Apple combats scalpers with new lottery system for iPhone reservations in Hong Kong  —  Apple has implemented an interested system to fight those pesky scalpers who spoiled a recent iPhone 4S launch in Mainland China.  A newly set up page on the Hong Kong Apple online store has a lottery system …

The Real Story of How Dick Costolo Kicked Investors Off Twitter's Board  —  The dribs and drabs of news about the shakeup of Twitter's board last year has produced a confusing picture.  The message I was hearing from sources while I was out on maternity leave amounted to: “Nothing to see here.

Twitter's Dick Costolo on Ads, Censorship and Google (Video)  —  Twitter CEO Dick Costolo kicked off D: Dive Into Media with a bang on Monday, defending its ability to block tweets by country, rejecting the need for a stock offering and declaring 2012 to be the year of the Twitter election.

The Only Thing Less Stable Than Working at a Start-Up: Working at a Start-Up Co-Working Space  —  The city of Mountain View, Calif., is threatening to shut down Hacker Dojo, a co-working and events space for coders, because it isn't up to code.  —  Hacker Dojo already halted a planned expansion …

Obama and Romney Campaigns Adopt Square for Funding  —  Social media was the game-changing technology that altered the course of the 2008 presidential election.In 2012, mobile payments could be the transformational technology, as millions of political supporters are given the ability to collect money on smartphones for candidates.

Pre-IPO Filing, Facebook Trading Privately At $84 Billion Valuation  —  As everyone waits for Facebook to file for its IPO this week, one of the big questions is what will its valuation be.  Will it hit the magic $100 billion?  —  Well, we are not going to find out this week because IPOs …

Three Founders Are Out At Demand Media  —  Demand Media is known for churning lots of content through its sites, but today it's notable for another churn, of the executive kind: three of the people who helped found and build up the company are leaving.  —  Larry Fitzgibbon, Joe Perez …

Node.js creator Ryan Dahl steps away from Node's day-to-day  —  Ryan Dahl, the hacker who brought the world Node.js, is turning over the reins to Isaac Schlueter.  —  Dahl, who started working on the Node project in 2009, stated in a Google Groups post, “After three years of working on Node …

Obama's Google+ Hangout Didn't Change the Game, It Just Changed the Channel  —  The President of the United States held a Google+ Hangout today.  He fielded questions selected from over 130,000 submissions as well as from five lucky Americans selected to hang out with him live.

Facebook launches Timeline Movie Maker  —  Summary: Facebook has launched Timeline Movie Maker, an app that creates a movie out of content on your new Facebook Timline.  Does the movie change your opinion of Timeline?  —  Facebook today launched Timeline Movie Maker, which creates a movie highlighting moments from your Timeline.

Codecademy Becomes A Platform: Now Anyone Can Write Programming Tutorials  —  One of the most buzzed-about startups over the last few months has been Codecademy — a site that looks to make programming accessible to just about anyone, with a variety of interactive, web-based courses …

Angry Birds boss: ‘Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business’  —  Rovio's Mikael Hed tells music industry audience that embracing pirates can attract new fans  —  Rovio Mobile learned from the music industry's mistakes when deciding how to deal with piracy of its Angry Birds games …

John Browett Joins Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail  —  Apple® today announced that John Browett will join the company as senior vice president of Retail, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook.  Browett comes to Apple from European technology retailer Dixons Retail, where he has been CEO since 2007.

Verizon shared data plans show up in employee training materials, still on track?  —  Verizon said it was working on a shared data solution for 2012, and according to an anonymous tipster, the new packages could be rolling out soon.  We've been told that training material for an update …

As Anonymous protests, Internet drowns in inaccurate anti-ACTA arguments  —  After the Internet's decisive victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this month, online activists have been looking for their next target, and a growing number of them have chosen the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement …

Google launches official Android Developers page on Google+  —  In order to spread its message and keep developers in the loop, the fabulous Android development team launched an official Android Developers page on Google+.  The team said it is launching the new website to connect with developers …

How Americans used their phones to assist with purchasing decisions this holiday season  —  Main Findings  —  How Americans used their phones to assist with purchasing decisions this holiday season  —  More than half of adult cell phone owners used their cell phones while they were in a store during …

Paying To Serve: Microsoft Offers Accelerator-Backed Startups $60,000* In Azure Cloud Usage  —  The perks of getting into a top startup accelerator just got a little better.  Microsoft is now offering startups in its new BizSpark Plus program $60,000 worth of costs for using its Azure cloud computing program.

At Sundance, Kickstarter Resembled a Movie Studio, but Without the Egos  —  One night last week there was a late-night party at Sundance — one of many — this one hosted by an outfit that had helped finance 10 percent of the festival's slate, 17 movies in all, including four that were in competition.

Tablet Shipments To Reach 383.3 Million By 2017, 46% In Emerging Markets  —  Post-PC era?  Here we come: According to new data from NPD, tablet PC shipments are expected to grow from 72.7 million units in 2011 to 383.3 million units by 2017.  For comparison purposes, worldwide PC shipments …

Apple Releases iOS-like AirPort Utility 6.0 for Lion  —  Earlier today Apple pushed a series of updates for its AirPort Utility software, as well as a firmware update for AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule.  —  AirPort Utility has been updated to both version 5.6 (latest one was 5.5.3) …