Techmeme
March 23, 2012, 6:45 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
Bloomberg:
‘Angry Birds’ Space Edition Skips Windows Phone in Blow to Nokia  —  By Jon Erlichman and Diana ben-Aaron - March 22, 2012  —  The new “Angry Birds Space” edition of the world's most popular mobile-phone game won't appear on Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Windows Phone because of slow demand, a blow to handset maker Nokia Oyj.
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.
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 …
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.
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.
More: Media Decoder and CNET
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.
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.
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.
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 …
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Seesmic Lays Off Half Its Staff as It Pivots Back to Social Cross-Posting  —  San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week, bringing its staff down to 15 people.  —  The layoffs, which happened on Monday, came as part of a shift away from building enterprise social tools …
More: VentureBeatTweets: @paulcarr, @ryanlawler and @robhof
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Senate Passes Crowdfunding Bill With Added Protections for Non-Accredited Investors  —  The U.S. Senate today approved 73-26 an amended version of legislation that will legalize “crowdfunding,” or equity investments in start-ups by the general public.  —  The CROWDFUND Act adds requirements …
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.
Nick Zieminski / Reuters:
Monster CEO open to selling all or part of company  —  (Reuters) - Monster Worldwide Inc is open to selling all or part of itself and expects to have data ready for potential buyers fairly soon, Chief Executive Sal Iannuzzi said in an interview.  —  “At a certain price, anything's for sale …
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 …
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Netflix: HD streaming to third-generation iPad is “on our roadmap”  —  Netflix recently updated its iOS app to support the third-generation iPad's high resolution “retina” display.  Unfortunately, the app still only plays back standard definition video.  That could change soon, however, as Netflix says HD streaming is in the works.

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Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web: