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Details are sparse and we have calls in, but the two execs at Klarna, Jens Saltin and Niklas Adalberth, were arrested at the W Hotel in New York for alleged molestation. The victim was a 19-year-old tourist from Texas.

Saltin and Adalberth are currently out on $10,000 bail. According to the report:

Klarna is a Sequoia-backed start-up and was a runner-up for Best International Start-up at the Crunchies.

UPDATE – Updated with information supplied by Niklas Adalberth’s lawyer.
UPDATE – Updated with information from the police report.

Hot of the press release presses: tech blog GigaOm has acquired PaidContent. Rumors of the acquisition were first reported by Peter Kafka at AllThingsD.

Full press release below.

Updating.

GigaOM acquires paidContent to expand editorial coverage and
geographic footprint

San Francisco, February 8, 2012 – GigaOM, a leading business and
technology media company, announced today that it has acquired
paidContent from Guardian News & Media Limited. The company has
acquired all the assets of ContentNext Media, including
paidContent.org, mocoNews.net, contentSutra.com and paidContent:UK,
and will retain its editorial and business staff.

“With our shared commitment to journalistic ethics, GigaOM and
paidContent are a natural fit,” said Paul Walborsky, CEO of GigaOM.
“paidContent is the leading voice covering the evolution of media, an
area that is very important to us. Integrating our teams will enrich
our editorial coverage and expand our footprint immediately in two
markets that are critical to our growth – New York City and the UK.”

paidContent is the defacto voice in the business of media – a business
being transformed by technology and new methods of consuming
information. Together, paidContent and GigaOM will cover this
fast-changing industry even more closely and with more resources.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to be part of GigaOM and to
join forces with their team,” said Ernie Sander, executive editor of
ContentNext Media. “Together, we’ve got a potent blend of
distinguished content on the sites, smart events, and deep-dive
research products. I think the combination of GigaOM and paidContent
will be unstoppable.”

Like GigaOM, paidContent produces industry-leading events that attract
some of the most powerful names in media, information, business and
technology. GigaOM readers can expect to see more coverage of social
and digital media at events, on GigaOM.com and in GigaOM Pro research
reports.

Staci D. Kramer, editor and EVP of ContentNext Media, said: “I’m
excited about being part of the outstanding GigaOM team and especially
pleased to be making the journey with so many people from ContentNext.
I look forward to working alongside Om Malik, whom I’ve long
respected, Paul Walborksy, and the combined staffs — and applying the
best of paidContent to GigaOM’s expansion.”

Guardian News & Media will take a minority share in GigaOM, joining
existing investors such as Reed Elsevier Ventures, Alloy Ventures and
True Ventures. Other terms of the acquisition have not been
disclosed.

Andrew Miller, CEO of Guardian Media Group (parent company of Guardian
News & Media), said: “paidContent has a fantastic presence in the
tech/media space and the match with GigaOM – itself a really smart and
pioneering company – is a good one. We are delighted to become
shareholders in GigaOM as part of the deal.”

With staff already in Europe and New York City, making a larger
investment in both regions will provide GigaOM with deeper roots in
growing technology markets and bolster its position as the leading
independent voice of the technology industry.

About GigaOM
Founded in 2006, GigaOM has grown into the leading provider of online
media, events and research for global technology innovators. The
company is one of the most credible and insightful voices at the
intersection of business and technology, with an online audience of
more than 4.5 million monthly unique visitors; industry-leading
events; and a pioneering market research service and digital
community, GigaOM Pro, which provides research on emerging technology
markets from over 110 independent analysts.

About paidContent
paidContent, the flagship brand of ContentNext Media, provides global
coverage of the economics of digital content and supports various
events and conferences serving decision-makers within the media,
entertainment, publishing, advertising, marketing, and technology
sectors. paidContent and the other ContentNext brands – mocoNews,
contentSutra and paidContent:UK – are known for breaking stories,
offering in-depth analysis and maintaining a high level of
journalistic integrity. As of January 31, 2012, the company served
approximately 726,000 unique monthly visitors, corresponding to 1.54
million page views to its sites, and had hosted 17 paid events since
the beginning of 2008, addressing the digital content, entertainment,
advertising and mobile markets.

About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes guardian.co.uk, one of the
world’s leading news websites, guardiannews.com, and the Guardian and
Observer newspapers. GNM is the core business of Guardian Media Group
(GMG), whose sole shareholder is The Scott Trust. The core purpose of
The Scott Trust is to secure the financial and editorial independence
of the Guardian in perpetuity. Profits generated by GMG are reinvested
to sustain journalism that is free from commercial or political
interference. No individual can benefit financially from being a
shareholder in The Scott Trust, making it a unique form of media
ownership.

###

Microsoft has sent out invites for a Windows 8 Consumer Preview event Feb. 29 and this will take place during the Mobile World Congress trade show, which indicates we may see multiple ARM-based tablets running this operating system.

Microsoft introduced Windows 8 in September of last year as a developer preview and this included a redone Metro-style interface which appears to be built from the ground up for touch interfaces. The Consumer Preview should be the only major beta we see of this before it is fully released to the public.

While the iPad and Android are taking up the lion’s share of tablets, Microsoft insists that these are still just computers and it reigns supreme in that market. That’s why it chose to make Windows 8 capable of running on a desktop or laptop setting and on a tablet instead of scaling up Windows Phone for the tablet form factor. If it breaks right, Microsoft is hoping that Windows 8 will provide you with that touch-centric tablet experience you want on the go, as well as the robust, desktop experience you’d expect from a Windows OS.

Of course, it’s going to be difficult to be everything to everyone and do it well. I spent a little bit of time with Windows 8 (check out the video below) and I was impressed with its ambition at the time but it was still very early on. There are still questions about how legacy apps will look and run on ARM devices – which make up the bulk of tablets – and if the Metro style is flexible enough to truly deliver great tablet apps that also look and feel good when you’re on a traditional computer setup.

Having the Windows 8 event at Mobile World Congress is also telling and I’d expect to see it make the tablet story a large part of this push. We also expect to hear some Windows Phone news, so it is shaping up to be a major show for Microsoft.

[Via WinSuperSite]

Windows 8 Consumer Preview to debut at Mobile World Congress originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2012-02-08T18:57:24Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

Call it a sort of a bear hug: Sprint, the also-ranniest of the also-rans in the carrier world, lost money selling phones that, on the aggregate gained them subscribers. It’s also Catch-22, a blindside, and a mess.

According to Sprint, the company reported a net loss last quarter while still selling 1.8 million iPhones and increasing their subscriber base by 1.6 million. How? The costs associated with provisioning and supporting these new phones drove operating losses to $438 million, up from $139 million in Q4 last year.

The company reported increased subscriber numbers – 55 million this year. Forty percent of Sprint iPhone buyers were new customers. They nearly doubled capital expenditures this year.

Sprint is in a strange place. Like T-Mobile, the company has always been overshadowed by the bigger guys and never gained traction after acquisition. While using ostensibly the same hardware, Verizon has roundly trounced Sprint by advertising improved coverage and reception.

However, unlike T-Mobile, Sprint has the iPhone. This move – beyond any network improvements or handset acquisitions – is what’s keeping the company afloat. The net loss shown this year happened because Sprint was supporting the iPhone, a wild situation in which a company’s best-seller is actually dragging it down.

If the iPhone taught consumes anything it’s that mobile broadband is a right, not a privilege. The right to Instagram, Yelp, and browse all day and night is seemingly god-given and that same god knows that the iPhone hasn’t been useful for making calls these last few years. In short, we’re looking at a product that would upend any carrier’s view of the world, not just Sprint’s.

For decades, carriers worried about getting calls from point A to point B. Now they have to worry about tethering, massive data downloads to small devices, and always-on connectivity. They have to worry about angry Tweets, upset Facebook posts, and maintain gear that is cutting edge and prone to failure. So, in the end, it didn’t make financial sense to go the popular route, but hopefully it will buoy Sprint’s prospects in the long term.

The iPhone taught carriers that it wasn’t enough to dump out a feature phone or two and keep the power on in the switch room. Sprint’s troubles – masquerading as opportunity – is the finest example of the change that is currently rolling over the operator landscape.

photo credit: ucumari via photopin cc

We first covered Finnish startup Ovelin back in June, when it was preparing for the release of its interactive, gamified app for the iPad that helps teach youngsters how to play the guitar, and having some fun while doing it. Like others before it, Ovelin’s mission is based on the fact that learning to play an instrument is challenging. The process is slow, and the exercises one has to go through — they don’t tell you about this in Rolling Stone — are boring and tedious. It’s for this reason that instrumental education is fraught with dropout, as many novice musicians end up retiring before they become shredders.

Ovelin developed WildChords as a fun way for beginners to learn guitar, get over those musical hurdles, and seek everlasting musical glory. It does this by plying some of the Guitar Hero model to music education, using audio technology to recognize the sound of your guitar through the iPad’s microphone, recognizing the chords you’re playing, and turning your geetar into a controller.

Today, the startup is announcing that it has raised $1.4 million in seed financing, led by VC firm, True Ventures, which has invested in Kicksend, Schematic Labs, Fitbit, Bandcamp, and more. The startup will use this infusion of capital to further develop WildChords, and extend the concept to teach beginners how to play instruments through desktop and mobile games. Simply put, Ovelin wants to change the way people learn how to play an instrument, and they’re of the firm belief that interactive, musical games are the way to do that.

At this point, WildChords is only available on the iPad, but Ovelin is in the process of developing apps for other mobile platforms. The iPad app officially launched in mid-November, and racked up over 100,000 downloads in the first month alone. Since then, it’s gone on to rack up a number of accolades, including becoming the Best European Learning Game of 2011 according to LUDUS, was nominated at the IMGA Awards for most innovative games of 2012, and was a finalist in the SXSW Music Accelerator this year.

WildChords was developed to evaluate users’ performance and offer feedback in realtime, coursing through levels in a gaming narrative that is what Ovelin calls a “modern Pied Piper of Hamelin” story. It’s great for kids and beginners alike, and once the free content has been completed, users can get access to additional content through in-app purchases within the game.

It’s great to see a Finnish startup receiving some real validation from a Silicon Valley VC fund, and it will be interesting to see if Ovelin can ramp up its team and provide engaging games for a variety of instruments and skill sets.

We’ll continue to update. But for more, check out Ovelin at home here.