1. Apple has overtaken Google as the world’s most valuable brand. Its estimated value has seen an 84 per cent increase to $153bn.
2. Facebook is increasingly influential in determining what online news is being read. That’s according to a new study which looked at the flow of traffic to the web’s 25 largest news destinations.
3. As an anonymous Twitter user posts a list of celebrities who allegedly have obtained super-injuctions, senior legal figures warn that the internet renders such gagging orders ‘pointless’.
4. Broadband is to be rolled out all over Ireland by 2012. The scheme aims to promote development in rural areas who do not currently have broadband access.
5. The first Facebook training suite has been launched in Dublin. Social media agency Simply Zesty says it will teach companies world wide everything they need to know about Facebook.
6. A national movement has been launched to get more Irish businesses online. It will allow businesses with no website to create one for free in under 30 minutes.
7. A US billionaire has won a high court order over Wikipedia defamation. Hedge fund manager Louis Bacon has been given the go ahead by a UK court to force three websites, including Wikipedia to reveal the identity of online commenters who posted alleged libellous material about him on the sites.
8. Toshiba are predicting a 25 per cent rise in profits. The company, which is Japan’s biggest chipmaker, expects to earn an operating profit of $3.7 billion in the year to March 2012.
9. A new app, Onavo, is claiming that it will cut mobile phone bills. The app, which is free and available to iPhone 4 users, compresses data usage, allowing users to double their existing plan.
And finally…
10. People have twice as many online friends as they have in real life. A new study found that typical users of social networking sites have 121 online friends and count 55 actual physical mates.