Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Coming to America: Getting visas to do business in Silicon Valley  —  One of the parlor tricks I like to perform when starting off any Silicon Valley talk or presentation is to ask the audience to raise their hand if they currently live in the area.  Most people raise their hand.

Google News Blog:
Google News now available on your iPhone and iPod Touch  —  As we sat in our offices in Trondheim staring off at the fjord — we’re Norwegians, that’s what we do — a thought occurred to us: wouldn’t it be nice to make Google News accessible to readers on their iPod Touch […]

Nick / Rough Type:
Is Office the new Netscape?  —  As Microsoft and Yahoo continue with their interminable modern-dress staging of Hamlet - it’s longer than Branagh’s version! - the transformation of the software business goes on.  We have new players with new strategies, or at least interesting new takes on old strategies.

Vasanth Sridharan / Silicon Alley Insider:
Confirmed: Facebook Apps Are Useless  —  Everyone knows that most Facebook apps are time-wasters, at best.  But here’s statistical proof: A breakdown of the service’s 23,160 applications, via Facebook’s self-selected categories.  —  We keep hearing promises that there are developers …

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September?  —  For all of Microsoft’s denial, the Xbox 360 Blu-ray console rumors just will not die.  In fact, they are getting more and more specific.  The Chinese language Economic Daily News is reporting that Pegatron, an OEM subsidiary of ASUS …

Unstrung:
4G Backhaul: A Problem for All?  —  We already know that the challenge of providing back-end capacity for faster base-stations helped delay the launch of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S - message board)’s Xohm WiMax, so could 4G backhaul be a problem for all carriers moving to faster broadband networks?

Elizabeth Corcoran / Forbes:
Tech’s Top-Paid CEOs  —  Jerry Yang should take note: The best-paid chief executives among technology companies last year was not Google’s Eric Schmidt.  —  Oracle’s (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) Larry Ellison tops our ranking of the best-compensated chief executives at technology companies in 2007.

Saul Hansell / New York Times:
Amazon Sues Over State Law on Collection of Sales Tax  —  Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit challenging New York State’s new law forcing online retailers to collect sales tax on shipments to state residents.  —  On Friday, Amazon filed a complaint in State Supreme Court in Manhattan objecting to […]

BBC:
Adobe opens up Flash on mobiles  —  Adobe has announced a plan to try to get its Flash player installed on more mobile devices and set-top boxes.  —  Dubbed Open Screen the initiative lifts restrictions on how its multimedia handling software can be used.  —  Adobe will stop charging licencing fees …

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google News Comes To iPhone, Plus It Goes Global With Interface  —  The Google News Blog announced that they have launched a special interface for the iPhone.  To access it, all you need to do is go to Google.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch and navigate to the […]