Protecting Your Passwords and Your Privacy  —  In recent months, we've seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people's Facebook profiles or private information.  This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends.

Rovio working on Angry Birds Space for WP -CEO  —  (Reuters) - Finnish gaming firm Rovio is working on getting its new Angry Birds Space game to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform (WP7), its chief executive said on Friday, dismissing earlier media reports which said the top gaming firm was dumping the platform.

Insight: Samsung: “fast executioner” seeks killer design  —  (Reuters) - When Samsung Electronics rushed its first smartphone to market in a panicky response to the smash-hit debut of the Apple iPhone, some customers burned the product on the streets or hammered it to bits in public displays of disaffection.

What Google Hasn't Done: Explained Why We as Users Would Want a Unified Online Identity  —  After years of providing us with many very good products — search, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome — Google is now on a mission to turn itself into one big product that understands each of us as one unified person.

The Future of Apps and Web  —  A high-impact cover story in Wired magazine in 2010 asserted in its title: “The Web Is Dead.  Long Live the Internet.”  1 Authors Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff argued that the World Wide Web was “in decline” and “apps” were in ascendance.

Best Buy Is Selling Nearly as Many iPhones as Apple Itself  —  Apple's move to make Best Buy an outlet for the iPhone back in 2008 is proving a wise one — lucrative, too.  —  Over the past few years, the retail chain has become an increasingly important outlet for Apple, extending its reach and distribution via its 1,100 stores.

iPads keep charging for “up to” an hour after display shows 100%  —  iPad users who want to ensure they're getting a full charge every time they plug in should wait up to an hour after the device shows 100 percent.  That's according to Dr. Raymond M. Soneira, creator of DisplayMate and author …

Going Viral: How Codecademy Snagged 200,000 Users in Seven Days  —  At 3 a.m. one night in mid-December last year, Zach Sims, the 21-year-old CEO of Codecademy, took a break from answering emails and spent $8.95 on the domain name “codeyear.com.”  Sims, whose company offers interactive online lessons …

Zynga: We Bought OMGPOP For $180M, Pincus To Sell 15 Percent Of Shares In Secondary Offering  —  Zynga has just released a new S-1 in connection with its secondary offering.  Among the details: a confirmation of the $180 million sale price for OMGPOP that we'd heard earlier this week …

Spotify Is Raising At A Stunning $3.5 Billion Valuation, Multiple VCs Say  —  All-you-can eat music service Spotify is raising another big round of funding, and it is asking investors to value the company somewhere around $3.5 billion, multiple Silicon Valley investors tell us.

Google won't be top dog forever says father of the Internet  —  EXCLUSIVE: Vint Cerf speaks to Pocket-lint  —  The man known as one of the fathers of the internet says Google won't be the defacto standard for search forever.  —  Vint Cerf, a vice-president at the Mountain View-based company …

Google Play mulls movie sales  —  Google execs have spoken to some of the film studios about offering Android users the option to buy titles, sources tell CNET.  The formerly named Android Market currently offers rentals.  Managers at Google Play are considering a plan to sell films, multiple sources have told CNET.

Disconnect: Ex-Googlers Raise Funding To Stop Google, Facebook & More From Tracking Your Data  —  In the age of endless sharing, super cookies, social search results, and that ever-present social graph, it's comforting to know that there are some who are still prioritizing privacy.

Amazon Man Questions Logic of Apple Solar Farm  —  Apple is building a 100-acre solar farm to help power its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina.  But Amazon data-center guru James Hamilton questions whether this actually makes sense.  In a recent blog post, Hamilton …

Facebook Sets High Asking Price for Log-Out Ads: $700K a Day  —  Seeks to Tap Big Display Dollars on Eve of IPO  —  Facebook's new log-out ads are big, splashy and the closest thing to a traditional banner ad the social network has ever produced.  They're also pricey …

Seamless Founder Jason Finger Joins IAC as CEO of CityGrid Media  —  This morning, Seamless founder Jason Finger, legend of Silicon Alley, sent an email out to friend with subject line “Back in the saddle...” It seems the Silicon Valley vet has taken up the reins at CityGrid Media and will join IAC's local listings website network.

ValCom sues Megaupload for up to $900 million in damages  —  ValCom, developers of mass notification communication systems like the ones used in schools and businesses during emergencies, has just filled a law suit against Megaupload.com.  The suit is an attempt to secure some of the millions …

Signs in Mountain Lion point to “retina” display MacBooks sooner than later  —  A new clue found within in the latest developer release of OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) suggests that 2012 may bring us the “summer of retina display Macs.”  A source with access to the latest Mountain Lion preview alerted Ars …