Top Items:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Square's Disruptive Payment Service About To Get A Huge Retail Boost From Apple — Mobile payments company Square has landed a big coup—sales placement on Apple's online store. And we've just confirmed with Square that the startup has a deal for in-store sales as well.
Discussion:
TiPb, @jason, PadGadget, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, @tristanwalker, TUAW and iClarified
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
Speculation on an Amazon iPad competitor — I'd bet on Amazon releasing a true tablet, competing more directly with the iPad than the Kindle currently does, in the possibly-near future. Andy Ihnatko nailed it last month: … I don't know why it has taken most of us this long to figure this out, but it makes a lot of sense.
Discussion:
Business Wire and Snarkmarket
Daniel Cawrey / thechromesource:
Chrome OS Release Coming Soon? Stable Channel Now Available — Just like the Chrome browser, it has long been Google's goal for Chrome OS to have a Stable, Beta and Dev channel for feature iteration. In a move that signifies a closer move to a Chrome OS release, there now is a Stable Channel.
MG Siegler / parislemon:
On Apple's Must-See TV — All of the reasons Marco Arment lists as to why Apple won't build an actual television are good ones. But they're also all good reasons why the market badly needs to be disrupted — and is ripe for it. — The argument that televisions are “an extremely competitive …
RELATED:
RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Blames The iPad For Killing Jobs — Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), who admits to owning an iPad, blames the Apple Inc. product for “eliminating thousands of American jobs.” — “A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad …
Discussion:
SAI, GeekWire, Edible Apple, @jason, Neowin.net, TUAW, MacDailyNews and Slashdot
Mike Elgan / Computerworld:
Snooping: It's not a crime, it's a feature — New apps hijack the microphone in your cell phone to listen in on your life — Computerworld - Cellphone users say they want more privacy, and app makers are listening. — No, they're not listening to user requests.
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple switches from Toshiba to speedier Samsung SSDs for new MacBook Air shipments — Toshiba MacBook Air “blade” SSD - iFixit — Anandtech notices that Apple's newer MacBook Air shipments appear to contain Samsung-built SSDs versus Toshiba ones that originally shipped in the MacBook Air.
Discussion:
SAI, AnandTech, TUAW, MacRumors Page 2, Electronista, MacStories and iClarified
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Panda Update: Google Lowers The Boom On eHow.com — After escaping damage in the first rollout of Google's Farmer/Panda update, Demand Media's eHow.com was reportedly not as fortunate in this week's expansion. — Sistrix, one of the companies that's been tracking the impact of Google's changes …
Discussion:
SISTRIX Toolbox, @jason and Seeking Alpha
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple launches Apple Support Communities with question asking, tracked responses — Apple took their support discussions website down this morning and now it is back up. It's not back up as support discussions, though. Apple has finally replaced their aging support discussions board website with Apple Support Communities.
Discussion:
CNET News, MacStories, Fortune and TUAW
Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:
Random Facebook User's Question Gets Four Million Votes — Facebook recently redesigned its Questions feature to be more simple and viral. It seems to be working-maybe too well. A single question by a random Facebook user accumulated four million votes in the last two weeks after it spread far beyond her friend group.
Discussion:
Betabeat
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Real Reason Mike McCue Needs $50 Million: Google Is Building A Flipboard Killer — When news came out the other day that Flipboard just raised another $50 million at a $200 million valuation for its iPad news reading app, I gave CEO Mike McCue a hard time on Twitter and here on TechCrunch.
Discussion:
Monday Note
Electronista:
Supreme Court to hear Microsoft case on tech patent validity — The US Supreme Court at a session on Monday will hear Microsoft call to change patent law in a way that could help both the Windows developer and many other technology firms fend off patent troll lawsuits.
Discussion:
New York Times, Computerworld and Wall Street Journal
