflix -- which hasn't has much to boast about lately -- can hold its head high on news of a Discovery Communications partnership. Per the deal, Netflix can now carry episodes of popular TV adventure shows including "Man vs. Wild" and "River Monsters." Significantly, "The deal is the first major move by Discovery to make full episodes of its TV shows available for instant streaming, expanding well beyond the short clips that are now available on video sites such as Google Inc's YouTube," Reuters reports. The two-year deal reportedly only covers material from prior seasons of the TV …