Techmeme: Sony says hacker stole 2,000 records from Canadian site (Robert McMillan/Computerworld)

11:50 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, Computerworld, The Loop 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 — Today, at TechCrunch Disrupt, editor Erick Schonfeld took the stage to interview Alex Rampell, TrialPay; Stephanie Tilenius, VP of Google Commerce and Payments, and Lewis Gersh, Metamorphic Partners; addressing online to offline mobile commerce.

Discussion: Android and Me

Iain Dodsworth / The TweetDeck Blog:

Official: TweetDeck Has Been Acquired By Twitter — I am extremely happy and proud to let you know that TweetDeck has been acquired by Twitter. We completed the deal on Tuesday and are now in the process of “joining the flock”. — The past three years have been an epic journey …

Thanks:steverubel

Dick Costolo / Twitter Blog:

All Decked Out — In early 2008, a London-based programmer named Iain Dodsworth began thinking about how to organize everything happening on Twitter. His answer was TweetDeck, a groundbreaking dashboard for monitoring what people are saying in real-time. Today, we're pleased to announce that the TweetDeck team has joined Twitter.

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: SAI, VentureBeat, @jason and silicontap.com, more at Mediagazer », 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.

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: Digital Trends, ZDNet and WebProNews, Thanks:pingdom

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: mocoNews, Inquirer, pocketnow.com, Reuters, GottaBeMobile, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Fudzilla, I4U News, MobileTechWorld and Electronista

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: Between the Lines Blog, Bits, Business Week, TechCrunch and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Thanks:noahr

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: Techland, Inquirer, BGR, Bloomberg, BBC, Toronto Star, Agence France Presse, FierceWireless, CNET News, The Firewall, DailyTech, GSMArena Blog, Telegraph, Neowin.net, Geeky-Gadgets, Naked Security, Boing Boing, TG Daily, msnbc.com, Gawker, THN and Yahoo! News

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: VentureBeat, TechFlash, GottaBeMobile, Gizmodo, GeekWire, Edge Online, Neowin.net, WinBeta, VG247, Electronista, mocoNews, Gamasutra and AllThingsD

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

Amnesty for web firms over ‘cookie’ privacy law — The data protection watchdog has given web companies an extra year to comply with new privacy laws designed to give users control over how they are tracked and profiled online. — The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham

Discussion: BBC

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Eat Your Cookies: EU Privacy Directive Takes Effect Wednesday

Discussion: Digits and The Register

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

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

YouTube Is Six Years Old and Huge: Three Billion Views a Day — Last year YouTube made a big deal of its fifth birthday, with a special Web site, special messages from the likes of Conan O'Brien, etc. — This year's commemoration is more muted. Basically, just a blog post that notes that the site is really, really big.

Discussion: TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, YouTube Blog, GigaOm, The Next Web, Network World, Mashable!, Pocket-lint, SocialTimes.com, WebProNews and 9to5 Google

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, IntoMobile and PC World

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

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: AllThingsD, 9 to 5 Mac, Fortune, AppleInsider, iClarified, Electronista, TUAW and Consumer Reports News, Thanks:mwickens

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: Techdirt and New York Times

Rachel Chitra / Reuters:

BofA, JPMorgan, Wells form JV for online banking services — REUTERS - Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co have teamed up to create a joint venture for online banking services. — The move comes as eBay Inc unit PayPal and the world's largest search engine Google Inc …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Charlotte Observer and Bloomberg

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