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June 4, 2013, 11:00 PM

Top News

Alistair Barr / Reuters:

Amazon plans major move into grocery business — (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is planning a major roll-out of an online grocery business that it has been quietly developing for years, targeting one of the largest retail sectors yet to be upended by e-commerce, according to two people familiar with the situation.

More: The Register, TechHive, The Verge, Ars Technica, Quartz, CNET, Betabeat, larry borsato, VentureBeat, Mashable, GeekWire, Kindle Review, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Gizmodo and Business Insider

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Apple Will Appeal ITC Import Ban on Older iPhones, iPads — An unexpected victory for Samsung in its patent battle with Apple. The United States International Trade Commission on Tuesday granted the South Korean company's request for import ban on older iPhones and iPads which it found …

More: Ars Technica, MacRumors, The Atlantic Wire, Computerworld, 9to5Google, Business Insider, Electronista, GigaOM, Daring Fireball, Pocket-lint, AppleInsider, Neowin and TUAW

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

U.S. ITC issues limited import ban on AT&T models of Apple's older iPhones, iPads after Samsung patent win

The White House:

Fact Sheet: White House Task Force on High-Tech Patent Issues — Today the White House announced major steps to improve incentives for future innovation in high tech patents, a key driver of economic growth and good paying American jobs. The White House issued five executive actions …

BuzzFeed:

Scenes From Zynga After The Fall — Earlier today, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said he would lay off 520 employees and shut down offices in New York and other places. Here's what it was like for the employees who got their pink slips. — Via: Jim Urquhart / Reuters

More: Business Insider, PandoDaily, Valleywag, Betabeat, Inside Social Games and The Atlantic Wire

Richard Nieva / PandoDaily:

At Zynga's shareholder meeting, a heavy focus on real money gaming

More: Digits, The Technology Chronicles, Inside Social Games, TUAW and Xconomy

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Salesforce.com Makes Its Biggest Acquisition Yet, Buys ExactTarget for $2.5 Billion — Salesforce.com just announced that it will make its biggest acquisition yet: It will spend $2.5 billion to acquire the cloud marketing company ExactTarget. — Salesforce is paying $33.75 a share.

More: Salesforce.com, AdAge, Bloomberg, Reuters, GigaOM, eWeek, DealBook, Venture Capital Dispatch, Marketing Land, Adotas, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, ZDNet, Real Story Group, VentureBeat and ZDNet. Tweets: @levie

Om Malik / GigaOM:

What I think of Salesforce's decision to buy Exact Target for $2.5 billion

More: AllThingsD

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

New Government Documents Show the Sean Parker Wedding Is the Perfect Parable for Silicon Valley Excess — Nothing says, “I love the Earth!” quite like bringing bulldozers into an old-growth forest to create a fake ruined castle. — Hey, if a billionaire couple wants to spend $10 million on their wedding …

More: Associated Press, Business Insider, Valleywag and Betabeat

Tweets: @eldon, @zpower and @nostrich

DEADLINE:

Steve Ballmer Treks To Hollywood To Tout Xbox One To TV Moguls And Agents — EXCLUSIVE 10 AM... UPDATEd 12:30 PM : Deadline has learned the meetings were an intimate preview of the new Xbox One capabilities before next week's E3 confab where secretive Microsoft will unveil details of the device's technology.

More: AppleInsider, VG247, Neowin and The Next Web

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple releases OS X 10.8.4 with WiFi, Microsoft Exchange improvements, iMessage fixes, more — Following a lengthy developer beta period, Apple has released OS X 10.8.4 for all Mac users. The update is available via the Mac App Store Software Update function: … Complete release notes below:

More: Apple, The Register, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, Engadget, OS X Daily, MacStories, BGR, The Verge, iMore and CNET. Thanks:@jordankahn

eMarketer:

Amazon Earned Over $600 Million in Ad Revenue Last Year — Analysis of figures from many research sources suggests Amazon's WW ad revenues will top $835 million this year — Amazon has ramped up its advertising strategy in recent years, and the site is reaping the benefits.

More: Search Engine Land, GeekWire, CNET, Business Insider, Marketing Land, dailywireless.org, AdExchanger and Mashable. Thanks:@clarkf

Justin Lafferty / AllFacebook:

Facebook Sees Record Gaming Numbers In 1Q — Facebook Monday released their latest gaming statistics, showing that 250 million people are playing games on Facebook each month. The first quarter of the year also represented the most successful three-month period in terms of revenue and people playing games to date.

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Apple releases economic impact report for new headquarters, predicts 23,400 employees by 2016 — Apple has released a report today detailing the economic and fiscal impact of both its current business and new headquarters in Cupertino. The 'campus 2′, also known as the ‘spaceship’ is set to be complete in 2016.

More: AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, MacRumors, Mercury News, 9to5Mac, CNET, PadGadget, AllThingsD, TUAW, Engadget and Ars Technica. Thanks:@srikardr

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Android Jelly Bean hits 33% adoption, ICS falls to 25%, but Gingerbread still used by over 36% of Play users — Google today updated its Platform Versions Web page for Android, and it looks like the latest version is finally on its way to snatching first place.

More: Inquirer, IntoMobile, Electronista, AndroidGuys, Business Insider, GigaOM, Gotta Be Mobile, The H Open Source and TechSpot

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

IBM to Acquire Cloud Services Company SoftLayer — Computing giant IBM just made another move in its quest to becoming the biggest provider of cloud computing services. It said it will acquire SoftLayer, a privately held cloud services player based in Dallas. — Financial terms are not being disclosed.

More: Wall Street Journal, IBM, DealBook, Reuters, Gartner, Bloomberg, GigaOM, Los Angeles Times, InfoWorld, Quartz, PE Hub Blog, Internet Evolution, SiliconANGLE, Web Host Industry Review and ZDNet

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

London's going out app YPlan raises a $12M Series A round and says it will expand to NYC in 2013 — YPlan, the mobile application that tells you where to go each night, has just raised $12 million (£7.9 million) in Series A financing. The round was led by General Catalyst Partners …

More: VentureBeat, AllThingsD, TechCrunch and Business Insider

Joseph Volpe / Engadget:

Sprint Vital leaks out: 5-inch HD display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 13MP camera, Android 4.1 (video) — Looks like Sprint really is prepping a 5-inch Android flagship of its own: the Vital. Thanks to an anonymous source, Engadget's received a motherlode of details on the upcoming …

More: CNET and PhoneArena

Kim Zetter / Wired:

American Gets Targeted by Digital Spy Tool Sold to Foreign Governments — The email appeared to come from a trusted colleague at a renowned academic institution and referenced a subject that was a hot-button issue for the recipient, including a link to a website where she could obtain more information about it.

More: Softpedia News

Don Clark / Digits:

Amazon Pads its Streaming Library with Viacom — Viacom and Amazon.com are getting cozier. — The two companies on Tuesday are announcing a multi-year deal to stream hundreds of Viacom shows to Amazon customers, just days after many of Viacom's programs disappeared from Netflix's catalog.

More: Amazon.com, AllThingsD, The Verge, TechHive, BetaNews, Reuters, paidContent, Engadget, SiliconBeat, Wall Street Journal, CNET, paidContent, The Next Web, Gizmodo and The Next Web. See also Mediagazer

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Will Soon Launch Google Web Designer, A Free HTML5 Development Tool For Creating Web Apps, Sites And Ads — Google will soon launch Google Web Designer, an HTML5 development tool for “creative professionals.” The service, Google says, will launch within “the coming months” …

More: DoubleClick Advertiser Blog, Mobile Magazine, Forbes, 9to5Google, WebProNews and ZDNet

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Mobile App Monetization Network Tapjoy Restructures Top Management, With Some Layoffs — Zynga wasn't the only company that had major layoffs this week. — Tapjoy, which has been an advertising and monetization backbone for many mobile gaming companies across the entire industry …

More: Mobile Marketing Watch

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows 8.1 fingerprint reader support includes option to secure folders with a finger — Microsoft has been detailing additional Windows 8.1 improvements this week at its annual Tech-Ed conference. One particular feature, native fingerprint reader support, is designed …

More: CNET, Digital Trends, Gotta Be Mobile, Ubergizmo and Inquirer

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Google Glass photo update brings HDR, better low-light shots and captions — At Google I/O, the Glass team promised monthly updates for the head-mounted computer. Today, a new version of the software (XE6) is being shipped out to the few who have them so far and it contains a bunch of updates that center on images.

More: 9to5Google, The Verge, Marketing Land, SlashGear, Engadget and PetaPixel

Rob LeFebvre / Cult of Mac:

Penguin Books CEO Bolsters Government Case Against Apple In E-Book Case — A delicate ecosystem. Right. — David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Books, testified today that a provision in its e-books contract with Apple played a role in its decision to change contracts with other retailers …

More: Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Financial Times and Corporate Intelligence

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