Techmeme: The Nielsen Family Is Dead (Tom Vanderbilt/Wired)

March 20, 2013, 4:20 AM

Top News

U.S. Probes Microsoft, Partners Over Bribery Claims — Federal regulators are investigating Microsoft Corp.'s relationship with business partners that allegedly bribed foreign government officials in return for software contracts, according to people familiar with the matter.

More: CNET, Computerworld, The Register, Engadget, VentureBeat, ValueWalk, Betabeat and SlashGear

John Frank / TechNet Blogs:

Our Commitment to Compliance — Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government is reviewing allegations that Microsoft business partners in three countries may have engaged in illegal activity, and if they did, whether Microsoft played any role in these alleged incidents.

More: Forbes, New York Times, Network World, Bloomberg, BGR, Macgasm, Reuters, ZDNet and VatorNews

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Exhibit A in the Case That Newly-Hired Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch Is a Bozo, a Bad Hire — He wrote this, just three years ago: … Well, how'd that work out? Those companies and platforms are now either (a) out of business, (b) on the verge of going out of business, or (c) have abandoned Flash Player entirely.

Tweets: @stshank, @davewiner, @counternotions, @stevenlevy, @spencerchen and @anildash

Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:

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

More: ZDNet

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch to leave Adobe for Apple, report to Bob Mansfield

More: CNBC, AllThingsD, Business Wire, The Next Web, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, CNET, ReadWrite, Business Insider, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, CNET, Forbes, Electronista, iPhone Hacks, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac, App Advice, Engadget, Reuters, iMore, Fast Company, Mashable!, Mercury News, The Loop, Daring Fireball, The Verge, Gizmodo, The Register, SiliconBeat, Bloomberg, Tech Trader Daily, Bloomberg Tech Blog and ParisLemon

Tweets: @cnbc, @jonfortt, @mikebeas, @cnbc, @brandonbailey, @gruber and @panzer

Thanks:@zaccoffman

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

ReadWrite Editor-In-Chief Dan Lyons, A.K.A. Fake Steve Jobs, Is Leaving For Hubspot — Dan Lyons, the editor-in-chief at tech blog ReadWrite, is leaving for a position at marketing software company Hubspot. We heard the news from knowledgeable sources, and the part about Lyons' departure …

Tweets: @ablaze, @glennf, @johnwilson, @realdanlyons, @stevekovach, @qthrul, @fmanjoo and @counternotions

Lauren Goode / AllThingsD:

Jawbone Takes Next Step in Fitness-Tracking Race, Launches UP for Android — Four months after its re-launch on iPhone, the Jawbone UP activity tracker is finally coming to Android. — The Jawbone UP wristband and compatible mobile app will now work the with the Samsung Galaxy SII …

More: VentureBeat, Engadget, TechCrunch, CNET, The Next Web, TechHive, ZDNet, Gizmodo and The Verge

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Amazon in talks with record labels about subscription music service — Subscription music is all the rage with the big Web music stores — Subscription music services have yet to profit but that hasn't stopped some of the internet's biggest media distributors from jumping into the business.

More: GeekWire, CNET and Pocket-lint

Ethan Smith / Digits:

End of an Era for eMusic, Subscription Music Pioneer

More: Billboard, Engadget, CNET and SlashGear

Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo in Talks to Buy Stake in Video Site Dailymotion — Yahoo Inc. is in talks to buy a controlling stake in France Telecom SA's online-video site Dailymotion, according to people familiar with the talks, in what would be Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's first major acquisition since taking over the Internet pioneer last year.

More: CNET, The Verge, Reuters, The Next Web, Los Angeles Times, ReelSEO Video Marketing, VentureBeat and Neowin. See also Mediagazer

Eric Schmidt / Times of India:

Which internet will India choose? — We are living in an unparalleled time for technological progress. In 10 years, it will be almost impossible to describe to any child in India what life was like before the internet. — Only about two billion of the world's seven billion people …

More: The Next Web, VentureBeat and memeburn

Tweets: @javed_del and @vjkaruna

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

The 49ers' plan to build the greatest stadium Wi-Fi network of all time — 49ers CTO Kunal Malik (left) and Senior IT director Dan Williams (right) stand in front of Santa Clara Stadium. — When the San Francisco 49ers' new stadium opens for the 2014 NFL season, it is quite likely …

More: bizjournals, Engadget and The Verge

Tom Vanderbilt / Wired:

The Nielsen Family Is Dead — From Game of Thrones to the new Arrested Development, television is better than ever. And it's not just a lucky accident. Turns out that networks and advertisers are using all-new metrics to design hit shows. Under these new rules, Twitter feeds are as important …

More: Social News Daily, Lost Remote and Gizmodo. See also Mediagazer

Will Connors / Digits:

BlackBerry Co-Founders Bankroll $100 Million Quantum-Science Fund — The two men who started BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. some 30 years ago are bankrolling a $100 million investment fund targeting commercial applications for advancements in quantum science.

More: Bloomberg, CNET, The Verge and NYT Bits

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

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 …

More: CNET, The Next Web, Engadget, SlashGear and Yahoo! News

Tweets: @biz and @thematthewkeys

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

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 …

More: CNET, Google Fiber Blog, bizjournals, bizjournals, FierceCable and Engadget

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

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.

More: CNET, PhoneArena and The Verge

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

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 …

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @danvdk. See also Mediagazer

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Nvidia CEO unveils next two gens of Tegra, dubbed Logan, Parker — Jen-Hsun Huang says the company's mobile chip will show 100-times improvement from the first generation to the fifth. — Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang today talked up the chipmaker's next two generations of mobile chip …

More: VentureBeat, ZDNet, Android Phone Fans, Engadget, VentureBeat, PC World, Ars Technica, Inquirer, PhoneArena, The Verge, WinBeta, NVIDIA, The Register, MobileSyrup.com, Pocketnow, AnandTech, Inquirer, Droid Life and IntoMobile

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Nvidia introduces its own Grid-based server: the Visual Computing Appliance

More: NVIDIA, ZDNet and Reuters

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft tempts Windows developers with $100 cash for new apps — Microsoft wants Windows 8 and Windows Phone developers to create apps for its platforms, and it's tempting them by offering up hard cash. In a new US marketing effort, Microsoft is offering developers $100 per app …

More: ZDNet, WinBeta, GeekWire, Neowin and Windows Phone Central

Don Reisinger / CNET:

What 420,000 insecure devices reveal about Web security — Using a simple technique, a researcher creates a benign botnet to survey the breadth of the Internet, and finds a back door flung wide open and beckoning the bad guys. — A researcher used a simple, binary technique to take control …

More: ZDNet, The Register, TechNet Blogs, Computerworld, The H Security and Securosis Highlights

Frank Konkel / Federal Computer Week:

Sources: Amazon and CIA ink cloud deal — In a move sure to send ripples through the federal IT community, FCW has learned that the CIA has agreed to a cloud computing contract with electronic commerce giant Amazon, worth up to $600 million over 10 years. — Amazon Web Services will help …

More: Business Insider, Ars Technica, Network World, TechSpot, The Register, ValueWalk, CNET, GigaOM and GeekWire

Tweets: @joemoreno, @davewiner and @benkepes

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

BlackBerry software ruled not safe enough for essential government work — Computer Experts Security Group rejects BB10 software in new Z10 handset, dealing blow to Canadian firm in key market — BlackBerry's new BB10 software has been rejected by the British government as not secure enough …

More: ZDNet, CNET, ValueWalk, Pocket-lint, n4bb.com, Electronista and The Register

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

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?

Tweets: @dujkan. Thanks:@sidharthdassani

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

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 …

More: Computerworld and Daily Dot

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

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.

More: Kindle Post US, The Verge and TechCrunch

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Chameleon botnet steals millions from advertisers with fake mouseclicks — Security researchers have discovered a botnet that is stealing millions of dollars per month from advertisers. The botnet does so by simulating click-throughs on display ads hosted on at least 202 websites.

More: Spider.io, Adweek, CNET, AdExchanger, paidContent, ITworld.com, VentureBeat, Digiday, Help Net Security, The Verge, Poynter, TechCrunch and The Register. See also Mediagazer

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Facebook Isn't Holding Back Their Growth: MessageMe Raises $1.9M And Grabs 1M Users — MessageMe, the multimedia messaging app that got smacked by Facebook last week, isn't letting that hurdle set back their growth. — The company said today that it has more than 1 million users …

More: MessageMe, Tech in Asia, digitaltrends.com, Betabeat, VatorNews, FierceMobileContent News and VentureBeat

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