After a Long Flight, Angry Birds Make Landing on Windows Phone

Ina Fried in Mobile on June 28 at 10:38 pm PT

The lovable birds have been migrating for a while, but finally decide to make their landing on smartphones running Microsoft’s latest operating system. So, as blogger Manan Kakkar tweeted on Tuesday night “Windows Phone 7 is now a complete phone platform. We have Angry Birds on it.”

Look at All Those Zeros: Square Raises $100 Million at $1 Billion Valuation

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on June 28 at 9:42 pm PT

Square, the mobile payments provider that is trying to redefine the way consumers spend money and the way merchants charge for it, has secured $100 million in a third round of funding at a $1 billion valuation.

Payments Provider Dynamics Raises Even More Capital than Square! (Just Kidding)

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on June 28 at 9:01 pm PT

Pittsburgh-based Dynamics is announcing a $35 million round of financing that it will use to make a more intelligent credit card that it hopes will compete against others in the space, including Square and Google Wallet. It thought it was one of the biggest rounds raised this year by a payments company, and it was for about 20 minutes until Square announced it had raised $100 million.

RockMelt Raises $30M More for Social Browser. But Could It Be More Than Social?

Liz Gannes in Social on June 28 at 9:00 pm PT

RockMelt tonight is announcing it has raised $30 million in Series B funding, a considerable amount for a company with just hundreds of thousands of users and gigantic and fast-innovating competitors.

Judging E-Readers by Their Book Readability

Katherine Boehret in The Digital Solution on June 28 at 4:39 pm PT

If you’re heading to the beach this summer and you plan to read an e-book, you won’t want to take your iPad. Luckily, the latest versions of the Nook and the Kindle offer glare-free screens and other reader-friendly functions.

Google Execs Explain Why They Launched Google+ Now, Before It’s Ready

Liz Gannes in Social on June 28 at 4:32 pm PT

Why did Google+ launch today? Why create any more buildup for something that’s not ready yet? If it’s not all ready yet, doesn’t this just seem like a mess of incoherent features? That’s what I asked Google+ honchos Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, who are midway through this unlaunchiest of launch days.

Seven Questions for Microsoft’s Kirk Koenigsbauer About Office 365

Arik Hesseldahl in News on June 28 at 4:01 pm PT

Having watched as Google nudged its way into the office productivity business with its Google Apps service, Microsoft is now bringing the strength of its enormous Microsoft Office franchise to the world of cloud applications. Kirk Koenigsbauer, VP of the Microsoft Office Division, talks about the risks and potential rewards.

How Silver Lake Can Make Even More Money on the Skype/Microsoft Deal

Nitozac and Snaggy in Voices on June 28 at 2:48 pm PT

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site. (Click on the image to see a bigger version.)

The Last Twitter Founder Leaves, and Obvious.com Is Reborn

Liz Gannes in News on June 28 at 1:25 pm PT

Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman — the former core leadership team of Twitter — have restarted their Internet idea incubator Obvious Corporation.