A round-up of the companies, deals, and trends that made headlines.
Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We’ve assembled the day’s most newsworthy bits below.
“In my opinion, your motives are driven by self-serving factors around ego satisfaction and ‘making a buck.'” — Angel investor Ron Conway to a group of super angels allegedly involved in a secretive meeting to discuss driving down start-up valuations and fighting back against upstarts (TechCrunch)
“Ron is throwing us under a bus, and it’s chicken$&*t that he writes that after David Lee comes to both meetings.” — Angel investor David McClure in a short-lived Tweet meant as a response to Conway’s email. (TechCrunch)
- The Justice department struck down agreements among six tech companies — Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), Adobe (ADBE), Pixar and Intuit (INTU) — in which they’d agreed to refrain from stop cold-calling and recruiting employees working at competing companies. (VentureBeat)
- Former Nokia (NOKBF) employees now say the troubled mobile company grew “complacent, slow, and removed” from what consumers want because of its early success. (The New York Times)
- Netflix (NFLX) and NBC Universal have struck a multi-year deal to stream content from NBC and its family of cable networks, which should include all 35 seasons of Saturday Night Live and the hit sci-fi show, Battlestar Galactica, as well as every “previous-season” episode of 30 Rock, The Office, and Law and Order: SVU. (cnet)
- According to web analysts at Hitwise, Digg user traffic has declined 24% in the U.S. and 34% in the UK over the last 11 weeks, around the same time the once-popular social news Web site unveiled its “V4” redesign. (Mashable)
- Can’t say we didn’t see it coming: Sony Ericsson (SNE) is dropping Symbian from its handset lineup and focusing on Android instead.
- SalesForce.com (CRM) agreed to acquire enterprise chat startup Activa Line for undisclosed terms. (ReadWriteWeb)
- If the deal goes through, Zynga, makers of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, is relocating to a 270,000 square-foot office space in San Francisco. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Today, The New Yorker joins the growing ranks of magazine publications releasing multimedia-enhanced iPad issues. But with no subscription model (yet), will readers pony up $4.99 a week? (The Wall Street Journal)
- Hold onto your hats. The first paid app has just arrived for the Amazon Kindle: Scrabble ($5). (Gizmodo)
- Mashable did this neat-o gallery of Apple mice over the years. (Mashable)
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during an appearance on Oprah he’s making his first charitable donation of $100 million to Newark public schools. Below, in two parts, is the full interview.
Mark Zuckerberg on Oprah, Part 1
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93yLxJEorSo&w=600&h=375]
Mark Zuckerberg on Oprah, Part 2
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2iv5aYQmAY&w=600&h=375]
- Microsoft (MSFT) just started airing two new Windows Phone 7 commercials, for their new mobile OS, which is rumored to launch October 21. This one plays up the OS’s quick and easy interface. (9to5Mac)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvV6_t3crlk&w=600&h=375]
Update: In an earlier draft, a typo in the first bullet implied the six tech companies involved agreed not to cold-call employees at competing companies. This has been clarified.
