Pinboard

he U.S. Edition of Google News now lets you collect private, sharable badges for your favorite topics. The more articles you read on Google News, the more your badges level up: you can reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and finally Ultimate. Keep your badges to yourself, or show them off to your friends.

LinkedIn's leader said he doesn't think Google+ will be able to make it in a world that already has Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn because "nobody has any free time," according to SlashGear.

News International systems were hacked on Monday night in order to redirecting visitors to The Sun's website towards a fake story on the supposed death of Rupert Murdoch by infamous hacktivist collective LulzSec. The group also redirected the main News International website to the LulzSec Twitter feed. In addition, the hack may have allowed LulzSec to gain access to News International's email database.

Last Friday, Sears.com accidentally listed the Wi-Fi only, 16GB Apple iPad 2 for $69 (usual price: $499), and 32GB version for $169 (usual price: $599). Those who ordered and paid for the Apple iPad 2 at the unreal prices even received a confirmation e-mail.

Amazon today unveiled a textbook rental service for the company's Kindle e-reader. Students can rent e-textbooks for as few as 30 days and extend rental periods in one-day increments.

This particular malware causes infected computers to send traffic to Google through a small number of intermediary servers called “proxies.” We hope that by taking steps to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies, we can help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections.

Breaking news out of Twitter this afternoon, four key product managers have just been let go, we’ve learned. The move was led by Jack Dorsey and will see key product guys Kevin Cheng, Josh Elman, and two others we’ve yet to confirm, leave the company.

Fridge announced today it has been acquired by Google, and its team and technology will be folded into the Google+ project. According to statements made to AllThingsD, Groups has always been part of the Google+ roadmap, and this acquisition will help Google deliver “shared circles.” (Circles are currently private and there’s no easy way for groups of people to communicate.)

We now further understand why our meeting was less than productive; someone who does not value ethics with respect to his own conduct, would likely have little interest in this subject as it related to the conduct of others. Perhaps there is a "variability of aptitude" for decency and professionalism among university faculty.

Apple Inc. is in the early stages of examining Hulu LLC, a video-streaming pioneer that is being considered for sale by its owners. Apple, which sits on $76.2 billion in cash and investments, is in the preliminary stages of looking at the site, which allows users to stream television shows and movies over the Internet, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said the company's interest was at the earliest stages and may not result in a bid.

Cisco persecuted an opponent #312

To be clear, the stories we’re hearing so far are of people being suddenly frozen out of EVERYTHING, all their data and resources, not just one or a few Google functions. Given who we early adopters are, even a few more days of this unreasonable behavior could abort the whole G+ effort.

While Google is mum on exactly what the business profiles will include, the spokesperson did say, “You can expect to see a level of analytics and measurement that you’d typically find in Google products as well as a nuanced approach to how things are shared. It encourages and enhances conversation, it doesn’t just put things in the stream.”

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, unhurt in the bombing, was at one point said to be at an undisclosed location. If his name sounds familiar it’s because he was the Prime Minister who last year was stranded in New York by the erupting Icelandic volcano, and took to governing his country using an iPad. Security around the royal family was boosted. Government officials appealed to local residents via Twitter to refrain from using wireless phone networks so as not to overwhelm them. With several people trapped in damaged buildings, locals in the area were also asked to unlock their Wi-Fi routers to allow those trapped to communicate and bypass the cellular networks.

On Tuesday, Mr. Jobs didn't participate in a conference call to discuss Apple's latest quarterly results, which showed the company's profit doubled and revenue surged 82%. A couple of Apple directors have held talks about the company's leadership with some search firms after those recruiters informally approached them, said three of these people. The directors have made no decision about whether to retain executive recruiters, these people said. Some of the people who talked with Apple directors said they considered the conversations to be more than the routine discussions they typically have with board members.