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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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?

Meet Xiaomi, the Biggest Smartphone Company You've Never Heard Of  —  Xiaomi may not be the biggest smartphone company in China, but it's probably the fastest-growing.  And if you haven't yet heard of it, you will soon.  Xiaomi sold 7.19 million handsets in 2012, and expects to sell double that number this year.

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.

Netflix plans its move from Microsoft Silverlight to HTML5 video  —  Last month Google announced that Netflix was now available on ARM-based Samsung Chromebooks thanks to the use of HTML5 video — and now the streaming service has outlined its larger plans to eventually move to the format for all computers.

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 …

Kodak Agrees to $210 Million Imaging Sale to Brother  —  Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ), the bankrupt photography pioneer, agreed to sell document-imaging assets to Japanese office-equipment company Brother Industries Ltd. (6448) for about $210 million, setting the minimum bid for an auction.

Google Glass API documentation now live, Glassware sample code provided  —  Google painted the broad strokes of its Mirror API for Glass at SXSW in March, and now it's released comprehensive documentation, replete with example code.  Despite the fact that the application program interface …

More Cracks in Television's Business Model  —  For the longest time in the media business, the concept of the bundle has been foundational.  Ads go with editorial content in print, commercials go with programming on television and the channels you desire are paired with ones you did not in your cable package.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …