Techmeme: Google finally launches Cube, play your way through a cubic Google Maps world (J.B./Fusible.com)

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April 29, 2012, 6:05 AM

Top News

New York Times:

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Global Taxes — Apple, the world's most profitable technology company, doesn't design iPhones here. It doesn't run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn't manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby. Yet, with a handful of employees …

More: New York Times, VentureBeat, CNET, Business Insider, MacNN, 24/7 Wall St. and Slashdot

Tweets: @chronic, @felixsalmon, @chpwn, @nytimes, @blam, @gaberivera and @cdixon

Jessica Guynn / Los Angeles Times:

Exclusive: Google releases FCC report on Street View probe — Google has released the full report of the Federal Communications Commission's investigation into the data it collected and stored from millions of unknowing households across the nation while operating specially equipped cars for its Street View service.

More: VentureBeat, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, The Verge, Computerworld, CNET, Pulse2 Technology …, SlashGear and Slashdot. Tweets: @csoghoian

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Google Engineer Told Others of Data Collection, Full Version of F.C.C. Report Reveals — SAN FRANCISCO — Google's harvesting of e-mails, passwords and other sensitive personal information from unsuspecting households in the United States and around the world was neither a mistake nor the work …

More: Wired

J.B. / Fusible.com:

Google finally launches Cube, play your way through a cubic Google Maps world — Back in January, Google released a teaser video for a Google maps-based game that was set to be released in February. But February, came and went and the game wasn't released.

More: NevilleHobson.com, Gizmodo, TechRadar.com, VentureBeat, Examiner, The Verge, Engadget and Softpedia News. Thanks:@fusible

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: The $1.2 Billion Inside Story of How Demand Media Almost Went Private Last Week (And Then Didn't) — According to sources close to the situation, Demand Media was deep into discussions with a private equity firm to complete a deal that would have taken the online content company private, for almost double its current value.

More: The Domains. See also Mediagazer

Semil Shah / TechCrunch:

The Seven Forces Disrupting Venture Capital — Editor's Note: TechCrunch columnist Semil Shah currently works at Votizen and is based in Palo Alto. You can follow him on Twitter @semil — For the past few years, I have read over what seems like hundreds of blogs and thousands of tweets …

James Trew / Engadget:

Woz: Windows Phone is ‘beautiful,’ Android ‘no contest,’ still loves iPhone, ask again tomorrow — When Steve Wozniak talks mobile, people love to listen. Last time we checked in, he was lauding some of Android's finer points, and now he's raining praise on Windows Phone.

More: CNET, pocketnow.com, wpcentral, A New Domain, PC Magazine, Redmond Pie, OSNews, The Verge, GeekWire, VentureBeat, MacNN, iClarified, Business Insider, The Next Web, Neowin, PhoneArena, WMPoweruser and Computerworld

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Apple and Samsung CEOs to meet on May 21 and 22 for settlement talks in San Francisco court — On April 17, I already reported on the fact that Apple and Samsung agreed, under soft pressure from Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California …

More: FOSS Patents, The Verge, Fortune, Pulse2 Technology …, Android Phone Fans, AppleInsider, PhoneArena, CNET, Engadget and Electronista

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

42Floors' PDA: The War For Talent Among Startups Needs A New Approach. Here's Why — Startups do the darndest things. As you may or may not have seen, Y Combinator startup 42Floors made a bold and fairly unprecedented move today — as hiring goes, in any case.

More: Find Office Space. Tweets: @danshipper, @brianmwang and @maccman. Thanks:@jasonfreedman

Ken Auletta / New Yorker:

Get Rich U. — There are no walls between Stanford and Silicon Valley. Should there be? — Stanford University is so startlingly paradisial, so fragrant and sunny, it's as if you could eat from the trees and live happily forever. Students ride their bikes through manicured quads …

More: Slashdot, Gizmodo and SiliconANGLE

Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:

The FBI Workaround For Private Companies To Share Information With Law Enforcement Without CISPA — The NCFTA “functions as a conduit between private industry and law enforcement.” (Art from the site) — A debate is currently raging in Washington, D.C. and various politically-engaged spots …

More: Techdirt and Slashdot

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Chinese Web giant Sina admits slow application of microblog rules, fears new government crackdown — Sina, the Chinese Internet giant behind popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, has admitted that it is yet to fully apply China's ‘real name’ verification rules and fears the impact …

More: Digits

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