News Corp. Shutters The Daily iPad App  —  The Daily, News Corp.'s attempt to create a newspaper for the iPad era, is shutting down after less than two years.  —  The media giant, which also owns this Web site, said it will “cease standalone publication” of the app on Dec. 15.

What's Up With Whatsapp?  Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That's What  —  Whatsapp, the multiplatform mobile messaging app that has been one of the runaway success stories for ad-free, paid services, has been in talks to be acquired by Facebook, according to sources close to the matter.

Intel to slash power consumption on Ivy Bridge chip  —  Chip giant plans to make Ivy Bridge more power efficient than the versions that are currently used in the MacBook Air and Windows 8 ultrabooks.  —  Intel is on a mission to cut the power consumption of its chips.  But that's not only future silicon.

Nobody Is Crying For You When You Are Worth Billions  —  I did a talk with Bill Werde at Billboard's FutureSound conference a few weeks ago.  The entire talk is online (in two parts) here.  If you go to 7:45 minutes in on the first video (embedded below) you will get to a conversation …

New filing: Apple knew almost nothing about jury foreman in Samsung case  —  There have been many, many post-trial machinations following this summer's $1.05 billion patent infringement verdict in Apple v. Samsung.  But the most provocative is surely Samsung's theory that the jury pool …

Hackers Behind Tumblr Worm Say They Warned Tumblr of Vulnerability Weeks Ago  —  Tumblr has been flooded by a worm that's spamming thousands of user's feeds with an anti-Tumblr rant.  In an interview, a spokesman for the group that's apparently behind the hack claims they warned Tumblr weeks ago …

iTunes Event Taking Place In Moscow On Dec 4: Is Russia Finally Getting Apple's Music Service?  —  At long last, Apple appears to be approaching a launch date for iTunes in Russia — and it could come as soon as tomorrow.  A tipster has forwarded us an email, in Russian …

Texting SMS pioneer Matti Makkonen 20 years on  —  In a world first, on 3 December 1992, an engineer sent the message “Merry Christmas” from a PC to a mobile device using Vodafone's UK network.  —  But the origins of the idea date back further to Matti Makkonen.

Firefox Gets Social with Facebook  —  Today, we're excited to announce that Firefox is getting social with Facebook Messenger for Firefox, which is built on a new Social API for the Web.  —  Firefox is the Web browser of choice for hundreds of millions of people worldwide and as social sites …

Instagram vulnerability on iPhone allows for account takeover  —  A security researcher has found a vulnerability in Instagram involving how it handles cookies  —  A security researcher published on Friday another attack on Facebook's Instagram photo-sharing service that could allow a hacker to seize control of a victim's account.

Google launches new Maps API with better tablet maps, Google Play services, new layers and more  —  Google has today launched v2 of its Google Maps API, bringing along better support for maps on tablets, integration with Google Play services, new information layers and more.

Alibaba reaches 1 trillion RMB ($157B) in sales to become biggest e-commerce company in the world  —  Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba sold one trillion RMB worth of goods in 2012, the company announced today.  That's $157 billion U.S. in gross merchandise volume (GMV) …

OMGPOP's Chief Revenue Officer Wilson Kriegel Becomes President, COO of Video Chat Startup Paltalk  —  Another one of Zynga's recent departures has landed.  —  Wilson Kriegel, who was OMGPOP's chief revenue officer until the Draw Something maker was acquired for $210 million in cash and retention …

Eric Schmidt's book on the future to be released April 23  —  Alfred A. Knopf says it will print a first run of 150,000 copies for “The New Digital Age,” co-written with Google Ideas director Jared Cohen.  —  Eric Schmidt's treatise on the future will soon be hitting bookshelves.

On the Facebook Menu at Zuckerberg's Recent Dinner With Game Developers: Sushi and a Sliding Pay Scale  —  As mobile gaming gets hotter, Facebook is trying hard to keep more game developers, beyond Zynga, interested in its platform.  —  Last week, Facebook let its longtime dominant gaming partner Zynga …

Microsoft claims 100% + increase in app downloads, developer revenue after WP8 debut  —  On Twitter Microsoft's Todd Brix, Senior Director, Windows Phone Apps Team, has announced that Windows Phone app downloads and developer revenue has more than doubled since the advent of Windows Phone 8 in November.

Same-Day Delivery Becomes a Costly Web Battleground  —  SAN FRANCISCO—To gain a competitive edge in online sales this holiday season, companies including eBay Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are turning to a new weapon: people like Jaclyn Widtfeldt.  —  On a recent Tuesday just before 7 p.m. …

Verizon Shutting Down the Mobile Video Service It Launched in 2005  —  Verizon Wireless is pushing the “off” button on the pioneering mobile video service once known as Vcast Video.  —  The service, which launched in 2005, will go dark on Dec. 15, although the carrier will continue …

Mobile Drives Adoption Of Social Media In 2012: Apps & Mobile Web Account For Majority Of Growth; Nearly Half Of Social Media Users Access Sites On Smartphones  —  Research firm Nielsen and NM Incite, a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey, today published a comprehensive look at the state of the social media ecosystem in 2012.

AOL Eliminates CMO Position in Another Corporate Restructuring  —  PR Chief Caroline Campbell Also Slated to Leave Company  —  Jolie Hunt, AOL's CMO and head of communications, is leaving the company in a corporate restructuring less than five months after the company hired her.

App Maker Uber Hits Regulatory Snarl  —  WASHINGTON — Summoning a taxi or car service with your smartphone feels like the future.  City governments around the world can agree on that.  But many of them are proposing new rules that would run Uber, one of the most prominent ride-requesting apps, off the road.