In other tablet news, Apple says it can’t wait for the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, because it will lead to further fragmentation for the Android platform. Having just met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer, Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes writes: “While the pricing at $199 looks disruptive for what seems to be the iPad’s most important rising challenge, the Amazon Fire -- it is important to note that it could fuel further fragmentation in the tablet market -- given it represents yet another platform. While compatible with Android, the Apps work with Amazon products.” Posturing, perhaps, …

File this one under “side project.” Likely in an effort to open peoples’ eyes to possibilities of tweeting, Twitter just debuted a site dedicated to human interest stories, which revolve around the impact that tweets can have on peoples’ lives. Twitter Stories already features numerous stories to browse through, like the one about a Portland, Ore. man who says he saved his mother’s bookstore with a single tweet offering burritos in exchange for book purchases. “Read about a single Tweet that helped save a bookstore from going out of business; an athlete who took a hundred of his followers out …

Yahoo needs help -- but not too much. The drifting Web giant is reportedly propositioning private equity firms to effectively gain control of the company, but without buying it outright. “The proposed plan would have a private equity firm buy up to 20% of the company, which would become a much larger stake after a stock buyback,” reports Business Insider, citing a (subscription required) story in The Wall Street Journal. As BI points out, Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo own nearly 10% of the company. As sources tells The Journal, their share of the company could combine a …

How reliable are Facebook’s user authentication practices? Well, researchers from the University of British Columbia Vancouver just infiltrated the social network with “bots,” and reportedly made off with information from thousands of users. “Around 250GB of data was stolen during the study, including personal and marketable information, and around three thousand users were targeted,” TechCrunch reports. “Only one in five of the profiles were flagged by the Facebook Immune System, which clearly needs a boost.” The fake UBC accounts, which the researchers call “socialbots,” were created from a few simple scripts, which submitted all the requisite account information. Names, pictures, …

As their fears of open, consumer-controlled environments continue to fade, advertisers are embracing social media (read: Facebook) as never before. That doesn’t mean, however, that they’re equally excited to pay for the social presence. As The Wall Street Journal reports: “The question for Facebook Inc. is how much advertisers are willing to pay for the opportunity.” To illustrate, The Journal uses the centerpiece of Ford's online campaign for the 2012 Focus. A free Facebook page hosted by an orange-colored puppet, the campaign won over a new, younger audience in just a few weeks. Yet, while the entire multichannel campaign cost …

It’s a big day for Google Reader, as the service officially gets its Plus. “Now Google Reader users can +1 or share items to Google Plus, from within Reader,” ReadWriteWeb explains. “Google has made very clear over the past month that Plus will be integrated into all of Google's products over time, so this wasn't a surprising move.” Still, that doesn’t mean that users are fully embracing the change. Addressing any unhappy customers, Google Plus Marketing Manager Louis Gray just wrote on his G+ profile: "We know that for some people, the changes to Reader will make you think differently …

Things are looking up for Appcelerator, with news that the cross-platform app development software provider just raised $15 million in a third round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, Translink Capital, and Red Hat. “Titanium allows developers to easily create native and HTML 5 web apps for mobile, tablets, and desktops,” according to VentureBeat. According to the startup, its Titanium development platform is now the largest third-party app publisher on both iOS and Android. What’s more, the company says it now has over 1.6 million developers in its ecosystem -- many of which came from its acquisition of Aptana in …

We haven’t been this jealous of our friends in London since they were awarded the 2012 Olympics. Struggling to protect its once-eminent brand, Nokia just began a trial of a free wi-fi service in central London, BBC News reports. As such, through the end of the year, Londoners will be able to use the high-speed service in certain parts of the city courtesy of the Finnish phone maker. If it considers the two-month trial a success, the company then plans to turn it into a full-fledged free wi-fi service early in 2012, according to BBC News. "The trial is going …

Trying its hand at a feature-length profile, Business Insider does a deep dive “inside Groupon.” Like everyone else, BI wants to know: “How did things go so wrong?” In sheer dollar terms, how did expectations for Groupon’s market cap tank from $30 billion to around to $10 billion? Until now, all signs have pointed to management missteps due to inexperience, quirky behavior, and perhaps even questionable character. Well sourced, BI’s piece reaches similar conclusions -- albeit painting a more nuanced picture of Groupon and its leaders -- but takes nearly 9,000 words to do it. Regarding Groupon founder and CEO …