Big Apple, Bigger Google  —  Google has passed Apple as the most valuable technology company in the world—on one measure.  —  The search giant eclipsed the iPhone maker last week, actually.  Few would have noticed because the metric by which Google jumped ahead isn't the widely-watched one of market capitalization.

Jimmy Wales breaks Wikipedia rules in hunt for Snowden  —  Wikipedia's notorious co-founder, Jimmy Wales, has launched an investigation to determine if any of the pseudonyms who edit the world's biggest encyclopedia are in fact (or suspected to be) classified security info leaker, Edward Snowden.

India Passes Japan To Become Third Largest Global Smartphone Market, After China & U.S.  —  India pushed past Japan to become the third largest global smartphone market in Q1, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics.  The analyst notes it's the first time ever that India has moved up into third place.

Inside YouTube's Master Plan to Kill Lag Dead  —  There is a moment between when you click on a video and when it starts playing.  That moment is the worst part of your day.  The agony of waiting!  The torture of anticipation!  YouTube understands that, and on a visit to YouTube HQ in San Bruno …

Apple Online Store opens in Russia, establishes direct sales in key emerging market  —  Today, Apple has finally launched a version of its official online store for customers in Russia.  The online store is similar in style to Apple's online stores in other countries.

Mobile giant Telefónica backs Windows Phone in move to stymie Android and iOS duopoly  —  Spanish mobile provider Telefónica today announced it is to help boost the visibility of Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system in a bid to end the “current duopoly of Android and iOS.”

Cut Clutter: Two Ways to Put Your Inbox on a Diet  —  Lots of people feel they're drowning in email, with swollen inboxes that make it hard to pinpoint important messages in a sea of annoying marketing mail and unwanted newsletters.  —  Some major email players have tried to improve the situation.

iOS 7 to let developers detect blinking and smiling in photos, could foreshadow future iPhone features  —  iOS 7 adds several new camera-orientated features for developers, which may hint at future consumer-facing features.  In iOS 7 beta 2, Apple has added new image detectors that find certain face expressions in photos.

Square branches out into e-commerce with new Square Market virtual stores for US businesses  —  Mobile and digital payment platform Square has moved into a new market today.  It's a bit different than what most people might think — it's an e-commerce play called Square Market …

Backdoor in HP backup servers  —  According to security researcher Technion, SSH access is all that's required to remotely compromise HP StoreOnce backup systems.  Entering the user name “HPSupport” and a preset password causes the system to open an undocumented administrator account.

Source: Snapchat Cofounders Unloaded Personal Stock for $20 M.  —  A source familiar with Snapchat's recent round of funding said that the teen sensation's two twenty-something cofounders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, each received $10 million in secondary funding as individual shareholders.

SK Telecom launches the world's first LTE-Advanced network, and the Galaxy S4 LTE-A  —  Just days after an LTE-Advanced variant of Samsung's Galaxy S 4 leaked, Korean carrier SK Telecom has officially announced it's launching the world's first LTE-Advanced wireless network.

How A Great Google Workplace Turned Into A ‘Nightmare’  —  One December day last year, an email went out to a group of Google employees and contractors.  —  The email explained how, just more than a year after Google acquired guidebook company Zagat, the division was going to be re-organized.

Leak confirms WebGL, SPDY for IE11  —  On the eve of Microsoft Build 2013, leaked details on Windows 8.1's Internet Explorer 11 confirm that the browser will support next-gen Web technology, including Google's SPDY protocol.  —  If Internet Explorer 10 impressed you, you're going to love …

Why Snowden Asked Visitors in Hong Kong to Refrigerate Their Phones  —  Before a dinner of pizza and fried chicken late Sunday in Hong Kong, Edward J. Snowden insisted that a group of lawyers advising him in the Chinese territory “hide their cellphones in the refrigerator of the home where he was staying …

Silicon Valley's Martha Stewart, Brit Morin, Raises $6.3 Million From Marissa Mayer And A Lead HuffPo Investor  —  Brit Morin, a former Googler who is reinventing herself as the Martha Stewart of tech, has raised a $6.3 million Series A round of financing from Index Ventures, Lerer Ventures …

Hadoop Big Data Ecosystem Gets Big Boost As Hortonworks Nabs $50 Million In Fresh Financing  —  As big data is burning up the mainstream enterprise market, many are questioning the stability of the open source community.  Wikibon analyst Dave Vellante (@dvellante) predicts that the Hadoop ecosystem …

Announcing Microsoft Ventures for startups to build, innovate and grow  —  The following is a post from Rahul Sood, general manager of Microsoft Startups.  —  Entrepreneurship is an increasingly global phenomenon.  We know that the barriers to turn an idea into a business have never been lower.

FTC Updates Search Engine Ad Disclosure Guildelines After “Decline In Compliance”  —  In 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission issued landmark guidelines to search engines, to ensure they were make a clear distinction between their paid and unpaid listings.  Now, the FTC has updated those guidelines …

Voxer's Secret Plan to Make Money From Mobile Messaging: Sell It to Companies  —  Usage of free and cheap mobile communications apps, from WhatsApp to Skype, has exploded around the world.  —  Voxer CEO Tom Katis  —  But one startup thinks it has a master plan that makes it more of a viable business than all the rest.

Europe's broadband 25 percent slower than ISPs promise  —  Summary: Broadband speeds on the continent are only about three-quarters of the headline advertised speeds, the EC has found.  —  Jo Best  —  It's been long known that advertised broadband speeds rarely match up to the reality …