OMG, Zynga Welcomes a New Member to the Family  —  Put down your smartphones and iPads for just a sec. I've got some big news.  Today I'm excited to tell you about a new addition to the Zynga family, OMGPOP.  This New York-based developer of social mobile games has recently received a lot …

iPhoto for iPad, iPhone hits 1 million users in less than 10 days  —  iPhoto for iPad, iPhone hits 1 million users in less than 10 days  —  Apple told me today that its newest iOS app, iPhoto, hit 1 million users in less than 10 days after its release.  It's important to note that figure is users, not downloads.

Google Said to Rethink Wallet Strategy Amid Slow Adoption  —  Google Inc. (GOOG) is weighing changes aimed at improving its Google Wallet mobile-payment system following slow adoption and the departure of two key managers, according to people with knowledge of the project.

China Now Leads the World in New iOS and Android Device Activations  —  Flurry recently quantified China's meteoric adoption of iOS and Android applications.  While China ranked 10th in application sessions at the beginning of 2011, it finished the year in 2nd place, only behind the United States.

Meet The Hackers Who Sell Spies The Tools To Crack Your PC (And Get Paid Six-Figure Fees)  —  At a Google-run competition in ­Vancouver last month, the search giant's famously secure Chrome Web browser fell to hackers twice.  Both of the new methods used a rigged ­website …

Exclusive: Hipstamatic, Instagram To Unveil Photo-Sharing Partnership  —  Last week, Instagram hit 27 million users, solidifying it not only as one of the most popular photo-sharing services on the market, but as one of the world's fastest-growing social networks.

MPAA Wants Megaupload User Data Retained for Lawsuits — Updated  —  Hollywood studios want a federal judge to preserve data on all the 66.6 million users of Megaupload, the file-sharing service that shuttered in January in the wake of federal indictments targeting its operators on allegations …

Spotify announces 12 ‘next generation’ apps like TweetVine, Def Jam, Matador, and Domino  —  When Spotify launched its first wave of “apps” in November 2011, it made clear its goal to become “the OS of music,” a place to find, browse, and listen to million of songs.

The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs  —  His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents' garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world's most valuable company.

Amazon's Gift Card Promotion Nets $5 Million and Lots of New Subscribers  —  In just 17 hours yesterday, AmazonLocal sold one million Amazon gift cards for $5 million, making it the company's most successful promotion in the daily deals space to date.  —  That's not a big surprise …

Microsoft Says Windows Phone Will Pass Apple in China  —  Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world's largest software maker, said its Windows Phone operating system will propel it past Apple Inc. (AAPL) in China's smartphone market as its partners release devices costing as little as $158.

Spell checking powered by the web  —  One of my early projects at Google was to improve the suggestions that are made when a query is misspelled in Google Search.  The neat thing about that system is that it's adaptive: our suggestions get smarter and smarter based on the words Googlebot sees as it explores the web.

Sprint CEO defends company's decision to bet it all on Apple's iPhone  —  Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse is being watched closely by the company's board of directors, but the CEO has to answer to investors and subscribers as well.  Last year in October, Hesse revealed that the company …

DirecTV iPad app update adds video streaming on the go  —  In October, the “DirecTV” app added the ability to stream video over home networks.  Today, an update to the app adds the ability to stream shows and movies over 3G and Wi-Fi anywhere.  The new feature is limited to video content …

YouTube launches “one click fix” to improve the quality of your videos  —  When we're trying to capture something really funny, awesome, or downright amusing with our camera, the video quality is the last thing we're thinking about.  Capture the moment is the goal, and if you do it right …

Recipe search engine Yummly grabs $6M to find mouth-watering recipes  —  Yummly, a recipe search engine that would make any recipe hoarder and home chef happy, announced Wednesday it has raised $6 million is its first round of funding.  The site compiles recipes from several popular recipes sites …

Microsoft details how iPad app development compares to Windows 8  —  Summary: In an apparent attempt to attract iPad developers, Microsoft has posted a case study comparing iPad app development to Windows 8 Metro-style tablet development.  —  Microsoft officials have posted to the Windows Dev Center …

Visit the Amazon on World Forest Day with Street View  —  Last August, a few members of our Brazil and U.S. Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams were invited to the Amazon Basin to collect ground-level images of the rivers, forest and communities in the Rio Negro Reserve.

Republic Wireless to open next beta of hybrid VOIP service this summer  —  The $19 all-you-can-eat smartphone service that seemed great, then not-so-great, then great again is about to re-open public beta testing.  We're told that the first phase of the beta is “going very well” …

The Hong Kong Firm Behind Those Quirky Animated News Shorts Bets $5M On Red Robot Labs  —  The Yakuza, Chinese Triads and more.  There's just so many more mafias for Benchmark-backed mobile gaming studio Red Robot Labs to infiltrate.  —  So the gaming company, which has made a huge bet on location …

US Senate votes 76-22 to limit debate on JOBS Act, move bill forward  —  The US Senate voted today to limit debate on the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act).  The motion cleared the 60 vote hurdle, scoring some 76 votes.  That ample victory gives the bill momentum as it moves towards formal adoption.

Microsoft Lifebrowser captures the important landmarks in your life  —  Summary: Using Machine Learning, Lifebrowser from Microsoft Research learns to predict ‘memory landmarks’, events of life that you consider important and it uses these landmarks to help you navigate your past.