Techmeme: Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84 (Katie Hafner/New York Times)

11:00 AM ET, March 28, 2011

Top Items:

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 6 at Moscone West in San Francisco — Apple® today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 6 through June 10 at San Francisco's Moscone West. At this year's five-day conference Apple …

Discussion: Digital Daily, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, PC World, Ars Technica, ZDNet, TechCrunch, MacRumors, GigaOM, Engadget, Appolicious Advisor, Techland, Apple Bitch, TiPb, Neowin.net, MacStories, BlogsDNA, TUAW, iLounge and Phones Review

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:

No iPhone, iPad or Mac hardware coming at WWDC — Apple closed the door this morning on any speculation that it would announce new hardware at its Worldwide Developers conference saying it would focus on iOS and Mac OS. — Apple's apparent focus on software in its WWDC announcement backs …

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Computerworld, MacStories, TiPb and digiday:DAILY

Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:

WWDC 2011 June 6-10: “we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS” — Apple has just announced that this year's World Wide Developers Conference will take place at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco, CA. This year's event will be special as it will be the unveiling …

Discussion: BGR, IntoMobile, TUAW and TechCrunch

Wall Street Journal:

Google Pursues Role in Mobile Payments — Google Inc. is teaming up with MasterCard Inc. and Citigroup Inc. to embed technology in Android mobile devices that would allow consumers to make purchases by waving their smartphones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter, according to people familiar with the matter.

Michael Gorman / Engadget:
WSJ: Google teams with MasterCard and Citigroup for NFC payments, also files patent app

Discussion: IntoMobile, SlashGear and Electricpig.co.uk

New York Times:

Is It a New Tech Bubble? Let's See if It Pops — Banks pouring money into technology funds, wealthy clients and institutions clamoring to get pieces of start-ups, expectations of stock market debuts building — as Wall Street's machinery kicks into second gear, some investors with memories …

Discussion: Betabeat, andrew hillman dot com, GigaOM, Howard Lindzon, @alexia, @om and @cdixon

Dave Winer / Scripting News:

Is it a bubble? It matters if we think it is. — Every day more people ask if this is a bubble. Some say yes, some no. Those that say no seem to say it with hesitation. It could be my imagination, but it seems those who say yes say it with less. — It matters whether we think it is a bubble …

Chris / cdixon.org:
A few points about the “tech bubble” debate

Discussion: AdExchanger.com, Launching Tech Ventures and VentureBeat

Paul Kedrosky / Bloomberg:
Dear Warren: Here are the Overvalued Social Networking Companies

Discussion: Webware.com, Thanks:pkedrosky

Andrew Ross Sorkin / DealBook:

Facebook May Hire Robert Gibbs, Former Obama Aide — Facebook is in talks to hire Robert Gibbs, President Obama's former White House press secretary, for a senior role in helping to manage the company's communications, people briefed on the negotiations said.

Discussion: SAI, Fast Company, Communications …, Reuters, Yahoo! News, NetworkEffect, Gearlog, The Register, All Facebook, Epicenter, The Huffington Post, WebProNews, Guardian and Geekosystem

Seth Rosenblatt / Webware.com:

Benchmark battle: Chrome vs. IE vs. Firefox — There's no doubt the latest crop of stable browsers from Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla are the best the companies have ever produced. But how do they perform when tested under identical conditions? — CNET put the latest stable versions of Firefox …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Geek With Laptop and Computerworld

Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
Firefox 4 usage share is twice Internet Explorer 9 in half the time

Discussion: ZDNet, PC World, Asa Dotzler, Softpedia News, Download Squad and Geek With Laptop

Katie Hafner / New York Times:

Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84 — Paul Baran, an engineer who helped create the technical underpinnings for the Arpanet, the government-sponsored precursor to today's Internet, died Saturday night at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 84. — The cause was complications from lung cancer, said his son, David.

Discussion: PC Magazine, The Register, Digital Trends, TechEye, Epicenter, @psaffo, Network World and GigaOM

Tricia Duryee / eMoney:

American Express Launches All-New Digital Payments Platform to Attack PayPal's Bread and Butter — American Express, which is better known for its briefcase-toting corporate users, is unveiling a new business today that addresses a much wider market while also competing head-on with PayPal and other emerging payment platforms.

Discussion: TechCrunch, SAI, ReadWriteWeb, The Social and VentureBeat

Jennifer Preston / New York Times:

Ethical Quandary for Social Sites — Two days after using Flickr to display photos of police officers from Egypt's feared state security force, Hossam el-Hamalawy watched in disbelief as they vanished, one by one, from the popular social networking site, which he had been using since 2008.

Discussion: GMSV

Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:

eBay to buy GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion — eBay announced Monday that it will acquire GSI Commerce, an e-commerce marketing services company, for $29.25 a share—which will likely come out to be around $2.4 billion. — To put things into perspective, that's more than it paid for PayPal …

Discussion: SAI, TechCrunch, eMoney, paidContent, Tech Trader Daily and Reuters

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:

Will the Web have a place in a world full of apps? — This essay is part of Farhad Manjoo's continuing series on the future of innovation. Read the series introduction, Manjoo's story on the future of mobile gadgets, and readers' predictions on the future of mobile devices.

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:

RIM: The obits are a bit premature — Days before Research in Motion launches its PlayBook tablet analysts and tech observers are scrambling to predict the demise of the company. The gloom and doom may be misplaced. — Look, it's obvious that RIM has a few issues. Consider:

Discussion: ZDNet

Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:
RIM: The inmates have taken over the asylum

Discussion: datasecurityblog.wordpress.com, MacDailyNews and mocoNews

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Nintendo 3DS review: Is it worth $249 and $40 per game? — Nintendo has done its best to launch a new era in video games with the launch of its 3DS portable gaming system, which goes on sale for $249 on Sunday. The appeal of this device, which can display games in stereoscopic 3D without glasses, is growing on me.

Discussion: Softpedia News, Electronista and Joystiq

Jared Newman / Technologizer:
Nintendo 3DS Launches, Haunted by Smartphones

Discussion: NewEnterprise, The Business Insider and Digital Trends

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