Week in review: Google opens Google+ invites once again

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories published by VentureBeat in the last seven days:

Google resumes sending out Google+ invites: Google+, Google’s brand-new social networking site, will once again let users invite their friends to join them on the site, Google’s senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said. The site had closed invitations temporarily due to “insane demand.”

Report: manufacturer gearing up to build 15M iPhones 5s for Apple: Device manufacturer Pegatron has reportedly received orders to build 15 million iPhone 5s from Apple, according to the Taiwanese news site Digitimes.

Google+ could make Twitter the next Myspace:  There are numerous comparisons between Google’s new Google+ social offering and Facebook, but most of them miss the mark. Google knows the social train has left the station and there is a very slim chance of catching up with Facebook’s 750 million active users. However, Twitter’s position as a broadcast platform for21 million active publishers is a much more achievable goal for Google to reach.

Facebook unveils next-generation messaging, video calling: Facebook has just unveiled a new video chat service. The service, powered by Skype, is built into the messaging service on Facebook’s website.

Compared to Zynga, Groupon is run by a bunch of clowns: Social games maker Zynga, the developer behind smash hits like FarmVille and CityVille, filed for an initial public offering on Friday. It is one of the largest initial public offerings expected this year, alongside group-buying site Groupon. But the way the companies are run, and how efficiently they generate money, couldn’t be any more different.

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Hacked Fox News Twitter account claimed Obama had been assassinated: Fox News on Monday said its Fox News Politics Twitter account had been hacked after the account falsely posted that President Obama had been shot and killed while campaigning in Iowa. President Obama is celebrating July 4 at a barbecue with military families at the White House.

The shuttle program ends, and with it, an era of American tech excellence: The last American space shuttle, STS-135, lifted off this morning, bringing to a close a remarkable era in U.S. technological dominance.

News DJ app Taptu’s bet on tablets (and Android) pays off big: Taptu, a mobile search company that has pivoted into news reading, has seen explosive growth after launching its “news DJ” app on the iPad and Android tablets.

EA’s Secret World online game is nothing like World of Warcraft: Electronic Arts already has a game like Blizzard Entertainment’s supergiant online game, World of Warcraft, in the works — but it looks like the game publisher has one more trick up its sleeve. The company unveiled its next online role-playing game, Secret World, at its summer games showcase on Thursday.

Free-to-play games are taking over the App Store: Free-to-play games are taking over Apple’s App Store, based on data released Thursday from mobile analytics firm Flurry.