A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.
Multiple outlets are reporting that Egypt has shut off local web access, a first in Internet history. Tweeted CNN reporter Ben Wedeman: “No internet, no SMS, what is next? Mobile phones and land lines? So much for stability. #Jan25 #Egypt” The move comes as thousands of Egyptian protesters call for an end to the 30-year dictatorship of 82-year-old President Hosni Mubarak. (CNN)
- Microsoft’s sales jumped 5% to $3.65 billion during the its most recent quarter, defying analyst predictions and particularly notable given Windows 7’s blockbuster launch a year ago. The company attributed its success to sales of its Kinect motion sensor, which drove a 55% increase in revenue at its entertainment and devices division. (paidContent)
- LinkedIn filed the paperwork for its initial public offering yesterday. The professional social network hopes to raise up to $175 million in doing so. (VentureBeat)
- According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the e-marketplace recorded its first $10 billion quarter, with sales of $12.95 billion, up 36% from the $9.52 billion in revenues the same time last year. Bezos also revealed Kindle book sales surpassed paperback sales for the first time. “This milestone has come even sooner than we expected — and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales,” he said. However despite the numbers, company shares fell nearly 10% because revenues missed analyst predictions of $13.01 billion. (TechCrunch and VentureBeat)
- Outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt denied speculation that he was leaving because Facebook had dented the company’s momentum. “This has nothing to do with competitors,” Schmidt said. “I publicly said the next 10 years will be as successful as the past 10. We’re going to run this way for a while. It’s a full-time job just to deal with” the areas Schmidt will oversee, he said. (Fortune)
- News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and Apple’s Vice President of Internet Services Eddy Cue will officially unveil the Daily, an iPad newspaper, in New York on February 2. (The Loop)
- Daily deals site LivingSocial closed the gap somewhat with Groupon last week when it experienced an 80% surge in traffic and sold a whopping 1.3 million $20 Amazon gift cards for half the price. (Hitwise Intelligence)
- Verizon is close to buying information technology services company Terremark for $1.4 billion as part of its strategy to boost its cloud-computing abilities. (Los Angeles Times)
- AT&T’s shares fell nearly 3% after the wireless carrier issued a shaky profit outlook for the year, which took into account the launch of the Verizon iPhone next month. “It may be rocky in the beginning of the year, kind of volatile, hard to predict, but we think as we work through it and the market stabilizes, we’ll be able to grow through it,” Stephenson said during the company’s quarterly conference call. (New York Times)
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