Techmeme
April 1, 2012, 9:20 PM

Top News

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 …
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 …
Tom Cook / Quora:
What are some of the best 2012 April Fools Day jokes?  —  Tom Cook's answer: * Virgin and Richard Branson announced a expedition to the center of the earth: Virgin Volcanic. http://virginvolcanic.com/  —  * Google Maps announced a new 8-bit version for the NES/Famicom, usable in a beta form at http://maps.google.com under “Quest”
More: Pocket-lintTweets: @antoniogm
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.
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: KotakuTweets: @tfadp and @thekevindent
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.
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.
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.
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: ACLU and Pulse2 Technology …Tweets: @jeffjarvis
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.

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