Techmeme: April Fools 2012: We Ruin Every (Tech-Related) Joke On The Internets (TechCrunch)

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April 1, 2012, 10:45 PM

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TechCrunch:

April Fools 2012: We Ruin Every (Tech-Related) Joke On The Internets — Happy April 1st, Everybody! It's that very special time of year — the day when tech companies break out their clown shoes to make their annual attempt at being funny. As a public service, we've rounded …

More: VentureBeat, The Register, Google LatLong, Smashwords, Lifehacker, msnbc.com, Business Insider, bub.blicio.us, PC World, PC Magazine, Engadget and The Windows Blog

Zee / The Next Web:

A Round Up of ALL of Google's April Fools Jokes. Fair play, they really make an effort... If there's one thing Google clearly does better than its competing tech giants, it's April Fools. We were honestly having difficulty writing up pieces on each of Google's announcements as they flew …

More: The Official Google Blog, 9to5Google, Gmail Blog, StevenLevy.com, CNET, Google Analytics Blog, TechCrunch, SlashGear, GSMArena Blog, WebProNews, Gotta Be Mobile, GeekWire, Google+, Featured stories and The Next Web

Conan O'Brien / Mashable!:

Conan O'Brien Buys Mashable, Ousts Pete Cashmore as CEO — Hello, fellow Mashables. It's Conan O'Brien, and I've got big news. Two hours ago, I purchased Mashable.com. I've taken it over. Why did I take it over? Very simple reason. — I'm sick and tired of scanning the Internet looking …

More: Mashable!, WebProNews, Pulse2 Technology …, Techi.com and iPhone Hacks

Tweets: @rafat, @mashable, @penenberg and @lanceulanoff

Tom Cook / Quora:

What are some of the best 2012 April Fools Day jokes?

More: Pocket-lint. Tweets: @antoniogm

Jeff Sneider / Variety:

Ashton Kutcher to play Steve Jobs — Indie pic ‘Jobs’ to be directed by Joshua Michael Stern — The King of Twitter is now the King of Apple, as “Two and a Half Men” star Ashton Kutcher is attached to play Steve Jobs in the indie pic “Jobs,” which Joshua Michael Stern ("Swing Vote") will direct from a script by Matt Whiteley.

More: VentureBeat, The Verge, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, /Film, Electronista, The Huffington Post, CNET, Edible Apple, Hollywood Reporter, iPhone Savior, The Next Web and Inside Movies

Tweets: @theinsneider, @theinsneider, @spencerchen and @eldon

VentureBeat:

OMGPOP CEO tweets that only employee not to transition to Zynga was the “weakest” one (UPDATED) — As reported last week, Shay Pierce was the only OMGPOP employee to decline a position with Zynga after it bought the Draw Something developer for $180 million.

More: Pulse2 Technology …, Dave Winer's …, Boing Boing and Epeus' epigone

Tweets: @tfadp, @tfadp, @dickc, @notch, @tomcoates, @mat, @helloandy, @tziegmann and @tapbot_paul

Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:

OMGPOP CEO responds to criticisim of his tweets about former employee — Early this morning, GamesBeat reported that Dan Porter, chief executive officer of OMGPOP (developer of the Pictrionary-clone Draw Something), publicly called out the only employee not to join Zynga after the $210 million buyout.

More: Kotaku. Tweets: @tfadp and @thekevindent

Scott Austin / Digits:

‘Girls Around Me’ Developer Defends App After Foursquare Dismissal — The developer of a controversial mobile app that used data from Facebook and Foursquare to reveal the location of nearby women defended its intentions Saturday after drawing a firestorm of criticism over privacy concerns.

More: Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life, msnbc.com, CNET, AllThingsD, iPhone Hacks, TechNewsDaily.com, MacNN, textually.org, Digits, PC World, Charlie's Diary and Pulse2 Technology …. Tweets: @pkafka

John Brownlee / Cult of Mac:

Creepy Girl-Stalking App Girls Around Me Has Been Yanked From The App Store [Update]

More: Business Insider, Appolicious Advisor, TechCrunch and Online Dating Insider. Thanks:@cultofmac

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

What Does A Post-UDID World Look Like For iPhone And iPad Developers? — This past week has been a big wake-up call for the iOS developer community. The need to move away from UDIDs, or an ID scheme that many developers rely on to power advertising and store data about their users …

Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:

Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool — WASHINGTON — Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small …

More: Examiner, ACLU and Pulse2 Technology …. Tweets: @jeffjarvis

Korey Nicholson / BriefMobile:

Exclusive: Android 4.0.4 IMM76D Leak for Nexus S 4G — This is not an April Fools joke — With rumored dates for the Nexus S 4G Android 4.0 update on the horizon, the official stock image files have finally surfaced. Thanks to a source, we were leaked the files with exclusive access.

More: Android Phone Fans, The Verge, Engadget and Softpedia News

William Moss / Rectified.name:

Facebook's China Playbook — As you have undoubtedly heard by now, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend* were spotted in Shanghai on Wednesday. This has lead to a completely predictable round of speculation as to whether this signals some new development in Facebook + China.

More: Tech in Asia and Network World

Steven Musil / CNET:

Up to 1.5M credit card numbers stolen from Global Payments — Payments processor believes no names, addresses, or Social Security numbers were stolen in the security breach. — Follow @stevenmusil — As many as 1.5 million Visa and MasterCard customers may have been affected …

More: TechCrunch

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