The iPad Is Unbeatable  —  Why Apple's tablet competitors don't stand a chance—and maybe never will.  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook announcing the newest iPad  —  Imagine you run a large technology company not named Apple.  Let's say you're Steve Ballmer, Michael Dell, Meg Whitman, Larry Page, or Intel's Paul Otellini.

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:

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 …

Apple A5X and the great quad-core confusion, explained  —  When Apple announced the New iPad, the part about the Apple A5X chip has created a lot of confusion, hype, joy and sometime sheer anger: first, many now believe that the new iPad is a Quad-Core tablet and secondly …

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 …

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.

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.

Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Is Buying ‘The New Republic’  —  Social media meets old media:  —  Saying that he's convinced “the demand for long-form, quality journalism is strong in our country,” Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that he's buying The New Republic.

T-Mobile executive: Key to fixing industry is removing device subsidies  —  Cole Brodman, CMO of T-Mobile, speaks at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle (Karen Ducey Photography)  —  As mobile devices become more powerful, prices continue to fall.  And while consumers now have more computing power …

Google forcing Android developers to use Google Wallet for in-app payments, Reuters says (Google: same policy as before)  —  Reuters is reporting this afternoon that at least some developers of applications in Google Play (née Android Market) are being forced to use Google Wallet …

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.

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.

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.

HomeSnap Is Not A Boring Real Estate App  —  Sawbuck Realty, an online real estate broker, has just launched a new app called HomeSnap which lets you discover information about any home nationwide just by taking a photo of it.  Using a combination of mobile phone sensors to determine location …

Pulse Goes Local: Discover What's Happening Around You  —  Today we're launching Local, a brand new category providing a simple and effective way to discover what's happening around you.  With everything from breaking news, sports, food and deals, Pulse Local will always keep you in the know …

SeedTable Is A Stunning New Way To Interrogate CrunchBase — And Find Investors  —  I have a love/hate relationship with CrunchBase.  On the one hand, it has great information about startup tech companies.  On the other hand, it relies on a wiki-like structure which means it is sometimes …

Clearwire outs first post-PC WiMAX dongle  —  The most unsexy gadget in mobile just got a lot more attractive.  Clearwire has started to sell a new WiMAX dongle that users can plug into laptops, tablets or netbooks and get instant mobile broadband access - without installing any device management software or messing about with logins.

Zaarly swaps anonymity for identity in refreshed mobile marketplace  —  With the rise of mobile marketplaces, outsourcing tedious or mundane tasks to a willing gopher has never been easier.  Thursday, one startup seeks to make these mobile conveniences less intimidating for the masses.

iTunes 1080p video looks better, saves space using better H.264 compression  —  In the comments on yesterday's AppleTV story, many people doubted whether 1080p support in the third-generation AppleTV will be very useful.  That question becomes even more relevant when observing the file sizes …

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.