Techmeme: Twitter Investor Says Twitter's Valuation Is “Ridiculous” (Henry Blodget/SAI)

5:25 AM ET, April 12, 2011

Top Items:

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Winklevoss twins must accept Facebook deal: court — (Reuters) - Mark Zuckerberg won the latest legal battle against former Harvard classmates who accuse him of stealing their idea for Facebook, a multimillion-dollar feud made famous on the silver screen. — Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss must accept …

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, BoomTown, Techdirt, Fox News, BREITBART.COM, Wall Street Journal, WebProNews, The Next Web, Guardian, @jpbarlow, VentureBeat, All Facebook, Reuters, TechCrunch, Tech Trader Daily and SAI

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Winklevosses To Challenge Today's Facebook Ruling — Earlier today a panel of Federal Appeals judges ruled that the Winklevoss twins had to accept a ruling that had them make due with a meager $65 million in settlement. But apparently the case is not closed, as the Winklevosses will be filing …

Discussion: BBC, USA Today, Softpedia News, @tylerwinklevoss, Digital Trends and textually.org

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

Bing Now Powers 30% of US Searches — Bing is doing what no one used to think was possible: knocking search market share points off of Google, and collecting them. — Yes, Bing-powered search in the United States just broke the 30% barrier, clocking in at 30.01% in March according to Hitwise.

Discussion: Mashable!, Silicon Valley Watcher, Techie Buzz, The Microsoft Blog, SAI, WinRumors, GeekWire and Search Engine Land

Henry Blodget / SAI:

The Guy Who Says He Owns 50% Of Facebook Just Filed A Boatload Of New Evidence — And It's Breathtaking — Remember Paul Ceglia? — He's the fellow in upstate New York who sued Mark Zuckerberg last July, claiming that, way back in 2003, Zuckerberg had agreed to give him a 50% ownership in the project that became Facebook.

Discussion: VentureBeat, CNET News, Bloomberg, eWeek, @felixsalmon and Silicon Valley Watcher

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Run iPhone Apps Directly From Your Browser With Pieceable Viewer — Part of i/o Ventures first cohort, Pieceable is launching its first product today, the Pieceable Viewer. As you can see above with the Yelp app or here with apps like Hipmunk or Foodspotting, the viewer allows you to run …

Discussion: Inside Mobile Apps, MacStories, MacHackPC and 9 to 5 Mac

David Howard / TechNet Blogs:

Google's misleading security claims to the government raise serious questions — Corporate Vice Prsident & Deputy General Counsel — Last Friday afternoon, I learned that a batch of court documents had been unsealed and had revealed one particularly striking development …

David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google product doesn't really have security credential, Justice Department says

Discussion: Network World

Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

iPhone 5 Production Starting In September According To Talks With Key Supplier — Apple's new iPhone 5 should go into production in September says Avian Securities in a note this morning. — This suggests the iPhone won't be on the market until the end of this year, or even early next year possibly, says Avian.

Joseph Galante / Bloomberg:

Amazon.com to Sell Kindle Digital Reader With Ads for $114 — Amazon.com Inc., the largest online retailer, will begin selling a version of its Kindle electronic- book reader that features advertisements and costs $114, 18 percent less than the ad-free device.

Discussion: @chetansharma, paidContent, SAI, FM Blog, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, eMoney, @ev, Gizmodo Australia, BetaNews, MacNN, @om, GeekWire, @chartier, The Stranger …, @tomkrazit, SAI, TUAW, Crave, eMoney and parislemon, more at Mediagazer »

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Amazon, Love The Kindle Ads Idea — But The Right Price Is $99

Discussion: Amazon.com, Engadget, TechCrunch, SocialTimes.com and PC Magazine

Samuel Gibbs / TUAW:

iPad 2 gets glasses-free 3D display using front-facing camera for head tracking — Now that the iPad 2 has a front facing-camera and some decent horsepower under the hood, there's a lot of potential for really interesting camera-plus-screen co-ordination hacks.

Discussion: BGR, Gadget Lab, VentureBeat, SAI, Electronista, MacStories, GeekSmack, MacHackPC, I4U News, IntoMobile, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, everythingiCafe and NBC Bay Area

Steven Levy:

Kremlinology — In 1999, when Google had its first press conference—to announce its $25 VC financing and generally introduce itself to the world as a company- Larry and Sergey prepared some slides. One slide focused on the Google team. But it did not provide the full names of Google's early brainiacs.

Violet Blue / Tech Broiler Blog:

AOL/HuffPo Shuts Down Download Squad — In a surprise move Monday night, popular software blog Download Squad became the latest tech casualty in Huffington/AOL's so-called ‘consolidation’ of its content sites. In an end-of-the-day email, Download Squad's staff was told that the blog …

Discussion: @primatage, @andrewkam, @samuelgibbs, @dpkvnt, @mrseb, @jkendrick, @blogsdna and @mrseb, Thanks:violetblue

Nicholas Deleon / MobileCrunch:

Study: Smartphone Users Wasting Hundreds Of Dollars Per Year On Unnecessary Contracts — A new study says that smartphone users are overpaying for their service by several hundred dollars each and every year. The study, put together by Billmonitor, notes that people are overspending primarily …

Discussion: BBC

Henry Blodget / SAI:

Twitter Investor Says Twitter's Valuation Is “Ridiculous” — I gave a presentation the other day for venture firm Insight Partners in which I addressed the question of whether we were having another tech bubble. — My answer was “no,” but I noted that there were plenty of other things people …

Discussion: PE Hub Blog

Doug Caverly / WebProNews:

Google Invests $168 Million In “Solar Power Tower Plant” — Last week, Google announced that it was investing $5 million in a German solar power plant, and many people nodded in appreciation. Only it turns out the search giant was just warming up, as the company announced today it's …

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, CNET News, Softpedia News and VentureBeat

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

Apple iOS 4.3.2 to fix Verizon iPad 2 connectivity and FaceTime issues, we go hands-on! — One of our Apple sources has just let us know that Apple's iOS 4.3.2, due within the next week or so, will fix the issues we've been hearing about with some Verizon iPad 2 models.

Discussion: GeekSmack, PadGadget, SocialTimes.com, Examiner, Shoutpedia, AppleInsider, Mashable!, Gadgetell, FierceWireless, TUAW, Redmond Pie, Softpedia News, TiPb, BlogsDNA, MacHackPC, SAI, PhoneArena, MobileWhack, GigaOM and The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog

Myriam Joire / Engadget:

Nokia E7 review — Over the years, we've seen a steady stream of business and messaging-centric landscape QWERTY smartphones come and go, with HTC arguably leading the pack via its collection of Windows Mobile, Android, and WP7 devices featuring sliding keyboards and tilt-out displays.

Discussion: IntoMobile, Ars Technica, All About Symbian, Light Reading and DisplayBlog

Amit Singhal / Google Webmaster Central Blog:

High-quality sites algorithm goes global, incorporates user feedback — Over a month ago we introduced an algorithmic improvement designed to help people — find more high-quality sites in search. Since then we've gotten a lot of positive responses about the change …

Discussion: Softpedia News, Search Engine Land, WebProNews, ReadWriteWeb and Between the Lines Blog

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

Confirmed: Sprint getting Motorola XOOM with WiMAX — We exclusively reported Sprint would be getting an identical version of the Motorola XOOM sans LTE and adding a WiMAX radio, and we now have received a second confirmation — cases for the Motorola XOOM just started showing up at Sprint stores nationwide.

Discussion: PhoneDog.com, wirelessgoodness.com, Android Phone Fans, GottaBeMobile, Electronista, PhoneArena, MobileWhack and Know Your Cell

Brad Linder / Liliputing:

Windows 8 to feature an integrated App Store — App stores are all the rage these days. Pretty much every major mobile phone platform has an app store, as well as some third party app marketplaces. And there's a growing push to bring the model to desktop operating systems.

Discussion: Shoutpedia, ZDNet, Engadget, Electronic Pulp, 9 to 5 Mac, Gizmodo Australia, PC World and GeekWire

Carolyn Penner / Twitter Blog:

Trends - now in 70 more locations — We first launched Trends as a useful way for people to find out what topics are being talked about around the world, right now. Early last year, we added Local Trends to make it easier to find more locally relevant topics in specific countries and metropolitan locations.

Discussion: The Next Web and ReadWriteWeb

Josh Ong / AppleInsider:

Apple component makers downplay rumors of Retina iPad 3 arriving in 2011 — Component makers for Apple's iPad claim that the company has released its roadmap for higher-resolution touchscreen tablets, but the project is still at the “initial planning stage” and an upgraded iPad is unlikely …

Discussion: DigiTimes, 9 to 5 Mac, I4U News, MacRumors, MacNN, iClarified and Phones Review

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Vudu starts streaming movies to the browser, but only in SD — Vudu's movie service is already available on 300-odd set top boxes and HDTVs including the PS3 and Boxee Box, but now it can add your personal computer to the list since it will start streaming its entire catalog right on the company's website.

Discussion: eHomeUpgrade, GigaOM and Crave

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

Google Ordered To Disclose ‘Parked Domain’ Metrics — A judge presiding over a potential class-action lawsuit by search marketers against Google has ordered the company to divulge financial metrics associated with its “parked domain” and “errors” program, which place ads on sites with no editorial content.

Discussion: Search Engine Roundtable and Domain Name News

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

In Challenge To Google Places, Microsoft Launches “Bing Business Portal” For SMBs — This morning Microsoft is launching the “Bing Business Portal” (BBP). It replaces the the Bing Local Listing Center, and all listings already there have already been migrated over.

Discussion: Bing, ReadWriteWeb, PC World, Marketing Pilgrim, WebProNews, The Next Web, WinRumors, Neowin.net and NewsGrange

Dan Goodin / The Register:

How is SSL hopelessly broken? Let us count the ways — Blunders expose huge cracks in net's trust foundation — Analysis Every year or so, a crisis or three exposes deep fractures in the system that's supposed to serve as the internet's foundation of trust.

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:

On The Internet, No One Watches The Wiretappers — When Twitter revealed in January that it had received a Department of Justice order to hand over information on three users associated with WikiLeaks, the real surprise wasn't that an Internet company had been asked to secretly spill user data for a criminal investigation.

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