Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive: Facebook Poaches Yet Another Major Googler-This Time, Ad Exec David Fischer [UPDATED] — David Fischer-who was VP of Global Online Sales & Operations for Google and more recently was heading up its local efforts-is taking a job at Facebook as VP of Advertising and Global Operations, according to sources.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Best Buy Preps for April 3rd iPad Launch — Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy has reportedly begun preparations for the launch of Apple's Wi-Fi iPad models on April 3rd, providing its retail store employees with details of events leading up to the launch.
New York Post:
Radioshack search — RadioShack is looking to shack up with a deep-pocketed investor. — The Texas-based electronics chain is exploring strategic alternatives including a possible sale of the company that could fetch more than $3 billion, sources told The Post.
RELATED:
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Web traffic redirected to China in mystery mix-up — Workers at Internet network operation centers around the world are trying to figure out why traffic to sites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook was redirected to servers in China this week, giving Web surfers around the globe a glimpse …
RELATED:
Will Richmond / VideoNuze.com:
Here's How Google TV Will Work - And What It Might Mean — Last week, the NY Times shared some details of “Google TV,” the new set-top box Google is developing in partnership with Intel and Sony. The article provided a good outline, and now, based on additional information I've gathered …
Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:
Spotify Music Site Sees U.S. Start in Third Quarter; Plans BlackBerry App — Spotify, a virtual digital jukebox and Europe's largest legal online music site, aims to start U.S. operations in the third quarter. — The Stockholm-based company, which has 7 million users in Europe …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Nokia Buys Mobile Web Browser Company Novarra — Nokia has acquired Novarra, an Illinois-based company that develops mobile web browser technologies. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. — The acquisition makes sense, considering that Nokia builds its own browser.
Discussion:
Nokia, Between the Lines, Tech Eye, mocoNews, IntoMobile, The Nokia Blog, Tech Trader Daily, Digital Trends and Electronista
Susie Pan / DigiTimes:
Apple reportedly shifts orders for iPad touch panels from TPK to Wintek — Taiwan-based TPK Touch Solutions has seen Apple shift orders for iPad-use projected capacitive touch panels to fellow maker Wintek because of TPK's delayed shipments, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
Naoko Komura / Wikimedia blog:
Wikimedia gets ready for some big changes — In April, the Wikimedia Foundation is rolling out the first of several significant changes to the user experience of Wikipedia as part of our usability and user experience program. — We are changing our default look to a new theme we call …
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MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Check.in Is A Potentially Brilliant Remedy For Check-In Fatigue — Last week, I wrote about check-in fatigue. While there is a lot of excitement right now surrounding location-based apps, and particularly the ones where you “check-in” places, trying to use all of them can be exhausting, as I found out at SXSW.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
What Microsoft learned from Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates — Having followed Microsoft for a few years now, I like to think that I've figured out some of its mysteries, but there's a big one that I've just never been able to crack: What in the heck was the company trying to accomplish …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook To Release A “Like” Button For the Whole Darn Internet — There will be lots of news leaking about Facebook's product announcements at their upcoming F8 Developer Conference in April. That's because they're already starting to test out a lot of the new stuff with third party developers …
Bill / PadGadget:
Apple Leaks Approved iPad Apps — PadGadget did some digging in the iTunes database last night and it looks like Apple has already approved and listed several iPad apps in the App Store. You won't find any of these iPad titles using your standard iTunes browser, you need to use Apple's …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, TUAW, TiPb, Techland, EverythingiCafe, Black Web 2.0, AppScout, GottaBeMobile.com, 148Apps148Apps, CrunchGear, Neowin.net, Electricpig.co.uk, Mashable!, Softpedia News, Joystiq, T3.com News, AppleInsider, Kotaku, IntoMobile, Gizmodo, Touch Arcade, The Loop, 9 to 5 Mac and MacRumors
Julian Assange / WikiLeaks:
U.S. must stop spying on WikiLeaks — Over the last few years, WikiLeaks has been the subject of hostile acts by security organizations. In the developing world, these range from the appalling assassination of two related human rights lawyers in Nairobi last March (an armed attack …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Confirmed: Intellectual Ventures Owns Smartphone Motion-Control Patent — Patent #7,679,604, “Method and apparatus for controlling a computer system,” the broad motion-control patent I've been writing about all week, has passed through a number of hands over the years.
Alexander Vaughn / App Advice:
George Hotz Is Back With Untethered Jailbreak For Every iDevice (iPad Too?) — The incredible iPhone genius George Hotz has just announced on his blog that he has managed to develop an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone and iPod touch. It will allow all of you who couldn't live …
Discussion:
AppleInsider, TechCrunch, 9 to 5 Mac, Boy Genius Report, Erictric, Redmond Pie, Pocket-lint, MobileCrunch, Softpedia News, SlashGear, TG Daily, TiPb, Engadget and EverythingiCafe
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Congress On China: Google Gets A Big Wet Kiss. Microsoft Is “Enabling Tyranny” — This is why I have a strong dislike of government and our system of lobbyists. Many people in the tech community are becoming increasingly skeptical of Google's motives in partially pulling out of the Chinese markets …
Major Nelson / Xbox Live's Major Nelson:
USB Memory Support for the Xbox 360 coming April 6th — On April 6th, we will be releasing a system update over Xbox LIVE for your Xbox 360 that will allow USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more. I've been testing this feature out for a few weeks, and I have to say it's really great.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Four VC Firms Battle For Foursquare, Valuation Goes Stratospheric — What do Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures have in common? Besides being tier one venture capitalists, at least one thing: They are all fighting furiously to be the lead investor in Foursquare's next venture round.
Louis Gray:
Twitter Highlighting “Clever Accounts” @cleveraccounts — A common aspect of any Web-centric company looking to break out of an early adopter niche to more mainstream acceptance is the highlighting of customers who have been brave enough to take the plunge first.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
280,000 pro-China astroturfers are running amok online — If you thought corporate “astroturfing” (fake grassroots activity) was a problem at sites like Yelp and Amazon that feature user reviews of products, imagine how much worse it would be if the US government employed a couple hundred thousand people to …
Peter Svensson / Associated Press:
Verizon winds down expensive FiOS expansion — NEW YORK - If Verizon Communications Inc. hasn't already started wiring your city or town with its FiOS fiber-optic TV and broadband service, chances are you won't get it. — Where it's available, FiOS usually provides the only competition for cable TV apart from satellite service.
Ubergizmo:
WePad Details and Plans Revealed — We've talked about a few technical details of the WePad before, but now we have all the specifications, along with a table (partially in German) that compares it with the iPad (click on the title to head to the full post).
Fred / A VC:
Startups Get Hit By Shrapnel In The Banking Bill — There is a big banking reform bill working its way through the Senate right now. It is sponsored by Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. It has a long name I can't remember, so I'll call it the Dodd Banking Bill.
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Insights To Take On Google Analytics — While we've previously written about Facebook's need to provide a more reliable insights tool, the company's latest JavaScript libraries suggest that the company is preparing to roll out Insights beyond Facebook.
