Techmeme
March 16, 2012, 1:50 PM

Top News

Lukas Mathis / ignore the code:
The New iPad's Screen Under the Microscope  —  Like any self-respecting UI designer, I have a cheap digital microscope sitting on my desk.1 Here are some pictures comparing a bunch of different screens.  They're all taken at approximately the same magnification.2
Josh Lowensohn / CNET:
Will Retina-ready iPad apps explode in size?  Not necessarily  —  In case you hadn't heard, the sky is falling. iPad apps as we've known them are about to get super-sized and are now on a collision course with whatever space you thought you had on your iPad—old or new.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Retina iPad Apps To Test Tonight And Tomorrow  —  The new iPad nears.  Apparently Walmart will be selling them in just a few short hours, well before Apple itself does tomorrow morning.  Meanwhile, the first direct-to-consumer shipments should be hitting anytime now.
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Chris O'Brien / SiliconBeat:
James Bamford / Wired:
The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)  —  The spring air in the small, sand-dusted town has a soft haze to it, and clumps of green-gray sagebrush rustle in the breeze.  Bluffdale sits in a bowl-shaped valley in the shadow of Utah's Wasatch Range to the east and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west.
Julia Angwin / Wall Street Journal:
Google in New Privacy Probes  —  Regulators in the U.S. and European Union are investigating Google Inc. for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple Inc.'s Safari Web browser, according to people familiar with the investigations.  Google stopped the practice last month …
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Satisfaction, Thy Name Is iPhone  —  Here's a data point sure to get prominent mention during Apple's next big media event.  The iPhone has once again claimed the top ranking in J.D. Power's semiannual smartphone satisfaction study.  —  For the seventh consecutive time.
Tim Rowe / AllThingsD:
The New Law That Will Turn the Start-Up World Upside Down: Crowdfunding  —  Remember that special moment when we all realized that the Web was going to remake yard sales and auctions, but we didn't know yet who was going to win?  (And then eBay left the rest in the dust?)
More: BostInno
Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:
Groupon UK told to clean up after record complaints  —  Over the last year, the U.K. arm of Groupon has been the subject of a record number of complaints about the way it advertises deals to users, makes claims about products on sale and treats users.  —  Now the company has been told …
Brooke Crothers / CNET:
Evidence of Apple chip design change in iPad teardown  —  Apple needs some serious silicon to drive that gorgeous, pixel-dense display.  —  (Credit: Apple)  —  Apple has changed the design of the main chip in the new iPad with tweaks to accommodate a higher-performing chip, according to teardown analysis.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Slimmer 13-Inch and 15-Inch MacBook Pros Reportedly in Production  —  Claims of redesigned MacBook Pro models continue to surface ahead of the official launch of Intel's Ivy Bridge chips, and Digitimes now reports that slimmer versions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro are currently in production.
Quentin Hardy / Bits:
Better Economic Forecasts, From the Cloud  —  GT Nexus used shipment data to track countries' import-export balance in 2008, left, and 2011.  The diagonal line represents balanced trade.  —  Someday soon, the Federal Reserve may be dead, at least for economic information.
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Confirmed: Sprint pulls the plug on LightSquared 4G contract, repays $65 million  —  Reports suggested it was imminent but today Sprint has officially confirmed that it has pulled the plug on its LTE 4G contract with LightSquared, which will return $65 million in repayments to the struggling wireless company.

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