Techmeme: Gdgt's Focus Shifts to the Review (Mark Hachman/PC Magazine)

March 20, 2012, 9:20 AM

Top News

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira / DisplayMate:

new iPad Display Technology Shoot-Out iPad 2 - new iPad - iPhone 4 — Introduction The iPad has been a phenomenal runaway success - to a degree that may have even surprised Steve Jobs. At the new iPad launch Tim Cook remarked that people have been wondering who would improve upon the iPad.

More: Hardware 2.0 Blog, The Apple Core Blog, Coding Horror, AppleInsider, TUAW, Kotaku, I4U News, parislemon, iPhone Hacks, iLounge, MacRumors, MacNN and AllThingsD

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Analysis Confirms iPad Display Really Is One Of The Best Ever Made — It shouldn't come as any surprise when someone says that this year's display, or phone, or what have you, is the best ever. After all, improving the category is what companies strive to do, right?

More: MacRumors

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Microsoft Said to Finish Windows 8 in Summer, With October Debut — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will finish work on Windows 8 this summer, setting the stage for personal computers and tablets with the operating system to go on sale around October, according to people with knowledge of the schedule.

Adam Z Lein / pocketnow.com:

Nokia's Redesign of the Windows Phone UI — We all know that back when the Nokia and Microsoft partnership was announced, Nokia was given special rights to alter the user interface as they saw fit. At least with the current Lumia devices, we didn't see much of a redesign at all …

More: Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint, PhoneArena, SlashGear, Pulse2 Technology …, Gizmodo, My Nokia Blog and WMPoweruser

Zach Honig / Engadget:

Visualized: new iPad burns 10 degrees hotter than its predecessor — We wouldn't exactly be going out on a limb by suggesting that the new iPad is Apple's hottest tablet to date — even before Tim Cook confirmed as much earlier today. But while Apple has plenty of reason to brag …

More: 9to5Mac, CNET, The Verge, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, The Mac Observer, Electronista and Product reviews

Quentin Hardy / New York Times:

Facing Fees, Some Sites Are Bypassing Google Maps — SAN FRANCISCO — When it comes to offering online maps to their users, some companies have been leaving Google Maps and setting out for less familiar territory. — In the seven years since it was introduced, Google's offering of street maps …

More: Bits and O'Reilly Radar

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

Samsung and RIM sued for infringing lol-worthy emoticon patent — In an apparent quest to make the patent system look even more ridiculous, a firm on Thursday sued Samsung and Research in Motion for allegedly infringing a patent titled “emoticon input method and apparatus.”

More: TechEye, Between the Lines Blog, CNET, MobileBurn.com, Techdirt, SlashGear, The Register, Geekosystem and Betabeat

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Zynga Is In Talks To Buy “Draw Something” Maker OMGPOP — Zynga is in talks to acquire OMGPOP, the maker of massive hit Draw Something, according to a source with direct knowledge of the discussions. It's my understanding that the talks have not yet entered the more advanced …

More: Guardian, The Verge, CNET, App Advice, Business Insider, Business Insider, Macgasm, 9to5Google, TUAW and GamesIndustry International

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Zynga's bid for Draw Something may top $200 million

More: PhoneArena

Jordan Golson / MacRumors:

New iPad Sales Top 3 Million in Under 4 Days — Apple announced today that it has sold 3 million new iPads in less the four days of availability, calling it the “strongest iPad launch yet.” … Apple didn't announce first weekend sales numbers for the iPad 2 as they were in extremely short supply …

Mark Hachman / PC Magazine:

Gdgt's Focus Shifts to the Review — A little less than a year after the site's founders launched Gdgt.com, the tech site has been retooled into something a bit more like Metacritic. — The site, launched by Ryan Block and Peter Rojas in 2009, was founded on the principle of lists …

More: gdgt blog and BuzzFeed

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon Acquires Robot-Coordinated Order Fulfillment Company Kiva Systems For $775 Million In Cash — Amazon has just announced that it will acquire order fulfillment company Kiva Systems for $775 million in cash. We've embedded the release below. — Kiva Systems' interconnected hardware …

More: Softpedia News, Between the Lines Blog, PE Hub Blog, The Next Web, GeekWire, Business Insider, AllThingsD, internetretailer.com, CNET and The Tech Trade

Greg Kumparak / PandoDaily:

How Coldcalling Deadmau5 On Twitter Earned One Artist His Big Break — When I hear anyone talking about “the power of social media”, my brain immediately flips to thoughts of self-appointed gurus with uber-douche titles like “Twitter Ninja” or “Friendster Rockstar”. I can't help it.

Tweets: @grg and @stevecheney

Jay Greene / CNET:

Microsoft gives cops tools to detect child porn — Microsoft is giving law enforcement PhotoDNA, a digital tool that sifts through massive amounts of online images to help identify instances of child pornography and rescue victims. — The software giant announced this morning that it …

More: VentureBeat, TechNet Blogs, WinBeta, Softpedia News, Neowin.net, TechNet Blogs, WebProNews and TechCrunch

Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:

Mozilla: Firefox needs H.264 support to survive shift to mobile — Mozilla began an internal discussion last week about whether to implement support for H.264 and other patent-encumbered media formats by relying on hardware decoding and codecs supplied by the underlying operating system.

More: Mitchell's Blog, PC World, Mozilla Hacks, The Verge, OStatic blogs, Asa Dotzler and internetnews.com

Violet Blue / Pulp Tech Blog:

Google porn-bans Reddit Android app for linking to... Reddit — Within the past 24 hours Google Play removed and banned indie developer Andrew Shu's Reddit Is Fun app from its market. — Google Play's brief email told Shu the app - a fan-created link client - is a “Violation …

More: Andrew Shu, VentureBeat, The Next Web and WebProNews. Thanks:@violetblue

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

Game Makers Give Away ‘Freemium’ Products — Still paying 99 cents to download a smartphone game? That's far too much. More developers are now giving their games away — and then charging for extra features. — The strategy is known as freemium, as in free meets premium.

More: Stowe Boyd. Thanks:@bobcaswell

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

AMD launches server processor for web-hosting providers — Advanced Micro Devices is launching a new server processor family today that targets companies that serve lots and lots of web pages to users. — The new AMD Opteron 3200 series processor family is aimed at changing the economics …

More: Engadget, TechEye, The Register, Between the Lines Blog and MarketWatch

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Two Bing Marketers Fired for ‘Mismanaging Company Assets,’ Violating Procurement Policy — Eric Hadley and Sean Carver Said to Have Violated Internal Rules — Two Bing marketing execs, Eric Hadley and Sean Carver, have been fired for misusing company funds, according to Microsoft.

More: The Verge, The Next Web, WebProNews, TechFlash and CNET

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Google Defends Hotfile (and Megaupload) in Court — Google has filed a brief at a federal court in Florida defending the file-hosting site Hotfile in its case against the MPAA. The search giant accuses the movie companies of misleading the court and argues that Hotfile is protected under the DMCA's safe harbor.

More: CNET, ITProPortal, Slashdot, SlashGear, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, ZDNet and GamesIndustry International

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

HTC rumored to have bought MOG — HTC's Beats Audio unit may have bought music subscription service MOG, according to a rumor reported by Business Insider Monday. Insider writer Matt Rosoff based his report on a single source, but we have since also heard from a source that term sheets went …

More: Business Insider, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com and The Verge

Bloomberg:

Facebook Is Said to Plan Paying 1.1 Percent Fee to Banks — Facebook Inc. (FB), the social- networking website seeking to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering, will pay underwriters a 1.1 percent fee, two people with knowledge of the company's plans said.

More: Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, VatorNews, The Next Web, Reuters, All Facebook, Friending Facebook Blog, Pulse2 Technology … and Reuters

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

The Pirate Bay Claims It's Going To Host The Site Via Drones Flying Over International Waters — One of the more amazing things about the recent moves by the entertainment industry to put in place stricter laws around the globe to attack file sharing, is that they still don't realize …

More: TorrentFreak, Geekosystem, The Register, MAKE, DSLreports, Gizmodo, PC World, TechCrunch, Data Center Knowledge and BGR

Bloomberg:

Windows Phone Outsells Symbian in U.K. Handsets, Study Says — Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)'s new smartphone platform, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone 7, outsold its older smartphone system in the U.K. this year, market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said. — About 2.5 percent of U.K. phone buyers chose …

More: WMPoweruser, Telegraph, The Verge, Mobile Entertainment, The Register, cellular-news, Neowin.net and The Next Web

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.

More: ZDNet, CNET, The Buzz Bin, Mobile, Pulse2 Technology …, CNN, Internet2Go, INFOdocket, VentureBeat and MediaPost

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

BBC iPlayer app finally launches for all UK Xbox 360s — All of those Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 video apps Microsoft has been promising since last year's dashboard update continue to slowly leak out, and the latest is the BBC iPlayer. Already long available on the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 …

More: BBC, Inquirer, TechCrunch, The Next Web, paidContent, The Verge, Electronista, Digital Spy and Neowin.net. See also Mediagazer

James Kendrick / ZDNet:

HTC to use LogMeIn Rescue to fix smartphones remotely — Summary: Android phones can be overwhelming to consumers when problems occur, and HTC is launching a program to fix them remotely. — Smartphones have become sophisticated computers that fit in the pocket, and along with that capability comes …

More: PC Magazine, MarketWatch, Phones Review and The Next Web

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Cloud Foundry:

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Getting the most out of business analytics — One of the most prevalent uses of Hadoop architecture by enterprises is to create business intelligence and analytics tools that can be leveraged to identify areas …

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“Yammer sucks” — Not to be mean to Yammer, or anything — it's a very good tool for some use cases — but that's what a customer told me recently (and others feel the same way).

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