Techmeme
March 23, 2012, 8:25 AM

Top News

Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Facebook Is Said to Buy 750 IBM Patents to Boost Defenses  —  Facebook Inc. (FB) acquired 750 patents from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), adding intellectual property that may help it counter allegations of patent infringement, a person with knowledge of the transaction said.
Matt Macari / The Verge:
Yahoo reportedly has a license to patents Facebook just bought from IBM  —  Law360 is reporting a source has told them that the lot of 750 patents Facebook is buying from IBM “were licensed to Yahoo.”  That's the extent of the insider information, but not the questions it raises.  Why would Facebook do this?
More: LAW360
Greg Sandoval / CNET:
Google Play mulls movie sales  —  When you rent a movie on Play Movies, it immediately becomes available on any device.  —  (Credit: Google)  —  Managers at Google Play are considering a plan to sell films, multiple sources have told CNET.  —  Google Play, formerly known as Android Market …
Mat Honan / Gizmodo:
The Case Against Google  —  For the last two months, you've seen some version of the same story all over the Internet: Delete your search history before Google's new privacy settings take effect.  A straightforward piece outlining a rudimentary technique, but also evidence that the search titan has a serious trust problem on its hands.
Pew Internet:
The Future of Apps and Web  —  Overview  —  Introduction and overview of responses  —  A high-impact cover story in Wired magazine in 2010 asserted in its title: “The Web Is Dead.  Long Live the Internet.”  1 Authors Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff argued that the World Wide Web was “in decline” and “apps” were in ascendance.
Dan Sung / Pocket-lint:
Google won't be top dog forever says father of the Internet  —  EXCLUSIVE: Vint Cerf speaks to Pocket-lint  —  The man known as one of the fathers of the internet says Google won't be the defacto standard for search forever.  —  Vint Cerf, a vice-president at the Mountain View-based company …
Cade Metz / Wired:
Amazon Man Questions Logic of Apple Solar Farm  —  This is the solar farm outside Facebook's Prineville, Oregon data center.  And James Hamilton isn't impressed (Photo: Wired/Pete Erickson)  —  Apple is building a 100-acre solar farm to help power its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina.
Edward Gay / New Zealand Herald:
Dotcom gets extra $60k, Mercedes  —  Megaupload millionaire Kim Dotcom and his family have been granted a $60,000 a month living allowance.  —  In a minute released today by Justice Judith Potter in the High Court at Auckland, she allowed $20,000 a month to be paid to Dotcom from interest on $10 million worth of Government Bonds.
Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:
Google wants to serve you ads based on the background noise of your phone calls  —  Just when you think that we're pretty tech savvy, companies like Google and Nokia file outlandish “forward-thinking” patents that make you feel like we're all in a Star Trek episode.
Elinor Mills / CNET:
Facebook fans flames with privacy policy tweaks  —  A section of the proposed changes to Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities for users.  —  (Credit: Facebook)  —  Privacy advocates in the U.S. and the European Union are on edge over changes Facebook is enacting in its language governing its terms of service.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple loses AppleCare appeal in Italian court, must pay $1.2M fine and put notice on packages  —  Apple has lost an appeal in the Italian courts, must pay up on a $1.2M (€900,ooo) fine and add a notice to AppleCare packaging.  The issue at stake is that Apple was charging for its AppleCare warranty …
Richard Barley / Tweetdeck Blog:
TweetDeck Updated: Lists, Activity, Media and more  —  Today, we're releasing a new version of TweetDeck.  This update introduces some great new features as well as a host of smaller improvements and bug fixes.  Check out this video for a quick tour of the updates, and read on for more information.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Glassdoor: Google Overtakes Facebook For Employee Satisfaction For The First Time In Four Years  —  Glassdoor has taken a look at how Google and Facebook compare in the eyes of employees and job candidates, and has extracted a number of interesting data points related to CEO approval, benefits, perks and more.
Marty Toohey / Austin American-Statesman:
Austin council OKs $8.6M in incentives for new Apple facility  —  Austin approved $8.6 million in tax breaks Thursday for Apple Inc., likely paving the way for the company to build a facility that it says will bring up to 3,600 jobs here.  —  The unanimous thumbs-up by the City Council comes …
Jessica Dye / Reuters:
Oracle investor sues over $200 million settlement  —  (Reuters) - An Oracle Corp. investor sued the company and members of its board of directors on Thursday for allegedly trying to “stonewall” a whistleblower lawsuit that ultimately resulted in a $200 million settlement.
J.J. Colao / Forbes:
Going Viral: How Codecademy Snagged 200,000 Users in Seven Days  —  At 3 a.m. one night in mid-December last year, Zach Sims, the 21-year-old CEO of Codecademy, took a break from answering emails and spent $8.95 on the domain name “codeyear.com.”  Sims, whose company offers interactive online lessons …

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Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD: