Top Items:
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
iPhone 4 antenna woes prompt Apple to dump return fee — Move to mollify dissatisfied customers by ditching 10% restocking fee also aimed at quelling lawsuits — Computerworld - Apple has dropped the usual restocking fee for iPhone customers who want to return their smartphones, the company confirmed on Friday.
Discussion:
App Advice, PhoneDog.com, MobileCrunch, Erictric, 9 to 5 Mac, Thoughts from the Sidelines, The Next Web, MacNN, everythingiCafe, CrunchGear, PC World and ITworld.com
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Mike Gikas / Consumer Reports Electronics Blog:
iPhone 4's supposed signal woes aren't unique, and may not be serious — The debate over the iPhone 4's supposed reception problems continues, including a new class-action suit. Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them.
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story — Since our piece on Wednesday, we've had more trusted sources step forward to fill in some blanks and clarify the story behind the amazingly swift fall from grace that Microsoft's Kin phones have experienced since their launch just a few weeks ago.
Discussion:
BetaNews, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Coolsmartphone News, Technologizer, Geek.com and Windows Phone Thoughts.com
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Chrome Web Apps Coming Along Quite Well. Some Already Work — One of the big announcements at this year's Google I/O was that a new Chrome Web Store was being built. Think of it as Apple's App Store or the Android Market but for web apps. In it, you'll be able to purchase …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Twitter to Publish Shopping Deals Through @EarlyBird Account — Twitter has rolled out several different advertising systems in recent weeks and we're hearing that the next one will take a page from the Dell Computers playbook. In December, Dell famously reported $6.5 million …
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Steven Levy On Mark Zuckerberg And The Hacker Spirit — Twenty-five years after his landmark book, hacker historian Levy revisits the tech revolution he chronicled. — Before the Romanian cybercriminals, before Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller breached the Gibson mainframe …
Christopher Jung / Blog of Metrics:
Firefox Main Window Study: A Heatmap Visualization — Last month, Mike Beltzner shared an early product plan for the next version of Firefox with the Mozilla community and presented our vision for Firefox 4. A big upgrade coming with Firefox 4 is the new theme project: creating a new, sleek, and simpler default theme for the browser.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Exclusive: The Sexy Russian Spy's Business Plan (And A Video Interview) — The bizarre case of Russian Spy ring arrested by the FBI earlier this week just keeps on getting stranger. In particular, one of the alleged spies, 28-year-old Anna Chapman, is getting a lot of attention because of her …
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Nate Lanxon / Epicenter:
The Secret To Apple's FaceTime Success Will Be The PC — Apple's iPhone 4 video calling stands a good chance at becoming a widely adopted system. But it'll rely on a catalyst, and I believe it's the PC. — I'll just wait for the day I get asked to do a video podcast appearance and I whip out my iPhone to do it.
Michael Greene / InformationWeek:
Ray Kurzweil On ‘The Singularity’ Future — The noted futurist has released a movie, The Singularity is Near, exploring how technology may reshape the fabric of our physical reality and life experiences. … Tech professionals have become somewhat inured to descriptions of the exponential rise …
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MSDN Blogs
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Why You'll Pay to Watch Ads on the iPhone and iPad — The new iAds that Apple (AAPL) launched yesterday are interesting. But they had better be: You're going to pay to see them. — This isn't news, exactly. But consider it a reminder: AT&T's (T) switch from an unlimited data plan …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Facebook Unveils One of History's Most Powerful Recommendation Engines — Facebook just announced the availability of a new feature for users creating accounts on the social network: Suggested Interests. Facebook will now recommend that new users sign up for updates from ("Like") …
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Webmetricsguru
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Mingyao Yang / The Facebook Blog:
Helping Newcomers Connect to Interests
Discussion:
eWeek, Softpedia News, Inside Facebook, ArabCrunch English, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Erictric, Techie Buzz, TechCrunch, WebProNews and All Facebook
Roberto Baldwin / Mac|Life:
Why Did Comedy Central Remove EyePhone Reference from Futurama Online Clip? — If you're like us, you're besides yourself with joy about the return Futurama. Life just wasn't the same without the adventures of Philip J. Fry and his obnoxious friend Bender on our TVs every week.
Discussion:
Gizmodo
CNN:
Obama announces new U.S. broadband connection funding — (CNN) — President Barack Obama on Friday announced new government investments in 66 projects to expand broadband connections in rural and poor areas across the country. — The $795 million in grants and loans funded …
John Ribeiro / Computerworld:
Reports: BlackBerry, Skype, Google face India data demand — India's Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has been asked by the government to serve a notice to Skype and Research In Motion (RIM) to ensure that their email and other data services comply with formats that can be read by security …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
How Many Palm Employees Did HP Just Lay Off? — I'm not quite sure, but make no mistake, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has cut some former Palm staffers from its ranks as it closes its acquisition of the smartphone maker. I'm hearing different numbers from sources (once) close to the company, so it's difficult to put a firm number on them.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Tech Trader Daily, Engadget, VentureBeat, PhoneDog.com, Erictric, Maximum PC, Boy Genius Report and PreCentral.net
Roberto / PadGadget:
Will.I.Am Uses “Find My iPad” To Track Down Thief — We recently reported about the Find My iPad app and MobileMe service. It's certainly a cool way to track your iPad if it ever goes missing. The service works via a dedicated app you can install on any iOS device, or via the web.
