Techmeme
April 18, 2012, 12:00 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
In Facebook Deal for Instagram, Board Was All But Out of Picture  —  On the morning of Sunday, April 8, Facebook Inc.'s youthful chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, alerted his board of directors that he intended to buy Instagram, the hot photo-sharing service.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Sources: current Windows Phone devices will not get ‘Apollo’ upgrade  —  Earlier today, a developer evangelist for Microsoft was quoted as saying that all Windows Phone devices would get an upgrade to the “next major version” of the operating system.  Now, a trusted source close to Microsoft tells us …
Brent Schlender / Fast Company:
The Lost Steve Jobs Tapes  —  A treasure trove of unearthed interviews, conducted by the writer who knew him best, reveals how Jobs's ultimate success at Apple can be traced directly to his so-called wilderness years.  —  If Steve Jobs's life were staged as an opera, it would be a tragedy in three acts.
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Square's Next Round Could Swipe a $4 Billion Valuation  —  Square is seeking to raise a fresh round of capital at a massive valuation of up to $4 billion, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.  —  If the company is successful, it will have quadrupled …
Ian Katz / Guardian:
Tim Berners-Lee: demand your data from Google and Facebook  —  Exclusive: world wide web inventor says personal data held online could be used to usher in new era of personalised services  —  Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the world wide web, has urged internet users to demand their personal data …
Ian Katz / Guardian:
Government urged to stop snooping bill  —  Exclusive: Extension of surveillance powers ‘a destruction of human rights’  —  The government's controversial plans to allow intelligence agencies to monitor the internet use and digital communications of every person in the UK suffered a fresh blow …
Fred Wilson / A VC:
The Twitter “Patent Hack”  —  Yesterday Twitter announced that they plan to amend the assignments agreements that they sign with their employees.  They call this proposed amendment the Innovator's Patent Agreement.  I've been aware of this effort inside of Twitter for a while and I like to call …
Mark Sullivan / PC World:
3G and 4G Wireless Speed Showdown: Which Networks Are Fastest?  —  We tested 3G and 4G wireless data transfer speeds—indoors and out—for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, at multiple locations in 13 major cities.  Here's what we found.  —  It's been a year since we looked closely …
Walt Mossberg / AllThingsD:
Permission to Procrastinate: Wait to Get a New Laptop  —  If you're thinking of buying a new laptop this spring, my advice is to think again.  Unless your laptop is on its last legs and you have to move quickly, there are compelling reasons to wait until at least the summer, and probably the fall …
More: TechEye and BuzzFeed
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
CEO Scott Thompson To Cut 50 Properties: “Yahoo Has Been Doing Way Too Much”  —  CEO Scott Thompson outlined his vision today for how Yahoo can start growing again.  His big theme: Focus, focus, focus.  —  “Yahoo has been doing way too much for too long and was only doing a few things really well,” Thompson said.
Erin Bury / BetaKit:
Coursera Launches Online Education Platform with $16 Million in Funding  —  Online educational marketplaces are on the rise, with tools like Udemy and Khan Academy allowing people of all ages to become an expert in any topic.  New company Coursera is targeting higher education …
Richard Sandomir / Media Decoder:
At London Olympics, NBC Says, 'If Cameras Are on It, We'll Stream It'  —  All 32 sports at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London will be streamed live at nbcolympics.com.  —  “The hot topic is always, 'Why don't you show all your sports live?'” said Rick Cordella, vice president and general manager of NBC Sports Digital Media.
Zach Epstein / BGR:
AT&T to launch HTC One X on May 6th for $199.99, pre-orders begin April 22nd [video]  —  AT&T announced on Wednesday that the HTC One X smartphone will launch on May 6th for $199.99 on contract.  Pre-orders will begin on April 22nd, in line with an earlier report from BGR.
Jamillah Knowles / The Next Web:
Google's Sergey Brin says coverage of his views on Internet freedom was “distorted”  —  Google co-founder Sergey Brin has published a post on his Google+ account seeking to clarify the article on Web freedom that ran in the Guardian on Sunday.  —  To describe his reasons for a further update …
Poornima Gupta / Reuters:
Apple investors brace for more turbulence  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc's results will be dissected more closely than ever next week, after a share swoon raised concerns on Wall Street that the stock's gravity-defying rally may be losing steam.  —  Five straight days of stock losses for the world's …
Elad Blog:
VC Signaling Coming Home To Roost  —  VC SIGNALING IS SCREWING UP THE ABILITY OF SOME COMPANIES TO RAISE A SERIES A … Dear Entrepreneur - remember that TechCrunch story you placed about your funding round that mentioned the VCs who invested in your seed round?
Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:
Backed With $1.5M, CircleUp Aims To Be The AngelList For Consumer And Retail Startups  —  The funding environment for technology-focused startups these days is getting to be a bit ridiculous, so some tech industry folks may need to use their imaginations for a second to understand this concept.
Andy Baio / Wired:
Memeorandum Colors 2012: Visualizing Bias on Political Blogs  —  I don't watch sports, but every four years, I lose myself in the horse race of the U.S. presidential elections.  That competition kicked off in earnest Monday, as Gallup started its daily tracking polls for the general election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:
Even after Apple's fix, 140k machines are still affected by Flashback malware  —  According to a post on the Symantec security blog, Apple's attempts to get rid of the Java-based Flashback malware that affected 600,000 computers haven't solved the problem completely.
Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:
iFixit spins off Dozuki CMS to let anyone make killer technical docs  —  As someone who used to write technical documentation for a living, I can assure you that nobody likes reading that crap.  But iFixit, the company that's become famous for its repair guides and gadget teardowns …
More: GigaOM and The Verge
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
Apple: Greenpeace's Cloud Math is Busted  —  A view of the huge roof of the Apple data center in Maiden, North Carolina.  Apple said today that the facility will use 20 megawatts of power, far less than an estimate by Greenpeace.  (Image: Apple).  —  Apple says it will use 20 megawatts …
Paul Sloan / CNET:
VC funding slumps in Q1, but get ready for ‘Instagram effect’  —  People looking for signs of a slowdown in tech funding could find ample evidence in the data for the first quarter.  CB Insights, which tracks investments of venture capital firms and some big angel investors …

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Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents: