Flipboard

Google's nagging media problem

The question of whether or not Google is actually a species of media company has dogged it since its early days. Truth is, it's missing one key characteristic.

By Ben Elowitz, contributor

FORTUNE -- Since Google's early rise, this question has consumed hordes of those watching it: Is Google a technology company or a media company? Paradoxically, Google has continuously defied the dichotomy, seeming to succeed in media precisely by maintaining that MORE

Today in Tech: How the TouchPad fire sale hurts HP

Fortune's curated selection of the weekend's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day. 

* How HP's (HPQ) $100 TouchPad fire sale could affect the company's reputation and retail partnerships moving forward. (ZDNet)

* Meanwhile, Robert X. Cringely on why the HP he knew died many years ago, starting with the spin-off of Agilent Technologies in 1999. (I, Cringely)

* Skype is acquiring group-messaging startup GroupMe for MORE

Did AOL just out-Flipboard Flipboard?

The company's new news app aggregates content based on your interests, reading habits and your friends -- and it takes the digital magazine concept to the extreme.

By JP Mangalindan, writer-reporter

FORTUNE -- In the year since Flipboard debuted at last year's Brainstorm Tech conference, the news app space has exploded. Users looking for help sifting through online content have a number to choose from: Pulse, FLUD, Zite, News360, and the recently MORE

Today in Tech: Facebook's new 1-million square-foot campus

Fortune's curated selection of the weekend's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day. 

* Facebook started moving the first bunch of lucky staffers into its new 1-million square-foot Menlo Park campus. Company product architect Aaron Sittig documented the move with some choice snapshots.

* Apartment-swapping startup Airbnb is on a roll: it just raised $112 million at a $1 billion valuation, led MORE

Meet Float: Scribd's all-in-one mobile reader

The popular publishing site doesn't just want to house documents. It wants to own the mobile reading experience, too.

FORTUNE -- News curation has been a hot topic ever since Flipboard made a splash at last year's Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. After all, with Facebookers sharing four billion pieces of information a day and Twitter users banging out one billion tweets weekly, not to mention the countless Web stories and blog MORE

News curation: finally, social media's killer app?

We've been inputting data into the social graph for years now. Personalized news curation may be the latest happy output, but it's been a long time coming.

FORTUNE -- Even the most casual social network user will admit that the Facebook or Twitter experience can be overwhelming -- that merciless stream of status updates and shared content, which sometimes feels less like a stream and more like a deluge, waits for MORE

Today in Tech: T. Rowe Price invests $190 million in Facebook

A curated selection of the weekend's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you everyday.

T. Rowe Price Group invested $190.5 million in Facebook, though at this point we're not sure at what valuation, along with $71.8 million in Zynga and $35.4 million in Angie's List, a service that compiles reviews of local contractors and doctors. (Wall Street Journal)
Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse MORE

Today in Tech: RIM refutes PlayBook criticism, Nintendo's new HD console?

A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you everyday.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie refuted some criticism that the company may have rushed its PlayBook tablet to market. "I don't think that's fair," he told Bloomberg News. "A lot of the people that want this want a secure and free extension of their BlackBerry." The interview came after a few early MORE

Why I still don't love my iPad and why the iPad 2 won't help

Thinner, faster, blah, blah, blah – and oh, that'll be $500 more, please. I'm doing more with my iPad, but neither it nor the new one is yet the revolution Steve Jobs is promising.

By Leigh Gallagher, Assistant Managing Editor

Two ounces? The iPad 2 was launched this week with much fanfare and subtle but snazzy upgrades: it's thinner, it's faster, there are front and rear cameras, and we will be MORE

Flipboard: Publishing Friend or Foe?

Last year's top iPad app could be a force in online content for years to come

By John Patrick Pullen, contributor

For Mike McCue, 2010 was a very good year. In July, the CEO launched San Francisco-based Flipboard, a much-heralded social media magazine application for the iPad that captured the attention of users, publishers, and bloggers worldwide. Days later, his fledgling firm announced it had received $10.5 million in investments and had MORE