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.
- AOL plans to layoff several hundred employees starting today in editorial and other media product groups, as well as jobs in India — areas like network and ad sales should remain unaffected. The move comes as AOL restructures its editorial division after the $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post and the appointment of founder Arianna Huffington as Editor in Chief of the newly-christened Huffington Post Media Group, which includes properties like TechCrunch and Engadget. (AllThingsD)
- Super troubled actor Charlie Sheen may have been fired from his show, but he’s certainly not lacking for attention. Sheen, who recently landed Internship.com as a Twitter sponsor and Tweeted in search of a social media intern, received more than 74,000 applications from 181 countries. (Davis PR)
- The first round of iPad 2 reviews are in and the general consensus seems to be — surprise! — quite positive. David Pogue of The New York Times just about loved it — “My friends, I’m telling you: just that much improvement in thinness, weight and speed transforms the experience” — and SlashGear’s Vincent Nguyen found that Apple’s fast new dual-core 1Ghz A5 processor made the newly-released iOS 4.3 feel “incredibly responsive” in almost all aspects. But if there was anything that didn’t seem particularly stellar, it would be the two new cameras. The Wall Street Journal’sWalt Mossberg claimed they took mediocre still shots. Joshua Topolsky of Engadget agreed, reporting that the iPad 2 cameras were really pretty bad, probably the same sub-par sensors employed by the iPod Touch. (New York Times, SlashGear, Wall Street Journal, and Engadget)
- Nearly a year later, and it seems Apple is beginning production of the elusive white iPhone 4. If you’re one of the patient few that waited this long, but for some reason can’t wait until the iPhone 5 probably gets announced in June, expect store shipments to go out no later than early April. (AppleInsider)
- Microsoft’s hands-free motion-sensing controller Kinect landed a spot in the Guinness World Records for becoming the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever, moving an average of 133,333 units a day during its first 60 days on store shelves. According to Microsoft, total Kinect sales just passed 10 million. (Guinness World Records and Xbox)
- Gmail just introduced a new Labs feature called “Smart Labels,” which figures out if particular incoming messages are bulk messages, Forum items, or notifications. (Google)
- Mozilla’s Firefox 4 browser just emerged from beta testing and is now available in 70-plus languages for Windows, Mac and Linux. Give it a spin here. (Mozilla)
- Content discovery site StumbleUpon raised $17 million during its most recent round of funding, led by Accel Partners, August Capital, and DAG Ventures. (All Things D)
- Offermatic, a startup that bypasses coupons and automatically discounts products and services for users once they’ve linked up their credit and debit cards to accounts, landed $4.5 million in Series A funding, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers and including angel investor Ron Conway. (Atomic PR)
- Meanwhile Credit Sesame, which operates similarly to Mint.com, raked in $6.15 million during its Series B round led by Menlo Ventures. (Credit Sesame via H30 PR)
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