Techmeme
March 19, 2012, 2:50 PM

Top News

Apple:
Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program  —  Expects to Spend $45 Billion Over Three Years  —  Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.  —  Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors …
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Apple announces $10b share buyback starting in fiscal 2013, $2.65 dividend for Q4  —  Ahead of a conference call this morning, Apple has announced a pair of initiatives for its massive stockpile of cash totaling approximately $100 billion: a stock buyback beginning in fiscal 2013 …
Jillian Berman / The Huffington Post:
Apple Not Bringing Overseas Cash Back Home, Blames U.S. Tax Policy  —  Apple has a bone to pick with the U.S. and its tax laws.  Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer slammed U.S. tax policy on overseas profits as part of a highly anticipated announcement Monday detailing Apple's plans to spend nearly half of the $100 billion in cash.
Mike Daisey:
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated  —  “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”  —another American monologist Many consider this week's THIS AMERICAN LIFE episode one of the most painful they've ever listened to.  In particular the segment with me is excruciating …
Faith Hung / Reuters:
Stephen Chapman / Between the Lines Blog:
New iPad feature ‘Dictation’ sends/stores private data to Apple servers  —  Summary: Dictation is one of the key features of the new iPad; however, using it requires more than meets the eye.  Read all about it in this post.  —  After spending a solid weekend with the new iPad …
Amanda Lenhart / Pew Internet:
Teens, Smartphones & Texting  —  Teens are fervent communicators.  Straddling childhood and adulthood, they communicate frequently with a variety of important people in their lives: friends and peers, parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, and a myriad of other adults and institutions.
Ellen McGirt / Fast Company:
“Boy CEO” Mark Zuckerberg's Two Smartest Projects Were Growing Facebook And Growing Up  —  Mark Zuckerberg, oft-parodied young CEO, didn't build the most important company of the Internet era by accident.  How he fashioned Facebook—and himself—for success.
Jack Clark / ZDNet:
Netflix: How we got a grip on AWS's cloud  —  Q&A  —  In 2011, Netflix's online video rental service regularly accounted for 30 percent of all US download internet traffic.  —  To support this combination of huge traffic and unpredictable demand spikes, Netflix has spent the past few years developing …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Vimeo Gets a New Boss: AOL, Yahoo Vet Kerry Trainor  —  Earlier this year, video site Vimeo showed off a new look.  Now it has a new CEO: Kerry Trainor, who just left his job overseeing AOL's entertainment and video properties.  —  Trainor replaces Dae Mellencamp, who has been running the site since 2009.
Dwight Garner / New York Times:
The Way We Read Now  —  The case against electronic books has been made, and elegantly, by many people, including Nicholson Baker in The New Yorker a few years ago.  Mr. Baker called Amazon's Kindle, in a memorable put-down, “the Bowflex of bookishness: something expensive that …
More: BuzzFeed
Chiara Remondini / Bloomberg:
Apple Warranty Practices Criticized by European Consumer Groups  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s advertising of product warranty practices was criticized by a group of European consumer organizations ahead of an Italian case over the issue.  —  Apple products say they come with a one-year warranty …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Twitter and Facebook Are Tomorrow's News Service.  For Now, Though ...  If you're like me, you increasingly rely on Twitter and Facebook as your news editors.  But that means we're in a small minority.  —  Just 9 percent of American adults frequently get their news from their pals at the two services.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
With “Coveted Brand,” Dell Will Breach Tablet Market … - Dell CEO Michael Dell on what has surprised him most about the evolution of the tech industry  —  2012 isn't going to be another year of the iPad, if Dell can help it.  Though it was forced to beat a humbling retreat from the tablet market …
More: The Verge and Reuters
Kim Zetter / Wired:
DuQu Mystery Language Solved With the Help of Crowdsourcing  —  A group of researchers who recently asked the public for help in figuring out a mysterious language used in the DuQu virus have solved the puzzle, thanks to crowdsourcing help from programmers who wrote in to offer suggestions and clues.
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Facebook Mimics Apple by Spending Less on R&D Than Rivals  —  Facebook Inc. (FB) spends a smaller percentage of revenue on engineering than other Internet companies, mimicking Apple (AAPL) Inc.'s strategy of keeping costs low by relying on outside developers for research and development.
More: WebProNews
Erin Bury / BetaKit:
42Floors Launches Commercial Real Estate Search Tool  —  42Floors is launching today to help business owners find commercial real estate online.  The YCombinator startup, founded in November 2011 by former Flightcaster founder Jason Freedman, connects businesses seeking space with photos, data and other listing info on available spots.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
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F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Don't Do.  Just Tell.  With Zoho MCP for Bigin.  —  Dear small business owners,This one's a little different.We're not here to walk you through a checklist of features.  We're here to tell you about something …
IDrive:
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Featured Podcasts

Invest Like the Best:
Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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Lenny's Podcast:
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

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