Apple getting ready to ditch the traditional iPhone, iPad, and iPod dock connector  —  An updated “micro dock” would make room for bigger batteries, 4G radios, and other components far more important to the iPhone and iPad in a PC free world.  —  We've heard that Apple is getting ready …

Apple Acquires Chomp; App Store Search And Discovery To Be Completely Revamped  —  With the countdown underway to 25 billion total app downloads, there's no disputing the success of Apple's App Store.  We live in a world of hyperbole, but Apple's entry into this space really has changed the entire mobile world.

Google to sell stake in Clearwire for $47m, a tenth of the price it originally paid  —  Google has filed documents with the SEC today in preparation for the sale of its entire stake in the troubled Clearwire Corporation.  Having spent $500 million to acquire a 6.5 percent share back in 2008 …

Jason Kincaid Exits TechCrunch  —  A whole lot of amazing people have left TechCrunch in the last several months.  I'm sad to hear that the next to go is Jason Kincaid (his personal blog is here), who is leaving without firm plans for his next job.  —  I first met Jason in 2008 via Mark Hendrickson …

Google may enter tablet market with 7-inch design  —  Google is set to dip its toes in the tablet market with a 7-inch design later this year, says an analyst.  —  The Google tablet would be in the same size class as Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.  —  Wondering when Google is going to jump into the tablet fray?

Facebook Shakes Hardware World With Own Storage Gear  —  Facebook's hardware team is now building storage gear — while decorating the walls at the company's new HQ in Menlo Park, California.  Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com  —  Facebook already built its own data center and its own servers.

Apple wants to reinvent keyboards, making them even thinner  —  Apple could make its notebook computers and keyboard accessories even thinner and lighter with a brand new take on the classic input method.  —  Apple's interest in reinventing the keyboard was revealed in a new patent application discovered this week by AppleInsider.

Flashback Mac Trojan Horse Infections Increasing with New Variant  —  We recently reported about a new variant of the Flashback Trojan horse which is using novel techniques to infect Macs.  Since then, we have discovered a number of samples of this latest variant, Flashback.G …

Mozilla partners up with LG to combat Apple and Google with its own device  —  At Mobile World Congress, which begins in three days, Mozilla will finally take the wraps off the Mozilla Marketplace and allow developers to submit their open web technology (HTML5, JavaScript, CSS) apps.

Microsoft Office 15 apps to include ‘touch mode’  —  Summary: The coming Office 15 client apps all seem to be getting a new ‘touch mode’ button that will enable them to work better on touch-centric devices.  —  It looks like Office 15 client apps are going to get more touchy …

Feature: If Android is a “stolen product,” then so was the iPhone  —  According to his official biographer, Steve Jobs went ballistic in January 2010 when he saw HTC's newest Android phones.  “I want you to stop using our ideas in Android,” Jobs reportedly told Eric Schmidt, then Google's CEO.

Dropbox Can Now Automatically Sync Your Android Photos (And It Has More Up Its Sleeve)  —  Last year, Dropbox raised a whopping $250 million funding round at a valuation in the ballpark of $4 billion.  The raise had been rumored for months so it didn't come as a huge surprise, but it still raised plenty of eyebrows.

Nokia becomes top Windows Phone vendor after just one quarter  —  Nokia was late to the game with regard to Windows Phone (among other things).  The Finnish phone giant announced early last year that it would be dumping Symbian in favor of Microsoft's mobile platform, and its first two Windows Phones …

How Microsoft is killing off the Zune and Windows Live brands in Windows 8  —  Microsoft appears to be killing off two of its key user-facing brands with the upcoming Consumer Preview release of Windows 8.  Windows Live applications have been rolled into preinstalled apps that work as the core …

Google Drive Will Support Third Party Apps  —  Back in November 2010, a comment from the Google Docs source code revealed some new features that will be available: third party apps, Cloud Print integration and sync.  —  It turns out that the upcoming Google Drive release will add support …

Facebook behind budget on Q1 ad revenue, sources say  —  Facebook's newest advertising product, expected to be unveiled on Feb. 29, leaked to the web yesterday.  The ads themselves would appear to be a natural evolution of the company's primary money-making business, but perhaps there's …

Throttling unlimited data plans is pointless, study finds  —  AT&T's questionable policy with regard to unlimited smartphone data plan holders recently found its way back into the limelight following a new wave of subscriber complaints.  The nation's No.2 carrier no longer offers …

Apple's iPhone TV Ads: The Complete Campaign  —  Apple's “Get a Mac” campaign for the Macintosh computer, starring Justin Long and John Hodgman, set the bar for creativity in tech advertising.  Created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, it was simply the best TV ad campaign of the last decade, and the best advertising comedy series ever.

Chinese developer Hoolai on how half its iOS revenue got eaten by virtual currency scams last fall  —  After bringing its hit social game Three Kingdoms to the iPhone last fall, everything was looking up for Beijing-based developer Hoolai.  The game had climbed to the top of the grossing charts in China …

Votizen Gets a Celebrity Round of Funding to Connect Social Media and Politics  —  American politics in the age of the Super PAC is all about money.  But meanwhile over on the Internet, connecting and mobilizing networks of people is easier than ever.  —  (See: the SOPA and PIPA online protests …