Internet & Media

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Facebook wants to make it less confusing for marketers to advertise on the social network, so it's killing some ad units and consolidating others, the company announced Thursday.

"What we want to do is take the guesswork out of the process," Fidji Simo, a product manager for ads, said during a press event at Facebook's headquarters. The company is rolling out several changes in the next couple of months to its 27 types of advertising, including the elimination of Facebook questions, online local offers, and the individual page posts ads.

The simplified … Read more

Facebook hopes to quell some of the concerns around its Home software suite for Android with its first new feature, a dock designed to make it easier for users to access their favorite non-Facebook applications.

The social network released an update Thursday to Facebook for Android that simultaneously adds an application dock to Home. Now, Home users can customize the app launcher by dragging the apps they use the most to a favorites tray.

The tweak is an expected addition that is meant to fix one of the most obvious flaws of Facebook Home: the software package makes it too … Read more

The last six months haven't been kind to Ray Lane.

According to a Bloomberg report, the former chairman of Hewlett-Packard has been fending off an IRS case putting him on the hook for a $100 million in taxes, all while he was trying to steer HP through snafus that culminated in his departure from the board.

Tax-court documents show the IRS in December found that Lane improperly used his partnership, Vanadium Partners Fund LLC, to claim $251 million in losses to offset income. Lane has appealed, disputing the agency's claim that his fund lacked legitimate business purpose.

Lane, … Read more

Clearing the way for services like Uber, an appellate court Thursday lifted a temporary injunction on New York City's pilot plan to allow travelers to hail yellow cabs via smartphone. The plan, which challenges the traditional curbside street hail, has faced strong opposition from New York's livery and black-car operators.

Uber had just launched its New York taxi-hailing pilot program at the end of April when the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division issued the emergency injunction.

Today's news came just hours after another related legal victory for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. His plan to expand … Read more

Netflix has started the campaign to drum up anticipation for its next original program to follow the much-hyped "Arrested Development."

A trailer for "Orange Is the New Black," a dramedy created by Jenji Kohan, of Showtime's "Weeds" fame, went up on Netflix's YouTube page earlier today. It will be released, all episodes at once, on July 11.

The trailer shows we'll get some of the edgy fodder -- nudity, expletives, dashes of violence -- Netflix has been using to foster an HBO-like perception of its programming chops, similar to the Netflix … Read more

Should you have spent recent weeks obsessing over a strange clicking noise on your Verizon phone, you might not know that Justin Bieber has not been having the most stellar of times.

There's his allegedly on-off-on-maybe-who-knows relationship with Selena Gomez. There was the lassitude in appearing on stage for concerts.

And then he even allegedly fainted backstage.

Now is the time to offer some good news to beleaguered Beliebers. For Justin is to be sent into space.… Read more

Independent game developers surely have wished they could lob their own angry birds at juggernaut game makers dominating the market and keeping their own products off players' radars.

Amazon today launched an Indie Games Store to address just that problem. A new category on Amazon in the Digital Video Games Store, it is designed to help indie developers get better exposure for PC, Mac, and browser-based games.

For gamers, it means a new way to discover gems.

The storefront has features and promotions like Indie Spotlight, which is just what it sounds like: a focus on individual developers, with Q&… Read more

Mobile device gamemaker Gameloft is putting Venice in the cross hairs of its next Modern Combat title, judging by a trailer for the game released ahead of next week's E3 conference.

The teaser doesn't tip its hand on what devices will be getting the game or when, but it does show off slick graphics. The visuals for the trailer no doubt cherry picks the new game's best scenes, but it still shows an improvement upon past parts in the franchise.

What we do know: players can count on helicopters, guns, and explosives turning precious art and architecture … Read more

AT&T is considering working with the Chernin Group to make a joint bid for Hulu, according to a new report.

The telecommunications company and Chernin Group, which is led by former News Corp. President Peter Chernin, have not yet placed a bid, according to All Things Digital, citing sources who claim to have knowledge of their plans. Still, it's possible that if AT&T and Chernin Group come together, they could make a stronger bid than the reported sub-$500 million offer Chernin already put up for Hulu.

Several companies are reportedly trying to get their … Read more