Bits
Bits
Business, Innovation, Technology, Society

NYT
  • Today's Scuttlebot: Kaleidoscope Browsers and Lessons From Steve Jobs
    The technology reporters and editors of The New York Times scour the Web for important and peculiar news. Tuesday's selection includes items on lessons drawn from the life and death of Steve Jobs, a tool that turns your Web browser into a kaleidoscope, and cheaper cellphone chips from Samsung.

  • Is Pinterest Already Making Money, Quietly?
    Pinterest, a buzzed-about young start-up that lets people create collections of their favorite items on the Web, may be adding affiliate links to its users' posts, without notifying the users, to generate revenue from purchases made through the site.

  • Symantec Says Hackers Tried Extortion
    Hackers made good on a threat to post the source code for Symantec's popular PCAnywhere antivirus product and threatened to post the remainder of the source code in their possession. Symantec said the hackers offered to stop releasing the company's code if they were given money.

  • Facebook Graffiti Artist Could be Worth $500 Million
    David Choe, a graffiti artist who chose Facebook stock instead of cash when he spray-painted the Facebook offices in 2005, says he could be worth more than $500 million. Mr. Choe took to the airwaves on Tuesday to discuss his windfall on The Howard Stern Show.

  • DealBook: Those Millions on Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit
    In Tuesday's New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin looks at how many users Facebook really has, pointing out that the company counts as "active" users anyone who presses a "Like" button or shares a Twitter message, as well as people who go to the Web or mobile site.

  • Wolfram, a Search Engine, Finds Answers Within Itself
    In Tuesday's New York Times, Steve Lohr reports on Stephen Wolfram, a 52-year-old scientist, software designer, entrepreneur and winner of the MacArthur prize, who three years ago created a new kind of search engine, Wolfram Alpha. Unlike Google or Microsoft's Bing, Wolfram Alpha does not forage the Web, but culls its own painstakingly curated database to find answers. There was initial skepticism, but the technology has come a long way.

  • At Super Bowl Stadium, More Mobile Uploads Than Downloads
    In addition to chugging beer and popcorn, football fans who crowded into the Super Bowl stadium were consuming copious amounts of data from wireless networks. AT&T, the nation's No. 2 carrier, said the data use came mostly from people sharing content as opposed to downloading.

  • Google Makes Its Chrome Browser Mobile
    In a move that is likely to rattle its competitors is search and browsing, Google is expected to introduce its Chrome browser for Android 4.0 phones and tablets on Tuesday. Chrome's mobile browser is as speedy as its desktop counterpart, but incorporates syncing capabilities too. Google still trails Microsoft in desktop browsing, but Tuesday's announcement is likely to give Google a leg up in mobile browsing, where no clear leader has emerged.

  • Halliburton Drops BlackBerry for iPhone
    In more troubling news for Research In Motion, Halliburton, the energy services company, has announced plans to ditch corporate support for the BlackBerry in favor of Apple's iPhone. It's yet another example of how the iPhone is eating the BlackBerry's lunch in the area it once dominated: business customers.

  • One on One: Paul Maritz, VMware Chief Executive
    Paul Maritz, the chief executive of VMware, is convincing companies that virtualization of software saves them money. That's the easy part. In an interview, he says: "When the data fabric changes, lots of other things change, too. The cloud customer experience only works if you upgrade your legacy applications, and use your own data in new ways."