Technology

Spotify has picked up Tunigo, a Swedish company that offers its own music discovery app.

Tunigo's app tries to help people discover music by offering playlists picked by its own editorial staff mixed in with songs from its own users. The app is available on Spotify itself and via Apple's App Store. A private beta is also available for Android users.

Tunigo has been a long-time partner of Spotify, and its app has been in the top 10 list of all Spotify apps since the streaming music site opened for business.

"The acquisition fits into our overall strategy around music discovery...basically helping our users make sense of over 20 million tracks," a Spotify spokesman told CNET on Friday. "Their app will remain on Spotify and their team will be moving to the Spotify offices in Stockholm and New York."

Read More: Spotify buys music discovery company Tunigo

Microsoft will spill the beans on its next-generation Xbox at an event on May 21, according to Windows blogger Paul Thurrott and a report from The Verge.

Originally scheduled for April, the event was pushed back to May, sources have told the Verge.

That echoes similar information from Supersite for Windows writer Paul Thurrott. In an interview with the video blog "What the Tech" on Friday, Thurrott said that Microsoft had planned to announce the new console on April 24 but then rescheduled the event for May 21. In the video clip of the show, Thurrott's comments about the next Xbox start at the 54:44 mark.

The Verge's sources claim the event will be a small one, offering the first details on the next Xbox, code-named Durango. Microsoft reportedly will unveil the console at the E3 event in Los Angeles in June, with the product hitting shelves later in the year.

Thurrott added even more to mull over. He said "Durango" is likely to be expensive -- $500 for the regular console itself and $300 for a subscription-based model.

Read More: Microsoft may announce next generation of Xbox on May 21

Facebook is getting into the “Android launcher” market, the company has confirmed, thanks to its new Facebook Home application announced today. The app, as previously reported, is new software that integrates the Facebook experience deeply into the Android operating system. But Android launchers today aren’t a very large market, relative to the reach Facebook has in mind. Will the Facebook brand be able to change that?

Facebook already has an incredible presence on mobile. It’s the most-used application on your phone. And of Facebook’s more than 1 billion active users, 680 million are active on mobile. It only makes sense for Facebook to build something that takes better advantage of this major shift in computing by putting its service front and center in people’s everyday lives.

But compared with the enormity of Facebook, the Android launcher market is much smaller. According to Google Play data, Go Launcher EX, the top free Android launcher, has somewhere between 50 million to 100 million installs worldwide. But that includes users who are installing it on multiple devices, or again and again as they change phones. According to app-store analytics firm Distimo, the launcher has actually only been installed on 6 million unique devices in the U.S. since mid-August 2012.

Read More: Android Launchers Are A Small Market, Can Facebook Home Change That?

Humanity lost a little more ground to machines last weekend, in case you're counting down the days to when Skynet takes charge of the planet.

A computer defeated a professional Japanese chess (shogi) player for the first time in a public match, Kyodo News tells us grimly.

A program called Ponanza, developed by Issei Yamamoto, took down 30-year-old Shinichi Sato on Saturday in the Shogi Master Versus Machine Match.

Sato was doing well until he made mistakes midway through the game.

While retired master Kunio Yonenaga had been defeated by a program called Bonkras that was developed by a programmer at Fujitsu Labs, the weekend bout was the first loss to a machine by an active pro.

Read More: Computer beats human pro at Japanese chess

Two federal agencies are reportedly probing the relationship between Microsoft and business partners in China, Italy and Romania who allegedly bribed foreign officials to land software contracts with their organizations.

Lawyers at the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating accusations made by a whistleblower who formerly worked for Microsoft in China, as well as connections between the software maker and some consultants and resellers in Italy and Romania, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Microsoft did not respond to our request to comment for this story. However, the company told The Wall Street Journal that it would "cooperate fully" with any government inquiries made into its business practices.

High Risk Gamble

In Microsoft's case, if there was any kickback activity, it may have been done without the knowledge of the brass in Redmond, said Dan Harris, a partner with Harris & Moure, which sponsors the China Law blog.

Read More: Feds Probe Microsoft Whistleblower's Bribery Accusations

When Adobe Systems revealed yesterday that Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch is leaving for Apple, it was only the latest example of an unusual combination of alliance and rivalry that has linked the Silicon Valley companies for decades.

Lynch, who came to Adobe via its acquisition of Macromedia in 2005, is notable for leading the company's battle against Apple to spread its Flash Player programming technology to Apple's iPhone and iPad. He lost that battle at Adobe, but evidently managed something more than a frosty detente with Apple.

Apple and Adobe have a long history of both agreement and opposition. They've been closely linked since the early days of desktop publishing, often with complementary product lines and common customers, but they've also often wrestled for the upper hand in their relationship.

Among the clearest contrasts in the shifting balance between the two companies are two similar moments nearly a decade apart.

Read More: Adobe and Apple: Allies and rivals through the ages

After a year of testing, and much feedback, Twitter on Monday released a set of tools for small businesses and self-service advertisers -- tools that will give businesses more of an opportunity to speak directly to consumer interests.

Targeting was the most requested feature in the feedback that the social network gathered from select advertisers, according to a Twitter blog post. The company then came up with several ways for advertisers to focus their campaigns.

The yearlong test of the ad platform included thousands of businesses, but Twitter will roll out its new ad platform to all businesses. The blog post calls the new platform "insanely simple for any business to use." It links to examples of a range of businesses -- from a local bakery to larger enterprises that run campaigns across several marketing channels.

Targeting Twitter Users

Advertisers have a range of new targeting options on the new platform; they can focus on device type and Twitter user names.

"The @ tag piece is huge," Dave Rollo, chief strategy officer at BLiNQ Media, told the E-Commerce Times.

Read More: New Targeting Tools Help Ads Zero In on Twitter Users

Intel's search for a new CEO has been delayed, as the world's largest chipmaker struggles to narrow down the candidates, according to a research note today from Piper Jaffray.

"We believe Intel has narrowed down CEO candidates to two internal and one external, but the final decision appears to be slipping," according to a note today from Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard.

Richard believes the delay in selecting a candidate is hurting Intel because it needs to make major decisions about future businesses, such as contract manufacturing.

Intel has said it hopes to have a replacement by the time CEO Paul Otellini retires in mid-May -- which means the company still has roughly two months to meet that deadline.

"We're still aiming to get it done by the shareholder meeting in mid-May," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "The process is under way, no glitches," he said.

Richard sees it differently. "Without a CEO Intel is, in our view, a rudderless ship driven more by external forces than internal decisions," he wrote.

Read More: Intel decision on CEO delayed, says analyst

Nike has awarded 10 startups $20,000 each to build applications for its Nike+ products. The giant sporting goods company is striving to turn its digital gadget success into a technical platform.

In December, Nike announced a program, in partnership with TechStars -- a startup mentoring and investment organization -- to offer money and mentoring to companies interested in creating health- and fitness-related applications that use the Nike+ technology. The idea is to seed app development for products, such as Nike+ FuelBand, to create a platform in much the same way that Apple has created a platform with iTunes and Microsoft, with Windows.

"We recently celebrated the first year of NikeFuel, and the Accelerator program is a natural next step to broaden and enhance the Nike+ ecosystem -- allowing Nike to offer richer experiences to athletes of all levels," said Stefan Olander, vice president of digital sport at Nike, in a press release.

Some proposed app ideas among the 10 companies, selected from the "hundreds" that applied, according to Nike's press release, include games that encourage users to exercise and a corporate wellness app that espouses healthy living habits.

Read More: Nike selects 10 startups to build apps for Nike+

Blackstone is reportedly looking to get its hands on Dell before the Silver Lake and Michael Dell $24.4 billion buyout is complete.

According to Bloomberg, the asset management firm is supposedly considering a bid that could out-do what Silver Lake offered for the Dell acquisition. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Blackstone has not yet made a decision and that it may bid as part of a group of investors. Reportedly, Blackstone has already reviewed Dell's finances after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

Dell announced in February that it had plans to take the company private via a $24.4 billion, or $13.65 per share, buyout by its founder and CEO Michael Dell, who owns about 14 percent of Dell's common shares, and the private equity firm Silver Lake. Microsoft also kicked in a $2 billion loan.

Under the Silver Lake merger agreement, Dell's board can look for a better proposal up through March 22. If a person or company makes a successful competing bid during this "go-shop" period, that person or group will be subject to a $180 million termination fee.

Other companies have also reportedly reviewed Dell's finances after signing non-disclosure agreements, including Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, according to Bloomberg. If another firm outbids Silver Lake and is able to proceed with a buyout, it's unclear if Dell will stay public or continue on its course to go private.

Read More: Dell buyout could be impeded by possible Blackstone bid