Amazon Rumored To Be Working On A $99 7-Inch Kindle Fire HD  —  How low will Amazon's tablets go?  We're now hearing that a $99 Kindle Fire 7″ tablet is in production, and will be shipping this year.  At a price that low, the Kindle Fire would be able to more easily compete at the tail end …

Walmart adds iPhone scan-and-checkout feature to 12 more markets  —  (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it is tripling the number of U.S. stores in a pilot program that lets shoppers scan items with their iPhones and pay at self-checkout counters.  —  Walmart's “Scan & Go” …

Why did Apple hire Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch?  —  Just hours after word leaked that Apple had poached Adobe's chief technology officer, the Internet is ablaze with the question of what, exactly, the iPhone maker plans to do with Kevin Lynch.  —  Source: Adobe  —  No Flash in the pan

South Korea network attack ‘a computer virus’  —  Staff at broadcaster YTN were faced with error messages on computer screens  —  Disruption that paralysed the computer networks of broadcasters and banks in South Korea appears to have been caused by a virus, an official close to the investigation has told the BBC.

Microsoft pokes at Samsung Galaxy S3 in high-profile Windows Phone ad  —  Microsoft is getting more aggressive in its attempt to drum up attention for Windows Phone.  —  The company announced today that it's planning to air the “Windows Phone Challenge” ad above starting this week during …

Disconnect: why Andy Rubin and Android called it quits  —  Rubin created Google's mobile operating system and outgunned the iPhone.  So why is he moving on after almost a decade at the helm?

After getting booted from the Google Play store, Adblock Plus releases new Android app with automatic updates  —  Google recently started removing several ad-blocking applications from its mobile app marketplace, Google Play, claiming that they violate part (section 4.4) of its Developer Distribution Agreement.

Amazon launches “Send to Kindle” button for web publishers and WordPress blogs  —  Amazon is now allowing publishers to add “Send to Kindle” buttons to their websites and WordPress blogs, the company announced on the Kindle blog Tuesday.  It can be integrated into WordPress blogs as well.

Klout launches business portal, is gunning for brands  —  The social scoring startup is making a play for business users with new enterprise features that begin rolling out today.  —  FORTUNE — Klout, the analytics startup that aims to measure users' influence across their social networks, is going after businesses.

Google's NCAA bracket demonstrates how far it has strayed from its original promise  —  Once upon a time, Google was the best search engine in the land.  It cut through all the other Web portal noise to just give you plain results.  Along the way, Google realized that there are actually nice benefits …

Yahoo acquires personalized recommendation startup Jybe, started by five former Yahoo employees  —  Yahoo on Wednesday announced it has acquired personalized recommendation company Jybe, which aimed to help people find new interests based on what's trending in their social circles.

H-P Board Faces Critical Vote  —  Autonomy Founder Calls for Evidence of Allegations Made Against U.K. Software Firm's Former Management  —  Hewlett-Packard Co. may see an unusual amount of fireworks at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, with several board members facing opposition to their re-election.

T-Mobile ‘UnCarrier’ plans possibly leaked, make unlimited talk and text a given (updated)  —  T-Mobile made much ado at CES of its desire to become the “UnCarrier,” with steps away from subsidies and the usual complexities of smartphones.  Thanks to tipsters, we have a better sense of what the provider meant.

Microsoft confirms ‘high-profile’ employee Xbox Live accounts hacked  —  The hack used SSNs in a “stringed social engineering” attack involving another company  —  As more of the story about the simultaneous cyber attack and real-world “Swatting” carried out against security researcher Brian Krebs comes …

Inside Oculus: a tour of virtual reality's would-be savior  —  A small California-based team is burning the midnight oil to put goggles on your head  —  On the fourth floor of a fourteen-story California skyscraper, a stone's throw from UC Irvine, a tiny startup named Oculus is trying to bring the idea of virtual reality back to life.

Google to Offer Internet Service in Olathe, Kansas  —  Google Inc. said Tuesday it would offer high-speed Internet service in the city of Olathe, Kan., a Kansas City suburb with around 125,000 residents.  —  The plan marks the first expansion of Google Fiber, an Internet and video service …

Samsung lock screen flaw found; company working on fix  —  The flaw requires several steps to work, but would let someone run and interact with any app or widget, and access the settings menu.  —  A security researcher has revealed a method for accessing applications running on a locked Samsung handset.

Self-Reliance  —  The mobile market, everyone agrees, is the technology industry's future.  What's not so clear is which company is best positioned to thrive in that future.  —  For smartphones in particular, the traditional metrics are confusing.  Android has 70% market share, but Apple is taking 70% of the profit.

ShareThis Aims For Mobile, With $23M Series C Led By T-Venture, Acquisition Of Social App Platform, Socialize  —  Palo Alto-based publisher platform ShareThis, the maker of those “social sharing” buttons scattered across the web, is today announcing having closed on $23 million in Series C financing …

Xbox ‘Durango’ leak claims console is ‘always connected,’ games must be installed to hard disk  —  Last month we heard rumors of an anti-used game system for Microsoft's next-generation ‘Durango’ Xbox console, but an additional leak this week appears to reinforce those claims.

Twitter gets a patent on... Twitter  —  Although Twitter famously has a pending patent on the familiar “pull-to-refresh” gesture, the company may have just acquired something more valuable: a patent on the Twitter messaging service itself.  The new patent issued today with Twitter founders Jack Dorsey …