Microsoft and Financial Services Industry Leaders Target Cybercriminal Operations from Zeus Botnets  —  In our most complex effort to disrupt botnets to date, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit - in collaboration with Financial Services - Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) …

I Won The Windows Phone Challenge, But Lost “Just Because”  —  I headed down to the Santa Clara Microsoft Store this morning after hearing about the Windows Phone challenge last night.  For those not familiar, anyone who completes a task faster than a Windows Phone on their own smart phone …

Apple Phlebotomy  —  The treatment for the blood disease called Polycythemia Vera (the name means “too many red cells") goes back to the Dark Ages: Lance a vein and relieve the patient of a pint of blood.  Phlebotomy treats the symptom but not the condition.  There is no known cure; the blood-letting must be repeated indefinitely.

Draw Something Changes the Game Quickly for Omgpop  —  At a cocktail party on the second floor of the expensive Bowery Hotel in Manhattan on Thursday night, as trays of stuffed mushrooms and thinly sliced filet mignon circulated, Charles Forman was marveling at how quickly things can change.

Tough times in the U.S.-China iPad smuggling game  —  (Reuters) - Early on the morning of March 16, Wong Tat joined a line of about 100 people waiting for the launch of the new iPad in a chilly rain outside an Apple store on the outskirts of San Francisco.  —  When the doors opened …

Card Case Adds More Merchant Discovery, Social Features To iOS And Android; Becomes ‘Pay With Square’  —  Square's consumer-focused loyalty and mobile payments app Card Case, which debuted in 2011, has been pushing the envelope when it comes to the future of payments, allowing for hands-free …

Apple offers royalty-free license to nano-SIM patents, a proposed standard backed by most European carriers  —  Last week, the Financial Times reported that Apple is at loggerheads with Motorola Mobility, RIM and Nokia over a proposed standard called “nano-SIM”, a further miniaturization …

One Kings Lane: From The LAX Arrivals Terminal To $200M In Revenue  —  As Susan Feldman waited outside the Southwest Airlines arrivals terminal at Los Angeles International Airport in October 2008, she had a nervous feeling in her stomach, which she compares to blind date jitters.

Yahoo Appoints Three New Directors in a Smack to Activist Shareholder (Like I Said!)  —  Updated: 3:59 p.m. with comments from Third Point.  —  Yahoo said it had appointed three new directors today, a move that is a direct strike back at activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point and his alternate slate of directors.