Top Items:
Microsoft:
Microsoft to Acquire Skype — Combined companies will benefit consumers, businesses and increase market opportunity. — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT") and Skype Global S.à r.l today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype …
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Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why Microsoft is Buying Skype for $8.5 Billion — Updated at 12 midnight: Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, in an all cash deal. The deal closed a few hours ago. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the news after we had first reported it yesterday.
Discussion:
A VC, Guardian, TechCrunch Europe, Search Engine Land, SAI, SAI, Felix Salmon, Guardian, TechSpot, Social Markets, CloudAve, ArcticStartup Posts and WPCentral.com, Thanks:hnshah
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Skype and Kinect could be Microsoft's new killer combo — Microsoft's blockbuster agreement to acquire Skype is all but assured now, with multiple reports citing a purchase price of $8.5 billion, including assumption of debt. The deal is already raising lots of eyebrows …
Discussion:
Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, The Big Blog and msnbc.com, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:johnhcook
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Done Deal! Big Deal. Smart Deal? Microsoft Buys Skype For $8.5 Billion In Cash — The deal is done. Microsoft is buying Skype for $8.5 billion in cash in its first sizeable acquisition since August 2008, when the Redmond software giant spent $486 million on Greenfield Online.
Discussion:
PC World, Screenwerk and InfoWorld, Thanks:robinwauters
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Is Microsoft About To Overpay For Skype?
Discussion:
DailyFinance.com, Engadget, AppleInsider, virtualeconomics, PE Hub Blog and All about Microsoft Blog
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Google Launching Its Cloud Service Tomorrow, Without Big Music's Approval — You've seen Amazon's cloud music service. Now get ready for Google's music service. — They're going to look pretty similar. — Google is preparing to show off a new music service at tomorrow's I/o conference.
Discussion:
The Register, Inquirer, Guardian, TheStreet.com, New York Times, Bits, Billboard.Biz, paidContent, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Wall Street Journal, PC World, Gizmodo, Media Maverick, Engadget, Techland, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Music Ally, Gadgetell, Neowin.net, VentureBeat, Softpedia News, Pocket-lint, L.A. Times Tech Blog, eWeek, Gizmodo Australia, MacNN, MacHackPC, Android and Me, The Next Web, SAI, Mobile Entertainment, I4U News, @pkafka, @danackerman, Pulse2, AppleInsider, Gizmodo Australia, IntoMobile, parislemon, msnbc.com and ringtonia.com, more at Mediagazer »
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Without The Labels, Google's Music Locker Service Will Look Like Apple's Ugly Sibling. Again. — Flashback: Moscone Center, San Francisco. Google's Vic Gundotra is pacing the stage, rolling off one new awesome Android feature after another. There's Fro Yo, the new version of Android that does laps (literally) around iOS.
Discussion:
Mashable!, Softpedia News and Gizmodo
Paul Miller / This is my next:
Google Music may be ready for its debut, but is it more of the same old cloud?
Discussion:
ZDNet, Yahoo! News, 9 to 5 Mac and GigaOM
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple's Massive New Data Center Set To Host Nuance Tech; Partnership Announcement Due At WWDC — Last Friday, we posted about the negotiations between Apple and voice recognition company Nuance. While these talks have been going on for months, sources told us that it wasn't yet entirely clear …
Chris Dale / YouTube Blog:
Get more into movies on YouTube — Here at YouTube, we can't get enough video. When it comes to movies, we're just as excited: YouTube hosts a great selection of movie trailers and showcases a variety of independent films in our Screening Room; last year we announced the ability to rent movies …
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Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Google Partners With Sony Pictures, Universal And Warner Brothers For YouTube Movies
Discussion:
SlashGear, TechSpot, GottaBeMobile, Search Engine Land, Electronista, Broadband TV News and fierceonlinevideo.com …
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
YouTube Expands Video Rental Service
Discussion:
The Register, Techland, Ubergizmo, TechCrunch, The Official Google Blog, Digits, Yahoo! News, PC World, Geek.com, TG Daily, Gizmodo Australia and ReadWriteWeb, more at Mediagazer »
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Biggest BitTorrent Downloading Case in U.S. History Targets 23,000 Defendants — At least 23,000 file sharers soon will likely get notified they are being sued for downloading the Expendables in what has become the single largest illegal-BitTorrent-downloading case in U.S. history.
Discussion:
Techdirt, TechSpot and The Register
John Markoff / Bits:
The iPad in Your Hand: As Fast as a Supercomputer of Yore — It's common wisdom that the computer you can hold in the palm of your hand today is as powerful as a computer from years ago that filled an entire room. — But now Jack Dongarra, one of the computer scientists who keeps track …
Discussion:
Electronista, SlashGear, TUAW, App Advice, Xconomy, MacStories and Gizmodo
James Somers / The Atlantic Online:
On the Floor Laughing: Traders Are Having a New Kind of Fun — The modern trader is playing the most sophisticated, dynamic, immersive game in the world. Here's how it works — and why your job might be the next to turn into a massively multiplayer experience.
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Microsoft resuscitates 'I'm a PC' ads to fight Apple — PCs have come a long way since the PC — In desperate need for something - anything - to stop the advance of the iPad and Android, Microsoft is trying to convince consumers that the PC is as modern a computing device as any tablet.
Discussion:
Hardware 2.0 Blog, SAI, GeekWire, Digital Daily and Computerworld
Jamin Spitzer / TechNet Blogs:
Microsoft Announces Windows Azure Toolkits for iOS, Android and Windows Phone — Today, Microsoft announced Windows Azure Toolkits for Devices, consisting of assets for Windows Phone, iOS and a preview of tools for Android. — Using the toolkits, developers can use the cloud to accelerate …
Mike Snider / USA Today:
Cellphones get emergency alerts — Consumers will get emergency alerts for hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters on their cellphones as part of a new alert network to be announced Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission. — The Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) …
Discussion:
PR Newswire, New York Times, Bloomberg, Electronista and Associated Press
Josh Ong / AppleInsider:
Apple releases iOS 4.3 WebKit source code after complaints from developers — After complaints about Apple's delayed compliance with open source licensing requirements for WebKit began gaining traction, Apple released the iOS 4.3 WebKit source code on Monday.
Discussion:
Inquirer, bproffitt, TUAW, IntoMobile, The Next Web and iPodNN
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Foxconn denies making workers sign no-suicide pact — Foxconn on Monday issued a formal response to reports from last week claiming the Chinese electronics manufacturer makes its employees sign a document promising they will not commit suicide or hold the company liable if they do.
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Anonymous IDs on iPhones, iPads Can Reveal Your Identity — Each iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch contains a “unique device identifier” that can potentially be linked to a customer's real-world identity, according to a security researcher. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Discussion:
MediaPost and Cult of Mac
Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:
Sony Ericsson's Xperia Showcases Another Deep Facebook Integration — While Facebook has been busy denying the existence of any single “Facebook phone” and instead pointing out that there are many such devices, Sony Ericsson is coming to market with a line of phones this spring that ties …
Discussion:
Electronista and Android
Vangelis Kokkevis / Google Chrome Blog:
Fancier graphics, safer downloads, and more privacy controls — Today's beta channel release includes a number of additions, as well as one subtraction! — First, we've made Chrome's graphics snazzier. We've finished implementing support for hardware-accelerated 3D CSS …
James Nixon / thinq_:
Exclusive: AnonOps splinter group speaks out — IP address leak ‘regrettable but necessary’ — A self-styled Anonymous “splinter group” that has seized control of two sites used by the ‘hacktivist’ collective to organise Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and other operations …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Softpedia News, thinq_, The Next Web, Kotaku, I4U News and www.thehostingnews.com
Damian Carrington / Guardian:
Climate change ‘threatens UK wi-fi connections’, says government report — Study into impact of hotter, stormier weather on UK infrastructure finds threat to wi-fi range and signal strength — • UK infrastructure ‘will struggle to cope with climate change’
Discussion:
Inquirer, Telegraph, Defra, ITProPortal, Neowin.net, textually.org, Technology Liberation Front and Slashdot
Alberto Vildosola / Android and Me:
New Google Goggles app turns your phone into the perfect business card scanner — Poised to be demoed at Google I/O, the Google Goggles Android app got quite a sizable update today. Since its inception, Goggles has helped us read QR codes, find better deals than your local store's …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, SocialTimes.com and GottaBeMobile
MacNN:
ASUS makes just 350K Eee PCs due to iPad, ‘killer’ model due — ASUS has had to whittle back its Eee PC shipments after sustained impact from tablets like the iPad, tipsters said Monday evening. It moved just 350,000 netbooks in April after tablets still “significantly impacted the demand,” Digitimes claimed.
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:
Google ‘Panda’ Update Kills Content Farming Jobs — Freelancer.com's quarterly jobs report finds less demand for cheap articles and more projects for iOS and Android developers. — While the U.S. economy demonstrated some strength in April with the addition of 244,000 jobs …
Discussion:
@jason and Digital Journal
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Previous-gen Apple iPad, iPhone 3GS often outsell new Android devices — Older Apple iOS products sold at a discounted price, like the iPhone 3GS and first-generation iPad, are often more popular than newer devices running the Google Android operating system, a new report claims.
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Electronista, eWeek, Redmond Pie, Pulse2, iPhone Download Blog, Fast Company, The Toybox Blog, RazorianFly and GottaBeMobile
