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, MobileCrunch, internetnews.com, Mercury News, Network World, GigaOM, ITworld.com, TechCrunch, WebProNews, Digital Trends, mocoNews, dailywireless.org, IntoMobile, GMSV, PhoneArena, Android Community, MediaPost, VatorNews, Electronista, Engadget, asymco, Local Media Watch, 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, broadstuff, L.A. Times Tech Blog, SAI, Venture Capital Dispatch and All Facebook
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
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 …
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 and TiPb
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
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:
@dannysullivan, @rosa, @atul, @cpen, Hacker News, @antderosa, @andrewhyde, @msuster, @tcarmody, @rsarver and @gaberivera
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
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, PC World, Technologizer, Erictric, MacStories, App Advice, Download Squad, SAI, AppScout, SAI, IntoMobile, VatorNews, @avinio, @eric_andersen, everythingiCafe, Electronista, WebProNews and GeekSugar
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, Scobleizer and Gizmodo Australia
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
Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:
CEO Tim Armstrong, Arianna Huffington Reveal AOL's Ambitious Hollywood Strategy — On the new cover of The Hollywood Reporter magazine with Huffington and new AOL partner Heidi Klum, Armstrong says, “We have a plan and we're executing as quickly as almost any company in our space.”
Discussion:
GigaOM and Company Town
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.
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, VentureBeat, eMoney, Fast Company, SAI, CNET News, Geek.com, Mobile Marketing Watch, SlashGear, BloggingStocks, Gamasutra, The Tech Trade, Electronista and FierceMobileContent, Thanks:mikebutcher
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, MacRumors, Examiner, 9 to 5 Mac, Digital Trends, Ubergizmo, TiPb, MacNN, Apple Bitch, Geek.com, Know Your Cell, CrunchGear, Your Daily Apple, The Next Web, GeekSmack, iLounge, everythingiCafe, 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW and iClarified
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.
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
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
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:
Macworld, TUAW, Gadget Lab, PC World, SlashGear, Engadget, Appletell, NBC Bay Area and blogs.chron.com, Thanks:niron
Martin Bryant / The Next Web:
Google adds Twitter integration to push location reviews — Over the past few months we've seen Google push location reviews pretty hard. Its Hotpot feature has been developing quickly and today the company has added something pretty significant - Twitter integration for place reviews in the Android Maps app.
Discussion:
Google Mobile Blog, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Android Phone Fans, SlashGear, Local Media Watch and IntoMobile
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Video: Inside Google's Self-Driving Cars — At the TED 2011 conference this week, Google has been giving extremely rare demos of its self-driving cars. TED attendees have even been allowed to travel inside them, on a closed course. Below, some video of the action. — Google's Robot Cars
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.
Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
INTC: Piper Sees Change Of Guard In Tech Wave — A team of technology analysts at Piper Jaffray today offered a rather sweeping note positing that technology is becoming a force again to a degree not seen since the '90s. — The rise of mobile technology, especially mobile phones …
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 »
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.
