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 …
Discussion:
VG247, Kotaku, CNET News, TechSpot, Fudzilla, Joystiq, The Seattle Times, Inside Mobile Apps, Examiner, Digital Trends, Neowin.net, FT Tech Hub, scribbal.com, Computerworld, iPhone Alley, MacNN, PC Magazine, GeekWire, Appolicious Advisor, TechFlash and GoNintendo
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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, Geek.com, DigitalBattle.com, Softpedia News, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, VG247 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.
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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:
The Register, TorrentFreak, Music Ally, Between the Lines Blog, CNET News.com, The Next Web and SocialTimes.com
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:
AllThingsD, Reuters, MacRumors, T3.com News, Bloomberg, RazorianFly, Ubergizmo, Examiner, AppleInsider, Electricpig.co.uk, Apple, PhoneArena, Computerworld, 9 to 5 Mac, The Loop, Gizmodo, TUAW, Electronista, MacNN, MobileBurn.com and iClarified
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 looksee.
Discussion:
@dannysullivan and @pkafka
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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, Electronista and AppleInsider
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 …
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:
Guardian, TechEye, MobileCrunch, Macworld, PC Magazine, RazorianFly, MacStories, Ars Technica, iPhone Alley, PC World, The Next Web, Redmond Pie, Engadget, All New Musings, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews and Patently Apple
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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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, Gizmodo, pocketnow.com, TiPb, PhoneNews.com, Engadget, MacRumors, TUAW, Droid Life, Android Phone Fans, CrackBerry.com blogs and GrindGadget
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:
AppleInsider, Redmond Pie, Computerworld, BGR, iPhone Download Blog, Electronista, 9 to 5 Mac, PhoneArena, MacGazette.net, TUAW, TiPb, The Business Insider and The Loop
RELATED:
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:
Neowin.net, The Filmmaker Magazine Blog, 9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider, The Next Web, @scobleizer and Gizmodo
RELATED:
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Final Cut Express, Server going away as Apple improves Final Cut Pro X
Discussion:
TUAW, SlashGear and L.A. Times Tech Blog
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, ITProPortal, Digit - Tech News, TechEye, India IT Blog, MacNN, PhoneArena and Softpedia News
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.
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
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
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:
ITProPortal, USA Today and PC Magazine
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:
Digital Trends
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:
Electronista, The Digital Home, PhoneArena, AdAge, Computerworld and Near Field Communications …
Reuters:
Apple removes Intifada app after Israeli request — (Reuters) - Apple Inc has removed at Israel's request an Arabic-language application from its iTunes store that called for a Palestinian uprising, an Israeli government statement said on Thursday. — Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli-Yoel Edelstein wrote …
Discussion:
TUAW, Associated Press, Bits, Guardian, The Next Web, TechEye, The Atlantic Wire and RazorianFly
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
