Techmeme
May 8, 2012, 12:10 AM

Top News

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:
Facebook Social Readers Are All Collapsing  —  Are you annoyed by all those automatic Facebook news apps?  Apparently you're not alone.  They're falling off a cliff right now.  —  The Washington Post was the first publication to experiment with a “frictionless” social reader app, which launched last year.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio “Distraction” — But Will Mea Culpa Work Without an Apology and Explanation for Actual Error?  (Memo)  —  He's sorry.  Deeply regrets.  Apologizes.  Take full responsibility for the unfortunate distraction to the people.
Brandon Bailey / Mercury News:
Google infringed on Oracle copyrights, jury finds, but deals a blow to Oracle's quest for $1 billion  —  SAN FRANCISCO - A federal jury on Monday found that Google's (GOOG) popular Android mobile software infringes on copyrights held by tech rival Oracle (ORCL), in a closely watched case …
Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:
Our Source Has Seen The Apple HDTV, Here's What It Looks Like  —  We have a source who claims to have seen a prototype Apple high-definition television set in action, indicating that Apple is readying the long-awaited device for market.  —  According to our source, who has asked …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Apple reportedly to release US$799 MacBook Air in 3Q12  —  Apple is reportedly considering responding to the upcoming second-generation ultrabooks by launching a US$799 MacBook Air in the third quarter of 2012, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Satya Patel / Twitter Blog:
A new standard for the mobile web  —  Today we're updating Twitter for mobile web (mobile.Twitter.com) in an effort to give every person on the planet a consistent Twitter experience.  People who access Twitter from feature phones, low-bandwidth networks or older browsers can now enjoy …
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool  —  SEATTLE — Amazon is so serious about its next big thing that it hired three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its Web reviews.  Full time.  —  The online retailer is shooting 3,000 fashion images a day in a photo studio using patent-pending technology.
Brian X. Chen / New York Times:
Amtrak to Use iPhones to Streamline Service  —  Old-school train conductors are finally ready to give up their hole punchers to try something new: the iPhone.  —  Amtrak, the government-owned corporation that oversees the nation's railroad train services, has been training conductors since November …
Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:
Google gets license to test drive autonomous cars on Nevada roads  —  On Monday, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles approved Google's license application to test autonomous vehicles on the state's roads.  The state had approved such laws back in February, and has now begun issuing licenses based on those regulations.
Chee Chew / The Official Google Blog:
Google+ Hangouts On Air: broadcast your conversation to the world  —  Last year we introduced Hangouts On Air to a limited number of broadcasters, enabling them to go live with friends and fans, for all the world to see.  Since then, this small community has grown the feature in lots of creative ways.
Bloomberg:
Zuckerberg Grip Becomes New Normal in Silicon Valley  —  Mark Zuckerberg's majority control over Facebook Inc. (FB), a model adopted by founders of Zynga Inc. and Groupon Inc. (GRPN), has become the new normal in Silicon Valley as entrepreneurs' desire to hold sway trumps shareholder power.
Jason Pontin / Technology Review:
Why Publishers Don't Like Apps  —  The future of media on mobile devices isn't with applications but with the Web.  —  By the time Apple released the iPad in April of 2010, just four months after Steve Jobs first announced his “magical and revolutionary” new machines in San Francisco …
Roger Cheng / CNET:
MasterCard jumps into mobile payments with own digital wallet  —  Think there are too many digital wallets out there?  MasterCard would disagree.  The No. 2 payments processor today unveiled PayPass Wallet Services, its own take on the digital wallet.  Initially, it will pop up in the form of a payment icon at merchant Web sites.
Klint Finley / DevOpsANGLE:
Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed for Developers  —  A few years ago Dell began offering the Ubuntu distribution of Linux on its desktops and laptaps, but quietly dropped the option from its online store in 2010 (though it's still possible to order certain machines with Ubuntu).
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Nielsen: Smartphones Used By 50.4% Of U.S. Consumers, Android 48.5% Of Them  —  Nielsen today became the latest analyst house to call it for smartphones outnumbering more basic devices in the U.S. The company says that in March 2012 smartphones were in use by 50.4 percent of consumers in the country …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Cable Fee Fight Takes Another Turn as Dish Networks Uses iTunes, Netflix and Amazon as Weapons  —  The basic contours of the TV programmer versus pay-TV provider fight are fundamental and unchanging: The programmer tries to get more money for his stuff, the pay-TV provider says that's too much, and the two sides chest-bump for a while.
More: paidContent and AdAge
Matt Rosoff / Business Insider:
Payment Processing Giant Verifone Strikes Back Against Square  —  Tomorrow, Verifone will introduce a mobile credit card reader, the SAIL, that plugs into the iPhone and iPad to let very small businesses and sole proprietors take credit card payments.  —  If that sounds familiar, it should.

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Martin Bryant / The Next Web: