Techmeme: Sequoia's Roelof Botha: R.I.P. Good Times Was No Mistake (And Yes, They Do Read Their Email) (Jason Kincaid/TechCrunch)

8:40 AM ET, May 25, 2011

Top Items:

How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware — A recent phishing scam has targeted Mac users by redirecting them from legitimate websites to fake websites which tell them that their computer is infected with a virus. The user is then offered Mac Defender “anti-virus” software to solve the issue.

Steven Sande / TUAW:
Apple: Mac OS X update coming to block MacDefender malware

Discussion: Geeky-Gadgets, The Loop, Computerworld and ReadWriteWeb

Wall Street Journal:

Google to Unveil Mobile Payments Platform — Google Inc. on Thursday is expected to disclose details about how consumers will be able to make store purchases, redeem coupons, and get loyalty points by waving Android-powered smartphones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter, said people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Reuters, IntoMobile, VentureBeat, Mobile Marketing Watch, AllThingsD, PalmAddicts, AndroidOS.in, mocoNews, Googling Google Blog, The Register, PC Magazine, Electricpig.co.uk, Search Engine Land, Between the Lines Blog, This is my next and TechCrunch

Bloomberg:
Google to Unveil Mobile-Payment Service

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Zynga About to File for IPO — Zynga is poised to file for its initial public offering, according to sources close to the situation. — The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as this week, or next week at the latest.

Discussion: The Tech Trade, VentureBeat, New York Post, All Facebook, Company Town, Neowin.net, Geeky-Gadgets, ZDNet, The Next Web, GeekWire, Gawker, @jason, Inside Social Games, paidContent, GamePolitics News, SAI, The Seattle Times and Pulse2

Brier Dudley / The Seattle Times:

Exclusive: Microsoft loses last Xbox founder, mobile PC visionary — It's the end of an era at Microsoft today. — Otto Berkes, the last of the original Xbox founders still at the company, submitted his resignation this afternoon. — Berkes went on to lead development of a new category …

Discussion: Gizmodo, Edge Online, mocoNews, GeekWire, Neowin.net, VG247, Electronista, WinBeta and AllThingsD

Elizabeth Woyke / Mobilized:

Nokia's Smartphone Chief On Microsoft Alliance, Future Windows Devices — Ask Jo Harlow how it feels to have one of the most difficult jobs in the mobile industry and you're likely to get a good-natured laugh in return. As Nokia's recently-appointed head of Smart Devices …

Discussion: pocketnow.com, Reuters, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Fudzilla, I4U News, MobileTechWorld and Electronista

Om Malik / GigaOm:

Reed Elsevier Leads $6M Investment in GigaOM — Reed Elsevier Ventures — the London-based venture arm of Reed Elsevier, one of the largest publishing companies — is leading a $6 million investment in the parent company behind GigaOM, GigaOM.tv, GigaOM Events and GigaOM Pro.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Thanks:sameerpatel

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GigaOm Raises Another $6 Million At $40 Million+ Valuation

Discussion: paidContent

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Russian forensic experts break iOS 4 encryption — Apple has worked hard to gain the trust of its smartphone users, introducing a number of tighter security measures on its iPhone OS. But a crack team from Russia has found a way to circumvent Apple's iOS force field, though …

Discussion: Digital Trends, Ars Technica, Bright Side Of News*, Gizmodo, Gadget Lab, SlashGear, Advanced Password Cracking, PalmAddicts, msnbc.com, Cult of Mac, 9 to 5 Mac, GigaOM, iPodNN, MacRumors, Geeky-Gadgets and App Advice

Robert McMillan / Computerworld:

Sony says hacker stole 2,000 records from Canadian site — IDG News Service - The problems keep coming for Sony. On Tuesday the company confirmed that someone had hacked into its website and stolen about 2,000 customer names and e-mail addresses. — Close to 1,000 of the records …

Discussion: BGR, Toronto Star, BBC, Agence France Presse, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Neowin.net, Naked Security, Boing Boing and Digital Trends

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Sony Goes Silent As Its Hacking Spree Snowballs

Discussion: DailyTech, THN, RCR Unplugged, The Register, CNET News, TG Daily, Globe and Mail, Gawker and msnbc.com, Thanks:wrecktify

Royal Pingdom:

Why email is crucial to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo — Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. These three companies rule webmail with Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, the three largest email services on the Internet. — What might escape a lot of people, though, is just how important email services …

Discussion: eWeek, silicontap.com, MediaPost, Inquirer and AllThingsD, Thanks:pingdom

Nicholas Carlson / SAI:

How Tech Legend Bill Gross Blew The TweetDeck Deal — With today's news that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck for ~$40 million, it has become clear: UberMedia's Bill Gross - the Bill Gross who's famous for inventing search advertising as we know it - seems to have blown it this time around.

Discussion: BGR India, lalawag and IntoMobile

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:

Apple MacBooks top all Consumer Reports laptop categories — If you were wondering how good Apple's MacBook line of portable computers are, the answer is simple — they are the top computer every category on Consumer Reports. — Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air scored a 62 out of 100 taking the top spot in the small laptop section.

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, Fortune, TUAW, AppleInsider and Electronista, Thanks:mwickens

Gregg Keizer / InfoWorld:

Microsoft backpedals from Ballmer's Windows 8 comments — One analyst, betting on late 2012, early 2013 release, says Microsoft has “one chance” to get next version of Windows right — Microsoft backed away from comments made yesterday by CEO Steve Ballmer, who had told Japanese software developers …

Discussion: Fast Company, Softpedia News, AppleInsider, RazorianFly, Electronista, WinBeta, Neowin.net, PC Magazine, CNET News, Geeky-Gadgets, Bink.nu and CodenameWindows

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Sequoia's Roelof Botha: R.I.P. Good Times Was No Mistake (And Yes, They Do Read Their Email) — Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha took the stage for an interview with Michael Arrington, where they discussed everything from startup valuations to Sequoia's biggest misses.

Discussion: @sequoia_capital and VentureBeat

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Start-Up BlueStacks Raises Cash to Bring Android Apps to Windows PCs — A couple years back, Rosen Sharma, Suman Saraf and colleagues had founded a startup, BlueStacks, to work on virtualization. They just hadn't figured out the right use of the technology on which to focus.

Discussion: Inquirer, Crave, Guardian, BetaNews, 9to5 Google and PalmAddicts

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Instagram Surpasses 4 Million Registered Users, Is Now Posting 10 Photos A Second — Here at TechCrunch Disrupt Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom has just announced a new milestone for photo service Instagram, at 10 user photos posted per second, up from 6 photos per second officially announced couple of months ago.

Discussion: Mobile Entertainment, Ubergizmo, PetaPixel and The Blog Herald

Sarah N. Lynch / Reuters:

Exclusive: SEC wasted $1 million on data storage, watchdog says — WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Securities and Exchange Commission wasted $1 million on virtual data storage it bought in 2008, the agency's internal watchdog said, part of a series of investigations into the agency's procurement practices.

Discussion: TechEye

Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Google's Latest Data Center Is Cooled Entirely With Ocean Water — Google has opened the kimono a little bit on its data center design since Facebook launched its open-source data center project a couple months ago. — First, there was an unprecedented video showing how Google handles security at its data centers.

Discussion: Data Center Knowledge, The Register, Digital Trends, 9to5 Google, Engadget, Data Center Knowledge, GigaOM, Gizmodo and Data Center Knowledge

Shea Bennett / AllTwitter:

Twitter About To Hit 500 Employees (And 5% Of Them Still Have The Default Avatar) — Back in February I wrote about Twitter's escalating employee count, which back then was closing in on 400 members of staff. Way back in May 2009 - when Twitter was black and white and made out of wood - that number was just 69 (dude).

Dan York / Disruptive Telephony:

Skype Kills Off “Skype For Asterisk” - A Sign of the New Microsoft Era? — Word breaking out right now from multiple sources is that Skype has killed off the Skype for Asterisk product developed in conjunction with Digium. In an email sent by Digium product management that was subsequently posted …

Discussion: Digium and Skype Journal

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