Techmeme: Twitter About To Hit 500 Employees (And 5% Of Them Still Have The Default Avatar) (Shea Bennett/AllTwitter)

9:50 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.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google Commerce Chief: We're Making A Huge Bet On NFC As A Company

Discussion: Android and Me and I4U News

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 and silicontap.com, Thanks:sameerpatel

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

GigaOm Raises Another $6 Million At $40 Million+ Valuation — Tech blog and research startup Giga Omni Media (GigaOm) has raised another $6 million in venture capital, on top of the $8.33 million previously raised. New investor Reed Elsevier Ventures led the round, with participation …

Discussion: paidContent

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.

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, GottaBeMobile, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Fudzilla, I4U News, MobileTechWorld and Electronista

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, Gamasutra, mocoNews, Edge Online, Neowin.net, GeekWire, VG247, WinBeta, Electronista and AllThingsD

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: ZDNet, eWeek, silicontap.com and MediaPost, Thanks:pingdom

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, BBC, Toronto Star, Agence France Presse, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Neowin.net, Naked Security, Boing Boing and Yahoo! News

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

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

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).

Discussion: Gizmodo

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: Softpedia News, AppleInsider, I4U News, O'Grady's PowerPage, RazorianFly, Electronista, WinBeta, Neowin.net, PC Magazine, CNET News, Geeky-Gadgets, Bink.nu and CodenameWindows

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*, PhoneArena, Geeky-Gadgets, Gadget Lab, SlashGear, Gizmodo, msnbc.com, PalmAddicts, Cult of Mac, Advanced Password Cracking, 9 to 5 Mac, GigaOM, iPodNN, MacRumors, Geeky-Gadgets and App Advice

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, AppleInsider, TUAW and Electronista, Thanks:mwickens

Anya Kamenetztoday / Fast Company:

Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $200K To Quit College, Start Businesses — It sounds like a reality show pitch: The legendary Facebook investor, PayPal founder, and thorn in the side of college deans everywhere announces what happens when 20 people, picked to live among mentors and innovation experts …

Discussion: Bits, Business Week, TechCrunch and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Thanks:noahr

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, BetaNews, 9to5 Google, PalmAddicts, Guardian and silicontap.com

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

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

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Copyfight: EFF co-founder enters e-G8 “lion's den,” rips into lions — “I just arrived at the Tuileries for the #eG8, already a hoot. Unfounded smugness to rival the World Economic Forum.” — John Perry Barlow—EFF co-founder, Grateful Dead lyricist, and, improbably, now a rancher …

Discussion: New York Times, Slashdot and Boing Boing

Tim Bradshaw / FT Tech Hub:
Sarkozy riles Internet CEOs at e-G8

Discussion: Ars Technica, Music Ally, Telegraph, The Next Web, Filthy Rich, @jpbarlow and Bloomberg

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

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