Top Items:
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Details iPad 3G Service Sign-Up and Management — With today's launch of iPad pre-orders in the U.S., Apple has also released additional information about the device and associated services. While 3G-capable models of the iPad will not be available until late April …
Discussion:
IntoMobile, iLounge, Wi-Fi Networking News, TUAW, EverythingiCafe, ChannelWeb, MacNN, CrunchGear and Gizmodo Australia
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Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Estimated to Have Taken 50,000 iPad Orders in First Two Hours — With iPad pre-orders having begun in the U.S. just a few hours ago, observers are looking for any signs that might indicate how sales are going. According to one report, two orders placed 30 minutes apart this morning resulted …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Mashable!, Brainstorm Tech, PC World, paidContent, InformationWeek, AppleInsider, TUAW and TechSpot
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple limits iPad preorders to two per customer — Apple on Friday began accepting preorders for its multimedia iPad — both the Wi-Fi and 3G models — with reservations limited to two per customer and free hardware delivery on the April 3 launch date. — The iPad starts at $499 for the 16GB model with only Wi-Fi.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, Silicon Alley Insider, 9 to 5 Mac, Engadget, Erictric, Macworld, Phone Arena, MediaFile, Electronista, RCR Wireless News, TUAW, Neowin.net, Digits, The Loop, Obsessable, Tech Eye, SmartMoney, eWeek, jkOnTheRun, 901am, Tech Trader Daily, Gearlog, NBC Bay Area, MacRumors, VatorNews and The Huffington Post
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Rolls Out iBooks Feature Page — iBooks Application in Landscape Orientation — Apple has augmented its iPad “Features” section with a new page devoted to its iBooks application. Initially available only in the U.S., the iBooks application will be available in the App Store once …
Discussion:
EverythingiCafe, Macworld, I4U News, SlashGear, TheAppleBlog, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Kindle Review, Appslice, Gizmodo and AppleInsider
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Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Apple iPad — model A1337 — phreaks the FCC — A pair of iPads was just revealed in the FCC's system in perfect synchrony with that little pre-order sitch with which you may or may not already be familiar. Apple, of course, has a track record of timing its FCC filings perfectly …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Hunch Gets It Right, Adds a $10 Million Series B Round Led by Khosla Ventures — Hunch, a buzzy start-up that answers questions using crowdsourced recommendations, has resolved one query of its own: Who's going to fund our B round? — Sources tell me that Khosla Ventures is leading …
Phil Nickinson / Android Central:
Nexus One confirmed to only be sold online, (and to feature HTC Sense?) — Far be it from us to say we told you so, but, well, we told you so. Here's confirmation, plain and simple, that the Google Nexus One on Verizon will not be sold in stores and instead will only be available at google.com/phone …
Discussion:
Engadget, MobileCrunch, Erictric, I4U News, SlashPhone, AndroidGuys, Android and Me, IntoMobile, Phone Arena, Android Phone Fans, Electronista, Google Android Blog and Gizmodo
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
iPad ‘Mute’ button magically turns into ‘screen rotation lock’ — The iPad is magic! That was then, this is now! Voilà!! — Another new fun fact: the iPad can also play Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Discussion:
iLounge, MacRumors, TiPb, Erictric, App Advice, Gadget Lab, Edible Apple, Ars Technica, EverythingiCafe, Silicon Alley Insider, Gizmodo, GeekSugar and ParisLemon
Vladislav Savov / Engadget:
Vodafone's Wayfinder is first victim of free smartphone navigation services — Back in January 2009, as Vodafone was preparing to close a £20 million ($30 million) deal to buy Swedish mapmaker Wayfinder, it was seen as a bold move from a carrier intent on entering the apparently lucrative market for location based services.
Lee Mathews / Download Squad:
Google to strip unique client ID from future Google Chrome installs — Whether you were aware of it or not, Google has always tagged Chrome installs with a unique identifier. It's long been reported as a privacy-compromising feature, though as H-Online states in their post today that has never been proven.
Tom Ziegler / Brainstorm Tech:
SXSW's location-tagging smackdown — Foursquare and Gowalla are squaring off for the title of top tagger at Austin's annual tech-fest. — By Caroline Waxler, contributor — The annual South By Southwest Interactive conference kicks off Friday and the advance buzz is all about a fierce …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, NBC Bay Area, blogs.ft.com, Android and Me, Digits, Silicon Alley Insider and The Web Life
Taylor Buley / The Firewall:
Netflix Settles Privacy Lawsuit, Cancels Prize Sequel — On Friday, Netflix announced on its corporate blog that it has settled a lawsuit related to its Netflix Prize, a $1 million contest that challenged machine learning experts to use Netflix's data to produce better recommendations than the movie giant could serve up themselves.
Discussion:
The Official Netflix Blog, Bits, Techdirt, Freedom to Tinker, The Register, NewTeeVee, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, CrunchGear, Threat Level, Ars Technica and CNET News
Dan Peterson / Google Wave Developer Blog:
Introducing the Google Wave Extensions Gallery — We've just rolled out an initial version of our extensions gallery: simply look for “Extensions” in the navigation panel of Google Wave. The gallery is intended to make it easier for users to discover the fun and useful extensions you all are building with the Google Wave APIs.
Discussion:
The Register, Pulse2, Erictric, Mashable!, ReadWriteWeb, Pocket-lint, Softpedia News, Download Squad and AppScout
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Tim Cook Receives Bonus of $5 Million and Stock for Performance During Jobs' Absence — Apple today filed a Form 8-K submission with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing a bonus of $5 million and 75,000 shares of Apple stock paid to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook …
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
What Google Will Do in China (SXSW Presentation) — Kaiser Kuo presented today at SXSW about Google in China. He spoke about how the Google situation will impact Chinese Internet users, other companies and the Chinese government. — In the presentation, Kuo (who also spoke to ReadWriteWeb a week ago) …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Brightkite's Sneaky Plan To Get Regular Users Into Location: Group Text — Brightkite is tricky. Tricky and smart. — While larger than most of their location-based rivals with over 2 million users, they know that in the past year they've lost some momentum to the newer check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla.
Danielle Nohe / Compete Blog:
Smartphone Owners: A Ready and Willing Audience — Compete will be at CTIA Wireless 2010 and is emceeing the Mobile Marketing & Advertising special session for agencies and brands to learn more about the burgeoning mobile channel on March 22nd. If you would like to set up a meeting …
Kim LaCapria / The Inquisitr:
Formspring prank story plagues Twitter — One of the top trending topics on Twitter right now is Formspring, apparently due to a fake news story circulating on the microblogging service. — Formspring.me, a social media platform designed for users to ask and answer anonymous questions …
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Nick Bilton / Bits:
One on One: Andrey Ternovskiy, Creator of Chatroulette — Andrey Ternovskiy, a polite, excited and eager Russian high school student scoured the Internet trying to find a Web site that allowed random video chats with strangers. When he realized a site like this didn't exist, he decided to build it.
Thanks:atul
Electronista:
Lenovo: mobile Internet to be 80% of sales in five years — The vast majority of Lenovo's sales will come from Internet-capable portable devices in five years, company chief Yang Yuanqing stated on Friday. He observed that ThinkPads and IdeaPads already outweigh desktops but that fully 70 …
Toby Richards / The Official Microsoft Blog:
Musings on Customer Support in a 140 Character World — It's always nice when the company you ordered your brother's birthday gift from includes a pre-printed return label in case you need to exchange the shirt for another size. Being able to buy movie tickets online …
Thanks:rawmeet
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Index Invests $25 Million in Sonos (Plus a Video Interview With VC Mike Volpi) — Earlier this week, BoomTown had lunch with Michelangelo “Mike” Volpi, the high-profile tech exec who turned into a venture capitalist recently at Index Ventures. — We also did a video interview (see below) …
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Clearwire's Big Bet on Our Broadband Addiction — Despite doubts about Clearwire's ability to compete against the coming rival 4G network of Verizon and AT&T, its users are apparently pleased with the service. Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer at Clearwire, said the company's mobile users …
Sydney Morning Herald:
Apple's future won't be brought to you by the letter ‘i’ — Apple has been dealt a severe blow having been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter “i” as part of the name for its products. — A trademarks tribunal has knocked back Apple's bid to stop a small company from trademarking …
Chloe Albanesius / AppScout:
Online Video Up 10.5 Percent, CNN, Microsoft, AOL See Gains — In case you were not aware, online video is popular. The number of unique viewers from last month was up 10.5 percent from the previous year, but down slightly from the month before, according to Friday data from Nielsen.
Brian Ries / The Daily Beast:
‘Almost Famous’ 2.0 — AOL has launched a massive effort to interview every one of the 2,000 bands playing South By SouthwestâÂ"by enlisting everyday music fans to talk to their rock gods. A peek inside the great fanboy-journalism experiment. Jenn Metzler was unemployed …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google tweaking Buzz to declutter Gmail in-box — Google Buzz reminds me of what they say about the weather in a lot of places I've lived: if you don't like it, wait five minutes. — Those who wrote off Google's social networking tool as an annoying source of clutter should take note of some efforts to reform that aspect of Buzz.
