Techmeme
March 29, 2012, 12:45 PM

Top News

Matth / Nielsen Wire:
Smartphones Account for Half of all Mobile Phones, Dominate New Phone Purchases in the US  —  Almost half (49.7%) of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones, as of February 2012.  According to Nielsen, this marks an increase of 38 percent over last year; in February 2011, only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones.
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Paper: the next great iPad app, from the brains behind Courier  —  Georg Petschnigg throws his hands into the air as he traces thousands of years of human evolution that led us to develop the fragile wrists we need to use tools.  Petschnigg locks his wrist into place and pretends to scribble …
Chris Gallagher / Reuters:
Star-struck Japan PM befriends Facebook's Zuckerberg  —  (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda frequently entertains dignitaries from all over the world, but he was a touch star-struck on Thursday when he hosted a young billionaire with a whiff of celebrity: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Mark McDonald / IHT Rendezvous:
Zuckerberg in China: Let the Rumors Begin  —  HONG KONG — Mark Zuckerberg was spotted walking around Shanghai on Tuesday, which naturally led to a spike in online speculation about Facebook entering the Chinese market.  —  He said he was just on vacation with his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan.
Agam Shah / PC World:
Dell Ends Smartphone Sales in the US  —  Dell has stopped selling smartphones in the U.S. as it tweaks its mobile strategy to focus more on emerging markets and higher-margin products.  —  Dell has nixed its last standing Venue and Venue Pro smartphones and no replacements have been announced.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Millennial Media Shares Pop 100 Percent In First Trade; Valued At Nearly $2B  —  Mobile ad network Millennial Media just debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MM,” and saw shares pop 97 percent in the first trade of $25.  The company initially priced its IPO at $13 per share last night …
Bloomberg:
Apple's Tim Cook Visits Foxconn IPhone Plant in China  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook visited Foxconn Technology Group's newly built manufacturing facility for the iPhone in Zhengzhou, China, as the U.S. company seeks to improve working conditions.
Jay Yarow / Business Insider:
OH NO: Apple TV Isn't Coming Until 2013, Says Research Group  —  Most analysts say Apple will release an Apple TV this year.  —  Not Asian research group CLSA, which said in a note this morning that it thinks it comes out in 2013.  —  We don't have the full note, just a brief of what they said, which is included below.
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Google's Android has generated just $550m since 2008, figures suggest  —  Data provided in response to Oracle claim suggests iPhone generated four times more revenue than Google's own handsets  —  Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011 …
Austin Carr / Fast Company:
Bump Launches Payments App To Let You Share Money By Tapping Phones Together  —  More than a snazzy new feature, Bump Pay is the culmination of lessons learned by CEO David Lieb.  —  Bump, the app that lets users “bump” smartphones together to share contacts and photos, is launching another service to let users pay the same way.
Fred Wilson / A VC:
Some Thoughts On Online Privacy  —  There are signs that Washington is gearing up to do something big in the area of online privacy.  The FTC put out a report earlier this week and the White House called for a “privacy bill of rights” last month.  Both have asked Congress to act on this issue.
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
iPhone 4 owners can register for $15 antennagate settlements (updated)  —  The official website for the iPhone 4 “antennagate” class action settlement is live, as pointed out by co-lead counsel on the case Ira Rothken.  Of course, speaking of cases, if you're an iPhone 4 owner who has taken advantage …
Jacques Hebert / YouTube Blog:
Do You Have What it Takes to be the ‘Next’ great YouTube Vlogger?  —  Vlogging, or video blogging, videos are some of the most popular on YouTube.  And rightfully so—they're one of the few types of videos that literally anyone can create: all you have to do is sit in front of camera …
IDC:
Nearly 1 Billion Smart Connected Devices Shipped in 2011 with Shipments Expected to Double by 2016, According to IDC  —  FRAMINGHAM, Mass., March 28, 2012 -The universe of smart connected devices, including PCs, media tablets, and smartphones, saw shipments of more than 916 million units …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Spotify Keeps the Free Music Party Going in the U.S.  —  Good news for American Spotify users who don't want to pay for their music: The streaming service will continue to let them listen to anything they want, without restrictions, for a while longer.  —  The free-music party was supposed …
T.C. Sottek / The Verge:
Spectrum of revenge: how the FCC is under attack from Congress and AT&T  —  There's been a rising drumbeat for FCC reform on Capitol Hill ever since the agency helped block the AT&T / T-Mobile deal — and that beat's being led by the nation's biggest carriers, their lobbyists …
More: CNET
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
New U.S. Research Will Aim at Flood of Digital Data  —  The federal government is beginning a major research initiative in big data computing.  The effort, which will be announced on Thursday, involves several government agencies and departments, and commitments for the programs total $200 million.
Dan Graziano / BGR:
Google's $199 Nexus tablet may pressure vendors to cut prices  —  It is widely believed that Google will entere the tablet market in 2012 with an own-branded 7-inch Android tablet.  The search giant has reportedly partnered with ASUS to build a $199 device that will compete against Amazon's Kindle Fire.
More: Fudzilla and DigiTimes

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