Top Items:
Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Eric Schmidt Tried To Get Google To Hide His Political Donation In Search Results — Departing Google CEO Eric Schmidt was known for some of his bumbling public statements — like saying that privacy didn't matter — but apparently he made some internal blunders as well.
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Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
New Book on Google Shows Gaffes in China — When Google opened for business in China in 2006, Eric E. Schmidt, its chief executive, said, “Google has 5,000 years of patience in China.” But its divorce from the country just four years later was inevitable because operations there were troubled from the start.
Discussion:
Inquirer and Venture Capital Dispatch
TechCrunch:
Facebook Terminated Corporate Development Employee Over Insider Trading Scandal — Facebook corporate development manager Michael Brown (pictured left in happier days) recently and abruptly left Facebook, and the company then hired a senior Google employee to replace him.
Discussion:
SAI, All Facebook, SAI, Tech Trader Daily and @dianneisnor
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google April Fools' Day 2011 — This year, Google's hoaxes are less inspired and some of them aren't original either, but they're still funny. Here are some of them: — 1. Google China invented teleportation. “Through the search is to let Google take you through time and space …
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Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
April Fools 2011: The Big List
Discussion:
GigaOM, The Huffington Post, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Technologizer, Digits, Music Ally, ReadWriteWeb, GeekWire, MacRumors, The Pirate Bay, TechFlash, Network World, Google LatLong, Bryce Dot VC, Cult of Mac, Virgin, PC World, What Mobile, 9 to 5 Mac, Betabeat, Search Engine Watch, The Next Web, ZDNet Australia, TechCrunch Europe, NBC Bay Area, TechCrunch, Pocket-lint, Evolver.fm, GottaBeMobile, Mashable!, VatorNews, USA Today, Telegraph, Amazon Web Services Blog, Roughly Drafted, Search Engine Roundtable, AllTwitter, Tom Foremski, InfoWorld, Geekosystem, Atlassian News, Electricpig.co.uk, SlashGear, @methodshop, InfoQ, Gizmodo, Delimiter and Lifehacker, more at Mediagazer »
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Play Him Off, Flugelhorn Feline: YouTube Time Travels To 1911
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Mashable!, GottaBeMobile, @hunterwalk and Tecca
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Social browser RockMelt makes its first big upgrade — RockMelt, the Web browser that launched last fall with backing from Andreessen Horowitz, is releasing some improvements today that co-founder and chief executive Eric Vishria told me will tackle the two biggest requests from users.
Discussion:
Inside Facebook, GigaOM, Download Squad, Mashable! and WebProNews
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
BlackBerry Touch (Monaco / Monza) hands-on! — Part of RIM's upcoming 2011 BlackBerry lineup we leaked in January contained the company's latest evolution of a full touchscreen device, the BlackBerry Monaco / Monza. Both names are codenames that signify different carriers the phone will land on …
Haaretz:
Israeli startup Conduit with more users than Twitter negotiating billion-dollar exit — The company has 230 million users of its products, half the number of Facebook users, and more than LinkedIn and Twitter; if the deal comes off, it would be the biggest sale of an Internet firm in Israeli history.
Discussion:
NetworkEffect and paidContent
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple may build its own external battery pack for recharging on the go — Apple has shown interest in integrating a rechargeable external battery pack into its standard charging cable, providing extra power for devices like a MacBook or iPhone when a power outlet isn't available.
Discussion:
O'Grady's PowerPage, CrunchGear, Gizmodo and Crave
Bloomberg:
Acer Sets Sights on Apple, HTC After Lanci Chase of HP Stumbles — Gianfranco Lanci tried to make Acer Inc. the world's largest laptop maker by outselling Hewlett- Packard Co. The board says he should have set his sights on Apple Inc. and HTC Corp. instead.
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Engadget, DigiTimes, Daring Fireball, DailyTech, SlashGear, Electronista and Bloomberg
Nicholas Carlson / SAI:
CHART OF THE DAY: How Many Users Does Twitter REALLY Have? — How many people use Twitter? Many fewer than Twitter would lead you to believe. — According to its “about” page, Twitter has 175 million registered users. But “registered users” is a funny term. What it really means is the number of accounts.
Discussion:
Geekosystem, Andrew Hillman, hypebot and ChasNote
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Massive SQL injection attack making the rounds—694K URLs so far — Hundreds of thousands of URLs have been compromised—at the time of writing, 694,000—in an enormous and indiscriminate SQL injection attack. The attack has modified text stored in databases, with the result that pages served …
Discussion:
PC World, eWeek, Security Labs, Inquirer, Silicon Republic, Dancho Danchev's Blog, ITworld.com, Naked Security, Download Squad, TG Daily and ZDNet Australia
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Google's Schmidt beats Apple's Jobs in employee approval ratings — Even as Eric Schmidt steps down as chief executive at Google on Monday, he can leave with the satisfaction that his employee approval rating is at an all-time high. There's an art to quitting when you're on top.
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog and SAI
Lee Byron / Facebook:
One Mobile Site to Serve Thousands of Phones — Building for the mobile Web is a big challenge. You have to plan for thousands of different devices with varying capabilities, screen sizes, keyboards, CSS and JavaScript support, underlying technologies, and browser bugs.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, MarketingVOX, Ubergizmo, FierceMobileContent, iClarified and Mobile Entertainment
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Now Has 250 Million Mobile Users (And A New Unified Mobile Website To Match)
Discussion:
BGR, PC World, Geek.com, NetworkEffect, Mashable!, WebProNews, BlogsDNA, NBC Bay Area, Inside Mobile Apps and Redmond Pie
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple exploring multi-camera iPhone systems for 3D picture taking — Apple has toyed with the idea of adding two or more rear-facing cameras and sensors to a device like an iPhone, allowing pictures to be taken and displayed in 3D. — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week revealed …
Discussion:
Gearlog, ReadWriteWeb, GottaBeMobile, Neowin.net, Mobile Entertainment, Electricpig.co.uk, App Advice, TiPb and The Next Web
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Patent Shows that Apple is Bringing “Spaces” to the iPad — In an Apple Discussions forum on Spaces for iPad, Robb Manning stating back in 2010 that having “the ability to touch one button and switch spaces to where I have safari up to do some research would be awesome.” Well, today we move closer to that reality.
Discussion:
mocoNews, TUAW and OS X Daily
John Cook / GeekWire:
Sony Online to shut doors on Bellevue game studio — Sony Online Entertainment is closing down game studios in Bellevue, Denver and Tucson, Arizona, a move which will eliminate 205 jobs. The company also said that it would discontinue development on “The Agency,” an online spy game which had been highly touted.
Discussion:
Guardian, The Seattle Times, Xconomy and VentureBeat
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Google Answers Viacom in YouTube Appeal (Exclusive) … Google has filed its brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the closely-watched $1 billion lawsuit brought by Viacom over alleged copyright infringement on YouTube. — In the 94-page document, Google outlines why it believes it qualifies for …
Discussion:
Techdirt, Thanks:richdemuro
Zach Epstein / BGR:
HTC ThunderBolt outselling iPhone 4 at Verizon Wireless stores, analyst claims — BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk says HTC's latest beastly smartphone for Verizon Wireless is going toe to toe with the iPhone 4, and is even outselling Apple's iPhone at many Verizon Wireless store locations.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, GigaOM, IBD Click, SAI, VentureBeat, IntoMobile, GottaBeMobile, Examiner, NBC Bay Area, Android Phone Fans, Droid Life and MobileWhack
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
Microsoft removes Imagewind from Marketplace, WP7 gets first bitter taste of rejection — Oh, sure, it was easy to pick on Apple for all those frustrating App Store rejections over the years, but Google's had its own run-ins with apps being pulled under unfortunate circumstances, and now it's time for WP7 users to get a taste.
Discussion:
Neowin.net and MobileCrunch
Evelyn Rusli / New York Times:
Bessemer Venture Partners Closes $1.6 Billion Fund — These days, owning a slice of Facebook or Groupon — two of the most popular and valuable companies on the Web — is worth at least some bragging rights in Silicon Valley. — But at least one firm has attracted significant capital by avoiding the frenzy.
Discussion:
Everything Ventured, VentureBeat and SAI
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
M&A Activity Down 22 Percent in Q1, But IPOs And Acquisition Amounts On The Rise — DowJones Venture Source has released its quarterly data on venture-backed exists and its appears that M&A activity has dropped in Q1 2011 despite the momentum that venture-backed exits gained throughout 2010.
Discussion:
GeekWire, IBD Click, Dow Jones, GigaOM and PE Hub Blog
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Hollywood Rolls Out $30 Rentals. Smart. — Would you pay $30 to rent a movie? — Hollywood thinks you may. Four of the big studios are rolling out a “premium VOD” offering, where renters at home can pay extra to see films that were just in theaters but aren't yet out on DVD.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Digital Trends, PC World, thinq_, Gizmodo, WebProNews, Electronista, Techland, Gadgetell, SlashGear, Geek.com, Home Theater Blog, Zatz Not Funny!, Hacking NetFlix, TechSpot and GigaOM
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