Techmeme has redesigned.  Drudge Report is now indisputably the web's ugliest news site  —  In the beginning, links on web pages were underlined, because that let us know they were links.  And it was good.  But all those underlined words started to afflict the eye, particularly on pages with many links.

Apple's universal remote concept hints at future television set  —  Apple has shown interest in building a new, simplified remote control that would automatically control a variety of devices while reducing setup and frustration for the user.  —  The concept was revealed this week …

Say Goodbye to the Menu Button  —  Before Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), all Android-powered devices included a dedicated Menu button.  As a developer, you could use the Menu button to display whatever options were relevant to the user, often using the activity's built-in options menu.

Nokia Q4: Scrambling For A Grip, But Still Falling; 1M+ Lumia Phones Sold  —  Nokia's Q4 earnings, released on Thursday, make for some challenging reading for even the most hopeful of Nokia (NYSE: NOK) watchers.  The handset maker confirmed analyst estimates that it has sold …

Setting the record straight about our privacy policy changes  —  A lot has been said about our new privacy policy.  Some have praised us for making our privacy policy easier to understand.  Others have asked questions, including members of Congress, and that's understandable too.

European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The ‘Masquerade’ Behind ACTA  —  This is interesting.  Kader Arif, the “rapporteur” for ACTA, has quit that role in disgust over the process behind getting the EU to sign onto ACTA.  A rapporteur is a person “appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue.”

Samsung 2011 Q4 earnings official: $42 billion in sales, $4.7 billion operating profit  —  It might not be making as much money as the competition in Cupertino, but that doesn't mean Samsung isn't raking in cash at an astonishing clip.  We reported earnings estimates a few weeks ago …

Twitter Now Able To Censor Tweets, If Required By Law, On A Country-By-Country Basis  —  Until now, Twitter's not had the ability to censor certain tweets or accounts, to prevent them from being seen — if legally required — by users in particular countries.

Facebook, Washington State AG Target Clickjackers  —  Facebook and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna announced the latest step in an ongoing fight against spammers and scammers today: dual lawsuits against the co-owners of Adscend Media, LLC, an ad network that is alleged to develop …

MegaUpload Users Plan to Sue the FBI over Lost Files  —  The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide  —  MegaUpload Users Plan to Sue the FBI over Lost Files  —  In most reports following the MegaUpload shutdown, the site is exclusively portrayed as a piracy haven.

Forrester: Nearly 50% of businesses now issuing Macs, 27% support the iPad  —  The myth that Macs aren't welcome in the enterprise appears to be finally dying out, according to new research from Forrester.  The company reports that almost 50 percent of businesses in North America and Western Europe now issue Mac computers.

HTC to Give Up on Quantity and Try Quality  —  HTC's disappointing fourth-quarter earnings seem to have inspired a sea change at the company — or at least given it cause to reconsider its strength-in-SKU-numbers handset strategy.  —  Rather than compulsively adding to the cluttered cavalcade of Titans …

Google Earth 6.2: A Seamless Globe That's Ready for Sharing on Google+  —  Google just launched a major update for Google Earth.  The program now offers one seamless image of the globe instead of a patchwork of separate images that made the Earth look a bit like a quilt in earlier versions.

Google and Bing accused of aiding piracy  —  Major rights holders claim search engines make it ‘difficult’ for people to find legal music and films online  —  The major rights holders' document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act  —  Google and other search engines “overwhelmingly” …

African Twitter map reveals how continent stays connected  —  Analysis of 11.5m tweets in last three months of 2011 shows South Africa generated the most, with more than 5m recorded  —  The first Twitter map of Africa shows the social network is forging links between smartphone users …

Motorola Lost $285 Million In 2011 Selling Phones  —  Having already warned investors that its fourth quarter was going to be rough, Motorola (NYSE: MMI) didn't disappoint when the actual numbers arrived Thursday.  Smartphone shipments were up slightly but the company continues to lose money …

Jeff Clavier's SoftTech VC Raises $55 Million For Fund III  —  The micro-VCs are growing up.  Case in point: Jeff Clavier, who started out as an angel investor backing Web 2.0 companies and then transitioned his portfolio into a more formal venture firm, SoftTech VC.

Google rolls out new Music Manager with options to download songs, YouTube integration  —  Google just announced Android users will now be able to download all of their songs from a new version of Google Music Manager, allowing you to create a backup of both purchased music from the Google Music store …

FBI releases plans to monitor social networks  —  The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, offering a rare glimpse into an activity that the FBI and other government agencies are reluctant to discuss publicly.

North Korea threatens to punish mobile-phone users as ‘war criminals’  —  North Korea has warned that any of its citizens caught trying to defect to China or using mobile phones during the 100-day mourning period for Kim Jong-il will be branded as “war criminals” and punished accordingly.