Apple Dominates Best-Paid as Board Retains Jobs Deputies  —  Four of the five highest-paid employees at Standard & Poor's 500 companies aren't chief executive officers.  They're Apple Inc. (AAPL) senior lieutenants receiving compensation packages designed to keep management intact in an increasingly competitive industry.

Dish Launches $25.5 Billion Bid for Sprint  —  Satellite-TV provider Dish Network Corp. is making a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp., an effort to derail the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier's acquisition by Softbank Corp. of Japan.  —  Dish is offering to pay $4.76 in cash and about $2.24 …

Foxconn Steps Up Hiring As Apple Readies New iPhone  —  TAIPEI—Foxconn Technology Group has resumed hiring assembly-line workers in China after a postholiday freeze, in the latest sign that major customer Apple Inc. is gearing up for production of the new iPhone.

How Microsoft Quietly Built the City of the Future  —  A small, covert team of engineers at Microsoft cast aside suggestions that the company spend US$60 million to turn its 500-acre headquarters into a smart campus to achieve energy savings and other efficiency gains.

Mozilla Will Debut Firefox OS in Five Countries in June  —  Mozilla, the nonprofit foundation behind the Firefox browser, is bringing its engineering acumen to bear on a new mobile operating system, Firefox OS.  And it plans to debut this year.  —  But when exactly does the company plan to launch it?

Trader admits fraud in $1 billion Apple stock scheme  —  (Reuters) - A former Rochdale Securities trader whose unauthorized purchase of about $1 billion of Apple Inc stock caused the demise of the financial services company pleaded guilty on Monday to wire fraud and conspiracy.

Comcast confirms: Yes, we're encrypting basic cable now  —  Comcast customers, get ready for yet another TV transition: The cable provider has started to alert its customers in some markets that it is about to encrypt their basic cable signals, forcing them to order a digital adapter …

YouTube adds support for live streaming on iOS with latest update  —  When Coachella streamed its concerts on YouTube this weekend, iOS users may have been disappointed to discover that the YouTube app didn't support live broadcasts.  Now, Google is adding live event streaming to iOS, albeit a little late.

IBM executives head to Washington to press lawmakers on cybersecurity bill  —  Nearly 200 senior IBM executives are flying into Washington to press for the passage of a controversial cybersecurity bill that will come up for a vote in the House this week.  —  The IBM executives will pound …

EA backs off from Facebook in a big way  —  In a surprise announcement, Electronic Arts today revealed that it is retiring a number of its biggest Facebook games, including The Sims Social.  —  The Sims Social in particular has been extremely popular in the past, with 10 million daily active users recorded towards the end of 2011.

Facebook and State Attorneys General Team Up to Educate Teens and Parents about Privacy  —  While some reports indicate that teen Facebook use is on the decline, Facebook along with the National Association of Attorneys General are about to become laser focused on educating that younger demographic …

BitTorrent Surf Beta Launches Today On Chrome And Firefox  —  In early January, we launched an Alpha of BitTorrent Surf, a Chrome plugin that brings BitTorrent to your browser.  —  Today, we're ready to catch bigger waves.  Yep.  Puns.  We went there.  With big thanks and props to our Alpha users …

In wake of Boston tragedy, Google launches Person Finder  —  As it has done for every major tragedy in the last three years, starting with the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Google has launched a Person Finder for Boston.  —  One of the primary strains for those with friends and family in areas …

Kobo unveils limited edition Aura HD e-reader: 6.8-inch HD screen, ships April 25th for $169 (hands-on)  —  Late last year, Kobo went small.  The introduction of the 5-inch Mini was no doubt, at least in part, an attempt to offer up a bit of variety in a space whose parameters are largely defined …

‘Lean In’ Software Goes Corporate  —  The networking technology that powers Sheryl Sandberg's “Lean In” campaign has its own ambitions to rise inside corporations.  —  “Lean In” is the best-selling book written by Ms. Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, with Nell Scovell.

Scammers in China Exploit Apple to Turn Fake iPhones into Real Ones  —  Apple has been taking quite a bit of stick over the last month for its after-sales service practices in China, and perhaps rightfully so.  But instead of being exploited by Apple, police have discovered …

Linux Foundation takes over Xen, enlists Amazon in war to rule the cloud  —  The Linux Foundation has taken control of the open source Xen virtualization platform and enlisted a dozen industry giants in a quest to be the leading software for building cloud networks.