Facebook, flush with new cash and buoyed by a buyer’s market filled with un-and-under-employed engineers, plans on hiring about 500 people this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Bloomberg in an interview. “No one else has been hiring,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg. “It’s been a great environment for us because the economy has helped out.” In May Facebook announced it had accepted a $200 million cash infusion for 1.96% of the company from Russian internet-investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, a deal which valued the company at about $10 billion. At the time Zuckerberg told reporters the company didn’t really need the money, that it had “no specific plans” for the investment, and that with the new “cash buffer” it was “nice to have … flexibility.” According to Bloomberg Facebook has about 1,000 employees. Zuckerberg didn’t say how many (if any) of the new hires had already been signed on in 2009. But if they are call coming aboard starting now, that’s nearly four hires each and every day, including weekends and holidays — a mini Silicon Valley stimulus package all by itself. Facebook Plans to Boost Staff 50% This Year, Zuckerberg Says - Bloomberg.com See Also: Facebook URL Madness: I Got Mine, But So Did Haywood Jablome Facebook is Your ...

Apple stays true to Steve Jobs’ maxim that users don’t want to subscribe to music, but Rhapsody hopes the company will allow its “rental” service to fill that niche on the iPhone — despite a history of animosity between the two companies. Rhapsody’s yet-to-be-approved app for the iPhone and iPod Touch would allow Rhapsody subscribers to stream more than 8 million tracks, including all their existing playlists and customized collection. If you already pay $15/month for Rhapsody To Go (the same option that allows playback on devices that support Microsoft’s PlaysforSure DRM), Rhapsody for the iPhone would be free to download and use. That’s the good news. Now for the bad news: Rhapsody told Wired.com that the app will operate on either 3G or Wi-Fi, but lacks an offline playback mode, unlike Spotify’s app, submitted earlier. That means that without a solid 3G or Wi-Fi connection, the iPhone app will not play music. For a service like this to be a reliable mobile listening option, an offline mode is of the utmost importance. Otherwise, the app is more a novelty — if you can’t listen to it on the subway or the highway it’s not your primary portable music player. Rhapsody confirmed what it ...

When you think of a hard-core gamer, do you picture a teenage boy battling his friends in World of Warcraft? Think again. The average gamer, far from being a teen, is actually a 35-year-old man who is overweight, aggressive, introverted and … often depressed, according to a report (.pdf) out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study also showed when children and teenagers become game players, a trend toward physical inactivity and corresponding health problems extends and exacerbates into adulthood. “Among researchers, there is growing concern and uncertainty about the health consequences of videogame playing,” the CDC reported. “Given the ubiquity of video games — industry estimates suggest that they are played in 65 percent of American households — these concerns may be justified.” The study notes that half of gamers are between 18 and 49 years old, while 25 percent are 50 and older. The CDC also pointed out that of online gamers aged 8 to 34, nearly 12 percent showed multiple signs of addiction. The study, based on a 2006 online survey of 552 people between the ages of 19 and 90 who were living in the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington state, also shows differences between male and female gamers. Men ...

In 2005 Fortune magazine published a piece by Adam Lashinsky called Burning Sensation, which described the threat craigslist posed to newspapers. But it didn’t ignore the threat that other tech companies posed to craigslist. Even as Craigslist flexes its considerable muscles, the disruptor is facing the challenge of disruption… eBay has started Kijiji, a classified business for non-U.S. markets that can only be described as Craigslist-like. Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen is behind a company called Ning, whose software includes an application called Anytown Marketplace that can build online classified sites. The biggest threat, as usual, is Google. It has introduced Google Base, where users can upload anything–e.g., “49ers tickets for sale”–into its searchable database. Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy calls Google Base “Craigslist on steroids.” Google’s technological prowess–and money–mean it can add features in weeks that Craigslist has contemplated for years. Three years later the story was still the same. “Nimble start-ups like Kijiji and Oodle are challenging Craigslist’s long-standing reign as the undisputed leader in web classified ads,” announced Time. The story, “Taking Aim at Craigslist,” by Anita Hamilton, continued like this: If you’ve never heard of a website called Kijiji, you’re not alone. Named for the Swahili word for “village,” this ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court in New York ruled that a Yahoo internet radio service is not required to pay fees to copyright holders of songs it plays, a defeat for Sony Corp’s BMG Music. In a case closely watched by the recording industry, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2007 jury verdict that Launchcast, a webcasting service run by Yahoo’s Launch Media unit, did not give listeners enough control to be an “interactive service” that would require the fees. The three-judge panel said the service is required only to pay licensing fees set by SoundExchange, a nonprofit that collects royalties on sound recordings. It was the first federal appeals court to decide the issue. Friday’s ruling is a setback for record producers that have struggled with slumping sales as customers increasingly obtain music online or through other means. “It’s an immediate loss for the recording industry,” said Rey Sanchez, chairman of the department of music, media and industry at the University of Miami and a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. “If the service had been deemed interactive, Yahoo would have to negotiate fees with every record label to use their songs. Instead, ...