All the Top Tech Stories Investors Must Know from the Week

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

On Tuesday, Amazon launched its new In-App Purchasing service that permits developers to allow customers to use their Amazon accounts to buy virtual goods and currencies from within PC , Mac, and Web-based games. Presently, Amazon provides In-App Purchasing services for Mac, PC and Web, Android and Kindle Fire developers, empowering them to offer Amazon’s millions of customers a convenient, trusted and secure buying process.

The senior analyst at ABI Research Aapo Markkanen has calculated that for Amazon to gain a 20-percent profit margin, it needs $10 in content sales per month from each Kindle Fire, from which would come $3 after its 30-percent cut, adding that this incremental $3 revenue would be required over the life of the hardware in order to maintain that margin. Further, Markkanen says that the combination of falling hardware prices over time and an increase in content sales could help the product line even more.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)

ITG Research is predicting a solid fourth quarter for Facebook due to its accelerating trends. The firm anticipates that Facebook’s quarterly North American revenue should be between $780 million and $800 million, which is above a Street consensus of $771 million.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM)

The Web optimization firm Akamai is looking to create a TV tech that can detect what a person is watching and stream secondary content to a smartphone or tablet in near-real time. The firm says that the purpose is to take today’s rapidly-growing but chaotic landscape of television “companion” applications, like the ones delivering athlete statistics to those watching the Olympics, and make it easier to create and see such additional content.

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD)

AMD has gained two senior engineers with experience at Qualcomm and at Apple, marking its most recent high-level recruitments as it diversifies ahead of a slumping personal computer industry, according to inside sources. Charles Matar, who recently work at Qualcomm, with expertise in low-power and embedded chip design, will become Vice President of System-on-Chip Development while Wayne Meretsky, who worked at Apple in the 1990s on the Mac, was chosen as Vice President of software IP development and will lead software developments for the company’s chips.