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Amazon's Cloud Crashed Overnight, And Brought Several Other Companies Down Too — The Amazon Web Services status dashboard is reporting an ongoing failure of its EC2 service on its servers based in Northern Virgina. Foursquare, Quora, and Reddit are reported to have been affected.
Discussion:
InfoWorld, Betabeat, All about Microsoft Blog, PC World, Between the Lines Blog, ZDNet, VentureBeat, BetaNews, Data Center Knowledge, TechFlash, SlashGear, paidContent, Inquirer, @richardhenry, Social Markets, Gizmodo, SmoothSpan Blog, Government Technology News, The Register and @spolsky
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Amazon EC2 outage calls ‘availability zones’ into question — When multiple zones fail, Amazon's cloud redundancy isn't redundant enough — For cloud customers willing to pony up a little extra cash, Amazon has an enticing proposition: Spread your application across multiple availability zones …
Discussion:
justinsb's posterous

Amazon EC2 troubles bring down Reddit, Foursquare, Quora, Hootsuite and more
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, GigaOM, CNNMoney.com, TechCrunch Europe, FT Tech Hub, Business Wire, CNET News, SAI, Geekosystem, Tech Trader Daily, ReadWriteWeb, Softpedia News, CenterNetworks and broadstuff, Thanks:zee

Apple: Verizon Looking Forward To ‘World’ iPhone — During a conference call with analysts this morning to discuss Q1 results, announced this morning, Verizon Communications (VZ) management remarked that the next version of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone will be a “world phone,” capable of working with other carriers' networks.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, CNET News, Electronista, Engadget, Macworld, GottaBeMobile, 9 to 5 Mac, IntoMobile, GigaOM, Shiny Objects, MacRumors, BGR, Between the Lines Blog and TUAW
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Verizon activates 2.2 million iPhones in first quarter, 260,000 HTC Thunderbolts — Verizon delivered better-than-expected first quarter results and gave its tally of iPhone activations. The company activated 2.2 million iPhones in the first quarter and 500,000 4G devices, including 260,000 HTC Thunderbolts.
Discussion:
eWeek, BGR, Electronista, Digits, PC World, LAPTOP Magazine, Macworld, internetnews.com, Neowin.net, Internet2Go, GigaOM, MediaMemo, MacRumors, MobileCrunch, TUAW, VentureBeat, SAI, Bloomberg, Reuters, 9 to 5 Mac, iLounge, Reuters, GottaBeMobile, mocoNews, FierceWireless, IntoMobile, MacStories and MobileBurn.com

Apple floats iPhone ‘4S’ with A5 chip to select developers to prepare for next-gen iPhone
Discussion:
CNET News, MacRumors, Edible Apple, TiPb, iThinkDifferent, MacStories, Electronista and iLounge, Thanks:saumil_747

Nokia and Microsoft Sign Definitive Agreement Ahead of Schedule — Key contributions to new global mobile ecosystem agreed and significant progress made on engineering of new products. — Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, L.A. Times Tech Blog, The Microsoft Blog, Nokia Conversations, SAI, GeekWire, Seattle Times, WinBeta, The Next Web, SiliconANGLE, All about Microsoft Blog, Mobilized, WPCentral.com, IntoMobile, Mashable!, MediaNama, Engadget, paidContent, windowsteamblog.com, Digital Trends, All About Symbian, SlashGear, DailyTech, WMPoweruser.com and PC Magazine
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Exclusive: Microsoft's Lees and Nokia's Oistamo Talk About Their Just-Signed Contract — Microsoft and Nokia are announcing today that the two companies have signed a definitive contract, fully committing each other to the partnership announced back in February.
Discussion:
eWeek, BetaNews, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Computerworld, TechFlash, BGR and Softpedia News


Researcher: iPhone Location Data Already Used By Cops — When British programmers Alasdair Allen and Pete Warden took the stage at the Where 2.0 conference to unveil their work on iPhone location tracking, it was clear they had some big news on their hands.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, NewsGrange, New York Times, Appolicious Advisor, Network World, OUT-LAW News, Know Your Cell, Betabeat and Electricpig.co.uk, Thanks:om
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3 Major Issues with the Latest iPhone Tracking “Discovery”
Discussion:
LAPTOP Magazine, F-Secure Antivirus …, The Next Web, 9 to 5 Mac, The Apple Core Blog, broadstuff, SocialTimes.com, Stage Two, CNN, DSLreports, FierceMobileContent, Pogue's Posts, PC World, Cult of Mac, Nelson's Weblog, O'Reilly Radar, Digital Life, The Huffington Post, WebProNews and datasecurityblog.wordpress.com

Apple's iPhone Track-You-Everywhere Data A “Bug,” Or “Oversight,” Says Apple Guru John Gruber
Discussion:
BGR, VentureBeat, Daring Fireball, AppleInsider, 9 to 5 Mac, Apple Bitch, SlashGear and MacStories

Senator Asks Apple About Location-Tracking Issues as Experts Weigh In
Discussion:
Ars Technica, msnbc.com, CircleID, Ars Technica and Reuters

Onward, to the Plex. — So I have some big news. — After five incredible years at CNET, I'm moving on. May 6 is my last day; ten days later, I will join Google's New York office as a member of its fledgling Trends & Insights team. I'll be doing a lot of writing, editing …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Betabeat and @dannysullivan, more at Mediagazer »


Google Allows You To Subscribe To Offers In Portland, New York City, San Francisco — It appears that Google's coupon service Offers, is live, starting in in Portland, Oregon. You also have the ability to subscribe to deals in areas within New York City, Oakland and San Francisco.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, Yipit Blog, Betabeat, NetworkEffect, VentureBeat, NewsGrange, Digits, @chrismessina and WebProNews


Exclusive: Apple to beat Google on cloud music storage: sources — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc has completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google Inc, whose own music efforts have stalled, according to several people familiar with both companies' plans.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, SAI, MacRumors and MacStories


Groupon hires COO from Google — (Crain's) — Groupon Inc. didn't go far to find its new chief operating officer, hiring Google Inc.'s highest-ranking executive in Chicago, Margo Georgiadis. — Ms. Georgiadis, vice-president of global sales planning and technology for Google …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, SAI, BoomTown and paidContent


Apple's 92% earnings windfall: The bloggers nail it, the pros miss by a mile — The shortfall in iPad sales was one of the few categories the Street called correctly — Click to enlarge. — The Wall Street analysts who get paid to cover Apple (AAPL) got some things right.
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Privacy, Security & Your Dropbox — Like many of you, we've been reading the reports about a change we made to our Terms of Service, and more generally about Dropbox's approach to privacy and security. — Everyone who works at Dropbox knows our most important asset is the trust of our users.
Discussion:
PC World, PC Magazine and Geek.com

Texas jury finds against Google in Linux patent case, determines damage award of $5,000,000 — A jury in the Eastern District of Texas handed a verdict in favor of Bedrock Computer Technologies LLC, determining that Google infringes a Linux-related patent, that the patent is valid …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land and Googling Google Blog


Apple's iOS outdoes Android by 116% in Europe — According to a new study by market research firm comScore on Thursday, Apple's iOS is far outreaching that of Google's Android. — The results of the study show that iOS on Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPads has a combined installed base of 28.9 million users.
Thanks:chronic
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Ballmer memo: Microsoft plans unprecedented boost in employee compensation, simpler reviews — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this morning signaled a broad set of changes in how the company's employees are evaluated and compensated — promising to simplify its performance review process …
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog, Digital Daily, SAI, CNET News, Mini-Microsoft, All about Microsoft Blog, Xconomy and SAI, Thanks:allenstephens


PlayBook Launch Better Than Expected: About 50,000 Units Sold — After mixed reviews detailing the unfinished state, not to mention the bugs and quirks that comprise RIM's new 7-inch tablet computer, the BlackBerry PlayBook, few expected yesterday's launch to be anything short of failure.
Discussion:
Times of India, CrunchGear, BGR, WebProNews, ITProPortal, Gizmodo, Tools, MobileBurn.com and LaptopMemo

Amazon's tablet is coming, but what will it be? — It's something of an open secret that Amazon is working on an Android tablet and I am 99% certain they are having Samsung build one for them. Does the world really need yet another tablet? If it were anyone else, I'd say no …
Discussion:
Reuters, Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, PC World, ZDNet, Techland, Engadget, Gadgetell, TechSpot and blogs.chron.com


News.me's Social News Aggregator For The iPad Now Live On The App Store — As we reported in February, betaworks and the New York Times are collaborating to launch a socialnews reader for the iPad called News.me. And we heard more details on the app as it readied for launch this week.
Discussion:
NewsGrange, VentureBeat, PC World, ReadWriteWeb, IntoMobile and Lost Remote, more at Mediagazer »


HTC Sensation Arriving June 8th? Google Says Yes — Let's just preface this right away with the idea that the June 8th date we are currently seeing as the rumored release for the HTC Sensation COULD be a Europe launch date. We've been hearing June since the middle of March for the HTC Pyramid, now known as the HTC Sensation.
Discussion:
Engadget, LAPTOP Magazine, Ubergizmo, Fonehome, TechSpot, Android Community, The Toybox Blog and SlashGear


ASUS Eee Pad Transformer hits US on April 26th for $399 — We recently deemed the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer the “best Honeycomb tablet yet.” Admittedly that was before we got our hands on the T-Mobile G-Slate, but it's still an awfully nice hunk of glass, and now we know just how much you're …
Discussion:
Liliputing, ITworld.com, The Toybox Blog, Electronic Pulp and Android Police