Techmeme
April 4, 2012, 3:40 PM

Top News

Nick Bilton / Bits:
Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses  —  If you venture into a coffee shop in the coming months and see someone with a pair of futuristic glasses that look like a prop from “Star Trek,” don't worry.  It's probably just a Google employee testing the company's new augmented-reality glasses.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Cuts 14 Percent Of Workforce; 2,000 Given Pink Slips; Will Save $375M  —  Yahoo has made its massive round of layoffs official.  The company just released a statement saying that 2,000 jobs have been cut, or 14 percent of it total workforce (which was previously around 14,000).
Amir Efrati / Digits:
Read Yahoo CEO's Letter to Employees About Layoffs … Yahoo today confirmed this morning it plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or 14% of its 14,000 work force.  —  Here's CEO Scott Thompson's letter to employees:  —  Yahoos -  —  Today we are restructuring Yahoo! to give ourselves the opportunity to compete and win in our core business.
Joshua Topolsky / The Verge:
Lumia 900 review  —  It occurred to me that the Lumia 900 review would be one of the more important critiques of a product that I write this year.  For those of you who don't know the backstory here, the new LTE-equipped, AT&T-bound smartphone represents what could be the beginning of a new era …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
How Facebook's Winning The War Against Yahoo, Patent By Patent  —  Facebook has executed a masterful response to Yahoo's patent trolling that protects it legally but still makes it look like the victim.  Here I examine how for almost every patent Yahoo claims Facebook infringes upon …
Gareth Morgan / V3.co.uk:
Swedish researchers uncover key to China's Tor-blocking system  —  Swedish researchers have discovered that Chinese officials have updated the country's ‘Great Firewall’ to make it harder for citizens to use the Tor network that provides a means of surfing the web anonymously.
Tim Hoover / Denver Post:
Federal court tosses Colorado's Amazon tax  —  A federal court has thrown out a 2010 Colorado law meant to spur online retailers like Amazon to collect state sales tax.  —  The law had already been temporarily blocked in federal court last year, but U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn's ruling Friday permanently handcuffs it.
More: TechFlash
Daniel Frankel / paidContent:
Researcher: Over 1 Million U.S. Cable Subscribers Cut Cord In 2011  —  Cable and satellite TV subscription growth slowed down more than had been previously reported, and cord-cutting was a primary factor.  But don't worry about it — a revolution that will re-create the current multi-channel access paradigm is still a long way away.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Randi Zuckerberg and Ben Huh Bring Silicon Valley to Bravo TV  —  Cue up the righteous anger, Silicon Valley.  Here comes a clueless effort by a big dumb TV channel to portray you world-changers as a bunch of vapid schemers.  Even worse, it's from a cable TV channel …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Time Inc. Hearst, Conde Nast, Meredith Launch “Netflix For Magazines”  —  Remember Next Issue Media, the “Hulu for Digital Magazines” consortium made up of the biggest names in publishing?  It has finally delivered something worth talking about: Call it Netflix for Magazines.
Matt Smith / The Bay Citizen:
Airbnb Must Pay Hotel Tax in San Francisco  —  Airbnb and other online vacation rental brokers must pay San Francisco's 14 percent hotel tax, according to a rule published Tuesday by the city's tax collector in spite of efforts by Mayor Ed Lee to delay its implementation.
Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:
Reed Hastings Will Get His HBO Go as Comcast Nears Deal on Xbox  —  Comcast and Time Warner are close to finalizing a deal to make the HBO Go app available on Xbox, according to several people familiar with the negotiations.  —  The app, which offers all of the pay cable channel's shows …
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:
New Swiftkey 3 removes the need for spacebar  —  Swiftkey has announced the launch of a new version of Swiftkey, the popular Android keyboard, that promises to make typing on the go even easier.  —  The crux of the new app, Swiftkey 3, now compensates for when you don't hit the space key …
Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
After Eight Years, the Web 2.0 Conference Is Over  —  Before there was Disrupt or Launch or any of the other myriad of smaller social media confabs, there was Web 2.0.  —  It was the first conference that chronicled the second coming of the consumer Web.  It was a partnership between Tim O'Reilly …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Paramount, Google Link Up For Movie Rentals, Despite YouTube Lawsuit  —  Viacom and Google are locked in a copyright lawsuit that is nearly five years old.  But that doesn't mean the companies can't do business together.  —  This morning, for example, Google's YouTube is announcing a deal …
Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
Yapp Is A Dead Simple Way To Make A Mobile App Without Writing A Line Of Code  —  Last month Yapp demoed at New York Tech Meetup.  —  Today it's announcing a round of financing led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from North Bridge Ventures Partners, Cue Ball, and angel investors.

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