Top Items:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Has Apple begun clearing iPhone 3G inventory? — Staffers at Apple's (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City confirm that as of Thursday at 8 a.m., customers are now permitted to buy unlimited quantities of iPhones without an AT&T contract — the very thing the company was working …
Discussion:
TheStreet.com, MobileContentToday, TheAppleBlog, FierceWireless, MacNN and Macsimum News
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Amazon Web Services: No Open Cloud Manifesto for us — Update: Amazon will join Microsoft as two big cloud computing players not signing on to the Open Cloud Manifesto. — The manifesto, which has raised a ruckus following a Microsoft blog post, is set to be released Monday with IBM as the ringleader.
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Could Disney Join Hulu? Sources Say Talks Are Serious — Updated: The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company could wind up with an equity stake in Hulu in exchange for adding ABC programming to the NBC Universal-News Corp (NYSE: NWS) joint venture, a source familiar with the situation tells paidContent.
Discussion:
CNET News, PC World, NewTeeVee, Electronista, SlashGear, Silicon Alley Insider, MediaFile and AppScout
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Apple developing ‘stealth’ biometric security for iPhone — Apple has developed a new technique that would hide a biometric reader inside an iPhone or a Mac and let owners lock down their systems with fingerprints or even facial recognition — all without ever having to break from their usual routine.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Flickr Founder Launches New Startup, Hunch — Hunch, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake's new startup, is launching in beta today. — Update: Caterina has posted about Hunch on her blog. Here's how she describes it. — What is Hunch? — Look. Decision-making is difficult, and decisions have to be made constantly.
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Asustek to launch new Eee PC with built-in ODD in mid-April — Asustek Computer is scheduled to launch its new Eee PC, the E1004DN, which will be the first Eee PC to have an optical disc drive (ODD), in mid-April, and will follow with the 1008HA in May, according to sources at retail channels.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Liliputing, jkOnTheRun, Boing Boing Gadgets, Gizmodo, SlashGear, TechSpot, Eee PC, Electricpig.co.uk and The Toybox
Brian Krebs / Security Fix:
Conficker: Doomsday, or the World's Longest Rickroll? — When it comes to criminal hackers, establishing motive is usually a no-brainer: In a majority of cases, computer worms and viruses are little more than tools that bad guys use to make money. But every so often, a prolific …
RELATED:
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
JavaScript to get 3x speed boost in iPhone OS 3.0 — Regardless of whatever new hardware Apple might introduce this summer, existing iPhone users will see an average 300 percent speed increase in JavaScript performance in Mobile Safari. The increased speed will be helpful for iPhone-specifc web apps …
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
AT&T offering refurbished BlackBerry Bold for free — In the market for a new AT&T smartphone? Don't care if it's refurbished? The BlackBerry Bold is about as good as it gets from AT&T right now, and those of you who haven't pulled the trigger yet are in for a treat. How does free sound?
Discussion:
IntoMobile, InformationWeek, The Toybox, FierceWireless, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Gearlog and Engadget
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
8 Hours a Day Spent on Screens, Study Finds — IN a world with grocery store television screens, digitally delivered movie libraries and cellphone video clips, the average American is exposed to 61 minutes of TV ads and promotions a day. — Some people may think that amount seems excessive.
Discussion:
researchexcellence.com, Obsessable, The Toybox, Gearlog, dailywireless.org, NewTeeVee and Ars Technica
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Akamai Data: Internet, Broadband Still Going & Growing — The launch of super high-speed DOCSIS 3.0 cable broadband technology, the increased deployment of fiber and faster DSL lines resulted in a sharp increase in the average speed of broadband connections during the fourth quarter of 2008 …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
When every student has a laptop, why run computer labs? — Only four freshmen showed up at the University of Virginia in 2007 without a computer of their own, and the school has decided that it's no longer worth the expense of running campus computer labs. — What's the point of running …
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Jeff Bezos Works In Kentucky Distribution Center For A Week — Jeff Bezos is spending this week working in an Amazon distribution center in Lexington, Kentucky (AMZN). He apparently wants to see what it's like to be a rank-and-file Amazon employee. More CEOs should try that once in a while.
Discussion:
The Register, Bits, Brier Dudley's blog, TechFlash, Fast Company, Guardian and Wall Street Journal
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Music startup imeem making money, not dying unless the labels kill it — Sure, the music industry — including music startups — are having trouble coming up with significant online music business models, but recent rumors circulating about imeem's money problems appear to be exaggerated.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Youth Bloggers Network Acquired By Teens In Tech — Teens In Tech, a blogging network founded by 16 year old Daniel Brusilovsky, has acquired the Youth Bloggers Network (YBN). YBN consists of a network of over 100 young bloggers, and was founded by Patrick DeVivo, who is also a young entrepreneur.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Lawsuit Forces TheFunded To Shutter Service (or early April Fools joke) — TheFunded, a website that rates venture funds based on first hand experiences from readers, is shutting down on April 2, according to a notice posted on the site today. — This very well may be an April Fools joke …
Thanks:atul
Elizabeth Holmes / Digits:
Tying the Hyperlocal Knot — The Knot is launching 75 new localized sites in the hopes of reaching brides-to-be from Tampa to Tucson. — The Knot — David Liu, CEO of the wedding Web site, said the idea is to provide the “ingredients” that people planning weddings seek out.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Reddit's Ad Experiment Is Good News for Condé Nast. Maybe for Digg, Too. — How do you sell ads on a user-generated content site frequented by people who love technology and hate ads? — Sell ads that look exactly like the content itself. — That's the strategy that Condé Nast …
Noam Cohen / New York Times:
When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking — The rapper 50 Cent is among the legion of stars who have recently embraced Twitter to reach fans who crave near-continuous access to their lives and thoughts. On March 1, he shared this insight with the more than 200,000 people who follow him …
Shawn / Cell Phone Signal:
HTC Magic Passes FCC with T-Mobile USA Branding — Well well well, what do we have here? Today the HTC Magic, showing some sexy pink and gray T-Mobile USA branding and sporting T-Mobile USA 3G bands, passed through the beloved FCC filters. The HTC Magic, codenamed “Saphire,” …
Discussion:
Electronista, Obsessable, Gadget Lab, Gizmodo, Boy Genius Report, Mobility Site, Gadgetell, SlashPhone, IntoMobile, Engadget Mobile and FierceWireless
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Meizu M8 unboxing and hands-on! — Yes, folks — things are about to get really real. We have managed, through a series of delicate negotiations, to get our hands on an honest-to-goodness Meizu M8 — heretofore the stuff of pure legend. At first glance, the build quality of the phone …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The $70 Million Obopay Deal Is More About The UnBanked Than The Banked — When news came out earlier this week that mobile payments company Obopay raised another $70 million, effectively doubling its total funding raised to date, some observers were surprised at the sheer size of the round.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel to refresh laptop chips Monday — Intel will refresh its lineup of chips for ultraportable laptops on Monday. — The new dual-core processors—targeted at Apple MacBook Air-class laptops—include the 2.53GHz SP9600 priced at $316 with 6MB of cache memory and a thermal envelope rating …
