Techmeme
March 29, 2012, 2:35 PM

Top News

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:
Tim Cook Might Abandon Steve Jobs' ‘Thermonuclear War’ On Android  —  Top Apple executives have met with top Samsung executives about settling their patent fights, Paul Barrett at Bloomberg Businessweek reports.  —  Barrett writes, “Apple CEO Tim Cook does not seem to share his predecessor's passion about laying all foes to waste.
More: CNET and MacDailyNews
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Paper: the next great iPad app, from the brains behind Courier  —  Georg Petschnigg throws his hands into the air as he traces thousands of years of human evolution that led us to develop the fragile wrists we need to use tools.  Petschnigg locks his wrist into place and pretends to scribble …
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Google's Android has generated just $550m since 2008, figures suggest  —  Data provided in response to Oracle claim suggests iPhone generated four times more revenue than Google's own handsets  —  Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011 …
Chris Gallagher / Reuters:
Star-struck Japan PM befriends Facebook's Zuckerberg  —  (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda frequently entertains dignitaries from all over the world, but he was a touch star-struck on Thursday when he hosted a young billionaire with a whiff of celebrity: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
More: Asiajin, Tech in Asia and ZDNet.  Tweets: @davemcclure
Mark McDonald / IHT Rendezvous:
Zuckerberg in China: Let the Rumors Begin  —  HONG KONG — Mark Zuckerberg was spotted walking around Shanghai on Tuesday, which naturally led to a spike in online speculation about Facebook entering the Chinese market.  —  He said he was just on vacation with his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan.
Agam Shah / PC World:
Dell Ends Smartphone Sales in the US  —  Dell has stopped selling smartphones in the U.S. as it tweaks its mobile strategy to focus more on emerging markets and higher-margin products.  —  Dell has nixed its last standing Venue and Venue Pro smartphones and no replacements have been announced.
Matth / Nielsen Wire:
Smartphones Account for Half of all Mobile Phones, Dominate New Phone Purchases in the US  —  Almost half (49.7%) of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones, as of February 2012.  According to Nielsen, this marks an increase of 38 percent over last year; in February 2011, only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones.
Bloomberg:
Apple's Tim Cook Visits Foxconn IPhone Plant in China  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook visited Foxconn Technology Group's newly built manufacturing facility for the iPhone in Zhengzhou, China, as the U.S. company seeks to improve working conditions.
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
iPhone 4 owners can register for $15 antennagate settlements (updated)  —  The official website for the iPhone 4 “antennagate” class action settlement is live, as pointed out by co-lead counsel on the case Ira Rothken.  Of course, speaking of cases, if you're an iPhone 4 owner who has taken advantage …
Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
London taxi app Hailo takes on $17m in series A funding led by Accel, and gears up for US launch  —  London-based taxi app Hailo has announced a whopping $17m Series A funding round, which is one of the largest European first-rounds in recent times.  —  The Next Web first covered Hailo back in November …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Spotify Keeps the Free Music Party Going in the U.S.  —  Good news for American Spotify users who don't want to pay for their music: The streaming service will continue to let them listen to anything they want, without restrictions, for a while longer.  —  The free-music party was supposed …
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Snapguide wants to be your handheld how-to guide for everything  —  There are plenty of websites that provide in-depth information about specific topics, but apart from a few tired old services like eHow from Demand Media, there aren't many places you can go to find how-to guides for a wide range …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Amazon Web Services, NIH: 1000 Genomes Project now publically available  —  Summary: The collection of genetic variations weighs in at 200 terabytes and DNA sequenced from 1,700 people.  —  Amazon Web Services and the U.S. National Institutes of Health said the complete 1000 Genomes Project is now available as a public data set.
Christopher Mims / Technology Review:
Google's New ‘Account Activity’ Is a Sham  —  When it comes to privacy, Google wants to be the good guy .  Too bad that's not enough.  —  Google Account Activity is Google's fairly transparent attempt to differentiate itself from Facebook by being open about what it knows about you.
IDC:
Nearly 1 Billion Smart Connected Devices Shipped in 2011 with Shipments Expected to Double by 2016, According to IDC  —  FRAMINGHAM, Mass., March 28, 2012 -The universe of smart connected devices, including PCs, media tablets, and smartphones, saw shipments of more than 916 million units …

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