A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.
- Yesterday, Living Social sold more than 1.1 million $20 Amazon gift certificates for $10 each, earning the daily deals site more than $11,000,000 in sales in less than 24 hours. (LivingSocial)
- The Nintendo 3DS handheld will go on sale in the U.S. on March 27 for $249, right in line with some analyst predictions. As Fortune reported a week ago, the 3DS will include two screens — one 3-D, one 2-D, three cameras allowing users to take 3-D photos, a motion sensor, and sleep mode WiFi so users can download and trade game content while the unit is technically turned off. (Nintendo and Fortune)
- Deeply embedded in the latest iOS 4.3 beta code are references to new features called “Media Stream” and “Photo Streams,” which contains strong evidence that it will allow iPhone users to let friends subscribe to their collections of photos, either stored locally or in the cloud. Another bit of social network ammunition against Facebook? (9 to 5 Mac)
Photo: Engadget Now about those HP-Palm tablets… The 7-inch Opal, will measure in at around 180 x 144 x 13mm making it roughly the same size of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. Its capacitive touchscreen display will feature a TFT LCD with a resolution of 1,024 x 768. Meanwhile, the 9-inch Topaz, will measure in at 241 x 190 x 13mm similar to the first-gen iPad. Both will feature excellent audio processing courtesy of Dr. Dre’s Beats. Other perks: “tens of gigabytes” of cloud storage for each user and a “Tap-to-Share” feature where two tablets can transfer content like web pages or documents simply by being tapped together. (Engadget)
- HP is ready to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mark Hurd’s resignation and the board’s decision to award him a generous exit package. The investigation will be conducted by outside lawyers and HP board members who joined the board after Mr. Hurd resigned in August. Most likely, new CEO Leo Aptoheker and Chairman Ray Lane will also be involved. (Wall Street Journal)
- Nokia canceled the launch of its X7 smartphone, which was expected to debut at the Mobile World Congress next month in Spain and hit some time this year on AT&T. Though the company plans to roll out the phone to other markets, Nokia decided not to introduce it to the U.S. because the company thought the X7 wasn’t going to get enough marketing and subsidies support from AT&T. (Wall Street Journal)
- Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group is investing as much as $4.6 billion to build a network of warehouses throughout China. (Wall Street Journal)
- Facebook announced a new app that supposedly improves upon the mobile Facebook experience currently available for non-smartphone users with “an easier-to-navigate home screen, contact synchronization, and fast scrolling of photos and friend updates.” The social network cut deals with operators in countries like Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Hong Kong and Tunisia so users can tinker around with the app without incurring data charges for the first 90 months. (Facebook and VentureBeat)
- In preparation for the Verizon iPhone, AT&T will have two new text messaging plans launching January 23 — a new $10 per month for 1000 text messages and a second $20 unlimited text plan — and plans to kill the current $5 for 200 messages and $15 for 1500 messages options. Current subscribers will be “grandfathered” in. (GearLive)
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