Techmeme: Retailers Retool Sites to Ease Mobile Shopping (New York Times)

5:10 PM ET, April 18, 2011

Top Items:

Twitter in Talks to Buy TweetDeck — Twitter Inc. is in advanced talks to buy TweetDeck Inc. for around $50 million, people familiar with the matter said. — TweetDeck is one of the add-on programs that help Twitter users view and manage short messages carried by the service, which are known as tweets.

Discussion: The Next Web, SAI, ReadWriteWeb, paidContent, Techie Buzz, @fredericl, @bradmccarty, @aarongrabein, @twitterglobalpr, @megan, @mattcharris, @chartier, @danprimack and @amir_efrati

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Mass production of Apple's A5-, Qualcomm-powered iPhone 5 rumored for Sept. — Apple's iPhone 5 will feature “slight modifications” from its predecessor, including an 8 megapixel rear camera and a Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA models, and will go into production in September, a new report claims.

Discussion: PC Magazine, VentureBeat, The Toybox Blog, The Register, Engadget, Techie Buzz, Softpedia News, SAI, Digital Trends, MacRumors, Apple Bitch, TiPb, PhoneArena, MacHackPC, TUAW, I4U News, Edible Apple, MacStories and Neowin.net

John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Most iPhone 5 Refinements Will Be Under the Hood

Discussion: PC Magazine and Apple Bitch

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

Apple Files Patent Suit Against Samsung Over Galaxy Line of Phones and Tablets — In the latest suit to hit the smartphone industry, Apple is suing Samsung, alleging the Galaxy line of phones and tablets infringe on a number of the company's patents and trademarks.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, LAPTOP Magazine, BGR, Daring Fireball, Engadget, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, Fast Company, Gizmodo, iLounge, The Loop, SlashGear, Electronista, @valleyhack and MacStories

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

Dropbox: 25 million users and counting — The popular start-up says it grew more than 500% in 15 months. How's that for viral effectiveness? — FORTUNE — As many in Silicon Valley know, very few start-ups succeed, and even if they do, even fewer stumble upon the kind of growth Dropbox has in such little time.

Discussion: GigaOM, TechCrunch, SFGate, Softpedia News, Techie Buzz, Digital Trends, Social Markets, App Advice and WebProNews, Thanks:leadagers

Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Dropbox 1.4 Brings Tabs Back, Direct Uploads from Other Apps

Discussion: SlashGear, TUAW and 9 to 5 Mac

Dan Wheeler / The Dropbox Blog:
Dropbox in your language! (well, if you speak French, Japanese, German or Spanish)

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog and mobiputing

Elsa Wenzel / PC World:

Microsoft Office 365 Beta Opens for Business: What's Inside — Now anyone can try Office 365, Microsoft's cloud productivity package for businesses. The service opened Sunday night for beta testing, coming a step closer to its final launch, which will occur sometime later this year.

Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Tries To Bury Google Apps With Office 365

Discussion: The Windows Blog, @msftnews and Digital Trends

Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:

Apple May Have Tweaked App Store Ranking Algorithm, Making Downloads Matter Less — It looks like Apple made a number of changes to the app store's ranking system last week, adding in new weights on top of download numbers to determine top apps, according to conversations we've …

Discussion: App Advice, TUAW, 9 to 5 Mac, GigaOM, Gizmodo, Touch Arcade, MarketingVOX, TiPb and MacStories

CBS News:

A billionaire bachelor's playground — Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives “60 Minutes” a tour of his estate, yacht, space rocket, and, yes — his very own submarine What would you do if you suddenly became a billionaire with the means to indulge your every whim, no matter how extreme?

Discussion: Epicenter, Bloomberg, @dylan20, Silicon Forest, Engadget, MacDailyNews and TechFlash

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Real Estate Listings Site Zillow Files For $51.75 Million IPO — As expected, real estate listings and search site Zillow has just filed its S-1, which indicates that the company will be pursuing a public offering. Zillow wants to raise $51.75 million in the offering, according to the SEC filing.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Venture Capital Dispatch, TechFlash, SAI, PR Newswire, eMoney, Xconomy, Social Markets, @jess and @pkedrosky

Susan Decker / Bloomberg:

ITC Staff Recommends Siding With Nokia, HTC in Apple Case — HTC Corp. and Nokia Oyj shouldn't be found liable of infringing Apple Inc.'s patents, the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission recommended. — A staff lawyer, Erin Joffre, disclosed the position at the start …

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista and iLounge

Declan McCullagh / CNET News:

Testing Google's Panda algorithm: CNET analysis — Google's sweeping changes to Web site rankings have roiled the Web industry, including the company's announcement last week that its algorithms now incorporate more “user feedback signals.” — The reason Google made such a dramatic change …

Discussion: Techie Buzz

Larry Fitzgibbon / Demand Media:
Another Statement About Search Engine Algorithm Changes

Eric Bennett / Bing:

Capture and Share Panoramas Anywhere You Go with the Photosynth App — What does a beautiful mountain pass, your favorite coffee shop, and your blossoming backyard garden all have in common? They're all places you would love to capture and share, but a single photograph just won't do.

Discussion: GigaOM, GeekWire, Gizmodo, WinRumors, Search Engine Watch, The Next Web, WMPoweruser.com, LiveSide.net and dailywireless.org

Tricia Duryee / eMoney:

Wal-Mart Acquires Kosmix to Move Into Social and Mobile — Wal-Mart is buying Kosmix, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company that has built a social media platform that organizes content by topic. — The company did not disclose terms of the agreement, but said the acquisition would be instrumental …

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, VatorNews, paidContent, MediaPost, Reuters, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Between the Lines Blog, ClickZ, Datawocky, The Next Web and Xconomy

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Microsoft vs. i4i at U.S. Supreme Court: Future of patent law at stake — Microsoft and i4i L.P., a small Canadian tech company, will square off this morning in oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court — the climax in a 4-year-old patent-infringement battle between the companies.

Discussion: Computerworld, Computerworld, paidContent, TechFlash, TechNet Blogs, BBC, The Next Web and The Business Insider

James Vicini / Reuters: Supreme Court hears Microsoft appeal on i4i patent

Derek Kessler / PreCentral.net:

Veer launch party scheduled for May 2; Update: AT&T confirmed? — We've been hearing “spring,” “soon,” and most recently “very soon” with regards to when the minuscule HP Veer smartphone is supposed to launch. Of course, all this vagueness means little without a concrete date …

Discussion: Technologizer, TechCrunch, LAPTOP Magazine, Everything webOS, BGR, GottaBeMobile, Softpedia News, Gadgetell, Electronista and IntoMobile

Simon Owens / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The layered look: How Google News is integrating the social web — While many have been closely following the news of new social network projects from Google — whether it's Google Wave, Google Buzz, or a rumored project reportedly called Google Me — the search giant has been rolling …

Tricia Duryee / eMoney:

Groupon Acquires iFund-Backed Pelago; Founder to Head Up Product Development — Groupon has acquired Pelago, the makers of a mobile application called Whrrl that allows people to check in to locations and discover new restaurants and local businesses. As part of the acquisition …

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Could Office 15's ‘Moorea’ bring back elements of Microsoft ‘Courier’? — New screen shots, allegedly from an internal milestone build of Office 15, show that Microsoft is making good on hints to add a new application to its next version of its Office suite, which is expected to ship around 2013.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, WinRumors, Neowin.net and The Next Web

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:

Apple Q2 2011 earnings preview — Fortune's final poll of Apple analysts — professional and amateur — Here are the final estimates — barring last-minute revisions — along with each analyst's rank, where available, in last quarter's earnings smackdown.

Discussion: Apple, I4U News and TUAW, Thanks:philiped

The Register:

Yahoo! jacks data retention from 90 days to 18 months — Extra-private! Super-transparent! — Yahoo! is jacking up the amount of time it holds onto its log file data by a factor of six to 18 months. — The move, on the face of it, sets the firm on a collision course with the EU …

Discussion: PC Magazine, WebProNews and Voices on All Things Digital

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