Top Items:
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Exclusive: BlackBerry Messenger will launch on Android and iOS — BGR has learned from multiple trusted sources that Research In Motion is planning to bring its beloved BlackBerry Messenger app and service to Android, and eventually to iOS as well. According to our sources …
Jennifer Allan / Electricpig.co.uk:
iPad price drop: Apple will refund the difference — If you recently bought an iPad, only to find that there's now a shiny new iPad 2 and a whopping great £100 reduction on the price tag of the original iPad, do not be alarmed! Apple will refund you the difference, so you could still take advantage of that iPad price drop.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, GigaOM, MacNN, Geek.com, CrunchGear, The Next Web, iLounge and TUAW
RELATED:
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
iPad 2 will be at Best Buy at launch (Update: Sams Club+Walmart) — In case you want to sit in the parking lot of a Best Buy rather than the parking lot of an Apple Store: Best Buy will have iPad 2 at launch. Wooo! — Will the other usual suspects (Verizon, AT&T, Walmart) as well?
Discussion:
PC World, Gearlog, TUAW, App Advice, Edible Apple, MacGazette.net, MacStories, Electronista, @bestbuy and everythingiCafe
Nielsen Wire:
Who is Winning the U.S. Smartphone Battle? — The answer depends on whether you're looking at operating systems or manufacturers. — The battle for the hearts and minds of consumer smartphone owners continues to be a heated one according to data just released by The Nielsen Company.
Discussion:
GigaOM, Digital Trends, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, asymco, Tech Trader Daily, SlashGear, Android Phone Fans and IntoMobile
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Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
Nielsen: Apple, RIM Are Beating Android OEMs In The U.S. Smartphone Race — Google's Android OS is leading the pack for smartphone market share in the U.S., but when it comes to the largest smartphone manufacturer, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) are neck-in-neck for the top position.
Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:
Apple kills fall iPad 3 rumors by calling 2011 “Year of iPad 2” — Apple has grounded speculation of a fall release of “iPad 3,” focusing its marketing message on the iPad 2 it will soon offer for sale by calling 2011 “the year of iPad 2.” — Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs noted …
Discussion:
TechEye, SAI, Technologizer, Geek.com, Engadget, 9 to 5 Mac, Geekosystem, TechCrunch and Gizmodo Australia, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
iPad 2 first hands-on! (update: even more video!) — Well there you have it folks — the absurdly thin new iPad 2. We just got our hands all over the next greatest tablet from Apple and it's... very much the same, save for that new body. There's no question that the industrial design is top notch …
Apple:
Apple Launches iPad 2
Discussion:
Apple, Gizmodo, Fast Company, The Apple Core Blog, Fortune, Digital Daily, Techland, Phones Review, Digital Inspiration …, Webomatica, MediaPost, Engadget, PC Magazine, @joehewitt, Stage Two, Engadget, The Toybox Blog, Friending Facebook Blog, AllNewsMac, MacRumors, Podcasting News, LAPTOP Magazine, broadstuff, All about Microsoft Blog, everythingiCafe, SiliconANGLE and Examiner
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Square Now Processing $1 Million In Mobile Payments Per Day — Mobile payments startup Square has reached a new milestone this week—the company is now processing $1 million in payments per day, co-founder Jack Dorsey just Tweeted. — Square was processing a few million in mobile transactions per week …
Discussion:
mocoNews, @jack, Gizmodo, MacStories, Pulse2, VatorNews, Erictric, SAI, @josh_smith and @fromedome
Zach Epstein / BGR:
AT&T says iPhone users aren't fleeing to Verizon faster than expected — Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, AT&T Mobility boss Ralph de la Vega said that iPhone users aren't defecting to Verizon Wireless any faster than the carrier expected. “We haven't seen any surprises …
Discussion:
CNET News, DSLreports, Between the Lines Blog, DailyTech, MobileBurn.com, Wall Street Journal, PhoneArena, Phones Review and SlashGear
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Disney acquires gaming engine startup to build HTML5 games outside of App stores — Disney has acquired an HTML5 gaming engine startup called Rocket Pack, based out of Helsinki, Finalnd. A Disney spokesperson told us today, exclusively: “We can confirm that The Walt Disney Company has acquired Rocketpack …
Discussion:
Fast Company, SAI, Gamasutra and SlashGear, Thanks:mikebutcher
Reuters:
Exclusive: Twitter's Stone says no IPO or funding talks — (Reuters) - Biz Stone, the co-founder of popular microblogging site Twitter, denied a report that the firm was in talks to sell a $450 million stake of the company to a JPMorgan fund, reiterating that it was committed to remaining independent.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Post Tech, Fast Company, The Next Web, Epicenter, @danprimack, Reuters, PE Hub Blog and SAI, Thanks:srikardhanakoti
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
March Madness Comes to the iPad, for Free — Big sports events generally shy away from the Web, because they're still worried-with good reason-about trading analog dollars for digital dimes. — One exception to the rule has been the annual March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament …
Discussion:
The Business Insider, WPCentral.com, Switched and GigaOM, more at Mediagazer »
Francis Tan / The Next Web:
Beijing to track citizens with their cell phones — As if the Great Firewall is not enough, the Chinese government is now looking into monitoring the movement of 17 million cellphone users in Beijing, China by tracking the signal of their mobile devices. — Purportedly to improve Beijing's …
Discussion:
TechEye, topics.scmp.com, Gadgetell, IntoMobile and textually.org
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Ashton Kutcher's Twitter Account Hacked at TED — TV star Ashton Kutcher may have more followers than all but 5 other people on Twitter (6,393,559) but he apparently has at least one snarky and politically minded adversary at the prestigious TED conference this week.
Discussion:
The Register, PC World, Gizmodo, @aplusk, Technically Incorrect, Gearlog, ITProPortal, SAI, Twittercism, Geekosystem, @aplusk, @bill_gross and Gawker
Desire Athow / ITProPortal:
Exclusive : Nvidia Confirms Samsung Tegra 2 Design Win — Semiconductor giant Nvidia has confirmed to ITProPortal that Samsung will use the Nvidia Tegra 2 system on chip on some of its smartphones but, strangely enough, will not apparently differentiate between the two variants.
Discussion:
SlashGear, Android Community, PhoneArena, Engadget, Android Phone Fans, Fonehome, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, Electronista and Phones Review
Sydney Morning Herald:
The anti-social network: boys jailed for $26m ‘Crimebook’ scam — Nick Webber pictured on a Facebook page. — Two British schoolboys have been jailed for up to five years for running a $26 million Facebook-style website for criminals dubbed “Crimebook”. — Nick Webber, 19, and Ryan Thomas …
Discussion:
Inquirer, The Register, BBC, GMSV, Boing Boing, Guardian, PC Pro, Daily Mail and TG Daily
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Opera browser gets an over-17 rating in Mac App Store, reacts in good humor — You might not yet be aware of this, but Apple's policy towards web browsers is to treat the entire internet as their content. As a result, all browsers on the iOS App Store come with a minimum age requirement …
Discussion:
Opera Press Room, Techie Buzz, SlashGear, Download Squad, Softpedia News and The Next Web
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Big Pay Day For Big Data. Teradata Buys Aster Data For $263 Million — In the old days, big data used to be called data warehousing. But that was when corporations stored all their own data on their own servers. Today, it's just called big data and it generally refers to the vast reaches of data in the cloud.
Discussion:
PR Newswire, GigaOM, eWeek, ZDNet, alarm:clock, TechEye, InfoWorld and silicontap.com
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Demand Media Buys Liveblogging Tool CoverItLive — On the heels of its entry to the public market, content farm Demand Media has just acquired CoverItLive, a liveblogging tool. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. — CoverItLive provides an extensive tool one can use …
Discussion:
Business Wire, CNET News, Mashable! and Adweek
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Microsoft and Google jointly sue GeoTag Inc. in order to invalidate a patent asserted against more than 300 entities — Google and Microsoft have joined forces to take down a Texas company's geotagging patent that they claim has been used in lawsuits against more than 300 entities, many of which are customers of the two companies.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Network World, Inquirer and TechEye
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
SkyFire 3.0 Comes To iOS, Brings Over Features From The Android Port — Back in November of last year, SkyFire (the company behind the Flash-video-friendly smartphone browser of the same name) launched version 3.0 of their app to the Android Market. The big new features?
Discussion:
BGR, IntoMobile, App Advice and MacGazette.net
Nir Ben Yona / Technologer:
Did Apple Just ‘Borrow’ The Smart Cover Idea From Incase? — Apple has really blown our minds away with their latest and greatest Smart Cover revelation, yesterday morning. Designed specifically for iPad 2 devices, the fabulous and colorful covers - soon to be offered in polyurethane or leather flavors …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive: Microsoft Mulls Legally Poking Facebook Over Ad Talent Raid — Microsoft-furious over a recent talent grab of its top advertising exec by Facebook-has been considering a wide range of options, including legal action to block the move, according to sources close to the situation.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, TechEye, Pulse2, The Next Web and SAI
Pradeep / WMPoweruser.com:
Microsoft Resumes Windows Phone 7 Update To Samsung Devices — Microsoft pushed a small update last week to the Windows Phone 7 devices which improved the update process itself. The update process was successful for over 90% of the devices whereas some devices had problems.
Discussion:
Business Wire, PC World, Hardware 2.0 Blog, DailyTech, Inquirer, Engadget, FierceMobileContent, GeekSmack, SlashGear, WinRumors, The Next Web, Techie Buzz, PhoneArena and Neowin.net
Chris Barth / Invested Interest:
Charlie Sheen's TwitPics Are Worth 1000 Words, But Are They Worth $1000? — Making cash off of Charlie? — Charlie Sheen has taken the public by storm in an unparalleled media blitz; his past 48 hours have been a media explosion - from daytime television to web news publications.
Discussion:
de.tech.ting, AdAge and Twittercism, more at Mediagazer »
Electronista:
AT&T to get iPhone Personal Hotspot with iOS 4.3 on March 11 — AT&T on Wednesday night confirmed with Electronista that it would start supporting the Personal Hotspot feature in sync with the launch of iOS 4.3. Subscribers will have the same support as Verizon customers when the update pushes out to the GSM iPhone 4 on March 11.
Discussion:
MacRumors and everythingiCafe, Thanks:diggretweets
Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Daily Deal Revenues Could Soar to $6 Billion in 2015 — Spending on U.S. daily deals could soar as much as $3.9 billion in the next four years, up from only $873 million in 2010. — The estimates were released today by BIA/Kelsey, but seem conservative given some of the official figures known about the largest players in the space.
Discussion:
VatorNews
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers — A sample streetside scan image from American Sciences & Engineering. — Updated with the TSA's response below, which denies implementing airport-style scans in mass transit.
Discussion:
Gawker
