Nintendo Wii U review  —  Nintendo's new console is an anomaly in the game console ecosystem, but not for Nintendo.  The company that — in just the last decade — popularized stylus-powered gaming, microphone-powered gaming and motion-based gaming, is once again pushing game control inputs forward.

Yahoo! plots alliance with Facebook in new search deal  —  Facebook and Yahoo! are in talks about forging an alliance that could spell the end of Yahoo!'s relationship with Microsoft.  —  Forging an alliance with Yahoo! would allow the social network to take a major leap forward in search

Cisco Acquires Enterprise Wi-Fi Startup Meraki For $1.2 Billion In Cash  —  Networking tech giant Cisco has just agreed to acquire cloud infrastructure startup Meraki, and my industry sources confirm the purchase price was $1.2 billion, all in cash.  I've also gotten ahold of the letter to Meraki employees from CEO Sanjit Biswas.

iMessage and FaceTime are currently suffering from systemic downtime (Update: Apple confirms)  —  Update: Apple has updated its status page, acknowledging the issues that iMessage is currently suffering from, noting “Users are unable to use iMessage. … If you are an iMessage user …

Android 4.2 bug omits December from the People app, makes end-of-year birthdays even less bearable  —  The launch of Android 4.2 brought a welcome smattering of extra features to the mobile world, but a recently discovered bug omits something slightly important: namely, the month of December.

Apple Can Finish What Microsoft's Sinofsky Started  —  In 2007, Microsoft introduces a new version of Windows called Vista, a grand name for what turns out to be an embarrassing dud.  (Memories of my first and determining interaction with Vista can be found here.)

Making Cents  —  I'm sure each generation of musicians feels they've lived through a time of tremendous change, but the shifts I've witnessed in my relatively short music career— from morphing formats to dissolving business models— do seem extraordinary.  The first album I made was originally released …

As Boom Lures App Creators, Tough Part Is Making a Living  —  ROSEDALE, Md. — Shawn and Stephanie Grimes spent much of the last two years pursuing their dream of doing research and development for Apple, the world's most successful corporation.  —  But they did not actually have jobs at Apple.

Israeli government websites under mass hacking attack  —  (Reuters) - More than 44 million hacking attempts have been made on Israeli government web sites since Wednesday when Israel began its Gaza air strikes, the government said on Sunday.  —  Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz …

The Hackers of Damascus  —  Taymour Karim didn't crack under interrogation.  His Syrian captors beat him with their fists, with their boots, with sticks, with chains, with the butts of their Kalashnikovs.  They hit him so hard they broke two of his teeth and three of his ribs.