Failure on Facebook and Groupon’s downfall: top stories you should read

Your computer is safe. Building for Facebook guarantees success. Journalism is dying. Well, maybe not. Along with the back story behind BlackBerry’s big makeover and the quick rise (and decline) of deal site Groupon, the articles included in the latest instalment of our top tech stories series touch on some lesser-known facts about the world of new media, hacking and app development.

Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams

It sounds like a nightmare: some malicious presence controlling your computer, switching on your camera and rifling through your files in search of interesting photos or videos they could exploit and share on some creepy forum. Yet it’s what RAT hackers do every day. Ars Technica investigates the motivations and techniques and questions the morals of the men interested in owning ‘slaves’ to watch and tease from afar.

On Facebook, app makers face a treacherous path

As Facebook’s growth keeps headed skywards, it seems the network has gone from the sexy social media site to just another option for users who have more choice than ever. Its ever changing algorithms raise persistent questions about how it is disadvantaging the businesses who rely so heavily on its social power. App developers are no stranger to the problems either — and this article describes how quickly success stories lose their viral steam because of Facebook’s tweaks and are starting to look for safer places to host their apps and place their bets.

Greed is Groupon: can anyone save the company from itself?

They say everything that goes up must come down — and in Groupon’s case, it seems to be true. The Verge untangles the story from its greatest heights, crazy fast international expansion and Google’s potential US$6-billion acquisition to its current dreary CEO-less state, discussing the decisions and leaders that are responsible.

The newsonomics of a news company of the future

When it comes to the shift from printed to digital media, the word ‘disruption’ doesn’t seem to cover the scope of the impact new technologies have had on long-established businesses. But the Financial Times seems to be emerging as a leader in the transition, finding new ways to capitalise on its content and audience — from subscriptions to video content and data analytics.

Behind the scenes: the making of BlackBerry 10

The road to BlackBerry 10 has been a long one — but now that specimens like the Z10 are out in the wild, it’s interesting to look back at the back story behind the Canadian titan’s re-genesis. This article investigates the operating system’s overhaul, the move to rely so much on gestures, the ideas behind the developer models and the sacrifices made along the way.