Techmeme
February 13, 2012, 6:05 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Google gets approval to buy Motorola Mobility  —  (Reuters) - U.S. and European regulators approved Google Inc's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility on Monday and said they would keep a sharp eye on the web search giant to ensure patents critical to the telecom industry would be licensed at fair prices.
Rachel King / ZDNet:
DOJ approves Google, Motorola Mobility merger  —  Summary: Following a seal of approval from the European Commission, now the U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly following suit in the matter of Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility.  —  Google could be well on its way to finalizing …
Christian Zibreg / 9to5Mac:
Report: Apple forcing contract manufacturer Pegatron to choose sides, give up Asustek Zenbook orders  —  The high-profile Apple business with Asian contract manufacturer Pegatron Technology is facing scrutiny as the iPhone-maker is reportedly exercising its supply chain influence by asking Pegatron …
Christian Zibreg / 9to5Mac:
VLC 2.0 arriving with all-new UI, native full screen in Lion, Blu-ray support, more  —  VideoLAN, the organization behind the open-source cross-platform VLC media player, is geared to launch VLC 2.0—a total rewrite of the program with new capabilities and an all-new user interface on the Mac platform.
High Scalability:
Tumblr Architecture - 15 Billion Page Views A Month And Harder To Scale Than Twitter  —  With over 15 billion page views a month Tumblr has become an insanely popular blogging platform.  Users may like Tumblr for its simplicity, its beauty, its strong focus on user experience, or its friendly and engaged community, but like it they do.
Joshua Brustein / New York Times:
Start-Ups Aim to Help Users Put a Price on Their Personal Data  —  Facebook's pending initial public offering gives credence to the argument that personal data is the oil of the digital age.  The company was built on a formula common to the technology industry: offer people a service …
Don Reisinger / CNET:
Apple shares shatter $500 milestone  —  Apple's stock has surpassed $500 a share today, reaching an all-time high and prompting many investors to wonder just how high the company's shares can go.  —  At their height this morning, Apple's shares reached $503.83 before falling to about $499.
iFixit:
Motorola Droid 4 Teardown  —  It's the dawn of a new year, and 2012 brings another update to the line of Droid smartphones by Motorola.  Will this be the best Droid to date?  Will it fall completely on its face?  Will it blend?  The only way to find out is to scroll down and check out the teardown.
Twitter Blog:
Securing your Twitter experience with HTTPS  —  Last year, we added the option to always use HTTPS when accessing Twitter.com on the web.  This setting makes your Twitter experience more secure by protecting your information, and it's especially helpful if you use Twitter …
Kunal / Sammy Hub:
Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2, runs Android 4.0 [Updated w/ pricing]  —  Samsung has officially announce their first tablet running the latest Android OS.  The Galaxy Tab 2 runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and is somewhat similar to the original Galaxy Tab.
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
DOJ closes investigation of Apple acquisition of Nortel and Novell patents on FRAND commitments  —  In a statement from the United States Department of Justice clearing Google's acquisition of Motorola, the DOJ also closed its investigations into Apple's acquisition of certain Novell patents …
More: The Verge
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
A Month In, Facebook Timeline Brings New Growth For Myspace, Yahoo News, Pinterest, And Others  —  Having rolled out Timeline at the end of last year, Facebook followed up in mid January by letting third-party apps integrate with the reverse-chronological scrapbooking feature.
Brian X. Chen / Bits:
Get Ready for 1 Billion Smartphones by 2016, Forrester Says  —  In just four years, one billion people will own smartphones, many of whom will be professionals taking these devices to work, says Forrester, a research company.  And because of that, businesses need to think big …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
YouTube's Offer Video-Makers Can't Refuse: We're Putting All Your Stuff Everywhere  —  Last night YouTube rolled out a new app for Google TV.  And behind the scenes, YouTube has made a small but important change in the way it deals with content owners.  —  YouTube is now insisting …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
The Pirate Bay Says Goodbye to (Most) Torrents on February 29  —  For half a decade The Pirate Bay has been the leading BitTorrent site, but soon its users will no longer be able to download .torrent files.  —  The first step in this direction will be taken on February 29, the Pirate Bay announced today.
Apple:
Fair Labor Association Begins Inspections of Foxconn  —  Apple® today announced that the Fair Labor Association will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple's final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple's request.
Gordon Pitts / Globe and Mail:
Roger Martin: Defying RIM's critics  —  Five years ago, Roger Martin, the influential dean of business at University of Toronto, answered a call for help from Jim Balsillie.  —  As half of the leadership duo at Research In Motion Ltd., RIM-T Mr. Balsillie was anxious to restore the reputation …
Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:
Electronic Security a Worry in an Age of Digital Espionage  —  SAN FRANCISCO — When Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, travels to that country, he follows a routine that seems straight from a spy film.  —  He leaves his cellphone and laptop at home and instead brings …

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