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Under the new law, the definition of a “retailer engaged in business in this state” is revised and other caveats and exceptions may apply (of course). The real result is that Amazon and other online retailers won’t have to collect sales tax from consumers until September 15, 2012. Amazon, in turn, has agreed to drop its efforts to put the issue on the voting ballot. As part of the deal, Amazon will bring back its affiliate program in California – at least for one year.

An agreement would essentially mean that California would lose out on more than a year of revenues but have the certainty of taxes thereafter.

“Twitter’s organic growth has taken many forms, including a widespread, dictionary-documented association of the word ‘Tweet’ with the use of Twitter. It is in the best interests of our users and developers for the meaning of ‘Tweet’ to be preserved to prevent any confusion, so we are taking action to protect its meaning.”

They had these custom frames built around them so we couldn't even tell what the iPads looked like. We could plug into them so we could code to them and we could touch the screen and play with that, but we couldn't see the form factor. Then they took pictures of the wood grain. If any pictures leaked out, they could trace it back to which desk they came from. I wasn't allowed to tell our CEO. I wasn't allowed to tell anybody anything about what we were doing. I couldn't even tell my wife. She was like, "You're going to get fired if this doesn't work." I hadn't thought about that but she was probably right. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-a-great-story-about-the-astonishing-lengths-apple-went-through-to-keep-the-ipad-secret-2011-9?op=1#ixzz1Xc7lePPJ

The photo's resolution is about 5MP, but the final pixel dimensions (2291 x 2235) don't match the existing iPhone 4 (2592 x 1936). The photo is clearly cropped—it's not a common 4:3 ratio, and the EXIF data tells us the original resolution was 3264 x 2448 pixels. That just so happens to be the exact resolution as both OmniVision's latest 1/3.2" 8MP backside illuminated sensor as well as Sony's 1/3.2" 8MP Exmor R sensor.

“I’m totally independent,” he said in an e-mail exchange with The New York Times. “I just share my findings with some people in Iran. They are free to do anything they want with my findings and things I share with them, but I’m not responsible.”

Carol Bartz on Friday resigned from Yahoo Inc.'s board, a person familiar with the matter said, three days after the Internet company's board fired her from her post as chief executive. The company previously said it expected her to resign from the board seat. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576564761141370174.html#ixzz1XgMgNeSu

Today however we’re hearing reports via the WSJ that Amazon may soon launch a book equivalent of the service, charging a fixed monthly fee for access to a library of books. Amazon will reportedly offer book publishers a substantial fee for their involvement in the program.

Smartphone maker HTC has publicly stated it is considering buying its own mobile operating system platform, with HP's webOS a potential option for acquisition. Cher Wang, chairwoman of HTC, said her company is currently considering the purchase of its own mobile operating system, according to Focus Taiwan. However, she said the Taiwanese company is in no rush to make a deal. Specifically, Wang admitted that HTC has eyed buying webOS from Hewlett-Packard, which the company may sell as it looks to focus on more profitable software and services. HP acquired webOS in an acquisition from Palm in a $1.2 billion deal in April of 2010.

Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch has decided to move on from TechCrunch and AOL to his newly formed venture fund. Michael is a world-class entrepreneur and we look forward to supporting his new endeavor through our investment in his venture fund. Erick Schonfeld has been named the editor of TechCrunch. TechCrunch will be expanding its editorial leadership in the coming months.”

The selection of flights shown is not influenced by any paid relationships with the airlines, Google said. Flight Search is currently limited to round-trip economy-class flights between certain U.S. cities, but it will be expanded in the future. Flight Search is the first product of Google's controversial $700 million purchase of ITA, the world's largest airline search software company. ITA data is used on websites including Kayak, Orbitz, Expedia.com, TripAdvisor and Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) Bing, as well as a number of airlines' websites.

Google planning opt-out option for WiFi data gathering -- Engadget | |