Top Items:
New York Times:
F.T.C. Looks Into Ties Between Apple and Google Boards — SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Trade Commission has begun an inquiry into whether the close ties among the boards of two of technology's most prominent companies, Apple and Google, amounts to a violation of antitrust laws, according to several people briefed on the inquiry.
Wall Street Journal:
Amazon Plans Kindle for Textbooks — Amazon.comInc. on Wednesday plans to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader with a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to periodical and academic textbook publishers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Electronista, Gizmodo, Agence France Presse, MediaMemo, tinyComb, Forbes, Silicon Alley Insider, Contentinople, Technology Live and ITworld.com
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Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Researchers hijack botnet, score 56,000 passwords in an hour — The Torpig botnet was hijacked by the good guys for ten days earlier this year before its controllers issued an update and took the botnet back. During that time, however, researchers were able to gain a glimpse into the kind …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
CrossLoop's Screen-Sharing App Comes To The Mac — After nearly five million downloads of its Windows PC client, CrossLoop brings its screen-sharing app and growing pro-am computer support community to the Mac (download here, for Intel Macs running OS X 10.4 or higher).
npd.com:
RIM Unseats Apple in The NPD Group's Latest Smartphone Ranking — Buy-one-get-one promotions helps RIM increase U.S. consumer market share in first quarter of 2009 … - RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models) — Apple iPhone 3G (all models) — RIM BlackBerry Storm
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, Apple 2.0, mocoNews, Engadget, BetaNews, TWICE, TheAppleBlog, Obsessable, AT&T, Tech Central, The Toybox, Local Mobile Search, CrackBerry.com blogs and jkOnTheRun
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Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:iPhone Outsold By BlackBerry Curve In U.S. Last Quarter
Discussion:
PC World, DailyTech, eWeek, CNET News, NEWS.com.au, Software, Interrupted, Gearlog, MediaFile, Electronista, Boy Genius Report, IntoMobile, Technologizer, Associated Press, tinyComb, Digits, NEWSFACTOR, TechSpot, InformationWeek, MacRumors, Fast Company, bijan sabet, Agence France Presse, Ars Technica, Between the Lines, Macsimum News, Obsessable, WebProNews, AppleInsider, PC Magazine and Neowin.net
Wojtek Dabrowski / Reuters:
RIM plans next-gen Storm as it eyes untapped market — TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion is planning a next-generation version of its touchscreen BlackBerry Storm smartphone as part of a continuing push into the retail market, its co-CEO said on Monday.
Discussion:
Electronista, BerryReview.com, Crave, Engadget, PC Magazine, Unwired View, Electronic Pulp, Edible Apple, Phone Scoop, Tech Trader Daily and SlashGear
Sean Bradford / Neowin.net:
Exclusive: Windows 7 RC download goes live — The wait is over folks, Microsoft has published the download page for the Windows 7 RC. As we noted earlier, the download was scheduled to launch tomorrow and was to be available worldwide. Coming straight from the download page, here are Microsoft's notes for the release candidate:
John Nack / John Nack on Adobe:
Some thoughts about the PSD format — Here's what I think people want to know: Is Photoshop's PSD format a goofy, antiquated piece of crap, and by extension is Photoshop slow, clumsy, and/or outdated? — No. (Read on for details.) — The questions arise because various Web sites1 …
In-Stat:
Web-to-TV Video Streaming Services Will Drive Nearly $3 Billion in Revenue by 2013 — The under-35 adult population in the US has already adopted Web-to-TV video capability, reports In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com. Over 40% of young adult US households view Internet video on the TV at least once per month.
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Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Google Chrome on the Mac: what's the holdup? (UpdateD) — Want Google Chrome for Mac? You can have it - though note that there's plenty that's not actually, um, working just at the moment. It's odd how many months it's taking Google to do this port (and how the shine seems to have come off Chrome …
Discussion:
Technologizer
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo and Microsoft Deal Progress “Meaningful"-Plus the Deal Team Rosters — Recently, BoomTown reported that talks between Microsoft and Yahoo had gotten “hot and heavy.” — That mood seems to be continuing, as many sources close to the situation on both sides said that the pair …
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
New Application Parental Controls to let Apple put adult content on iPhone — Apple will soon have an excuse to slang those controversial potty-mouth NIN apps to all of your kids. In version 3 of the iPhone and in iTunes 8.2 (image below) you can now select parental control for apps and choose the age of the iPhone owner.
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Rohan Seth / Google Mobile Blog:
Do more with Google Latitude! — When we launched Google Latitude a couple of months ago, we were flooded with feature suggestions. One frequent request was to allow you to share your location with even more people and not just your Latitude friends. Today, we're launching two applications that do just that!
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog, Search Engine Land, Webware.com, TechCrunch, IntoMobile, Digital Inspiration, Google Operating System, ReadWriteWeb, WebProNews, Screenwerk and InformationWeek, Thanks:blogfisher
Jason Pontin / Technology Review:
A Manifesto — Newspapers and magazines won't vanish. But they must change. Here's how to save media. — Even a few years ago, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, those 18th-century London gallants and the founders of the Spectator, would have recognized the forms and modes of business …
Discussion:
Screenwerk
Dave Kansas / Wall Street Journal:
Why Tech Stocks Are on a Tear — The Dow Jones Industrial Average has bounced from its early March lows, but it remains down for the year. The past few weeks have shown the major market measures bickering about whether or not they should head higher or once again retreat.
Adam Hupp / Facebook Blog:
Live Updating the Stream — Since introducing the new home page, we've been working to make it easier for you to stay updated with your friends and connections. Your News Feed, in the center of your home page, offers you an updated stream of what's happening with them. Beginning today, that stream is going live.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Mozilla ponders policy change after Firefox extension battle — The NoScript Firefox extension faced a major backlash last week when users discovered that it was surreptitiously disrupting the operation of AdBlock Plus. The developers behind the two extensions turned the browser into a battleground as their conflict escalated.
Stephen Williams / Gadgetwise:
Consumer Reports Takes a Shine to Apple — Hitting for the cycle is a rare event in baseball, and rare as well in the pages of Consumer Reports. — So when you go three for three—as Apple has in the recent laptop computer-ratings issue—and score highly in other categories, it's worth at least a nod.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, MacRumors, Ars Technica, Macworld, Electronista, The Technology Chronicles and Macsimum News
Sean Fallon / Gizmodo:
HyperMac External Battery Gives MacBooks a 32 Hour Boost — A battery that provides 32 hours of continuous MacBook use? Now we're talkin'. Sound's great until you find out that the 222Wh Hypermac external charger costs a whopping $500. — On the plus side, Hypermac is offering …
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Begins Heavily Promoting Mobile Services — Over the past day or so Facebook has begun heavily promoting their mobile services through ads on the site which all link to a new Facebook mobile landing page. They are trying to alert users to the robust set of mobile features …
Association of Research Libraries:
Library Associations Ask Judge to Assert Vigorous Oversight of Proposed Google Book Search Settlement — Washington DC—The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) today filed comments …
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Alex Pham / L.A. Times Tech Blog:Libraries ask court to monitor Google after book settlement is approved
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Bits
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
The logistics: Windows 7 RC public download to last through July — If you aren't an MSDN or TechNet subscriber, but still want to get your hands on the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), Tuesday May 5 is the day downloads begin. — But there's no need to rush. (And doing so might lead to server-overload frustrations.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
SMSGupShup (India's “Twitter") Grows To 20 million Users, $150,000/month Revenue — SMSGupShup, a Twitter-like service in India, is getting a ton of buzz over here in the U.S., too. In an interview with CEO Beerud Sheth now says the service now has 20 million users (and that's without …
