Top Items:
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Exclusive: BlackBerry Messenger will launch on Android and iOS — BGR has learned from multiple trusted sources that Research In Motion is planning to bring its beloved BlackBerry Messenger app and service to Android, and eventually to iOS as well. According to our sources …
Discussion:
PC World, GigaOM, CNNMoney.com, LAPTOP Magazine, iGeneration Blog, App Advice, SAI, Digital Trends, MacRumors iPhone Blog, The Toybox Blog, ReadWriteWeb, Geek.com, VentureBeat, msnbc.com, Redmond Pie, Engadget, Your Daily Apple, CrackBerry.com blogs, The Huffington Post, Geekosystem, TechSpot, IntoMobile, Gearlog, Electronista, Neowin.net, GizmoFusion, PhoneDog.com, TUAW, Droid Life, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, TiPb, MacStories, Electricpig.co.uk, Android Phone Fans, The Next Web, Techie Buzz, Tech Trader Daily, Techland, Erictric, Download Squad, Android Community, Pocket-lint and Gizmodo
Nielsen Wire:
Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle? — The answer depends on whether you're looking at operating systems or manufacturers. — The battle for the hearts and minds of consumer smartphone owners continues to be a heated one according to data just released by The Nielsen Company.
Discussion:
MediaPost, VatorNews, asymco, Digital Trends, Engadget, GigaOM, TechCrunch, GMSV, ReadWriteWeb, Electronista, IntoMobile, Android Phone Fans, SlashGear, Android Community and Tech Trader Daily
RELATED:
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
WordPress.com Suffers Largest DDoS Attack In Its History — You have no idea how hard it was to get this post up, as WordPress.com, our blog host, is currently under a denial of service attack. It's been almost impossible to access the TechCrunch backend for the past 10 minutes …
Discussion:
CNET News, Naked Security, The Register, @wordpressdotcom, Data Center Knowledge, The Blog Herald, Financial Post, The Next Web, Technologizer, Techie Buzz, Black Web 2.0 and The Huffington Post, Thanks:r0unak
RELATED:
Jennifer Allan / Electricpig.co.uk:
iPad price drop: Apple will refund the difference — If you recently bought an iPad, only to find that there's now a shiny new iPad 2 and a whopping great £100 reduction on the price tag of the original iPad, do not be alarmed! Apple will refund you the difference, so you could still take advantage of that iPad price drop.
Discussion:
Digital Trends, AppleInsider, Gadget Lab, MacRumors, TiPb, Apple Bitch, Ubergizmo, 9 to 5 Mac, GigaOM, MacNN, The Next Web, CrunchGear, Geek.com and iLounge
RELATED:
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
iPad 2 will be at Best Buy at launch (Update: Sams Club+Walmart) — In case you want to sit in the parking lot of a Best Buy rather than the parking lot of an Apple Store: Best Buy will have iPad 2 at launch. Wooo! — Will the other usual suspects (Verizon, AT&T, Walmart) as well?
Discussion:
MacRumors, MobileWhack, lalawag, PC World, MacGazette.net, Gearlog, TUAW, MacStories, App Advice and Edible Apple
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
With “Quick Bar”, Twitter Has Figured Out How To Cram Ads Into The Stream — Twitter has just rolled out a pretty substantial new update to the iOS versions of its app today. Several of the new features look nice, such as the new Tweet box design, and the easier way to find friends via phone contacts.
Discussion:
VatorNews, SAI, The Business Insider, everythingiCafe, Twitter Blog, AppScout, @eric_andersen, @avinio and Electronista
RELATED:
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Twitter Updates iOS App with Lots Of New Features — An interesting (and rather huge) update to the official Twitter app for iOS was released a few minutes ago, and it includes improvements both for the iPhone and iPad version of the client. New features has been added to this release as well …
Discussion:
Redmond Pie, Download Squad, TiPb, Shoutpedia and The Next Web, Thanks:viticci
Andy Chu / Bing:
Bing Launches Deals — Calling all bargain hunters, deal lovers, Groupon groupies and Living Social fanatics! Things just got easier. — Today we're launching Bing deals for the desktop and mobile (m.bing.com) - giving you access to more than 200,000 unique offers in over 14,000 cities …
Discussion:
Digital Trends, TechFlash, LiveSide.net, eMoney, IntoMobile, Techland and The Next Web
RELATED:
Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Adds Daily Deals To Bing — Microsoft will incorporate daily deals and discounts into Bing search results through a partnership with The Dealmap.The move gives Microsoft another weapon against Google, who failed to acquire Groupon after bidding a reported $6 billion late last year.
Discussion:
GigaOM, paidContent, All about Microsoft Blog and Search Engine Land
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Disney acquires gaming engine startup to build HTML5 games outside of App stores — Disney has acquired an HTML5 gaming engine startup called Rocket Pack, based out of Helsinki, Finalnd. A Disney spokesperson told us today, exclusively: “We can confirm that The Walt Disney Company has acquired Rocketpack …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Fast Company, Mobile Marketing Watch, Geek.com, BloggingStocks, SAI, SlashGear, Gamasutra, Electronista and The Tech Trade, Thanks:mikebutcher
Nir Ben Yona / Technologer:
Did Apple Just ‘Borrow’ The Smart Cover Idea From Incase? — Apple has really blown our minds away with their latest and greatest Smart Cover revelation, yesterday morning. Designed specifically for iPad 2 devices, the fabulous and colorful covers - soon to be offered in polyurethane or leather flavors …
Discussion:
PC World, TUAW, Engadget, Asiajin, NBC Bay Area, SlashGear and blogs.chron.com, Thanks:niron
Seth Weintraub / Fortune:
Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth — Apple twisted facts (or worse) to try to convince crowds that all other tablets had no shot at de-throning the iPad in 2011. — In what seems like a ritual at this point, I watched Apple's iPad 2 keynote in disbelief …
Francis Tan / The Next Web:
Beijing to track citizens with their cell phones — As if the Great Firewall is not enough, the Chinese government is now looking into monitoring the movement of 17 million cellphone users in Beijing, China by tracking the signal of their mobile devices. — Purportedly to improve Beijing's …
Discussion:
PR Newswire, topics.scmp.com, TechEye, IntoMobile, Gadgetell and All Points Blog
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
March Madness Comes to the iPad, for Free — Big sports events generally shy away from the Web, because they're still worried-with good reason-about trading analog dollars for digital dimes. — One exception to the rule has been the annual March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament …
Discussion:
MediaPost, TUAW, WPCentral.com, Switched and The Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Microsoft and Google jointly sue GeoTag Inc. in order to invalidate a patent asserted against more than 300 entities — Google and Microsoft have joined forces to take down a Texas company's geotagging patent that they claim has been used in lawsuits against more than 300 entities, many of which are customers of the two companies.
Discussion:
TechFlash, TechCrunch, Network World, Inquirer and TechEye
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
And Now The True Test For Hot Beta Chat App Yobongo: Going Live — We've written about Yobongo a couple of times now. It's an interesting concept (location-centric realtime mobile chat) with great execution. But that execution has so far only had to withstand 140 or so beta testers.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, SAI, SlashGear, Mashable! and louisgray.com
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
‘Joint Venture’ Small Business Program Officially Launched — Earlier this week, we noted that Apple had prepped its employees for a rollout of a new support program known as “Joint Venture” targeting small businesses. The program has now officially launched and is essentially in line …
Discussion:
PC World, Macworld, TUAW and The Next Web
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Instapaper's Arment: Seek Money From Customers, Not VCs — Marco Arment, the former chief technology officer of the Tumblr blog platform, is best known these days for his time-shifting reading app Instapaper. But he could start a side-job as a financial advisor to start-ups.
Discussion:
Jeff Nolan, more at Mediagazer »
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Seeds iOS 4.3 Golden Master to Developers — Apple today seeded the golden master version of iOS 4.3 to developers, paving the way for a public release of the update on March 11th. — The update is available in versions for the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Gizmodo and Apple
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Square Now Processing $1 Million In Mobile Payments Per Day — Mobile payments startup Square has reached a new milestone this week—the company is now processing $1 million in payments per day, co-founder Jack Dorsey just Tweeted. — Square was processing a few million in mobile transactions per week …
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, Mobile Marketing Watch, MediaPost, Vanity Fair, Gizmodo, MobileWhack, @jack, MacStories, mocoNews, Erictric, VatorNews, SAI, FierceMobileContent, @fromedome and Pulse2
Zach Epstein / BGR:
AT&T says iPhone users aren't fleeing to Verizon faster than expected — Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, AT&T Mobility boss Ralph de la Vega said that iPhone users aren't defecting to Verizon Wireless any faster than the carrier expected. “We haven't seen any surprises …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CNET News, Techland, DailyTech, SlashGear, MobileBurn.com, Phones Review, Between the Lines Blog, DSLreports, TUAW and PhoneArena
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
AT&T Introduces Postpaid Subscription Plans for Tablet Data Access — Fresh on the heels of confirmation that AT&T will support personal hotspot functionality for the iPhone 4 when the feature debuts with iOS 4.3 next week, the carrier today also announced the launch of new postpaid subscription data plans …
Discussion:
eWeek, AT&T, Gizmodo, Engadget and MacStories
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Comcast's Roberts aims to make the cable box cool, take on Netflix — Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is on a tour of sorts with a common message: Your cable box and the guide that goes with it can be cool. In fact, this lowly cable box may even remain the hub of your living room as it plays nice with Android and Apple's iPad.
Discussion:
Electronista and CrunchGear
Desire Athow / ITProPortal:
Exclusive : Nvidia Confirms Samsung Tegra 2 Design Win — Semiconductor giant Nvidia has confirmed to ITProPortal that Samsung will use the Nvidia Tegra 2 system on chip on some of its smartphones but, strangely enough, will not apparently differentiate between the two variants.
Discussion:
Engadget, GigaOM, SlashGear, Android Community, Fonehome, Android Phone Fans, IntoMobile, Softpedia News and PhoneArena
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Demand Media Buys Liveblogging Tool CoverItLive — On the heels of its entry to the public market, content farm Demand Media has just acquired CoverItLive, a liveblogging tool. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. — CoverItLive provides an extensive tool one can use …
Discussion:
GigaOM, Mashable!, Business Wire, VatorNews, VentureBeat, paidContent, MediaMemo, CNET News and Adweek, more at Mediagazer »
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Gmail service fully restored, Google says — Gmail should be back up and fully restored for the thousands of users who lost messages or were unable to log in to their accounts over the last four days, Google said late Wednesday night. — At 10:51 p.m., Google posted an update to its App Status Dashboard:
Discussion:
NBC Bay Area
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Browser makers release standard to bring 3D graphics to web apps without plug-ins — An industry consortium including browser makers Apple, Mozilla, Opera and Google today announced it has created a final standard on how to deliver built-in 3D graphics in web pages that won't require a plug-in or add-on to the browser.
