A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.
- Remember when Facebook updated your Profile page back in December? Well, looks like the rest of the social network is catching up. The site released a similar design for fan or group pages like Fortune’s — which, by the way, you should “Like” if you haven’t already — that incorporates many of the same changes with images featured prominently at the top of the page, application tabs moved from the top of the profile down to a sidebar, and a widget that shows what “Likes” you have in common with the page. Perhaps the most controversial is a new option on the right side which allows any Facebook user to “use” the fan/group page and “Like” or comment as that page elsewhere. (Facebook and TechCrunch)
- Meanwhile, the social network champ is mulling over whether to allow a tender offer of up to $1 billion of its employee shares, which would push its current $50 billion valuation to $60 billion. (AllThingsD)
- Here’s another bit of Apple talk from well-placed sources, this time from Bloomberg. The Cupertino-based hardware/software powerhouse is working on new versions of the iPhone aimed squarely at taking on lesser-priced Android devices (think iPhone-lite.). One version would be significantly cheaper and 1/3 smaller than the iPhone 4 and feature a sort of dual-mode tech that would let it run more easily on both AT&T and Verizon’s mobile networks. This particular model, which some of the media has already happily dubbed the “iPhone nano,” would sell for $200 without contract, so you can imagine the pricing possibilities with that one. (Bloomberg)
- The battle for daily deals site supremacy continues! Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz invested an unspecified amount of money into Groupon and joined its board. The move comes one month after the leading daily deals site raised $950 million from investors like Andreesen Horowitz, Battery Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (TechFlash)
- Pure Digital CEO Jonathan Kaplan, whose company is behind the popular Flip cam franchise, is leaving Cisco, calling into question the value of Cisco’s acquisition of the startup for $590 million less than two years ago. Today is his last day. (GigaOm)
- Google officially rolled out a new, two-step Google Account sign-in process that asks users to enter their passwords and a separate code that will be sent to mobile devices before gaining access to products like Gmail or Google Docs. (All this of course in the name of better security.) (PC Magazine)
- Yahoo revealed its latest product yesterday: Livestand, a digital newsstand for tablets intended to compete against the recently-launched iPad-exclusive newspaper, the Daily. Livestand pulls Yahoo content — think News, Sports, and Finance, for example — along with third-party content based on user interests. Expect the product to hit iPads and Android tablets some time during the first half of this year. (Yahoo)
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