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April 17, 2012, 12:15 PM

Top News

Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Announcing the Windows 8 Editions  —  Today I would like to share information with you on the editions that will be available for “Windows 8” when it is released to market.  We have talked about Windows 8 as Windows reimagined, from the chipset to the user experience.
Brad McCarty / The Next Web:
Google Drive detailed: 5 GB for free, launching next week for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS  —  Sometimes we get lucky, and today is one of those days.  I got a draft release from a partner of Google's upcoming Google Drive service and it gives away a wealth of information about how Google plans to take on the incumbent Dropbox.
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Google Drive Lives: Google Drive App Found  —  If you needed any more proof that Google Drive was alive, look no further than this screenshot of the OS X app.  I've been able to download and run the app and it is currently idle, sitting quietly in the corner, unable to connect to the mothership.
More: Ubergizmo, Shoutpedia and The VergeThanks:@mjburnsy
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
European carriers: Lumia phones are ‘not good enough’ to compete with iPhone and Android  —  They say everyone's a critic these days, but here's a group whose critique matters: European carriers.  Reuters has been asking questions at four major European telecom operators and reports that they're …
Daniel Rubino / wpcentral:
Majority of new Lumia 900 converts are coming from Android or the iPhone  —  Nearly 60% of those switching to Windows Phone due to the Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II were former iOS and Android owners.  Apple brand-loyalty?  We think not.  —  We ran a poll the other day asking users …
More: CNET
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Ellison Takes The Stand Against Google Today in Java Trial  —  Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will take to the witness stand in his company's lawsuit against the search giant Google.  In what's been described as the world series of intellectual property lawsuits, Ellison will be examined …
Zee / The Next Web:
Read It Later rebrands as “Pocket”, goes free.  Lets its 4.5m users save articles, videos, images & more.  —  I recently met up with the team behind Read It Later over a drink in San Francisco.  The product lets you quickly bookmark any page of text on the web, quite often articles, to read later.
Douglas MacMillan / Bloomberg:
Zynga Flashes $1.8 Billion Searching for the New FarmVille: Tech  —  Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) merger chief Barry Cottle plans to step up the pace of acquisitions, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in search of a new social-gaming blockbuster on par with hits “FarmVille” and “CityVille.”
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Samuel L. Jackson and Siri Star in New iPhone 4S Commercial (Update: Zooey Deschanel Too)  —  As noted by The Next Web, U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless aired a new iPhone 4S commercial featuring actor Samuel L. Jackson and Siri, the company's virtual assistant for the iPhone 4S.
Will Connors / Wall Street Journal:
The Lonely BlackBerry Store  —  RIM's Sole Stand-Alone Outlet Serves as Reminder of Failed Corporate Strategy  —  FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.—On a gray stretch of highway 25 miles northwest of Detroit, in a strip mall next to an OfficeMax and a dry cleaners, sits the only stand-alone BlackBerry retail store in North America.
More: Gizmodo and BuzzFeed
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Feds shutter online narcotics store that used TOR to hide its tracks  —  Federal authorities have arrested eight men accused of distributing more than $1 million worth of LSD, ecstasy, and other narcotics with an online storefront that used the TOR anonymity service to mask their Internet addresses.
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Samsung Galaxy S III launch details reveal multiple models, official device of 2012 Olympics  —  As we get closer to the official announcement of Samsung's Galaxy S III, more information is beginning to surface.  In addition to our exclusive reports on the device's specifications and materials …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Megaupload Worked on a Multi-Billion Dollar IPO  —  According to a US indictment, Kim Dotcom and the rest of the “Mega Conspiracy” were running a criminal operation.  —  They are accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement …
Cade Metz / Wired:
Mavericks Invent Future Internet Where Cisco Is Meaningless  —  PALO ALTO, California — Martin Casado stands up, reaches across the table, and tears a sheet of paper from a notebook.  The notebook belongs to Alan Cohen, who works alongside Casado at Nicira, the most intriguing startup in Silicon Valley …
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
United Continental CFO Now an Apple VP of Sales  —  Zane Rowe, executive VP and Chief Financial Officer for United Continental, the holding company that owns United Airlines, has a new job — at Apple.  Rowe, who has served as United's CFO since October 2010, is leaving the airline …
Clare Jim / Reuters:
HTC's shares tumble; CFO change, Samsung launch weigh  —  (Reuters) - Shares of HTC Corp fell as much as 6 percent on Tuesday after a change in its chief financial officer and the imminent launch of a new phone by arch rival Samsung Electronics raised concerns over the Taiwanese firm's recovery.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Carly Dumps Her Pink Dresses, as T-Mobile Aims for an Image Makeover  —  T-Mobile's Carly is trading in her pink dresses for leather and a Ducati motorcycle.  —  In new commercials debuting later on, the carrier's spokeswoman throws her trademark dress on the ground and takes to the open road with the tagline “No More Mr. Nice Girl.”
Zack Whittaker / Between the Lines Blog:
Toshiba to buy IBM point-of-sale business for $850 million  —  Summary: Toshiba TEC is set to buy IBM's point-of-sale business for $850 million, in a move that would make the half-owned Toshiba subsidiary the world's largest vendor of retail machines.  —  A Toshiba unit said on Tuesday …
Steven Levy / Wired:
Going With the Flow: Google's Secret Switch to the Next Wave of Networking  —  In early 1999, an associate computer science professor at UC Santa Barbara climbed the steps to the second floor headquarters of a small startup in Palo Alto, and wound up surprising himself by accepting a job offer.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft delivers preview of its Windows Azure-hosted media services platform  —  Summary: Microsoft is taking the wraps off the latest iteration of its Media Platform, which is now hosted on Windows Azure and includes third-party integrations, at the NAB show.
David Kravets / Wired:
Supreme Court to Revisit ‘First-Sale’ Copyright Doctrine  —  The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide the global reach of U.S. copyright law, in a case testing whether an overseas purchaser of a copyrighted work may resell it in the United States without the copyright holder's permission.
Yoree Koh / Japan Real Time:
Facebook's Instagram Buy Won't Alter Twitter Strategy  —  Twitter last year looked into buying Instagram, the hot photo-sharing app snapped up last week by Facebook for $1 billion.  But Twitter's chief executive said during a Tokyo visit Monday that Facebook's move won't push his company …
Steven Musil / CNET:
Google may face fine over Safari privacy bypass  —  Google may soon find itself paying another fine for privacy violations.  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expected to decide during the next 30 days whether to fine the Web giant for bypassing user privacy settings in Apple's Safari Web browser …

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