Top Items:
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Researching Movement-Aware Interfaces for iPhones, Depicts Front-Facing Video Camera — Apple has been conducting ongoing research into how to further improve their mobile device interfaces as evidenced by a couple of patent applications published over the past couple of weeks.
Discussion:
CNET News, 9 to 5 Mac, CrunchGear, Obsessable, I4U News, The Apple Core, Gizmodo, TUAW and The iPhone Blog
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Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple exploring motion-adaptive iPhone with video chat — Patent requests from Apple continue to provide clues as to where the company may take its iPhone interface in the coming years, such as a new filing which depicts a version of the handset with a front-facing video camera …
Bloomberg:
Sun Said to Be Willing to Resume IBM Talks With Assurances Deal Will Close — Sun Microsystems Inc. would be willing to resume takeover talks with International Business Machines Corp. if IBM makes a stronger commitment to close the acquisition, two people familiar with the matter said.
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Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Sun to IBM: We're willing to talk again; Big Blue not interested — Updated: Sun Microsystems would reportedly be willing to resume takeover talks with IBM if Big Blue says it'll commit to closing the deal. — Bloomberg reports the news based on two people familiar with the matter (Techmeme).
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Nokia's net profit falls 90 percent — If you were wondering how bad things have gotten for the mobile handset market, just take a look at Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones. — The company on Thursday reported a 90 percent fall in first-quarter net profits as the global recession took …
Discussion:
eWeek, dot.life blog, Between the Lines, GigaOM, Reuters, MobileCrunch and Boy Genius Report
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Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Twitter Wants Distribution Deals, Not a Buyout — Yes, Twitter is talking to big Internet companies about forming partnerships with them. No, it is not looking to sell itself. — That is the latest from Fred Wilson, the Union Square Ventures partner who was an early investor in Twitter …
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Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Do You Think Bandwidth Grows on Trees? — User-generated content may have changed the Internet, but sites like YouTube are suffocating under the costs of storing it. — Everyone knows that print newspapers are our generation's horse-and-buggy; in the most wired cities, they've been pummeled by competition from the Web.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Decision Time For Facebook: Term Sheet Received At $2 Billion Valuation — Facebook has been pitching for a new round of funding these last few months to bridge itself to an IPO sometime in the future. We've known that since October, when (former) CFO Gideon Yu was in Dubai.
Discussion:
Between the Lines, MediaPost, Venture Capital Dispatch, Silicon Alley Insider, Electricpig.co.uk, Smalltalk Tidbits …, AppScout and DealBook, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more
Discussion:
Epicenter, A VC, CNET News, All Facebook, Silicon Alley Insider, Blogspotting, Pulse2 and Wall Street Journal, Thanks:bobcaswell
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Mac vs. PC: What You Don't Get for $699 — A 17-in. PC may cost a lot less than a 17-in. Mac. But you get less, too, including security, multimedia tools, and, some say, satisfaction — I'm a sucker for a well-made TV ad. — Inspired by the Nike (NKE) “Just Do It” and “Air Jordan” …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple's US Market Share Slips in 1Q 2009 — Gartner has released a preliminary report detailing U.S. and worldwide PC shipments for the first quarter of 2009. The report pegs Apple's U.S. market share in fourth place among vendors at 7.4%, down from 8.0% in the fourth quarter of 2008.
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Peter Svensson / Associated Press:
Phone company shelves unpopular Internet cap plan — NEW YORK (AP) — Time Warner Cable Inc. is testing a new way of charging for Internet use — by the amount of traffic rather than solely based on download speed. — But now that it's expanding its trial into Rochester, N.Y. …
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Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Video Prank at Domino's Taints Brand — When two Domino's Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant's kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis.
Chris Morris / CNBC.com:
GameStop Wants Cheaper Consoles, Predicts Hot Titles — Consumers hoping for a price cut on video game hardware have a new—and powerful—ally. — While the video game industry has proved relatively resistant to the recession so far, the CEO of GameStop [GME Loading...
Discussion:
Ars Technica, paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider, Joystiq, Gamasutra, VG247, Kotaku, GamesIndustry.biz, GameBizBlog, GoNintendo and Edge Online
PR Newswire:
Activision Blizzard's March Quarter Net Revenues and Earnings Tracking Ahead of Prior Outlook — Due to the better-than-expected performance of its titles at retail, Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that its March quarter net revenues and earnings per diluted share are tracking ahead of the company's prior outlook.
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The Local:
ISP sabotages file sharing law — Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung, a vociferous opponent of the measures that came into force on April 1st, has said he is determined to protect the company's clients. — The new file sharing law is based on the European Union's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive …
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Add Zoho to other sites with Zoho Gadgets — Zoho provides useful and free Web applications for productivity and business, just like Google does. But Zoho has done a particularly impressive job integrating all these applications together. Now it's integrating those apps with non-Zoho websites …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Yelp's New And Improved iPhone App Officially Hits The App Store — Yelp's version 2.0 of its iPhone app has officially hit Apple's App store. We reported on Yelp's focus on the mobile space and its importance here. — As we wrote recently, the new app gives consumers even more ease …
Discussion:
AppScout
Terrence Russell / VentureBeat:
Google's Q1 forecast looks cautiously optimistic — The economy has been chewing up tech companies left and right, but tomorrow (Thursday) will reveal the quarterly fate of one of the industry's biggest — Google. After a Wall Street-beating fourth quarter, the Mountain View …
New York Times:
N.S.A.'s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.
