It’s Willie. What else needs to be said.

Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought. At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data, upgrading the servers that hold all the data and making sure it’s all being logged and collated and sliced and packaged and shipped out… And at the end of the day the result of it all is a slightly different advertising banner in your browser or on your mobile screen.

Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product.

Why do I think Facebook doesn’t share these views.

Screens is a screen sharing VNC client for the iPhone and iPad. I’ve been using it since it was first released and love it.

Two separate sources have told me that’s how much Google (GOOG) offered to purchase WhatsApp. The bid did not come with promise of a board seat, unlike the Facebook agreement.

I’m not surprised.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk today confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that his company “had conversations” with Apple. Musk went on to say that he could not comment on whether the conversations had revolved around any kind of acquisition, but he did confirm that at the current time, an acquisition of Tesla seems “very unlikely.”

The fact the two companies talked means nothing—they could have been talking about iOS integration instead of an acquisition. However, if Apple were going to get into the car business, Tesla would be the perfect partner. They are cool, environmentally friendly, and they care about design and the user.

Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $16 billion in cash and stock, as the world’s largest social network looks for ways to boost its popularity, especially among a younger crowd.

These prices are out of control.

Even Google knows how creepy Google Glass is.

Civic groups and the production crew of the Korean film based on the death of a Samsung Electronics employee claimed Wednesday that Lotte Cinema abused its position as one of the nation’s leading cinema chains to block moviegoers from seeing the film.

“Another Family” is about a real-life father’s quest for truth about the leukemia death of his young daughter who had worked at one of Samsung’s semiconductor plants for four years.

Sara Wachter-Boettcher:

Public speaking is tough. You’re trying not to say “um” too much or speak too fast or crash your presentation or poop your pants or do any of the million horrible things that, in those first few minutes you’re up on stage, feel way too possible.

Very funny, but so true.

I was exciting when Apple announced the first iTunes Festival in the US this morning, but I’m even more excited now. When the iTunes Festival page went live it showed an artist not mentioned in the press release: Willie Nelson.

Of course, Candy Crush’s ridiculous strength could also be King’s greatest weakness.

We’ve seen this before.

The new version of Samsung’s Gear smartwatch will run on Tizen, not Google’s Android operating system, the latest attempt by the South Korean electronics giant to develop more of its own software and services, according to three people familiar with the situation.

Samsung will unveil the updated Gear watch, and a new HTML5 version of the Tizen operating system, at an event at the Mobile World Congress later this month in Barcelona, Spain, the people said.

If true, this is the first of Samsung’s devices to use the new operating system, but it won’t be the last. Google should be very worried.

Sweet Jesus, where does CNBC coming up with these assholes. For a good analysis of what this moron said, go check out what John Moltz has to say.

BlackBerry Ltd Chief Executive John Chen fired a salvo at T-Mobile US Inc on Tuesday, calling ill-conceived a promotion run by the company that encourages customers using BlackBerry smartphones to upgrade to iPhones.

I’d be pissed off if I ran a company that made shitty products. Chen should worry about fixing that first.

Some nice examples illustrating the points.

This is a really good look at advertising and how the old school buyers are trying to deal with Amazon and Apple. Buyers are used to getting information, but neither company will share customer habits or other data with them. Welcome to the 21st Century. Guess who is sharing customer information more freely? Google.

Jim and Dan talk about the Pirates of Silicon Valley, Apple, Microsoft, the heart of innovation, Guns n Roses, and more.

Sponsored by Hover (use code SLED for 10% off your first purchase once you sign up), FreshBooks (enter AMPLIFIED in the “How Did You Hear About Us” section to support the show and to enter for your chance to win a birthday cake!), Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME214 for 25% off), and MailChimp.

This looks good, especially having apps available for both platforms.

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 will have a fingerprint sensor in the home button, just like the iPhone. Who didn’t see that coming?

Ryan Neudorf really seems to like it.

P.S. Kickass paint job on the travel trailer.

Not a good defense in my opinion.

[Via Neowin]

Donovan Hutchinson shows you how to use transforms to create a 3D object and animate it with nothing but CSS.

It’s like there’s nothing that can’t be done with CSS these days.

Just beyond description.

Saved is the tool that makes budgeting and tracking your expenses delightfully simple. Saved helps you visualize your budget and savings every single day of the year to track how much you’ll be able to spend on your loved ones, holidays, and vacations.

It’s free to download.

Fucking crazy Canadians.