Exclusive: super-early iPhone prototype had 5″x7″ screen, serial port  —  What did the iPhone look like before it looked like an iPhone?  —  That's one big iPhone  —  This iPhone prototype was a lot closer to the size of an iPad than an iPhone at 5"×7" and nearly 2" thick.

Sprint Will Have an All-Touch BlackBerry This Year, but It's Not the Z10  —  Sprint may have chosen to take a pass on the first all-touch BlackBerry 10 device, but it isn't planning to sit out that part of the market.  —  The No. 3 U.S. carrier plans to launch an all-touch BlackBerry-10-powered device …

LinkedIn to Buy Pulse Newsreader for More than $50M  —  LinkedIn will buy San Francisco-based newsreader appmaker Pulse, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.  —  The price of the acquisition is in the tens of millions, they said — between $50 million to $100 million.

YouTube Co-founder Prepping Possible Rival  —  YouTube has had its share of competition over the years.  Companies like Vimeo and DailyMotion (plus copyright lawsuits and crushing overhead costs) led Chad Hurley and the video-sharing site's co-founders to sell YouTube to Google.

Pictures of GT-I9502 leaked, could this be the Galaxy S IV?  —  A Chinese forum has published plethora of pictures of GT-I9502.  Images reveal a lot of things on the hardware front and most importantly, the design.  Interestingly, the forum poster claims it to be a dual-SIM version of the Galaxy S IV for China Unicom.

Google updates design of Gmail's web and offline apps for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Kindle Fire users  —  Google on Monday announced an update to its Gmail mobile Web app and Gmail Offline.  The company says the new release is available to Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Kindle Fire users …

Computer Algorithms Rely Increasingly on Human Helpers  —  Trading stocks, targeting ads, steering political campaigns, arranging dates, besting people on “Jeopardy” and even choosing bra sizes: computer algorithms are doing all this work and more.  —  But increasingly, behind the curtain …

Zombie Startups  —  To get the full effect, press play on the track above and start reading.  —  My greatest fear as a startup founder isn't to fail, it is to become a zombie startup.  Kind of like in the 6th Sense when Bruce Willis doesn't realize he is dead and tries to have a nice dinner with his wife …

Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams  —  “See!  That s**t keeps popping up on my f**king computer!” says a blond woman as she leans back on a couch, bottle-feeding a baby on her lap.  —  The woman is visible from thousands of miles away on a hacker's computer.

Bit.ly CEO Peter Stern Steps Down From The URL Shortening And Analytics Company  —  Today, Bit.ly has announced that its CEO, Peter Stern, has stepped down as CEO in a statement on their blog.  The reason is that Stern is pursuing other interests, although other details aren't known at this time.

In Wake of Cyberattacks, China Seeks New Rules  —  SHANGHAI — China has issued a new call for international “rules and cooperation” on Internet espionage issues, while insisting that accusations of Chinese government involvement in recent hacking attacks were part of an international smear campaign.

Amazon's Quest for Web Names Draws Foes  —  Large and small companies are vying for control of an array of new Internet domain names, but Amazon.com Inc.'s plans are coming under particular scrutiny.  —  Two publishing industry groups, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers …

Microsoft really wants students to use Office 365, offers 6 months free & 20GB SkyDrive storage  —  Microsoft has launched a new campaign to hook students on Office 365 University by offering up six months of the service and an extra 20GB of SkyDrive cloud storage for free.

Real Estate Site Trulia Files For $150M Follow-On Offering For More Acquisitions, Possibly Mergers  —  Get ready for some more M&A activity in the real estate sector.  This morning, the real estate search engine Trulia announced that it is looking to raise up to $150 million in a follow-on offering …

Microsoft enabling Flash by default in Internet Explorer 10 starting March 12th  —  Microsoft has just announced that it will permit Flash content to run by default in both Windows RT and Windows 8 beginning tomorrow, March 12th.  Until now, compatibility in Internet Explorer 10 has been limited …

Insight: On Facebook, app makers face a treacherous path  —  (Reuters) - Last spring, the future for Viddy, a video-sharing Facebook app, seemed as sunny as southern California's skies.  —  Based a block away from Venice Beach, the 30-person startup impressed prospective investors …

Apple Closer To Solution Regarding Brazilian iPhone Trademark Dispute  —  Apple is closer to solving its trademark dispute with Brazilian telecommunications service firm IGB Eletronica.  IGB owns the brand Gradiente, which in March 2000 asked the Brazilian Industrial Property Institute …

3D-Printable Gun Project Announces Plans For A For-Profit Search Engine Startup  —  For the last six months, Cody Wilson and his non-profit group Defense Distributed have worked towards a controversial goal: To make as many firearm components as possible into 3D-printable, downloadable files.

TiVo Mini launches for $99.99, pulls content from the living room for a monthly fee  —  Have a TiVo in your living room but don't want to pay for one in every room in your house?  The TiVo Mini extender box is now on sale for $99.99, letting you stream pre-recorded shows from your main TiVo or borrow one of its tuners to watch live TV.

Carl Icahn Signs ‘Confidentiality Agreement’ To Look at Dell  —  Carl Icahn has reached a pact with Dell Inc. that allows him to look at the company's books.  —  The activist investor's firm has signed a “confidentiality agreement” with the computer maker, he revealed today without providing many more details.