VENTURE CAPITAL POST

BlackBerry (BB.TO) is considering equipping an upcoming smartphone with Google Inc.'s (GOOGL.O) Android software for the first time, an acknowledgement that its revamped line of devices has failed to win mass appeal, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

Facebook Messenger app has surpassed the 1 billion download mark via Google Play store. Google apps are the only other apps to surpass this mark, TechCrunch reported.

California-based Yahoo Inc will be shutting down its maps website and other services at the end of the month, Yahoo's chief architect, Amotz Maimon said in a blog post.

Microsoft's plan to make its new version of Windows a mobile hit by letting it accept tweaked Apple and Android apps has met an obstacle: some of the software developers the company needs to woo just aren't interested.

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is making it easier for apps written for rival Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) Android and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iOS systems to work on Windows phones, in a bid to attract users to its unpopular mobile devices, the company's operating systems chief said on Wednesday.

China's Tencent Holdings Ltd launched on Tuesday an operating system for internet-connected devices such as TVs and watches that is open to all developers, taking on domestic rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Xiaomi Inc in the smart hardware space.

Google Inc (GOOGL.O), already one of Washington's biggest spenders, set a company record for its lobbying activity in the first quarter of 2015 when it spent $5.5 million, according to a government database.

Start small, win quick, then move on to bigger issues. That appears to be the European Union's strategy to pursue Google (GOOGL.O) in a competition dispute by choosing to push a narrow set of charges around its shopping service, while opening another investigation of Google's Android mobile phone software.

The European Union accused Google Inc on Wednesday of cheating consumers and competitors by distorting Web search results to favor its own shopping service, after a five-year investigation that could change the rules for business online.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it is bringing one of its most popular apps, which lets people take photos of a document and turn it into a editable file, to Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android.

Twitter Inc launched a video streaming app called Periscope on Thursday, just days after reports that it had blocked a rival app called Meerkat.

Facebook Inc said it is adding a new feature to its messaging app that allows friends to send and receive money through it. Users can tap or click a dollar icon in a new chat window to send money to their friends, after they link a Visa

Dropbox, the popular online file storing system, said on Tuesday it has fixed a security flaw that could have allowed hackers to capture data stored in its service on Android devices via compromised third-party apps.

Software developers say it will not be easy to come up with a "killer app" for Apple Inc's Watch - few have seen the product and the software is still in test mode.

Hundreds of millions of Windows PC users are vulnerable to attacks exploiting the recently uncovered "Freak" security vulnerability, which was initially believed to only threaten mobile devices and Mac computers, Microsoft Corp warned.