Thumbs Up: Digg Wasn't A Failure, It Was A Beginning  —  “Don't let him climb a wall.  We haven't finalized his life insurance plan.”  —  That was one of the first directions I was given at Digg when I started in early 2008.  “Him” was Kevin Rose, the founder of the widely popular social news site, and I was on my third day.

The Facebook tweak that killed a billion-dollar industry  —  Facebook is known for operating in a perpetual beta state, making major changes not infrequently.  Problem is, that can stifle a quickly growing niche.  —  FORTUNE — Mark Zuckerberg is famous for keeping Facebook (FB) in a state of permanent beta.

How did the new MacBook Pros get Gold-level green ratings?  —  They may not stick.  A recycling coalition says the notebooks flunk two key tests  —  FORTUNE — Apple (AAPL) may have thought it put the EPEAT kerfuffle behind it with the release of Bob Mansfield's mea culpa letter Friday.

When Art, Apple and the Secret Service Collide: ‘People Staring at Computers’  —  Steve Jobs, staring at the first version of Photo Booth.  All watercolors courtesy of David Pierce.  —  I really wasn't expecting the Secret Service.  —  Maybe an email, or a phone call from Apple.

A Show-and-Tell With Google's Hardware  —  Meet Eric Schmidt, Google's traveling salesman.  —  Mr. Schmidt, the executive chairman of the search giant, began a fireside chat with the media on Thursday at the Allen & Company conference with a brief show-and-tell.

Sprint's LTE network going live a day early for some users  —  Sprint's first LTE cities — Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, and Kansas City — are set to officially go online sometime tomorrow, but we've been hearing reports that some lucky users are already connected to the carrier's 4G network.

MobiTV Pulls $75 Million IPO, Citing ‘Unfavorable’ Conditions  —  MobiTV Inc. (MBTV) (MBTV), the maker of software that lets smartphone users watch live television, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering, citing “unfavorable market conditions.”  —  The Emeryville, California-based company …

Innovative bookmarking service Spool is shutting down.  Team joins Facebook  —  Spool today confirms its innovative bookmarking service is shutting down.  —  In an email, the Spool team says: … Spool was kind enough to attach all a user's bookmarks to the email and provided a handy link …

XBMC for Android announced  —  XBMC has announced the release of its first native software for Android.  Introduced in a blog post on the developer's website, the open-source media sharing software has been made compatible any Android-based smartphone, tablet, or set-top box for local network video and audio streaming.

Zynga, Kixeye and EA work with Facebook to allow users to begin playing games without requiring permissions dialog  —  Zynga, Kixeye and EA have signed contracts with Facebook to let users begin playing games immediately without the roadblock of a permissions dialog, we've learned from a source familiar with the matter.