Top Items:
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:
The Register, mocoNews, Bits, Mercury News, internetnews.com, Network World, TechCrunch, ITworld.com, GigaOM, TechCrunch, dailywireless.org, PhoneArena, WebProNews, mocoNews, Digital Trends, IntoMobile, GMSV, Electronista, Android Community, MediaPost, VatorNews, Engadget, Local Media Watch, asymco, SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb, Gizmodo Australia, Know Your Cell, Android Phone Fans and Tech Trader Daily
Garett Sloane / New York Post:
Facebook co-founder set to sell 10M shares — While deep-pocketed investors from New York to Beijing are clamoring to buy a piece of Facebook, news that a co-founder of the social networking giant is shopping around a portion of his stake is raising eyebrows on Wall Street, The Post has learned.
Discussion:
Friending Facebook Blog, L.A. Times Tech Blog, broadstuff, SAI, All Facebook and Venture Capital Dispatch
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
A rare disagreement — John Gruber: — The root cause for so much of the subscription ruckus, I think, isn't that 30% number — it's that Apple pulled the rug out from under some major apps after the fact. And unlike nearly every App Store rule change in the past, this is a major change …
Discussion:
Daring Fireball
Fred / A VC:
Techmeme vs Hacker News — My two favorite tech news aggregators are Techmeme and Hacker News. I visit both multiple times per day for a quick scan of what is going on in techland. — They are very different and you can see that in action this morning. — Here is the above the fold Techmeme right now (9am eastern):
Discussion:
@rosa, @atul, @cpen, Hacker News, @antderosa, @andrewhyde, @msuster, @tcarmody, @rsarver and @gaberivera
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:
Fast Company, PC World, eWeek, WebProNews, BetaNews, TechCrunch, Xconomy, SocialTimes.com, IntoMobile, Digital Trends, Geek.com, Ubergizmo, Techland, The Next Web, TechFlash, LiveSide.net, WMPoweruser.com and eMoney, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Adds Daily Deals To Bing
Discussion:
paidContent, All about Microsoft Blog, Search Engine Land, GigaOM and silicontap.com
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
iPad 2 wasn't Apple's big March 2nd announcement — It was the software — FaceTime, Garage Band, iMovie and Photo Booth — and the colorful Smart Covers. I kid you not. There are good reasons why so much of yesterday's launch event focused on software — hell, Apple even made a video …
Discussion:
Guardian, MacGazette.net, TiPb and Appolicious Advisor
Seth Weintraub / Fortune:
Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth — Apple twisted facts and used an erroneous quotation 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 …
Discussion:
Engadget and MacStories
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:
BetaNews, Twitter Blog, Technologizer, PC World, Erictric, App Advice, SAI, Download Squad, MacStories, AppScout, SAI, IntoMobile, VatorNews, @avinio, @eric_andersen, everythingiCafe, Electronista, GeekSugar and WebProNews
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Ditto: The Social App For What You Should Be Doing — Think about Foursquare right now. You can tell everyone what you're currently doing, but there's no good mechanism for planning something to do or for getting a recommendation for something to do. Sure, you could use “shouts” that way.
Discussion:
ArcticStartup Posts, GigaOM, NetworkEffect, ReadWriteWeb, Gizmodo Australia and Scobleizer
David Kirkpatrick / Vanity Fair:
Twitter Was Act One — Considering that he invented Twitter and is about to launch another potential game changer with his new company, Square, Jack Dorsey has one of the lowest profiles in tech. But from his childhood obsession (city maps) to his dream job (mayor of New York City) …
Discussion:
eMoney, TechCrunch and @tedr
Charles Babcock / InformationWeek:
Why Sun Microsystems Failed — Former CEO Scott McNealy's allegiance to Sun's hardware culture shortchanged its software initiatives, and ultimately doomed the company. — Scott McNealy believes the best preparation for business is to play hockey. The teamwork, the individual risk taking …
David Faber / The Faber Report:
Latest Facebook Investment Values Company at $65 Billion — General Atlantic, a $17 billion investment firm, will soon become the latest investor in Facebook, buying one tenth of one percent of the company in a deal that values the social networking giant at $65 billion, according to people with knowledge of the transaction.
Discussion:
Friending Facebook Blog, DealBook, Reuters and SocialTimes.com
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:
paidContent, eMoney, CNET News, Fast Company, SAI, VentureBeat, Geek.com, Mobile Marketing Watch, SlashGear, BloggingStocks, Gamasutra, Electronista, The Tech Trade and FierceMobileContent, Thanks:mikebutcher
Thomas Catan / Wall Street Journal:
Web Video Rivalry Sparks U.S. Probe — The Justice Department is investigating whether a group representing some top technology firms is unfairly trying to smother a free rival technology for delivering online video that is backed by Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Cecilia Kang / Post Tech:
Free messaging apps threaten wireless carriers' cash cow — Here's the dirty secret about text messages. It costs a wireless carrier close to nothing to send and receive them — even though they charge about $10 a month for 500 to 1,000 texts. — Now, a new crop of messaging apps …
Discussion:
dailywireless.org and DSLreports
Gina Trapani / Smarterware:
The Case Against Drop-down Identities — Human beings and their relationships are complex and nuanced, so the software that attempts to describe them must accomodate a wide range of expression. Last night, Google rolled out an update to the Google Profiles product, which I've promoted for for almost 2 years.
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:
GigaOM, Gadget Lab, WebProNews, Apple Gazette, AppleInsider, Examiner, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, Digital Trends, Ubergizmo, TiPb, MacNN, Geek.com, Apple Bitch, CrunchGear, Know Your Cell, Your Daily Apple, The Next Web, GeekSmack, everythingiCafe, iLounge, 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW and iClarified
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
A low-tech Microsoft slate for the masses — You can never be too thin or too fast ... or too pricey — if you're a slate/tablet targeted at the developed world. But if customers in the developing world are your focus, iPads, Galaxy Tabs and Windows 7 business slates are probably out of the reach of most of them.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Twitter Story Fail — It's amazing to me how wrong The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were on their Twitter fundraising stories last week. All claimed multiple independent sources, but everyone got the story wrong in the same way.
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:
TUAW, Gadget Lab, PC World, Engadget, SlashGear, Appletell, NBC Bay Area, blogs.chron.com and Asiajin, Thanks:niron
RELATED:
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
WordPress.com Suffers Largest DDoS Attack In Its History
Discussion:
eWeek, NewEnterprise, The Blog Herald, @wordpressdotcom, Naked Security, ZDNet, The Atlantic Online, CNET News, The Huffington Post, Financial Post, NetworkEffect, The Next Web, The Register, SC Magazine US, AOL News, Data Center Knowledge, Techie Buzz, Download Squad and Black Web 2.0, Thanks:r0unak
Cryptome:
Birgitta Jonsdottir Interview on Wikileaks — Icelander Birgitta Jonsdottir - poet, author, activist, and member of parliament - has now broken with WikiLeaks, but she is continuing to devote herself to making her country a haven for information, a Switzerland of the bytes.
Horace Dediu / asymco:
Apps are 15 times more popular than ebooks … The Passion of Steve Jobs - NYTimes.com — It was almost exactly three years ago that Steve Jobs dismissed the Kindle reader as a futile attempt to change user behavior. — Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced that the iBooks store served 100 million ebooks …
Discussion:
Kindle Review
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.
Discussion:
The Register
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:
SAI, Ars Technica, CNET News, Network World, TechCrunch, Electronista, Geek.com, TechFlash, Inquirer, TechEye, silicontap.com and Slashdot
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 and Bloggasm, more at Mediagazer »
