Techmeme
February 4, 2013, 8:20 PM

Top News

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
Twitter Makes Big Acquisition, Buys Social TV Analytics Company Bluefin Labs  —  Twitter has acquired Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company that was founded in 2008, sources say.  Although we don't know the exact acquisition price, we were told this is Twitter's biggest acquisition to date.
Douglas MacMillan / Bloomberg:
Facebook Is Said to Create Mobile Location-Tracking App  —  Facebook Inc. (FB) is developing a smartphone application that will track the location of users, two people with knowledge of the matter said, bolstering efforts to benefit from growing use of social media on mobile computers.
Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:
AOL In Talks To Buy Gdgt, The Consumer Electronics Review Site Started By Former Engadget Founders  —  I'm hearing that gdgt (pronounced 'gadget'), the consumer electronics review site founded by Engadget co-founder Peter Rojas and former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block, is in late-stage acquisition talks with AOL.
Paul Smith / Financial Review:
Nokia chief suggests Windows tablets on the way  —  Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop has given the clearest indication yet that the Finnish mobile phone stalwart will soon make its assault on the booming tablet computer market, and a windows-based device is the most likely starting point.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
“Evasi0n” Overloads Servers As Over 270,000 People Download The New Jailbreak For iOS 6.0/6.1 Devices, Including iPhone 5  —  Jailbreaking has returned, and already servers are overloaded.  Today, a group of iOS hackers styling themselves as the Evad3rs team has released a usable jailbreak for the iPhone 5 …
Matt McGee / Marketing Land:
Game Over: Twitter Mentioned In 50% Of Super Bowl Commercials, Facebook Only 8%, Google+ Shut Out  —  The Baltimore Ravens just beat the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XLVII in a game that came down to the final seconds.  But online, the social network showdown belonged to Twitter …
Kate Kaye / AdAge:
Facebook to Make Targeted Ads More Transparent For Users  —  Move Is Another Step Toward Web-Wide Ad Network  —  Facebook is about to get more transparent in the way it targets advertising at its users.  —  The social network has agreed to start displaying the little blue “AdChoices” …
Cade Metz / Wired:
Meet the Data Brains Behind the Rise of Facebook  —  Jay Parikh sits at a desk inside Building 16 at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and his administrative assistant, Genie Samuel, sits next to him.  Every so often, Parikh will hear her giggle, and that means she just tagged …
Wall Street Journal:
Dell Nears $23 Billion Deal to Go Private  —  Dell Inc. on Monday was close to finishing a $23 billion deal to take itself private at between $13.50 and $13.75 a share, said people familiar with the matter, in a buyout that marks an unofficial end to the era when a handful of young entrepreneurs made PCs the dominant computing device.
More: Reuters, BGR and ZDNet
Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:
Beginning This Week, Expect to See a Lot Fewer Spammy Actions on Facebook  —  If there's one thing I hate about Facebook, it's reading about my friends' every single action.  The launch of Open Graph in 2011 made this possible, as developers began to create apps that automatically posted …
Tweets: @mathewi
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Businessweek:
Hillary Clinton Helps Silicon Valley on Her Way Out the Door  —  Taking the podium in the State Department's Ben Franklin Room one last time on Thursday before stepping down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked lots of people, offered reminiscences, and announced a flurry of last-minute initiatives.
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
New FCC ‘Super Wi-Fi’ Initative Not Really New  —  White Space Broadband Still Running Political Gauntlet  —  The Washington Post's Cecilia Kang is exciting numerous people this morning by noting the FCC is pushing for a new, free “Super Wi-Fi” initiative that would deploy wireless service …
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
BlackBerry Z10 Off to a Strong Start in U.K.  —  A frame from the BlackBerry Z10 Superbowl ad.  —  We are still in the very early days of Research In Motion's attempted rebirth, so it's impossible to make even a reasonably accurate call on its prospects.  But some early sales data suggests …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Web Traffic Was Down 15 Percent During Super Bowl  —  Yes, you could stream the Super Bowl on the Web yesterday.  But most of you didn't.  And while a lot of you were Tweeting or Facebooking during the game, a lot of you stayed away from the Web during the game, period.
Steven Singer / Associated Press:
Amazon to collect Conn. sales tax, ending dispute  —  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Amazon has agreed to collect Connecticut's sales tax, ending a dispute over the tax that the online retailer had refused to charge its customers, state officials and the company said Monday.
Tomio Geron / Forbes:
FreedomPop Plans ‘LTE Clip’ To Give Free LTE To iPad, Android Tablets  —  FreedomPop, the free Wi-Fi company that is looking to disrupt the ISP and broadband markets, is now planning to get into tablets.  —  The startup plans to release a new addition to its product line: a FreedomPop …
Jennifer Van Grove / CNET:
Study: People don't use or understand digital wallets  —  Digital wallets from Square, Visa, MasterCard, and others have a major perception problem, a study from comScore found.  —  The digital wallet has been anointed by many as the future of payments.  In the present, however …
More: PR Newswire and ZDNet
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:
In conversation with Microsoft's Tami Reller: Inside the soul of Windows 8  —  TNW was fortunate to sit with Tami Reller, Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Windows to discuss Windows 8′s progress, OEM position, and future last week.  This post is divided into short topical segments.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
GameStop's Kongregate to invest $10M in mobile game developers  —  The world's biggest game retailer is building more bridges into the digital realm, as GameStop's Kongregate division announced it's investing $10 million into mobile game developers.  Like other companies that are expanding …
Nicole Perlroth / NYT Bits:
Energy Department Is the Latest Victim of an Online Attack  —  The Energy Department was hit by an online attack last month that compromised the personal data of several hundred employees.  —  In an e-mail sent to employees Friday evening, the agency confirmed that hackers penetrated computers …

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Sean Hollister / The Verge: