Ready to rock the world of mobile, Facebook is reportedly preparing to debut its own app market in a matter of days. “The App Center gives developers a reason to stick around on Facebook because it helps users find their applications,” Business Insider reports. “It also incentivizes making good apps, because Facebook can highlight them and reward their hard work.”  Already on the defensive over its immature mobile strategy, Facebook has a lot riding on its app initiative. “Without an app store, developers might flee to other platforms that aren't connected to Facebook -- like solitary iPhone or Android apps, or apps connected …

Google this week bought Quickoffice, a start-up that makes a set of applications for iPads and Android tablets that let consumers open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Not the search giant’s sexiest acquisition, but, as The New York Times’s Bits blog notes: “Productivity apps are among the best sellers in the category of paid apps for the iPad.” Indeed, Quickoffice currently ranks seventh on that list in Apple’s iPad App Store. The buy also presents a interesting challenge for archrival Microsoft. As Bits notes, “If Microsoft couldn’t find compelling enough reasons to release its Office applications for …

Wattpad, an online community of ebook creators and sharers just raised $17.3 million from some serious investors, including Khosla Ventures, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Union Square Ventures. Perhaps ever more remarkable, some are comparing the Toronto-based company to Pinterest. “Wattpad may not get as many headlines as Pinterest, but it’s seen steady growth since its founding in 2006, and [CEO and founder Allen Lau] points out that in fact, its eight million members spend a combined 1.7 billion minutes on Wattpad each month, more than users spend on Pinterest,” reports betabeat. According to Lau, community members contribute over 500,000 new stories …

While there’s no telling how users will respond, LinkedIn has reportedly leaked millions of account passwords. Norweigan IT Web site Dagens IT first reported the breach, with 6.5 million encrypted passwords posted to a Russian hacker site. Security researcher Per Thorsheim has also confirmed reports via his Twitter feed, stating that the attackers have posted the encrypted passwords to request help cracking them. LinkedIn, for its part, has responded to the issue, updating its official Twitter account to state that it is “looking into reports.” Meanwhile, the professional-positioned social network is already having a bad week. “Earlier today …

In other, less-flattering Microsoft news, the software giant is finally ready to put Zune out its misery. That’s right, after failing to win the hearts of mobile media lovers -- and effectively compete with arch rival Apple -- the Zune brand is “going away,” reports The New York Times’ Bits blog, citing a statement from Microsoft spokeswoman Melissa Stewart. “It was pretty clear that the days of the Zune name were numbered,” writes Bits. “Microsoft introduced Zune back in 2006, when the most exciting thing happening in the technology and electronics industry was Apple’s iPod and iTunes. A clear market …

To the great dismay of Apple and Google, Microsoft seems to be winning the war for America’s living room with, of all things, a videogame console. “Over the last 10 years, while its rivals have dithered and misfired, Microsoft has been feeding its living-room secret weapon [the Xbox] a nonstop diet of software updates and hardware upgrades,” Forbes reports. As a result, this spring -- for the first time ever -- domestic subscribers to Xbox’s Live online service spent more time consuming video and music than multiplayer games. Globally, the hours spent on Xbox Live have grown 30% year over …

Spooked by Facebook’s troubled IPO, select leaders are warning of tough times ahead for Web upstarts. In an internal email to portfolio companies, Paul Graham, co-founder of Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, cautions: "The bad performance of the Facebook IPO will hurt the funding market for earlier stage start-ups … No one knows yet how much. Possibly only a little. Possibly a lot, if it becomes a vicious circle." Regarding Graham’s email, Business Insider writes: “He says that start-ups which have not yet raised money should lower their expectations for how much they will be able to raise. Start-ups …

Delving deeper into online commerce, Google has quietly acquired KikScore, a company that assigns scores to e-commerce businesses based on their level of reputation and trustworthiness. “The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is a Google acquire-and-shutdown special with the service being discontinued from June 28,” The Register reports. Under the terms of the deal, Google bought KikScore’s service, platform, technology and other assets, but  reportedly has no plans to take on its staff or management. A patent-pending online reputation company, KikScore currently has more than 1,700 small business customers. “It is understood that KikScore’s platform will be intergrated [sic] into …

Having so far failed to turn Google Offers into a thriving business -- on par with Groupon and other daily deal services -- Google is reportedly pursuing several strategies to increase local business advertising. Positioned as a “platform,” Google Offers has seen a boost in the number of partners using the service -- including KGB Deals, Zozi, Tippr, and HomeRun -- along with a “precipitous” increase in the overall number of deals being offered through Google Offers, according to deal aggregator Yipit. “The downside for Google is that in such instances, it must share revenue with such companies, bringing down …

Especially now that Facebook is a public company, analysts are wondering how the social network will maintain growth. Perhaps answering that question, Facebook reportedly developing technology that would let kids younger than 13-years-old use its service under parental supervision. Fraught with risk, it’s “a step that could help the company tap a new pool of users for revenue but also inflame privacy concerns,” The Wall Street Journal writes. As sources tells WSJ, tools being tested include those that connect kids’ accounts to their parents' -- controls would let parents decide whom their kids can "friend" and what applications they can …