Top Items:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
PopCap Games To Be Acquired For $1 Billion+ — Update: We've heard from multiple sources that the buyer is Electronic Arts. — Huge news in the gaming world: PopCap Games, the company behind such hits as Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled, is in the process of being acquired …
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Sources: PopCap In Late Stage Acquisition Discussions With EA For $1 Billion+ — Following up on our story earlier this evening that PopCap Games is in late stage acquisition discussions for a sum of over $1 billion — we've now heard from two sources that the buyer is Electronic Arts.
Discussion:
App Advice, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, Softpedia News, Geek.com, DigitalBattle.com, VG247, Rock, Paper, Shotgun and GrindGadget
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
American Express Teams With Foursquare — Foursquare, which made its debut in 2009, quickly began popularizing the idea of “checking in,” or using a cellphone application to tell friends that you are at a particular restaurant, bar or park. — Then Facebook and Google borrowed the concept — and even the term check in.
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Despite Expanded AmEx Deal, Foursquare Is Still A Revenue-Free Zone
Discussion:
IntoMobile
Bloomberg:
Apple Bid to Bar Amazon ‘Appstore’ Will ‘Likely’ Be Denied — Apple Inc. will “probably” lose its court bid to stop Amazon.com Inc. from using the term “Appstore” for a service selling programs for Android devices, a federal judge said. — Apple, whose top-selling product is the iPhone …
Discussion:
mocoNews, AllThingsD, Reuters, TechEye, SlashGear, Mobile Entertainment, MacRumors, T3.com News, RazorianFly, Ubergizmo, Bloomberg, AppleInsider, Apple, PhoneArena, Examiner, Computerworld, Electricpig.co.uk, 9 to 5 Mac, The Loop, Gizmodo, TUAW, Electronista, MacNN, MobileBurn.com and iClarified
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Exclusive: Top ISPs poised to adopt graduated response to piracy — Some of the country's largest Internet service providers are poised to leap into the antipiracy fight in a significant way. — After years of negotiations, a group of bandwidth providers that includes AT&T, Comcast …
Discussion:
I4U News, The Register, TorrentFreak, Music Ally, Between the Lines Blog, CNET News.com and The Next Web
Peter Murray / Singularity Hub:
New Japanese Pop Idol Shocks Fans With News-She's Not Real (video) — A star is born! (and she only takes up 150 gigs of memory) — Only 15 seconds in the limelight and she'd already created an overnight buzz. She was the newest member of the very popular all-girl Japanese idol group AKB 48.
Discussion:
Tech Europe
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
What Are Hulu's Owners Really Selling? — Yes, Hulu is for sale. The video site hired bankers from Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners last week, people familiar with the company tell me. They've just started asking potential buyers if they'd like to sign an NDA and take a look-see.
Discussion:
@dannysullivan and @pkafka
RELATED:
Ben Fritz / Company Town:
Hulu puts itself up for sale, retains investment banks
Discussion:
The Business Insider, GigaOM, @jboorstin, Mixed Media, Neowin.net, Gawker, Electronista, CNET News.com, Engadget, L.A. Times Tech Blog, CNNMoney.com, ReadWriteWeb and Geek.com
Matt Galligan:
Things I'd like to see in Turntable.fm — First off, if you haven't heard of Turntable.fm, what rock have you been hiding under? It's the new killer music site started by Stickybits founders Seth Goldstein and Billy Chasen. Basically you join a room, where up to five DJs are spinning …
Discussion:
ongoing and Thisisgoingtobebig.com
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Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Winklevoss twins abandon appeal of Facebook ruling — (Reuters) - The Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court a ruling upholding a $65 million cash-and-stock settlement reached with Facebook Inc. — The 2008 settlement was intended …
Discussion:
The Register, TechCrunch, Guardian, Computerworld, Wall Street Journal, TechEye, Friending Facebook Blog, The Tech Herald …, Redmond Pie, PC Magazine, Search Engine Watch, Pocket-lint, textually.org, Bloomberg, L.A. Times Tech Blog, AllThingsD, paidContent, Gawker, Techdirt, All Facebook and Bits
Chris Chang / M.I.C. Gadget:
Apple's Tim Cook Visits China Mobile to Discuss 4G LTE iPhone — Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is spotted in China Mobile headquarters this morning. A Chinese reporter from First Financial Daily (one of the most prosperous financial papers in China) managed to take a picture …
Discussion:
The Business Insider, Penn Olson, TUAW, Techie Buzz, iPhone Alley, MacGazette.net, RazorianFly, PhoneArena, MacRumors, Edible Apple, MacDailyNews, 9 to 5 Mac, iLounge and Electronista
Phil Nickinson / Android Central:
Verizon's new data plans broken down in complete detail — Having a hard time wrapping your head around the upcoming changes to Verizon's smartphone data plans? We just got all the dirty details dropped in our laps. Charts, e-mails, the whole kit and kaboodle, folks. — Let's start with what you see above.
Discussion:
App Advice, Android News, Rumours …, Gizmodo, pocketnow.com, TiPb, PhoneNews.com, MacRumors, Engadget, TUAW, Droid Life, Android Phone Fans, CrackBerry.com blogs and GrindGadget
Nilay Patel / This is my next:
Apple granted patent on webpage scrolling behaviors, media granted patent on crazy — So Apple got yet another patent granted today, and now there's yet another media firestorm over whether it means Cupertino will be able to sue every other phone manufacturer out of business …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, TechEye, Guardian, RazorianFly, MobileCrunch, Macworld, PC Magazine, MacStories, Ars Technica, iPhone Alley, PC World, The Next Web, Redmond Pie, Engadget, All New Musings and MacDailyNews
Fred / A VC:
There Aren't Many Exits Over $100mm — I was reading Mark Suster's latest blog post (actually its a presentation embedded into a blog post) and I came across this slide. — I don't know what the source of this data is and I don't know if this is just M&A exits or if it includes IPOs as well.
Discussion:
The Business Insider, Seth Levine and TechCrunch
John Ribeiro / PC World:
Apple May Face India Probe for Anticompetitive Practices — Apple may face scrutiny from an Indian regulator for alleged anticompetitive behavior in connection with iPhone 4 sales in India. — A Competition Commission of India official said on Wednesday that a case was filed against Apple about a month ago.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Wall Street Journal, Agence France Presse, TechEye, Digit - Tech News, ITProPortal, India IT Blog, MacNN, PhoneArena and Softpedia News
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
What's the Top-Selling Phone at Verizon and AT&T? — It's been about five months since Apple's iPhone debuted on Verizon's network and already it's the carrier's top-selling handset. This according to BTIG Research (registration required), which spent the past three weeks asking 250 Verizon …
Discussion:
App Advice, AppleInsider, Techland, Redmond Pie, Computerworld, BGR, iPhone Download Blog, Electronista, 9 to 5 Mac, PhoneArena, MacGazette.net, TUAW, TiPb and The Business Insider
RELATED:
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
LEAKED: UK copyright lobby holds closed-door meetings with gov't to discuss national Web-censorship regime — A group of UK copyright lobbyists held confidential, closed-door meetings with Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries to discuss a plan to allow industry groups to censor the Internet in the UK.
Discussion:
TechEye, ZeroPaid.com, Techdirt and Inquirer
Tim Fernholz / Fast Company:
BankSimple: A Bank That Doesn't Suck — BankSimple's dream team (left to right, from top): Thomas Lockney, engineer; Shamir Karkal, CFO; Bill DeRouchey, creative director; Josh Reich, CEO; Toby Sterrett, engineer; Brian Merritt, operations; Alex Payne, CTO; and Ian Collins, engineer.
Siu Han / DigiTimes:
Apple iPhone 5 said to come with dual LED flash — Recent market rumors have indicated that Apple's iPhone 5 is likely to come with a dual-LED flash with Taiwan-based LED packaging firms Everlight Electronics, Edison Opto and Lite-On Technology being pinpointed as potential suppliers.
Discussion:
Newlaunches.com, Apple Bitch, Redmond Pie, O'Grady's PowerPage, Electronista, MacRumors, RazorianFly, 9 to 5 Mac, PhoneArena, MacStories, AppleInsider, MacHackPC and iClarified
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
On Bubbles ... And Why We'll Be Just Fine — This post originally ran on TechCrunch. — I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I asked what the audience most needed to hear. — He said, “They need an unbiased view of the fund raising environment …
Discussion:
A VC
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Hulu Plus for Android is available now... for six devices — The good news is that Hulu Plus for Android is on the market, but the bad news is that you may not be able to install it yet. The official Hulu Blog has just been updated with news that six phones — Nexus One, Nexus S …
Discussion:
Hulu Blog, In Depth With Tech, 9to5 Google, Redmond Pie, Pocket-lint, Electronista, Neowin.net, PhoneArena, Techie Buzz, Hacking NetFlix and The Next Web
Manu Kumar / K9 Ventures:
The Making of Lytro — This is how I remember it: It's September 2005, and I was sitting in my office at Stanford in Gates 382. In walks Ren Ng, introduces himself and says something along the lines of “I hear you do startups, could we chat?” Ren, now Dr. Ren Ng, was a fellow PhD student with me at Stanford.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, PSFK and USA Today
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Final Cut Pro X Backlash — Chris Foresman at Ars Technica: … The gist is that many professional editors see Final Cut Pro X as an improved version of iMovie, not an improved version of Final Cut Pro. This Twitter search, for example, is instructive.
Discussion:
Softpedia News, Fortune, Ars Technica, The Filmmaker Magazine Blog, New York Times, 9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider, @scobleizer and Gizmodo
Tim Bradshaw / FT Tech Hub:
Google's Schmidt predicts widespread “tap and pay” within a year — Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, believes that a third of check-out terminals in retail stores and restaurants will be upgraded to allow wireless “tap and pay” from mobile phones within the next year.
Discussion:
The Register, Electronista, The Digital Home, PhoneArena, Computerworld and AdAge
