Google's Foray Into Hardware Will Be A Total Disaster — Here's Why  —  It's finally clear: Google is getting into the hardware business.  —  Last week, word came out that it was testing some sort of mysterious entertainment device in employees' homes.  —  Today the Wall Street Journal reported …

Apple is rushing to finalize apps for onstage iPad 3 demos and commercials  —  Now that the beans have been, mostly, spilled with regards to the early March announcement of the iPad 3, more information is coming forward about Apple's preparations for the event.

Ron Conway is a Silicon Valley startup's best friend  —  The prolific angel investor has rarely met an Internet startup he didn't like.  When it comes to picking the next big thing, there's a right way and a wrong way.  And then there's the Conway.  —  Ron Conway, with Coco, his rescue dog, photographed at their San Francisco home

Apple sues Samsung in Mannheim over patent based on which Munich court denied preliminary injunction last week  —  Apple does not let anyone off the hook too easily when it comes to patent litigation.  Samsung, which has so far also shown quite some perseverance, knows exactly what I mean.

‘Do Not Track’ Tool Promises Page Loads Up to Four Times Faster  —  “Do Not Track” technologies have become an increasingly standard part of the Internet today, offering users a variety of ways to protect their privacy as they surf the Web.  —  Yet while there are numerous anti-tracking tools …

Fire in the Hole!  Amazon May Ship 9-Inch Kindle by Midyear.  —  There's no question that Amazon's going to sell a lot of Kindle Fires this year.  And it might sell even more if it rolls out new and larger versions of the device.  And according to some, that's the plan.

Amazon: No plans to launch a standalone video service soon  —  Amazon has aggressively grown its Prime Instant Videos service over the past year, more than tripling the amount of content available to subscribers since launch.  And as Amazon continues to add more content to Prime Instant Video …

Big News: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA  —  Okay, things just got serious over ACTA.  In our post on Latvia bailing on signing ACTA, we noted that in joining with Poland and the Czech Republic, these were still much smaller European states, and unlikely to have too much of an impact.

Solving the attachment problem with SkyDrive … The attachment problem  —  Every day, the average office worker receives over 170 email messages a day, and sends over 35.  With that kind of volume, it's understandable that over half of the average work day consists of dealing with email.

Moto Exec on Android Upgrade Delays: It's The Hardware  —  Don't blame manufacturers' software customizations for holding up mobile phone upgrades to the new version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS), a top executive at Motorola said Wednesday.

Windows 8 Secrets: Windows 8 Is NOT Dropping The Start Button  —  There's been a lot of silliness and angst about Windows 8 supposedly dropping the Start button, the first time this central user interface has been absent from Windows since its debut in 1995.  There's just one problem: The Start button isn't going anywhere.

QWERTY FTW!  The Droid 4 Is Now Available, $199 From Verizon or $99 At Amazon  —  The Droid 4 has landed.  The fourth incarnation of the most important Android series is now on sale.  Verizon is hawking the phone for $199 with a two-year contact, but the phone is also available through Amazon where it's only $99 on-contract.

BitTorrent Piracy Doesn't Effect US Box Office Returns, Study Finds  —  With their unconditional support for SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, Hollywood is pressing hard for new legislation to curb piracy.  The studios want ‘rogue’ websites to be censored and are calling on Google and Internet providers to take responsibility.

W3C co-chair: Apple, Google power causing Open Web crisis  —  The dominance of Apple and Google mobile browsers is leading to a situation that's even worse for Web programming than the former dominance of Internet Explorer, a standards group leader warned today.

EU expected to approve Google's Motorola deal: sources  —  (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O) is expected to win approval next week from European regulators as well as U.S. antitrust authorities for its planned $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility (MMI.N), according to people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft: No plug-ins allowed on Windows on ARM  —  Summary: Microsoft has changed direction and is now disallowing browser plug-ins on Windows 8 on ARM devices, according to a blog post from the president of the Windows division.  —  As we Microsoft watchers continue to parse the 8,600-word post …

FBI: Steve Jobs had 2.65 GPA, avoided the gym, wasn't a communist  —  Steve Jobs shows off a Next computer in Redwood City, Calif., on April 4, 1991.  (Ben Margot / Associated Press)  —  We detailed the major tidbits from Steve Jobs' just-disclosed FBI files in an earlier post.

Cars That Tweet, Buy Tickets  —  As Distracted-Driving Push Fades, Auto Makers Will Let Drivers Check Facebook, Buy Movie Tickets  —  Undaunted by fear of safety regulations, auto makers are piling new technologies into their vehicles: everything from 17-inch dashboard screens to services that check Facebook and buy movie tickets.

iOS passes Mac OS in Share of Web Traffic Propelled by Record Sales for Mobile and Tablet Devices  —  Apple sold a historic number of mobile devices in 2011.  IDC reports that in 2011, Apple shipped 93.2 iPhone units and sold an impressive 40 million+ iPad units.

iTunes customers facing mysterious account hacks, disappearing gift card money  —  Scattered reports from customers suggest that Apple continues to have a difficult time combating hackers who are draining iTunes account balances and changing account information.

Aviary bringing photo-editing tech to Windows Phone apps  —  Aviary, a photo-editing tech startup backed by investors including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is placing a bet on Nokia and Windows Phone with plans to expand its platform to the Microsoft mobile operating system …

Foursquare Adds NFC Support To Its Android App  —  In addition to the updated “Explore” feature that rolled out to Foursquare's Android and iPhone applications this week, the social discovery service also added a special feature to its Android app that sort of flew under the radar: support for NFC.

Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Troll's Claim to Own the Interactive Web  —  TYLER, Texas — After threatening web companies for more than a decade, Michael Doyle and his patent-holding company Eola — named after the Irish word for knowledge — may be finished.

Apple Working on Hot 3D Eye-Tracking Interface for Gaming & iPhone!  —  On Date, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a hot 3D eye-tracking based interface that will be used for gaming, digital photography and videography …