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.

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 …

Teacher's aide fired for refusing to hand over Facebook password  —  Summary: Kimberly Hester, a teacher's aide at an elementary school, was fired last year for refusing to give her Facebook password to her supervisors.  She is now fighting a legal battle with the school district.

IBM takes on a gigantic computing task to find the universe's origins  —  Some of the biggest friggin' computers you'll ever see are going to help decipher data from the world's largest telescope as it explores the origins of the universe.  —  IBM announced today it has won a $42 million contract …

Why Google isn't worried about Android revenue  —  Not all investments are made with the expectation that a big payoff is around the corner.  Google's decision to bankroll the development of Android was just such an investment, which makes the past week's back and forth over just how much money Google …

Nuance Communications Wants a World of Voice Recognition  —  VLAD SEJNOHA is talking to the TV again.  —  O.K., maybe you've done that, too.  But here's the weird thing: His TV is listening.  —  “Dragon TV,” Mr. Sejnoha says to the screen, “find movies with Meryl Streep.”

New Apple iPad tops our tablet Ratings  —  The high-resolution screen of the new iPad establishes a new benchmark in excellence, providing the best rendering of detail and color accuracy we've ever seen on a tablet display.  As a result, the iPad tops our new tablet Ratings, posted today.

Exclusive: Google, Amazon, and Microsoft Swarm China for Network Gear  —  Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook buy more networking hardware than practically anyone else on earth.  After all, these are the giants of the internet.  But at the same time, they're buying less and less gear from Cisco …

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.

EU may quiz Apple, Microsoft vs. Motorola in antitrust dispute  —  The big wigs of the technology could be in for a rocky battle with European antitrust authorities, as it mulls a possible investigation to resolve the patent dispute between Apple and Microsoft against Motorola Mobility.

Nokia kicks off US advertising campaign with a Beta Test, takes on the iPhone  —  There is little doubt that Nokia has the deep pockets, ingenuity and cleverness to make an effective advertising campaign for the AT&T Lumia 900.  The question is, when will “Operation Rolling Thunder” …

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 …