Techmeme: Google Said to Rethink Wallet Strategy Amid Slow Adoption (Olga Kharif/Bloomberg)

March 21, 2012, 8:15 PM

Top News

Dan Porter / Zynga Blog:

OMG, Zynga Welcomes a New Member to the Family — Put down your smartphones and iPads for just a sec. I've got some big news. Today I'm excited to tell you about a new addition to the Zynga family, OMGPOP. This New York-based developer of social mobile games has recently received a lot …

More: Digital Trends, Digital Media Wire, Betabeat, MacRumors, GigaOM, iPhone, AllThingsD, WebProNews, The Loop, Social Media, MobileSyrup.com and I4U News

Tweets: @tfadp and @veronica

Thanks:@danidudeck

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

“OMGPop Sold Way Too Early — They Left $800 Million On The Table” — In the speakers room at Ignition West (our conference in San Francisco today), there has been a lot of chatter about Zynga buying OMGPop, the maker of the smash-hit app game “Draw Something.”

More: www.pocketgamer.biz, Android and Me, parislemon, everythingiCafe and the Econsultancy blog. Tweets: @jbruin

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Done Deal: Zynga Gets “Draw Something” Phenom By Acquiring OMGPOP. (We're Hearing $210M.) — Zynga agreed to buy OMGPOP, the maker of massive Pictionary-like hit Draw Something, winning out over several other large gaming companies who had taken a look at the deal.

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

What Zynga really wants from OMGPOP's Draw Something

More: AllThingsD and CNNMoney.com

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

Google Said to Rethink Wallet Strategy Amid Slow Adoption — Google Inc. (GOOG) is weighing changes aimed at improving its Google Wallet mobile-payment system following slow adoption and the departure of two key managers, according to people with knowledge of the project.

More: parislemon, Business Insider, GigaOM, Ars Technica, Engadget, Gotta Be Mobile, 9to5Google, MobilePaymentsToday.com News, The Verge, PhoneArena, The Next Web and MacNN. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:

iPhoto for iPad, iPhone hits 1 million users in less than 10 days — iPhoto for iPad, iPhone hits 1 million users in less than 10 days — Apple told me today that its newest iOS app, iPhoto, hit 1 million users in less than 10 days after its release. It's important to note that figure is users, not downloads.

More: AllThingsD, TechCrunch, CNET, Gadgetsteria, PadGadget, iFans, MobileSyrup.com, The Next Web, Macgasm, Gotta Be Mobile, Redmond Pie, 9to5Mac, App Advice and MacRumors

Peter Farago / Flurry Blog:

China Now Leads the World in New iOS and Android Device Activations — Flurry recently quantified China's meteoric adoption of iOS and Android applications. While China ranked 10th in application sessions at the beginning of 2011, it finished the year in 2nd place, only behind the United States.

More: The Verge, App Advice, Macgasm, MacRumors, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, iDownloadBlog.com, Mashable!, WebProNews, GigaOM, MobileBurn.com, AllThingsD, The Next Web, TUAW and Tech Trader Daily

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Exclusive: Hipstamatic, Instagram To Unveil Photo-Sharing Partnership — Last week, Instagram hit 27 million users, solidifying it not only as one of the most popular photo-sharing services on the market, but as one of the world's fastest-growing social networks.

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:

Meet The Hackers Who Sell Spies The Tools To Crack Your PC (And Get Paid Six-Figure Fees) — At a Google-run competition in Vancouver last month, the search giant's famously secure Chrome Web browser fell to hackers twice. Both of the new methods used a rigged website …

More: Gizmodo, Betabeat, Business Insider, Softpedia News and Help Net Security

David Kravets / Wired:

MPAA Wants Megaupload User Data Retained for Lawsuits — Updated — Hollywood studios want a federal judge to preserve data on all the 66.6 million users of Megaupload, the file-sharing service that shuttered in January in the wake of federal indictments targeting its operators on allegations …

More: Techdirt

enigmax / TorrentFreak:

Criminals Target Megaupload Users With Fake Settlement Demands

More: Ars Technica, GamePolitics blogs and Gizmodo

Zach Epstein / BGR:

Sprint CEO defends company's decision to bet it all on Apple's iPhone — Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse is being watched closely by the company's board of directors, but the CEO has to answer to investors and subscribers as well. Last year in October, Hesse revealed that the company …

More: The Verge, VentureBeat, Mobile World Live, TUAW, Macgasm, Ars Technica, Sprintfeed, IntoMobile, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena and 9to5Mac

Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:

YouTube launches “one click fix” to improve the quality of your videos — When we're trying to capture something really funny, awesome, or downright amusing with our camera, the video quality is the last thing we're thinking about. Capture the moment is the goal, and if you do it right …

More: YouTube Blog, Gizmodo, Engadget and WebProNews

Chris Velazco / TechCrunch:

FreedomPop's New iPhone Case Promises Users Free Wireless Data — Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom's new FreedomPop project was initially shrouded in secrecy, but they've recently become a bit more talkative about how the company plans to offer “free wireless broadband” to their customers.

More: Sprint 4G Rollout …, Gotta Be Mobile, VentureBeat, LAPTOP Magazine, GigaOM, Appolicious Advisor, Gizmodo, SlashGear and Engadget. Thanks:@jordanrcrook

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft details how iPad app development compares to Windows 8 — Summary: In an apparent attempt to attract iPad developers, Microsoft has posted a case study comparing iPad app development to Windows 8 Metro-style tablet development. — Microsoft officials have posted to the Windows Dev Center …

More: Network World, Techie Buzz, Softpedia News, MacNN, MSDN Blogs and Neowin.net

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

DirecTV iPad app update adds video streaming on the go — In October, the “DirecTV” app added the ability to stream video over home networks. Today, an update to the app adds the ability to stream shows and movies over 3G and Wi-Fi anywhere. The new feature is limited to video content …

More: VentureBeat, Gizmodo, The Verge, Solid Signal Blog, Gotta Be Mobile, TUAW, iClarified and Engadget

Sarah Mitroff / VentureBeat:

Recipe search engine Yummly grabs $6M to find mouth-watering recipes — Yummly, a recipe search engine that would make any recipe hoarder and home chef happy, announced Wednesday it has raised $6 million is its first round of funding. The site compiles recipes from several popular recipes sites …

More: SiliconANGLE, GigaOM, TechCrunch, VatorNews and The Next Web

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Says Windows Phone Will Pass Apple in China — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world's largest software maker, said its Windows Phone operating system will propel it past Apple Inc. (AAPL) in China's smartphone market as its partners release devices costing as little as $158.

More: PC World, CNET, Windows Phone Blog, WMPoweruser, IntoMobile, PC Magazine, Los Angeles Times and TechFlash

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Comcast, Verizon Say They're Itching to Fight Google, Apple — Late last year, Comcast and Verizon unveiled a whopper of a deal: Verizon would buy a big chunk of wireless spectrum that Comcast wasn't using. And the cable company and the telco would agree to market each others' products …

More: GigaOM, The Precursor Blog, Light Reading, The Next Web, eWeek, The Verge, PC Magazine, IntoMobile, Bloomberg and FierceWireless

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

The Hong Kong Firm Behind Those Quirky Animated News Shorts Bets $5M On Red Robot Labs — The Yakuza, Chinese Triads and more. There's just so many more mafias for Benchmark-backed mobile gaming studio Red Robot Labs to infiltrate. — So the gaming company, which has made a huge bet on location …

More: VentureBeat and Inside Mobile Apps

Eileen Brown / Social Business Blog:

Microsoft Lifebrowser captures the important landmarks in your life — Summary: Using Machine Learning, Lifebrowser from Microsoft Research learns to predict ‘memory landmarks’, events of life that you consider important and it uses these landmarks to help you navigate your past.

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Spotify announces 12 ‘next generation’ apps like TweetVine, Def Jam, Matador, and Domino — When Spotify launched its first wave of “apps” in November 2011, it made clear its goal to become “the OS of music,” a place to find, browse, and listen to million of songs.

More: GigaOM, Mashable! and Engadget

Jason Fagone / Wired:

How One Response to a Reddit Query Became a Big Budget Flick — James Erwin, 37, works for a financial services firm in Des Moines, Iowa, writing software manuals. He's been doing that for a couple of years, and he enjoys it. It's a pretty low-stress job for a person with a methodical turn of mind—good pay, short commute.

More: The Verge

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Quiet Down Facebook Friends You Don't Care About With Acquaintance List Suggestions — Facebook doesn't want noisy friends you never interact with cluttering your news feed. To help solve this, today it begins suggesting friends you don't enagage with to add to your Acquaintance List.

More: newsroom.fb.com, VentureBeat, Friending Facebook Blog, All Facebook, Mashable! and The Verge

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

US Senate votes 76-22 to limit debate on JOBS Act, move bill forward — The US Senate voted today to limit debate on the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act). The motion cleared the 60 vote hurdle, scoring some 76 votes. That ample victory gives the bill momentum as it moves towards formal adoption.

More: TechFlash and Felix Salmon

Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:

Amazon's Gift Card Promotion Nets $5 Million and Lots of New Subscribers — In just 17 hours yesterday, AmazonLocal sold one million Amazon gift cards for $5 million, making it the company's most successful promotion in the daily deals space to date. — That's not a big surprise …

More: CNET, Savvr and GeekWire

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Walmart steps up with Angry Birds Space promotion — Angry Birds Space, Rovio's next big game in the phenomenal mobile game series, launches on Thursday with some major promotions from Walmart. — Angry Birds Space will debut in a variety of app stores, but this event marks Walmart's first in-store promotion with a mobile app.

More: Reuters, iFans, Gotta Be Mobile, AllThingsD, the Econsultancy blog, PE Hub Blog, WebProNews and internetretailer.com

Yew Jin Lim / Docs Blog:

Spell checking powered by the web — One of my early projects at Google was to improve the suggestions that are made when a query is misspelled in Google Search. The neat thing about that system is that it's adaptive: our suggestions get smarter and smarter based on the words Googlebot sees as it explores the web.

More: Computerworld, Lifehacker, ReadWriteWeb, 9to5Google and WebProNews

Rachel King / Between the Lines Blog:

PayPal Here's first day: 1,000 sign-ups per hour — Summary: The competition between PayPal and Square is on as PayPal Here received 1,000 sign-ups per hour within the first day alone. — Last week, PayPal introduced its new mobile payments solution that will compete directly with Square.

More: The PayPal Blog, FierceMobileContent and WebProNews

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