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Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class — When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley's top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president. — But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own …
Discussion:
PandoDaily, Business Insider, The Verge, WPRI.com Blogs, Gizmodo, Ed Bott, Daring Fireball, New York Times, Electronista, CNET, PhoneArena, TUAW, 9to5Mac, Fortune, @sacca, @timoreilly, iPhone Savior, The Big Picture, PandoDaily, BJMendelson.com, adafruit industries blog, Slashdot and 9to5Mac

A Post PIPA Post — On my way from a breakfast meeting to the office yesterday I got a phone call on my cell phone with a 202 area code on it. I picked up the call and on the other end of the line was someone in Congress who I've known for a decade or more.
Discussion:
PC World, VentureBeat, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, TNL.net and PandoDaily
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MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought — Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News …
Discussion:
CNET, TorrentFreak, Hillicon Valley, Fox News, Telegraph, @joshconstine, @gaberivera, @jonhenke, @cshirky, @beschizza, parislemon, The Greenroom, @wllegal, Public Knowledge and Kotaku, more at Mediagazer »

Two things about SOPA/PIPA and then I'll shut up :) — Two things about SOPA/PIPA and then I'll shut up :) — The internet seems to ignore legislation until somebody tries to take something away from us... then we carefully defend that one thing and never counter-attack.

The week the web changed Washington
Discussion:
TPM Idea Lab, @digiphile, Mashable!, VatorNews and VentureBeat

Disruptions: The Sloshing Sound of Tech Valuations — On a recent Thursday night, I stood motionless and perplexed on the dance floor of a San Francisco club. As I looked around, 300 or so people danced and darted back and forth to a free open bar while laser lights shot overhead.


Hong Kong Freezes Megaupload Assets — HONG KONG—In an enforcement action Friday, Hong Kong Customs froze more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars (US$39 million) in assets held by the popular file-sharing site Megaupload.com, which was shut down by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Thursday.
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HK Customs
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Inside Megaupload's Megamind: Kim Dotcom's Playboy Bunnies, Russian Nuclear Vessels, And Private War On Terror
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Ars Technica and Reuters, Thanks:@jengapokers

Megaupload Details Raise Significant Concerns About What DOJ Considers Evidence Of Criminal Behavior
Discussion:
New York Times, Pulse2 and VentureBeat


DLD 2012 - @Jack Dorsey: “Twitter Has A Business Model That Works” — Earlier this fine Sunday afternoon, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey took the stage at the DLD Conference, the annual pre-Davos meeting of minds held in Munich, Germany. — In an interview with not one but two journalists …
Discussion:
AllThingsD, VentureBeat, DLD Conference and The Next Web


Apple Just Incentivized Every College Kid To Get An iPad. As For High Schoolers... As I watched Apple's iBooks event in New York City last week, my mind began to race about the ramifications of such announcements. Everyone had a pretty good idea for weeks (or months if you read the Steve Jobs biography) …
Discussion:
MacStories, Macworld and InvestorPlace


Are there too many gadget choices? — At CES last week, I took to one of the many stages upstairs inside the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center for a panel dubbed “Argue The Future.” Joining me for the discussion was our site's managing editor Nilay Patel, alongside representatives from HTC, Samsung Mobile, and Microsoft.


Uploaded.to Blocks US Visitors After MegaUpload Shutdown — Uploaded.to, one of the most popular file-hosting sites in the Internet, has closed its doors to US visitors. The move is most likely a response to the FBI crackdown on MegaUpload two days ago. US visitors of Uploaded.to currently get the following message.
Discussion:
Geek.com and TorrentFreak


Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Viral Video (Exclusive) — Amid a criminal case that forced the shutdown of Megaupload, the company has dismissed UMG from a lawsuit over a video that showed many stars endorsing the site. But that doesn't mean the case is over.
Discussion:
Electronista, The Next Web, The Verge and WebProNews


Love online: 100,000 Grindr users exposed in hack attack — The Grindr app, left, and founder Joel Simkhai's profile. — A popular “meat-market” smartphone app that spawned a sexual revolution in Australia's gay community has been compromised by a Sydney hacker, potentially exposing …
Discussion:
Pulse2, Queerty, Gay Blog, SFist, New York Magazine, PC Magazine, Grindr Blog, Softpedia News, The Raw Story, Gawker and Naked Security