Weekly Wrap-Up: Facebook's $7 Update, Watching The Debates Online, And Why Apple's Fight With Google Hurts Users

Facebook’s $7 Update, Watching The Presidential Debate Online, and Why Apple’s Fight With Google Hurts Users. All of this and more in the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up.

After the jump you’ll find more of this week’s top stories on the key topics that are shaping the Web – Location, App Stores and Real-Time Web – plus highlights from some of our six sections. Read on for more.

Facebook: $7 To Promote My Status Update???

Facebook has announced that it is testing promoted posts for people in the United States. Apparently paying to promote personal (not business-branded Pages) status updates is not an entirely new thing. The social giant first started testing individual promoted posts in New Zealand in May and gradually rolled out the test in 20 countries. This is its first appearance in the United States, Facebook: $7 To Promote My Status Update???.

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How To Watch The U.S. Presidential Debates Online

Much has changed in the last four years. In 2008, watching the debates without a cable subscription involved streaming them from a clunky player on CNN’s website, which could kinda-sorta be full-screened to fit onto your television, if you were so ambitious as to plug your laptop into your HDTV. This year, things are much easier, How To Watch The U.S. Presidential Debates Online.

Another Way Apple’s Fight With Google Is Hurting Users

The news since the launch of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 has been Apple’s lagging Maps app. The company’s face-off with Google clearly led to business decisions that hurt users, at least in the short term. But there’s another example of this, maybe just as bads. Unlike with Maps, the solution to this problem has been ready all along – and Apple is blocking it, Another Way Apple’s Fight With Google Is Hurting Users.

[Infographic] Mobile Users Consume More News

The decline of the newspaper industry has given rise to one of the great fallacies of the Internet Age: Fewer people are consuming news. A new study from the Pew Research Project for Excellence in Journalism shows just how false this notion really is. According to the study, “The Future Of Mobile News,” 43% of survey respondents who own a tablet say the device increases the amount of news they see, [Infographic] Mobile Users Consume More News.

Larry Ellison Has Some Strange Ideas About Cloud Computing

For Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, cloud computing seems to mean whatever he says it means. During his packed keynote address Sunday at the company’s Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Ellison announced four cloud initiatives for businesses, including Oracle Private Cloud, which puts “the cloud” inside customers’ own data center, Larry Ellison Has Some Strange Ideas About Cloud Computing.

Five Reasons To Join App.net Now

Don’t think of App.net as a Twitter competitor. Think of it as a totally new place. That still leaves the question of why you should go there, but there are plenty of reasons, Five Reasons To Join App.net Now.

Entertainment Weekly Magazine Has A Smartphone Bound In — If You Can Find It

What makes this month’s issue of Entertainment Weekly so special? Not smoking-hot soccer mom Tina Fey vamping on the cover. The reason is inside: A 2.3-inch LCD screen insert that runs live video and tweets for the CW Network’s (not so) fresh lineup of shows. Wait, that’s not an ad. That’s a smartphone, Entertainment Weekly Mag Has A Smartphone Bound In — If You Can Find It.

Hey IT Manager, We’re Your Friends

The disconnect between the mobile elite and IT departments is a result of the speed at which the mobile industry moves. Mobile, as a technology platform, is rapidly iterating. After only a few years of development, it’s moving toward its third cycle of innovation (from mobile WAP sites to native apps to hybrid apps and cloud integration). Whereas the Web took almost 20 years to evolve through versions 1.0 to 2.0 to the cusp of 3.0 (where it integrates with mobile). Enterprise IT departments are still somewhere between steps one and two, Hey IT Manager, We’re Your Friends.

Android Update Rollouts Accelerating But Still Painfully Slow

It has been a little less than a year since Google officially announced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The first device to roll out with version 4.0, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, hit store shelves in December. Since then, 4.0 has reached 23.7% of all Android devices – with Android 4.1, a.k.a. Jelly Bean, waiting in the wings. What is the holdup? Android Update Rollouts Accelerating But Still Painfully Slow.

Watch A YouTube Video, Go To Jail

An updated Japanese law puts sharp teeth on that country’s laws against unauthorized downloading copyrighted material. The law, which goes into effect today, imposes harsh penalties for downloading just one file – and potentially even watching an unauthorized YouTube video. No, this isn’t another dystopian sci-fi film about the land of the rising sun. This is reality in a country facing pressure from its own recording industry, Watch A YouTube Video, Go To Jail.

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