Techmeme
April 18, 2012, 8:05 PM

Top News

Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:
With Instagram Deal, Facebook Shows Its Worth  —  To win over Instagram, Facebook was forced to show its hand.  —  In early April, Facebook bought the photo-sharing service for $1 billion, agreeing to pay roughly 30 percent in cash and 70 percent in stock, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
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.
Sergey Brin / Google+:
I believe the internet has been one of the greatest forces for good in the world over the past quarter century.  So when the Guardian requested that I speak to them over the past few months about internet freedom, I decided it was important to participate.  —  I think the article is a pretty …
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 …
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 …
Leslie Horn / Gizmodo:
AT&T Stores Are Almost Completely Out of Lumia 900 Stock  —  Both Nokia and Microsoft need the Lumia 900 to succeed.  Windows Phone is struggling.  So is the once-top handset maker.  But while they and AT&T has been pushing the Lumia 900 hard it looks like the carrier just doesn't have enough to go around.
Stuart Dredge / Guardian:
Draw Something gets more social with chat and Facebook/Twitter sharing  —  Dan Porter talks new features, TV possibilities and localisation plans for popular game.  By Stuart Dredge  —  50m downloads and a $180m acquisition by Zynga later, hit mobile game Draw Something is getting even more social with its latest update.
Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future  —  After five years pursuing the social-local-mobile dream, we need a fresh paradigm for technology startups.  —  We're there.  The future that visionaries imagined in the late 1990s of phones in our pockets and high-speed Internet in the air: Well, we're living in it.
Ben Kuchera / Penny Arcade Report:
The ugly side of Kickstarter: the risks in backing game dev campaigns are greater than you think  —  The Penny Arcade Report has an email address for story leads and tips, and a significant percentage of those “tips” are solicitations for coverage of indie game Kickstarter projects.
More: Bloomberg
Laura Stampler / Business Insider:
Tumblr Will Start Selling Ad Units On May 2  —  In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Tumblr CEO and founder David Karp said, “We're pretty opposed to advertising.  It really turns our stomachs.”  —  How times have changed.  Karp announced at Ad Age's Digital Conference that on May 2 …
Biz Stone / Obvious:
Why Obvious Invested in Neighborland  —  We need only glance at the headlines—from Arab Spring to Occupy—to understand that people are passionate about connecting over issues.  We all have issues, big and small.  Toppling oppressive regimes and protesting corruption are appropriately top of mind.
Grant McCool / Reuters:
Apple wants trial on e-book price-fixing: lawyer  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc wants to go to trial to defend itself against U.S. government allegations that it conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books, a lawyer for the Silicon Valley giant said in court on Wednesday.
Robert McMillan / Wired:
Amazon's Secretive Cloud Carries 1 Percent of the Internet  —  An Amazon data center in Sterling, Virginia.  Photo: Eric Hunsaker/Flickr  —  Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure is growing so fast that it's silently becoming a core piece of the internet.
More: GeekWire
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 …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
AT&T unveils new GoPhone data packages: twice the bandwidth or better for the same price  —  AT&T just announced new GoPhone data packages for prepaid customers that essentially offer double the bandwidth (or better) at the same pricing tiers as before.  The new monthly rates take effect April 22nd …
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Google Cloud Print can now “print” to an Android device or local FedEx store  —  Although modern computing devices and software offer much richer ways to consume, manipulate, and share content, there are still people who prefer to put their documents and images on slices of dead tree.
Greg Sterling / Marketing Land:
Time's “Most Influential” List Snubs Zuckerberg, Googlers, Includes Tim Cook, Marc Andreesen  —  People love rankings, lists — and awards.  And publishers love them too because the sell issues and drive page views.  Lists and awards inspire jealousy and envy and they're often controversial accordingly.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Verizon Aims New Data Package at Global Travelers  —  Aiming to make international cellphone use slightly less excruciatingly expensive, Verizon Wireless announced a new $25 plan that gives users 100 megabytes of data when traveling; it will be available in 120 countries.
Barb Darrow / GigaOM:
Amazon, seeking to relieve partner angst, launches partner program  —  Amazon, the provider of public cloud services which have — at times - made its technology partners nervous, is launching an official partner program.  —  The new AWS Partner Network, (APN) targets ISVs, SaaS companies …

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Earlier Picks

Erin Bury / BetaKit: