Mobile Hotspot Included in Verizon's iPad 4G LTE Data Plan  —  As expected, Apple's new iPad 3rd generation tablet is available with sweet and speedy 4G LTE from Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Tim Cook also announced that customers will be able to use the tablet as a mobile hotspot as well — that's even better.

New reddit CEO reporting for duty  —  Hi everyone.  My name is Yishan Wong, and this week I'm starting a new job.  It turns out that this job is the CEO position at reddit.  I've been a redditor since 2005 (yishan) and over the years, I've read blog posts about the ups and downs of the reddit team …

A fresh new Dropbox on the web  —  Over the past few weeks, we've been quietly rolling out a major redesign of the Dropbox website.  Today we turned it up to 11, and anyone who signs into dropbox.com will see a simpler, more powerful, and more beautiful web experience.  Here's what we came up with:

The Personal Analytics of My Life  —  One day I'm sure everyone will routinely collect all sorts of data about themselves.  But because I've been interested in data for a very long time, I started doing this long ago.  I actually assumed lots of other people were doing it too, but apparently they were not.

Apple Using OpenStreetMap With Its Own Tiles Instead Of Google Maps In Select Cases  —  As you may have seen by now there were some new iOS screenshots showing maps that don't look like they are from Google.  Below are a couple of the shots in question (via 512Pixels and The Next Web).

Path 2.1 Launches With Smarter Camera, Shazam-Like Music Match & Support for Nike+  —  Path, the up-and-coming private social network, had a couple of rough days last month because it uploaded its users' address books to its servers without their explicit permission.

Financing to Value Instagram at $500 Million  —  Instagram is poised to raise a new round of financing that will value the popular photo-sharing application at as much as $500 million, people familiar with the matter said, despite skepticism that the fast-growing company will find a way to make money.

After 2+ Years Of Serving Apps, Windows Mobile Marketplace Will Die On May 9  —  What a long, strange trip it's been.  As Microsoft throws their considerable weight behind the Windows Phone platform, they're running out of love for their still-kicking Windows Mobile OS, and today they've driven another nail into its coffin.

Twitter Plots Big Changes to Brand Pages  —  E-Commerce, Contests, Sweepstakes Among Features Planned for Advertisers  —  Big changes are coming to Twitter's “brand pages,” the landing pages it offers to some marketers that also spend ad dollars on the network.

Buzz in the Blogosphere: Millions More Bloggers and Blog Readers  —  Blogs are sometimes overlooked as a significant source of online buzz in comparison to social networking sites, yet consumer interest in blogs keeps growing.  By the end of 2011, NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company …

P2P Dropbox Competitor Space Monkey Wins Launch, Has Already Raised $750K  —  Storage startup Space Monkey just took the prize for best new startup at this week's Launch conference in San Francisco.  It's no surprise, since this is one of the companies that everyone I've spoken to here has raved about.

Highlighting a Privacy Problem: Apps Need to Respect User Rights From the Start  —  A new iPhone app called Highlight is poised to be this year's breakout hit at South by Southwest, the Austin tech and media conference that has become known as a web service kingmaker after launching services …

Apple Downplays Role Of ‘Kindle Threat’ In Alleged e-Book Conspiracy  —  A court filing provides new insight into Apple's version of events concerning an incident in which Steve Jobs told a reporter that “unhappy” publishers might withhold e-books from Amazon.

After the pwnage: Critical Google Chrome hole plugged in 24 hours  —  Less than 24 hours after a Russian hacker pocketed $60,000 by exploiting a previously unknown critical vulnerability in Google Chrome, company developers released an update removing the security threat.

Microsoft in dispute with OnLive over Windows desktop-on-iPad licensing  —  Summary: Microsoft finally is going public about OnLive, the company offering hosted Office and Windows on iPads and Android tablets and whether it is in violation of Microsoft's virtualization licensing terms.

Intuit Releases Lion-Compatible Quicken 2007 for Mac  —  Last December, Intuit announced that it would be developing a version of its Quicken 2007 for Mac software compatible with OS X Lion, targeting “early spring” for a release.  Quicken 2007 has remained a popular option for users …

Dell Seeks Edge Over IPad With Business-Friendly Windows Tablet  —  Dell Inc. (DELL) Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell said there's growing demand for tablet computers that can run the next version of Windows, which may help his company siphon away corporate customers from the iPad.

Konami and others will make games for Zynga.com  —  Zynga announced today that three major game companies have joined its new platform for publishing games on Zynga.com and Facebook.  The new third-party partners include Japan's Konami Digital Entertainment, one of the biggest console game makers, as well as Playdemic and Rebellion.