Techmeme: A Declaration of Cyber-War — Last summer, the world's top … (Michael Joseph Gross/Vanity Fair)

11:00 AM ET, March 4, 2011

Top Items:

Apple Said to Negotiate Unlimited Downloads of Music Purchases — Apple Inc. (AAPL) is in talks with record companies to give iTunes customers easier access to music they've purchased across multiple devices, said three people with knowledge of the plans. — Apple is negotiating …

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

It's Apple's ‘post-PC’ world — we're all just living in it — On Wednesday, Apple introduced the world to the iPad 2. A beautiful device, to be sure. Feature packed? You bet. Soon to be selling like hotcakes? Absolutely. But the introduction of an iteration on an already existing product …

Discussion: Fortune, Sample the Web, TechCrunch, I, Cringely, TechCrunch, PhoneArena, Phones Review, GottaBeMobile, DisplayBlog and Google Watch

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

The Chair — Even the chair on the stage was the same. — Yesterday's iPad 2 introduction felt like a repeat of last year's event for the original iPad. Same place. Same pace and structure for the presentation: a brief prelude of statistics showing how well Apple is doing company-wide …

Discussion: Fortune and The Loop

Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
iPad 2 wasn't Apple's big March 2nd announcement

Discussion: GottaBeMobile, Gartner, Guardian and MacGazette.net

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Is Said to Plan Windows Release for Tablets in 2012 — Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, won't release a competitor to Apple Inc. and Google Inc.'s tablet operating systems until the 2012 back-to- school season, people with knowledge of the plans said.

Discussion: PC World, The Register, MacDailyNews, TechSpot, Gearlog, V3.co.uk, SAI, Softpedia News, SlashGear, Fonehome, CNET News, Geek.com, PhoneDog.com, Inquirer, TechEye, Inc.com, Ubergizmo, IntoMobile, Electronista, paidContent, Gizmodo Australia, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, Neowin.net and Engadget

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Samsung finds parts of Galaxy Tab 10.1 ‘inadequate’ compared to iPad 2, reconsiders pricing — Whether you love or loathe Apple, you have to be happy with the company's aggressive upgrade of the iPad. It has led to Samsung, purveyor of an Android 3.0 tablet by the name of Galaxy Tab 10.1 …

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:

AOL Tim Armstrong: After HuffPo deal closes ‘no way around’ layoffs — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Huffington Post chief Arianna Huffington have finalized their integration plans and layoffs are on tap as the acquisition nears the finish line. — The news isn't unexpected.

Discussion: BoomTown, paidContent and Digits, more at Mediagazer »

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
Arianna Huffington: We Won't “Mess with” TechCrunch or Endgadet: Tim Armstrong Has Big Plans for Video

Discussion: paidContent, WebProNews and NYConvergence.com

Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:
CEO Tim Armstrong, Arianna Huffington Reveal AOL's Ambitious Hollywood Strategy

Discussion: GigaOM and Company Town, more at Mediagazer »

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.

Discussion: GigaOM, Inquirer, TechEye, CNET News, Guardian, paidContent, Electronista, Post Tech and FM Blog, more at Mediagazer »

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

Discussion: MediaMemo, TDW Geeks, WebProNews, blogs.chron.com, Engadget, Geekosystem, SlashGear, Guardian, Electricpig.co.uk, The Huffington Post and Pulse2

Charlie Sorrel / Gadget Lab:

Just How Bad Is the iPad 2 Camera? — The iPad 2's camera shoots at less than one megapixel. Jon Snyder/Wired.com — It seems impossible for Apple to put a decent camera into anything but the iPhone, and despite many hopes, both cameras in the iPad 2 are about as rudimentary …

Discussion: The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog, MacStories, DisplayBlog and AppleInsider

Kellex / Droid Life:

WiFi-only Motorola XOOM Headed to Sam's Club, Possibly Priced at $539 — Been a lot of talk about a wifi-only Motorola XOOM lately and thanks to our friends at Sam's Club, we think it may be closer than anyone imagined and with a better-than-previously-advertised price tag.

Michael Joseph Gross / Vanity Fair:

A Declaration of Cyber-War — Last summer, the world's top software-security experts were panicked by the discovery of a drone-like computer virus, radically different from and far more sophisticated than any they'd seen. The race was on to figure out its payload, its purpose, and who was behind it.

Discussion: GMSV, The Atlantic Online and SAI

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Blekko Now Offers ‘Blekkogear’ Publisher Tools: Badges, Widgets, And Toolbars, Oh My! — Search engine Blekko is taking its initiative to insert itself into the news as much as possible one step further today, and is launching a Blekkogear hub for its publishing tools, presenting a package suite …

Discussion: Search Engine Land and WebProNews

Ashlee Vance / Business Week:

The Power of the Cloud — Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are going up against traditional infrastructure makers like IBM and HP as businesses move their most important work to cloud computing, profoundly changing how companies buy computer technology — Amazon.com's (AMZN) …

Thanks:hornokplease

Ragavan Srinivasan / Mozilla Labs:

First developer release of Web Apps Project — We are excited to announce the availability of the first milestone release of Mozilla's Web Application project. Web Apps are applications that run on any device, and can be distributed through any store or directly by the developer.

Discussion: Inquirer, Softpedia News, ReadWriteWeb, Mozilla Hacks, The Mozilla Blog, Softpedia News, The Next Web, Download Squad, Slashdot and Reddit, Thanks:arjo

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Chrome OS Get A Big Update — Two Words: Trackpad Fixes — A couple weeks ago, Google rolled out the beta of Chrome 10, the latest version of their web browser. Today they're bringing it to Chrome OS too — and it contains more goodies. Most importantly, Google is touting trackpad fixes …

Discussion: Inquirer, ConceivablyTech, Softpedia News, Google Chrome Releases, Engadget, Electronista, Neowin.net, Download Squad, MobileWhack, Gadgetell, SlashGear and Ubergizmo

Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

CHART OF THE DAY: 99.7% Of People Still Haven't Bought A Tablet Yet — Apple's iPad tablet is probably the fastest-selling new consumer electronics device ever, but the potential for growth in the tablet market for Apple, Google, RIM and others is still massive.

Discussion: Engadget, broadstuff and Gizmodo

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:

Updated Windows Phone 7 update isn't updating some Samsung phones for March update — Man, talk about a flustercuck. After missing a cycle with its mobile phone strategy, the last thing Microsoft needed was a support fiasco related to its very first Windows Phone 7 software update.

Discussion: The Register, CNET News, GeekSmack, WinRumors, Inquirer and WMPoweruser.com

Stephen Shankland / CNET News:

Google issues Android anti-fragmentation tool — Google has made good on a promise to release technology it hopes will curtail Android's fragmentation problem, a complication for programmers who want their software to run on a diversity of devices. — Yesterday, the company released a …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Android Developers Blog, FierceMobileContent and Neowin.net

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Netflix for iPad updated with a new custom UI but loses features like DVD queueing — While its page on iTunes doesn't show any change, HackingNetflix points out Netflix for iPad was updated today with a new version of the app that gives it a customized interface instead of just pulling …

Discussion: Gadgetell, ReadWriteWeb, everythingiCafe, Gizmodo, Hacking NetFlix and PhoneArena

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: broadstuff, @alexia, @labnol, @dannysullivan, @bobcaswell, @dannysullivan, @rosa, @cpen, Hacker News, @antderosa, @andrewhyde, @msuster, @tcarmody, @rsarver, @gaberivera and @atul

Electronista:

Apple said shipping 12 million iPad 2s in spring alone — Apple could ship more than 10 million iPads a quarter for the first time in the spring, part suppliers claimed late Thursday. The company is still on track to ship 6.5 million iPads before April, two to three million of which would be the iPad 2 …

Discussion: MacRumors, DigiTimes, PadGadget, www.pocketgamer.biz, AppleInsider and SlashGear

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CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs? — Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series! After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …

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