Techmeme: Sparks Fly Over AT&T-T-Mobile Deal As Wireless CEOs Trade Jabs (Tom Krazit/mocoNews)

1:15 PM ET, March 22, 2011

Top Items:

Tricia Duryee / eMoney:

Now Open: Amazon Appstore Launches With 3,800 Apps for Android — Amazon has officially launched the Android Appstore, a potential iTunes equivalent for Android. — The company-whose roots are in e-commerce and not mobile-aspires to merchandise and sell apps better than Google does on its own platform.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Android App Store Launches: Test Drive Apps Directly From Your Browser — This morning Amazon is officially launching its Android App Store — a storefront for apps that will compete directly with Google's official Android Market. We first broke the news about the impending App Store …

Discussion: SAI, Internet2Go, Pocket-lint, OStatic blogs, Gadgets DNA, Geekosystem, Techland, ReadWriteWeb, Guardian, Electronista, Geek.com, Reuters, VatorNews, mobiputing, PhoneArena, WebProNews and Neowin.net

Apple:

iPad 2 Arrives in 25 More Countries This Friday — Available in Hong Kong, Korea & Singapore in April — Apple® today announced that iPad® 2, the second-generation of its third post-PC device, will go on sale in 25 additional countries this Friday, March 25. iPad 2 will be available …

Bloomberg:

Apple's Jobs Must Answer Questions in ITunes Antitrust Suit — A federal magistrate judge ordered Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs to answer questions in an antitrust dispute alleging the company operated a music-downloading monopoly. — Lawyers for consumers who filed …

Discussion: PC World, Hillicon Valley, MacRumors, Reuters, Edible Apple, 9 to 5 Mac, Digital Trends, AppleInsider, The Register, Pulse2, RazorianFly, MacStories and Inquirer

John Brownlee / Cult of Mac:

Steve Jobs To Undergo 2 Hours “Limited Questioning” on 2004 Apple/RealNetworks DRM Spat — Despite being on medical leave, Steve Jobs has been ordered by a US Magistrate to answer questions in court about the iTunes music store and Apple's supposedly monopolistic behavior, Bloomberg reports.

Sinead Carew / Reuters:

Verizon Wireless CEO says no interest in Sprint deal — (Reuters) - The chief executive of Verizon Wireless said he has no interest in buying Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) even as the company stands to lose its top position in the U.S. wireless market because of a merger between AT&T Inc (T.N) and T-Mobile USA.

Discussion: CNET News, Mobilized, PC World, Hillicon Valley, DealBook, Reuters, Engadget, Digital Daily, Reuters, Geek.com, WebProNews, DailyTech, Neowin.net, Gearlog, SlashGear, Android Phone Fans and FierceWireless

Tom Krazit / mocoNews:
Sparks Fly Over AT&T-T-Mobile Deal As Wireless CEOs Trade Jabs

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, BGR and Mobilized

Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider: Big Acquisitions Are Bad For Shareholders: A Look At The 10 Biggest Tech Mergers Ever

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

That was quick: Four lines of code is all it takes for The New York Times' paywall to come tumbling down — The New York Times paywall is costing the newspaper $40-$50 million to design and construct, Bloomberg has reported. And it can be defeated through four lines of Javascript.

Discussion: euri.ca, more at Mediagazer »

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
A Rule of Thumb: Pricing Should Be Simple

Discussion: SAI and NewsGrange

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
NYTimes Paywall Limit To Extend Beyond Google To “All Major Search Engines”

Discussion: SAI, Gizmodo, Betabeat, @dannysullivan, MediaMemo and Search Engine Land, more at Mediagazer »

Joanna Stern / Engadget:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on: thinner than the iPad 2, dual-core power, TouchWiz 4.0 — You know who took the iPad 2 launch pretty seriously? Samsung, that's who. Just as we had heard, the company's executives were impressed by Apple's ability to slim down its tablet and …

Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Samsung Introduces 8.9- and 10.1-Inch Galaxy Tabs Coming This Summer

Discussion: Engadget and IntoMobile

Bloomberg:

Apple Sues Amazon.com, Seeks Order to Stop Use of ‘App Store’ Trademark — Apple Inc. (AAPL) sued Amazon.com Inc., saying the online retailer is improperly using Apple's “App Store” trademark for a mobile software developer program. — Apple, in a complaint filed March 18 in California …

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

RIM Reveals BlackBerry PlayBook Versions, Pricing (Starts At $499), Retail Partners — In case you were holding out for a BlackBerry PlayBook: good news. Research In Motion this morning announced (expected) plans to make the tablet computer available in more than 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada.

Ina Fried / Mobilized:
RIM's Tablet to Go On Sale April 19, Pricing Borrows from the iPad's PlayBook

Discussion: Crave, TechSpot, BlackBerry Cool and GottaBeMobile

Arn / MacRumors Page 2:

iPad 2: Wife Says No, but Apple Says Yes — Apple is paying close attention to all iPad 2 returns during the first few weeks to make sure there are no major production defects. This policy has led to an amusing story that we thought was entertaining enough to share.

Discussion: Macworld UK, Softpedia News, ITworld.com, MacStories and Geek.com

Chris Dixon / cdixon's posterous:

Dropbox and why you should invest in people — It was reported today that Dropbox will generate $100M in revenue this year. Whether or not those reports are right, it is certainly a great product, beloved by its customers and will almost certainly be wildly successful.

Discussion: @drewhouston

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / SAI:
Dropbox Could Generate $100 Million In Revenue This Year

Discussion: Softpedia News and Pulse2

The Mozilla Blog:

Mozilla Launches Firefox 4 and Delivers a Fast, Sleek and Customizable Browsing Experience to More Than 400 Million Users Worldwide — Mozilla, a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to making the Web better, is proud to release Mozilla Firefox 4, the newest version of the popular, free and open source Web browser.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Boom! Professional Social Network LinkedIn Passes 100 Million Members — 2011 has proven to be a monumental year so far for professional social network LinkedIn. The company filed its S-1 for a public offering, released a number of data-focused products and unveiled a social news reader for professionals.

Discussion: VatorNews, CNET News, Between the Lines Blog, The LinkedIn Blog, The LinkedIn Blog, SFGate, Mashable!, NetworkEffect, Softpedia News, Pulse2, NBC Bay Area, WebProNews and SocialTimes.com, Thanks:srikardhanakoti

Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:

Bandwidth.com Launches a Better Broadband Map — The folks at Bandwidth.com, which offers wholesale voice services to many application providers, launched a website Monday with a broadband map that will offer people insights about the quality of service, the speeds of service and the price others …

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Drunk On Licensing Fees And Patents, Microsoft Has Become A Joke — Earlier today, it was revealed that Microsoft was suing yet another company for infringing on their patents. The target this time? Barnes & Noble. Yes, Microsoft is suing a book chain. Why?

Discussion: Network World, Softpedia News, Techland, p2pnet and Microsoft

BBC:

China rejects Google claims of email interference — Google reduced its presence in China last year after complaining of interference — China's foreign ministry has rejected claims by Google that Beijing is disrupting access to its e-mail service in the country.

Discussion: Associated Press, Reuters and Gearlog

GSMArena.com:

Exclusive: HTC Pyramid frontal shot confirms qHD resolution — We just got an exclusive new shot of the HTC Pyramid. The image again shows the Pyramid posing next to the Desire HD, but this time we have the front of the phones. Best of all, it seems to confirm the rumor about the increased resolution screen.

Discussion: LAPTOP Magazine, BGR, TmoNews, PhoneArena, SlashGear and Android Community

Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:

Nokia's tablet path may exclude Microsoft: source — (Reuters) - Nokia's strategy for entering the tablet computer market may not include Microsoft, its recently announced partner for smartphones, according to a person with knowledge of the company's thinking.

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Happy Birthday Twitter. Yes, You're Awesome. Now Back To Work (On Search And Archives) — I woke up this morning and my Twitter stream looked like a Facebook Wall on a teenager's birthday. “Happy birthday, Twitter!” “Twitter, you're the best, happy bday!” “Can't believe you're five Twitter!”

Discussion: Internet Evolution, Geek.com and Marketing Pilgrim

Mark Hachman / PC Magazine: Humanity's Tweets: Just 20 Terabytes

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