Techmeme: The Inside Story on the Angry Birds' Massive Funding Round (Ina Fried/Mobilized)

2:15 PM ET, March 10, 2011

Top Items:

Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:

iPad 2: Thin, Not Picture Perfect — Just as most of its competitors are rolling out their first multitouch tablets to compete with its game-changing iPad, Apple on Friday will start selling a second-generation model, the iPad 2. — The new iPad 2 is about a third thinner and over 10% lighter …

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

The iPad 2 — I've been coming up empty trying to think of a hook for this review of the iPad 2 — an angle, a narrative structure, a theme to put it in perspective and make it more than a list of benchmarks and disparate observations. Then I realized I already wrote it, a year ago, in this back-page column for Macworld:

Discussion: GigaOM, Macworld, Bloomberg, ITProPortal, The Register, IntoMobile, Edge Online, @gruber, Computerworld, App Advice and Electronista

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

iPad 2 review — To say Apple's iPad 2 is an easy tablet to review is somewhat of an understatement. The device, a follow up to last year's wildly successful (and currently market-defining) iPad, is nearly identical when it comes to software, and though improved, closely related on the hardware side as well.

Discussion: App Advice, 9 to 5 Mac, Macworld, PC Magazine, Gizmodo, Tech Trader Daily, The Apple Core Blog, Techie Buzz, TUAW, Switched, GigaOM, DailyTech, Electronista, SAI and CrunchGear

Apple:

iPad 2 Arrives Tomorrow — Apple® today announced that iPad™ 2, the next generation of its magical device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading ebooks and much more, will be available tomorrow …

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
iPad 2 Availability Tomorrow: 1:00 AM Pacific Online, 5:00 PM Local In-Store

Discussion: Examiner, The Toybox Blog, I4U News and Know Your Cell

Liz Reaves Walker / The LinkedIn Blog:

Introducing LinkedIn Today — Staying on top of industry news is something we think matters for any professional whose success depends on being well informed. With all the news websites, blogs, tweets and newsletters out there, staying in-the-know can be time consuming and it's increasingly hard …

Discussion: paidContent, ReadWriteWeb, @dannysullivan and WebProNews

Oliver Hsiang / StumbleUpon Blog:

Stay in the Know with LinkedIn and StumbleUpon — Chances are, you already use LinkedIn to manage and stay connected with your professional network. But staying up on the latest trends and tried-and-true industry insights is just as important as being connected to the right people.

Discussion: TechCrunch

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Today: A Social News Product For Professionals — Professional social network LinkedIn is holding a press event today to talk about the company's new product strategy. We're liveblogging the announcement. As we heard from Mrinal Desai, LinkedIn is expected to announce a new social news feature today.

Discussion: TechCrunch, NetworkEffect, CNET News, L.A. Times Tech Blog, VentureBeat, GigaOM, The LinkedIn Blog, Post Tech, Mashable!, SAI and Bloggasm, more at Mediagazer »

Nicholas Carlson / SAI:

THE GORY DETAILS: Tim Armstrong's Layoffs Memo — UPDATE: We've been covering AOL's layoffs all morning long. Below is a memo from CEO Tim Armstrong detailing what's happening. — Other stories we've covered: — AOL is planning a big re-org in its tech division, with HuffPo's people getting a bigger role.

Discussion: BoomTown, Bits, paidContent, Internet Evolution, VentureBeat, TechEye and Bloggasm, more at Mediagazer »

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Confirmed: AOL Gives Over 200 U.S. Employees Pink Slips — As we've heard over the past few days, AOL has started implementing layoffs across its properties in the wake of the Huffington Post acquisition. The deal, which amounted to $315 million, closed on Monday of this week.

Discussion: VatorNews, CNNMoney.com, Reuters and WebProNews, more at Mediagazer »

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Skype Founder, Others Invest $42 Million in Angry Birds — We'd heard Rovio, the company behind the Angry Birds game franchise, was out in the market looking for cash, but never did we think that it would end up raising $42 million in Series A funding from Accel Partners and Atomico, the venture fund started by Skype's co-founders.

Discussion: Rovio, VentureBeat, CNET News, 9 to 5 Mac, alarm:clock, TechCrunch, Guardian, paidContent, IntoMobile, SAI, MobileBurn.com, Quintura blog, ArcticStartup Posts and MediaMemo

Ina Fried / Mobilized: The Inside Story on the Angry Birds' Massive Funding Round

Shonda Novak / Austin American-Statesman:

Apple set to open popup shop in core of SXSW action — Computer company leases downtown space during festival, release of iPad 2 — Apple Inc. will open a temporary store Friday in the Scarbrough Building on Congress Avenue downtown, timed to the start of South by Southwest Interactive Conference …

Peter Bright / Ars Technica:

pwn2own day one: Safari, IE8 fall, Chrome unchallenged — Fully patched versions of Safari and Internet Explorer 8 were both successfully hacked today at pwn2own, the annual hacking competition held as part of the CanSecWest security conference. If a researcher can pwn the browser—that is …

Discussion: Network World, Digital Trends, internetnews.com, PC World, Zero Day Blog, Techie Buzz, Engadget, The Register, Security Watch, Help Net Security, Inquirer, Softpedia News, Darknet, The Tech Report and Computerworld

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / SAI:

Paul Graham: There's No Tech Bubble, Steve Jobs Is A Dictator — Y Combinator's Paul Graham just gave a pretty good interview on Bloomberg TV about startups and the tech industry. — Graham, on top of being really smart, is also the most likable guy in Silicon Valley and very witty, so it's always worth watching him.

Discussion: ZDNet

Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!:

Why Everyone Is Talking About Node — On the 20th floor of a San Francisco skyscraper, a handful of developers are working on a new technology that's changing the way real-time web apps are built and how they scale. This technology, called Node.js, is being hailed as “the new Ruby on Rails” by some in the developer community.

Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:

Topsy raises another $15M for real-time search — Some of the excitement around real-time search seems to have died down recently — I'm no longer seeing hordes of startups embracing the term, and some of the most prominent companies that were active in the space have refocused.

Discussion: TechCrunch, SAI, NetworkEffect, paidContent and PE Hub Blog, Thanks:blogfisher

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:

Apple releases GarageBand, iMovie for iPad — Originally scheduled to be released on Friday, Apple on Thursday released two new apps for iPad, GarageBand and iMovie. — Apple CEO Steve Jobs demoed the apps during the introduction of the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco …

Discussion: digiday:DAILY

Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple posts iPad 2 guided video tours

Discussion: AppleInsider, GottaBeMobile, SlashGear, Appletell, App Advice and Engadget

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Square's Jack Dorsey: VeriFone's Security Hole Allegation “Is Not A Fair Or Accurate Claim” — As we heard this morning, VeriFone CEO Doug Bergeron wrote an open letter to consumers and the industry, warning users of a “gaping security hole” in mobile payments startup (and competitor) Square's hardware.

Discussion: mocoNews, MobileCrunch, Speaking of Security, GigaOM, Geek.com, The Register, eMoney, Square, WebProNews and Personal Website …

Mike Swift / Mercury News:

Ex-Googlers penetrating Silicon Valley startup hierarchy — It may be too soon to equate the Xooglers, as members of the ever-expanding network of ex-Google employees call themselves, with the “PayPal Mafia” — the founders and early employees of the online payment company who went on to start Yelp, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Discussion: p2pnet and @semilshah

IDC:

Nearly 18 Million Media Tablets Shipped in 2010 with Apple Capturing 83% Share; eReader Shipments Quadrupled to More Than 12 Million, According to IDC — According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, 10.1 million media tablets …

Discussion: AppleInsider, CNET News, Tech Trader Daily, MacRumors and Electronista

Samuel Gibbs / Download Squad:

Flipboard gains Instagram support, social search, and gets much faster — Flipboard has just updated its social-feed reading iPad app to version 1.2. This new version adds a performance boost and bug-fixes, with the highlight being Instagram integration. — Instagram integration

Discussion: Inside Flipboard, ReadWriteWeb, Scobleizer, Mashable!, Gizmodo, MacStories, Electricpig.co.uk, TUAW and GeekSugar, more at Mediagazer »

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Amazon.com Slammed With Lawsuit Over Instant Search Patent — When you go to Amazon.com and start typing in the top search box, you will automatically see a number of search suggestions for items on sale before you finish typing your query. The company also offers such enhanced search …

Discussion: GeekWire and Marketing Pilgrim, Thanks:robinwauters

Jonathan Betz / Software Rants & Other Miscellany:

Foursquare, Facebook, Founders, and Passion — Late in the summer of 2009, I was talking to a very successful entrepreneur at a tech industry meet-and-greet when Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, came into the room, at which point the person I was talking to commented …

Discussion: GigaOM and Adotas

The Official Google Blog:

Hide sites to find more of what you want — Over the years we've experimented with a number of ways to help you personalize the results you find on Google, from SearchWiki to stars in search to location settings. Now there's yet another way to find more of what you want on Google by blocking the sites you don't want to see.

Vanessa Grigoriadis / Vanity Fair:

4chan's Chaos Theory — Founded in 2003 by 15-year-old Christopher Poole, 4chan, the online hangout for millions of young people, unwittingly spawned the group Anonymous, which sprang to the defense of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last December, attacking and taking down MasterCard's and Visa's Web sites.

Ryan Kim / GigaOM:

SCVNGR Launches LevelUp to Compete With Groupon — SCVNGR, the real world location-gaming service, is applying game mechanics and a new business model to daily deals in an attempt to strengthen the relationship between merchants and their customers. With LevelUp, a pilot program that begins today …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Xconomy and Mashable!

Gautham Nagesh / Hillicon Valley:

Democrats ask Facebook founder Zuckerberg to keep lock on user info — Four Democratic senators are asking Facebook to reverse a plan that would allow application developers to request users' phone numbers and addresses. — “Anyone with ten minutes, $25, and a Facebook user's phone number …

Thanks:stiffjab

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