Mark Zuckerberg Is The Voice Behind The “Poke” Notification Sound And Wrote Code For The App  —  Mark Zuckerberg invented Poking, one of Facebook's earliest features, so it's fitting he was part of the small team that built the new Poke app over the last 12 days.

Amazon Is Ripe For Disruption  —  Amazon, the great disintermediator that put a spanner — in fact, a set of 25 spanners in a handy case, yours for just $9.99 — in the businesses of many a retailer, is going to face exactly the same fate if it doesn't start to address its weaknesses soon, particularly in the area of publishing.

Google finds its design voice on iOS  —  From the beginning, Google's design sensibilities on the web and Android have been unique.  Whether you were a fan of the spare, utilitarian feel of products like Search or not, you knew when you were looking at something built by Google.

Instagram Reversal Doesn't Appease Everyone  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook may have quelled a full-scale rebellion by quickly dumping the contentious new terms of use for Instagram, its photo-sharing service.  But even as the social network furiously backpedaled, some users said Friday they were carrying through on plans to leave.

Flickr offers three months of free Pro access to new and existing users  —  Flickr, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Yahoo, has given an early Christmas present to all users, offering three months of its Pro service for free.  Pro accounts generally cost $24.95 per year and offer …

iOS 6 bug reenables JavaScript in Safari without user consent  —  The Safari browser in Apple's iOS 6 platform has a potentially serious JavaScript bug that could have major security and privacy implications.  —  The new “Smart App Banner” feature in iOS 6 is designed to allow developers …

Mozilla backpedals on Firefox 64-bit for Windows, will keep nightly builds coming after all  —  Last month, Mozilla Engineering Manager Benjamin Smedberg quietly announced that the 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows would never see the light of day.  After what he referred to as …

The New York Times Paywall Is Working Better Than Anyone Had Guessed  —  The New York Times instituted a paywall on its website last year, a controversial move that has yielded great results.  —  Ever since the New York Times rolled out its so-called paywall in March 2011, a perennial dispute has waged.

Apple Airs New iPad mini Commercial: I'll Be Home  —  Just in time for Christmas, Apple has aired a new TV commercial for the iPad mini.  Focused on FaceTime, the commercial shows a girl and her grandfather sharing a moment of holiday cheer with the girl playing and singing the classic hit “I'll Be Home for Christmas”.

Apple lifts block on combo 30-pin+Lightning charging accessories  —  The POP station from Kickstarter aimed to combine Lightning and 30-pin connectors into a single charging device.  —  The Kickstarter campaign that was “shut down” by Apple for creating a charging station that had both Lightning …