Techmeme: Charlie Sheen, Now On Twitter At @CharlieSheen (Alexia Tsotsis/TechCrunch)

2:00 AM ET, March 2, 2011

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.

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: GottaBeMobile, Inc.com, DisplayBlog, SAI, PC World, Apple Bitch, mocoNews, VentureBeat, MacGazette.net, World of Apple, App Advice, @gartenberg, MacRumors, Electronista and iClarified

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: Engadget, Mashable!, The Atlantic Online, Sean Percival's Blog, Pulse2, Reuters, @gaberivera, SAI, @perezhilton, @charliesheen, @someecards, Gawker, PopEater and The Daily What, more at Mediagazer »

Sean Rad / @seanrad:
The @AdlyAds and @Twitter team signed up Charlie Sheen to Twitter today. 250,000 followers in the first few hours. Welcome @charliesheen

Discussion: @jameseliason and @mathewi

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.

Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:
Analysis: What's Behind Facebook's Friendfeed-Style Acquisition of Beluga?

Thanks:eldon

Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!:

Google Pulls 21 Apps In Android Malware Scare — Google Pulls 21 Apps In Android Malware Scare — Google has just pulled 21 popular free apps from the Android Market. According to the company, the apps are malware aimed at getting root access to the user's device, gathering a wide range …

Discussion: Android Police, Pulse2 and MobileCrunch

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: CNET News, ReadWriteWeb and Search Engine Land

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: CrunchGear and Nieman Journalism Lab

Jon Brodkin / Network World:

Meet Google's human search engine for innovation — Google startup-hunter Don Dodge sheds Microsoft roots, ‘kisses a lot of frogs’ in quest for cool technology — It was November 2009, and Don Dodge had just been laid off by Microsoft. Instead of writing a new resume and collecting unemployment …

Discussion: VentureBeat

Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:

Mahalo Reduces Headcount by 10% After Google Algo Change — I feel for Mahalo founder and CEO Jason Calacanis this past week. He finishes his Launch conference (my recap), heads to the afterparty and probably gets 10,000 text messages because that was just about the time that Google announced their algorithm change.

Discussion: MediaMemo and @mathewi

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: The Register, Electronista, CNET News, Politico, GeekSmack, CrunchGear, Digital Trends, PhoneArena, msnbc.com, AppleInsider, Fast Company, Digital Daily, The Huffington Post, mocoNews, iLounge, SAI and MacRumors

Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:

License-plate social network Bump.com raises more than $1M (exclusive) — DEMO Fall 2010 alumnus Bump.com, a social network that links people through their car license plates, has raised more than $1 million in its second round of funding, VentureBeat has learned.

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

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 …

Discussion: InformationWeek, TechCrunch, paidContent, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, PC World, Search Engine Land, The Blog Herald, Regular Geek, NewsGrange, All Facebook, TechCrunch and Facebook Developers, more at Mediagazer »

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Pros And Cons Of Facebook Comments

Discussion: Scobleizer, Black Web 2.0 and Techie Buzz

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: PhoneArena, Engadget, ThinkMobile, The Register, X-bit labs, BlogsDNA, Liliputing, Geek.com, LAPTOP Magazine, WinRumors, eWeek, Softpedia News, GottaBeMobile, The Next Web and Electronista

Joel Johnson / Wired:

1 million workers. 90 million iPhones. 17 suicides. Who's to Blame? — It's hard not to look at the nets. Every building is skirted in them. They drape every precipice, steel poles jutting out 20 feet above the sidewalk, loosely tangled like volleyball nets in winter.

Discussion: @radleybalko, SAI, CrunchGear, Gizmodo and Switched

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: Digits

Reuters:

Exclusive: Yahoo closes in on Yahoo Japan deal — (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is in advanced talks to exit its joint venture in Japan with SoftBank Corp, a move that could lead it to focus on reaching a decision on its China assets. — A deal to transfer Yahoo's 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan …

Discussion: SAI, paidContent, DealBook and @ericjackson

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: CNET News, Computerworld, PC World, Network World, eWeek, CIOInsight, Softpedia News, WinRumors, WinBeta, Neowin.net and Windows 8 Beta

Scott Morrison / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Threatens to Cut Affiliates in California — Ramping up its battle against Internet sales taxes, Amazon.com Inc. has warned it will sever ties with thousands of California-based advertising affiliates if the state government passes legislation requiring the e-commerce giant to collect taxes on items sold to residents.

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: Tech Broiler Blog, BlackBerry Cool, SAI, Engadget, Know Your Cell and PhoneDog.com, Thanks:mspoonauer

Dharmesh Mehta / The Windows Blog:

Windows Live Mesh reaches 5 million connected devices — Today, we're excited to announce an important milestone: Windows Live Mesh has now connected 5 million devices, with over 3 million users syncing 2.2 petabytes to the cloud. Windows Live Mesh was released on September 30th …

Discussion: CNET News, LiveSide.net, WinRumors and TechFlash

Sean Hollister / Engadget:

Google gifts Xoom tablets to game devs at GDC 2011 — Google's notoriously generous at developer events, tossing out free devices like candy on Halloween, but here at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco it's letting them flow like wine. Each attendee at Google's Web Developer …

Bloomberg:

San Francisco Offices Rebound as Twitter Helps Fill Banks' Void — San Francisco's office market is rebounding after record space cuts by banks, buoyed by technology companies including Twitter Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. that may lease as much as 7 million square feet this year.

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: CrunchGear, Gearlog, Electronista, Ubergizmo, The Tech Report and TechEye

Alexandra Berzon / Wall Street Journal:

States Make Play for Web Gambling — Efforts to legalize online gambling in the U.S. are moving to the states as lawmakers roll the dice on bills that aim to steer around federal laws effectively prohibiting Internet wagering. — The first real test of the state efforts comes this week in New Jersey …

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0 Blog:

‘Death Grip’ is real claims UK scientists, cases don't help — The iPhone 4 ‘death grip’ (aka 'antennagate') antenna degradation effect is real and plastic cases don't help, or so say UK researchers from University of Bristol. You hold a handset (any handset), and you affect the signal.

Discussion: University of Bristol news, Digital Daily and Electronista

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