Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
With Jobs Definitely Mulling Appearance at iPad Event, Let's Hope the Focus Is on the Product — According to several sources close to the situation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs-who is on a health-related leave from the company-is definitely considering an appearance at its big iPad 2 event tomorrow.
Discussion:
App Advice, CNET News, Between the Lines Blog, CNNMoney.com, Digits, Digital Trends, Computerworld, Hillicon Valley, BlogsDNA, Redmond Pie, Bits, Techland, PhoneArena, GottaBeMobile, TUAW, SAI, 9 to 5 Mac, MacGazette.net, I4U News, World of Apple, AllNewsMac, NBC Bay Area, Softpedia News, TiPb, MacRumors, AOL News, AppleInsider, MacNN, Macworld, Electronista and Tech Trader Daily
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Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:
Apple Staffer: iPad 3 Is The One To “Make A Song & Dance About” — We've received some tidbits of information about the iPad 2 launch tomorrow from an Apple staffer: — MobileMe is being revamped with cloud storage features. — The iPad 2 is a ho-hum update. It's more of a speed bump than a redesign.
Discussion:
PC World, VentureBeat, SAI, World of Apple, paidContent, App Advice, MacGazette.net, Apple Bitch, @gartenberg, MacRumors and Electronista
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Facebook Acquires Group Messaging Service Beluga In A Talent AND Technology Deal — Facebook has just acquired group messaging service Beluga, we've learned. — Here's what we know: Facebook has acquired both the product and the team, and the plan is apparently to keep the service open for now.
Discussion:
GigaOM, SFGate, CNET News, CNNMoney.com, SAI, Inside Facebook, Bits, Beluga, SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb, NetworkEffect, louisgray.com, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Erictric, VatorNews, parislemon, Ubergizmo, @chrishogg, GigaOM, Mashable!, @tomkrazit, Androinica, IntoMobile, Electronista, GMSV, WebProNews and Black Web 2.0
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Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:
Analysis: What's Behind Facebook's Friendfeed-Style Acquisition of Beluga?
Thanks:eldon
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Dirty Percent — It's not hard to make the case that Apple's new in-app subscription system offers numerous benefits to users, developers, and publishers. But whatever those benefits, they stem from the mere existence of these new subscription APIs. What's controversial is the size of Apple's cut: 30 percent.
Discussion:
Nieman Journalism Lab
Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:
Facebook's New Comments Box Plugin Filters Website Comment Reels by Relevance — Facebook has released a major update to its embeddable Comments Box social plugin for third-party websites. The plugin processes social signals to surface the most relevant comments, and a new moderation dashboard allows admins …
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Pros And Cons Of Facebook Comments — Today, Facebook rolled out a new commenting system for blogs and third-party sites. We've implemented it here on TechCrunch, and after a few hours of the system being live it is obvious that it has its share of pros and cons.
Discussion:
Scobleizer and Lost Remote
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft delivers its ‘other’ tablet operating system: Windows Embedded Compact 7 — Microsoft announced general availability on March 1 of the final version of its Windows Embedded Compact 7 operating system, codenamed “Chelan.” — Microsoft posted a 180-day trial version …
Discussion:
eWeek, The Register, WinRumors, The Microsoft Blog, LAPTOP Magazine, The Next Web, SAI, GottaBeMobile, X-bit labs, BlogsDNA, Liliputing, Geek.com, Softpedia News and Electronista
Gaurav Jain / Google Enterprise Blog:
Now available with Google Apps: User Managed Storage — Editor's note: Last year we launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what's new and how your organization can benefit. — Welcome to User Managed Storage
Discussion:
InfoWorld
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Apple fights for ‘App Store’ name, calls Microsoft clueless as usual — Apple is defending its attempt to trademark the phrase “App Store,” saying in a new filing that Microsoft has failed to prove that the term should be left open for use by competing mobile application marketplaces.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Electronista, Politico, msnbc.com, AppleInsider, Fast Company, Digital Daily, Digital Trends, mocoNews, SAI, MacRumors and iLounge
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Google issues ultimatum to Yelp: free content or no search indexing — Yelp's chief executive, Jeremy Stoppelman has spoken out against Google's use of its users' business reviews on its Places service, saying the search company has failed to offer them any leeway on the matter.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
To Grow Big, Twitter Seeks Small Ads — Twitter Inc. is a hot property among investors, who are pumping up the company's valuation. But whether the start-up can live up to its multibillion-dollar appraisal depends on the likes of David Szetela, who holds the purse strings of numerous small and medium-sized advertisers.
Discussion:
WSJ Blogs - WSJ
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Actually, AOL's Mark Ellis Is Headed to Yahoo — As AOL CEO Tim Armstrong works to integrate his $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post into the Internet portal, one of its top advertising leaders is departing for a big job at Yahoo. — Mark Ellis will become head …
Discussion:
paidContent
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Roger Capriotti / The Windows Blog:
IE9 Reaches 36 Million Downloads; Internet Explorer Share Grows — Last month, we saw share of both Internet Explorer 8 and 9 grow, and we're pleased to see that momentum continue in February with the availability of the IE9 Release Candidate. Since its release on February 10th …
Discussion:
Computerworld, CNET News, Network World, PC World, CIOInsight, Softpedia News, eWeek, WinRumors, WinBeta, Windows 8 Beta and Neowin.net
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google Buys Security Analytics Software Developer Zynamics — It looks like Google has made an acquisition today: security analytics software company Zynamics. — Here's the post on Zynamic's blog: We're pleased to announce that zynamics has been acquired by Google!
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, eWeek, WebProNews, SecurityWeek, threatpost and Mashable!
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google's New In-App Payments Product Set For Launch In May 2011 — Google was originally set to debut in-app payments support for Android in the fourth quarter of 2010, and recently said that the launch would be delayed until the end of this quarter. Be that as it may, the company is set …
Amir Efrati / Digits:
Coming Soon: Advertiser Alerts on Your Phone — Advertisers have long contemplated a world in which they could contact people walking down the street with special offers and get them to change course and enter a store. There's been new movement this week to make that vision a reality.
Discussion:
Loopt In, WebProNews, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Mashable!
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Google Misses Facebook Platform Ads Deadline — If you were using Google Adsense to generate revenue within your Facebook application, you no longer can according to the social network's official policy. The new preferred advertiser list went into effect yesterday and Google isn't on it.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
Peter Cohen / The Loop:
Angry Birds CEO: “We really have Apple to thank” — Of the thousands of games available for download from the App Store, none has had the sustained popularity of Rovio's Angry Birds, a 99 cent physics-based puzzler in which you use a slingshot to launch birds of various shapes and sizes at fortresses containing green pigs.
Discussion:
The Next Web, Cult of Mac, msnbc.com, FierceWireless, GigaOM, MacStories, www.pocketgamer.biz, MacDailyNews, App Advice and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check
Richi Jennings / Computerworld:
Google Apps and Gmail outage outrage: Problem NOT resolved — Update: The Gmail outage is not yet resolved, despite 35,000 Google Apps and consumer Gmail users agonizing over missing mail. The cloud service provider is furiously restoring from backup tapes as we speak.
Discussion:
LiveSide.net, internetnews.com, Royal Pingdom, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Googling Google Blog, Search Engine Journal, Digits, @akovacs, Techland, ITworld.com, SlashGear, CNN, Daily Mail, Network World, BBC, Mobile Marketing Watch, Search Engine Watch, Faster Forward, Post Tech, msnbc.com, HEXUS.net and Digital Trends
Anton Shilov / X-bit labs:
AMD: Thunderbolt Is Just Another Proprietary Standard — Advanced Micro Devices, the second largest supplier of x86 microprocessors on the globe and the designer of half of the world's discrete graphics adapters, said that Intel Corp.'s recently introduced Thunderbolt input/output technology …
Discussion:
Electronista, Gearlog and Ubergizmo
Mark Spoonauer / LAPTOP Magazine:
HP Says BlackBerry PlayBook Imitates webOS, RIM Responds — There's no denying it. RIM's first tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, looks pretty darn similar to HP's TouchPad. Yes, the PlayBook has a smaller 7-inch screen, compared to 9.7 inches for HP's slate.
Discussion:
SAI, Engadget, Know Your Cell and PhoneDog.com, Thanks:mspoonauer
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Hands-on: Google Cloud Connect for Office not ready for prime time — Google Docs, the online suite of productivity applications, has long offered collaborative, cloud-based sharing and editing of office-type documents. A new add-in for Microsoft Office, Cloud Connect …
Discussion:
everwas
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
StatCounter: Bing Just Beat Yahoo Worldwide — According to analytics firm StatCounter, the Bing search engine has just overtaken Yahoo for the first time worldwide during the month of February 2011. From StatCounter Global Stats, Bing closed out the month with a 4.37% search share compared with Yahoo's 3.93%.
Discussion:
StatCounter Global Stats, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Neowin.net, Gearlog and WebProNews
Sharon Begley / Newsweek:
I Can't Think! — The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an unintended consequence—our overloaded brains freeze when we have to make decisions. — Imagine the most mind-numbing choice you've faced lately, one in which the possibilities almost paralyzed you …
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Big Appetite: Greylock Sends Entrepreneurs a Message with Expanded $1 Billion Fund — In case you missed it, being a super angel is officially passe. The new hotness is having a late-stage growth cash. Sequoia Capital is doing it. Andreessen Horowitz is doing it. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is doing it.
Discussion:
Venture Capital Dispatch, VatorNews and Greylock Partners
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Charlie Sheen, Now On Twitter At @CharlieSheen — Because if I don't write this somebody else will: After blazing a colorful trail through some obscure radio show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, TMZ, CNN and so on, media obsession of the moment Charlie Sheen has brought his antics to Twitter.
Discussion:
@gaberivera, more at Mediagazer »
Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:
Bank of America Web site down; bank denies attack — Bank of America is experiencing service issues with its online banking system. Bank customers had reported that the bank's Web site was slow or not working at all Monday, with reports that the site was completely down Tuesday.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, CNET News and Mashable!
