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, 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:
Snarkmarket
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:
GeekWire, Edible Apple, @jason, TUAW, Neowin.net, MacDailyNews and Slashdot
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:
AnandTech, TUAW, Electronista, MacRumors Page 2, 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 and Seeking Alpha
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.
Joe Mullin / paidContent:
Righthaven's Secret Contract Revealed: Will Its Strategy Collapse? — Angered at Righthaven's behavior, a Las Vegas federal judge unsealed the company's heretofore confidential agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal late on Friday. The contract reveals that the controversial copyright …
Discussion:
Slashdot
RELATED:
Steve Green / Las Vegas Sun Blogs:
After Righthaven defies judge, observers question company's motives
Discussion:
Techdirt
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
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Could Bing Improve Its Search Results With Google +1? — Here's a big dose of irony. Could Google +1 buttons or +1 data — which Google uses to improve its search results — come to rival Bing? Potentially. — Bing +1, Anyone? — The issue came up yesterday during Q&A following …
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.
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Toys R' Us to start selling 16 GB and 32 GB WiFi iPad 2s, Smart Covers tomorrow - Sunday, April 17 — Following the rumors that Apple will expand their iPad 2 retail presence to Toys R' Us, we have been told that the rumors are true and that Toys R' Us will begin selling the iPad 2 tomorrow.
Discussion:
App Advice, MacRumors, Engadget, The APPera, TUAW, PC Magazine, TiPb, I4U News, Yahoo! News, PadGadget, iClarified, Electronista and Engadget
