Techmeme
March 28, 2012, 12:30 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Here's How Law Enforcement Cracks Your iPhone's Security Code (Video)  —  Set your iPhone to require a four-digit passcode, and it may keep your private information safe from the prying eyes of the taxi driver whose cab you forget it in.  But if law enforcement is determined to see the data you've stored …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Oh, That “Pull To Refresh” Thing In iOS?  Yeah, Twitter Has A Patent App On That  —  Like that “pull-to-refresh” feature found in many popular iOS apps, including Twitter, Facebook, Tweetbot, Sparrow and others?  Been wondering why Apple hasn't implemented the same thing in its own apps …
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Apple Doesn't Need To Make the TV of the Future  —  The revolution is already here—and it's called the Xbox.  —  If the rumors are true, Apple will release a television set later this year that it will tout as the most amazing boob tube ever invented.  Apple's TV will be able to access shows …
Scott Gilbertson / Webmonkey:
Microsoft Unveils New Plan to Speed Up the Web  —  Microsoft wants in on the drive to speed up the web.  The company plans to submit its proposal for a faster internet protocol to the standards body charged with creating HTTP 2.0.  —  Not coincidentally, that standards body …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
RapidShare Declared Legal In Court, With a Twist  —  In the aftermath of the Megaupload shutdown, people have been keeping a close eye on court cases involving other file-hosting services, RapidShare included.  —  During the past several years RapidShare has made tremendous efforts to cooperate …
Pamela Parker / Search Engine Land:
Google Research: Even If You Rank #1 Organically, You Can Double Your Clicks With Paid Search  —  When marketers have scrutinized Google's research on how organic and paid search results work together — the search giant concluded that nixing the paid ads would result in a 89% drop in clicks — it's been clear there's more to the story.
Lauren Rae Orsini / Daily Dot:
A Pinterest spammer tells all  —  Last week, the Daily Dot taught you how to spot a Pinterest spammer.  Now that same spammer has spotted us.  —  After he read our article about his process of spamming Pinterest through thousands of bot accounts, Steve, who declined to give his last name …
Bryan Bishop / The Verge:
Samsung reports 5 million Galaxy Notes shipped, will launch in Japan on April 6th with LTE  —  Sure, the Galaxy Note is beloved by elephants, but how is it doing in the real world?  Not too bad, it turns out: Samsung has announced it has moved 5 million units of the device since its launch last October.
James Grimmelmann / Ars Technica:
Feature: Death of a data haven: cypherpunks, WikiLeaks, and the world's smallest nation  —  A few weeks ago, Fox News breathlessly reported that the embattled WikiLeaks operation was looking to start a new life on the sea.  WikiLeaks, the article speculated, might try to escape its legal troubles …
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
A Surge in Learning the Language of the Internet  —  Parlez-vous Python?  What about Rails or JavaScript?  Foreign languages tend to wax and wane in popularity, but the language du jour is computer code.  —  The market for night classes and online instruction in programming and Web construction …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Anatomy of a leak: how iPhones spill the ID of networks they access  —  An Ars story from earlier this month reported that iPhones expose the unique identifiers of recently accessed wireless routers, which generated no shortage of reader outrage.  What possible justification does Apple …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch's Picks: The 10 Best Startups From Y Combinator Demo Day  —  66 startups showed off today at Y Combinator's Demo Day, and we covered all 39 that were ready to for the public.  After talking to VCs and tech moguls, the TechCrunch teamed huddled up and picked these 10 companies as the best.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Flat-Panel TV Sales Flatten in U.S.  —  After years of consecutive growth, flat-panel TV sales in the U.S. are beginning to stall out.  —  Market research firm IHS iSuppli said Tuesday that U.S.-bound shipments of flat-panel TVs will drop 5 percent in 2012, slipping to 37.1 million units from 39.1 million units in 2011.
Leigh Beadon / Techdirt:
Patents Threaten To Silence A Little Girl, Literally  —  Slashdot points us to a sad story from blogger Dana Nieder, providing yet more evidence of how patent monopolies can hold back innovation and do very real damage to people's lives in the process—and how people are interested in progress, not patents.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Yahoo-Geddon: Leaders to Debate Layoffs, Asset Sales, Search Deals and More Today, as a Major Restructuring Looms  —  What is Yahoo?  —  While that has been the perennially unanswered question at the Silicon Valley Internet giant for many years, according to dozens of sources inside and outside the company …
Jay Greene / CNET:
The iPad app that will remind you of Microsoft's old Courier project  —  (Credit: Tapose; screenshot by Jay Greene/CNET)  —  Tapose, the iPad app that aims to mimic much of the content creation capability of Microsoft's ill-fated Courier tablet, just won approval from Apple to be sold in iTunes.
Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Hasbro Can't Stop Sale Of ‘Transformer Prime’ Tablets  —  In a court ruling that reads at times like a pop culture or consumer gadget review, a federal judge gave tablet maker Asus a green light to sell its “Transformer” tablets.  —  Hasbro filed a lawsuit against Asus late last year …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nokia brings Windows Phone to China with Lumia 800C and 610C  —  Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phones in China today, set to go on sale in the coming months.  The Lumia 800C is Nokia's Chinese variant of its flagship Lumia 800 device, and includes the same styling and hardware specifications.

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More News

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Ina Fried / AllThingsD: