Facebook just released a mobile application separate from its main app. What is it? Facebook Messenger, and it's a stand-alone app for iOS and Android. As TechCrunch puts it, "It essentially merges the Beluga product that Facebook acquired in February with their revamped Messages product." Why is Facebook so smart to launch FM as a separate app? "Speed and simplicity are key in the space," TechCrunch writes. "The Messages product inside of the current Facebook apps offered neither." As such, "It's yet another long-term thorn in the side of SMS." The move also spells trouble the Apple's soon-to-launch …

In what is being seen as a direct attack on Apple, Amazon just launched a Kindle Cloud Reader, which lets users read Kindle e-books via their Web browser without the need to download and install an app. "We have written the application from the ground up in HTML5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser," Dorothy Nicholls, director of Amazon Kindle, explained in a statement. In addition to the ability to read offline via the Web browser, the Kindle Cloud Reader also offers a complete view of the user's entire Kindle library, …

Slate asks the questions on everyone's mind: Why are restaurant Web sites so terribly designed? "The rest of the Web long ago did away with auto-playing music, Flash buttons and menus, and elaborate intro pages, but restaurant sites seem stuck in 1999," it writes. Is it that restaurateurs can't afford to pay for good designers? Do they not understand what people want from a site? Maybe they just don't care what's on their site? "Restaurant sites are the product of restaurant culture," suggests Slate. "These nightmarish Wb sites were spawned by restaurateurs who mistakenly believe they can control …

Microsoft veteran Charlie Kindel announced his resignation on Monday, revealing that he plans to start his own company. Kindel spent 21 years at Microsoft, and was recently credited with leading the effort to recruit developers for the Windows Phone group. As a result, the Windows Phone platform has some 27,000 apps after about nine months on the market. Yet, the departure comes at a bad time for Microsoft, as its mobile efforts still trail far behind those of Apple and Google's Android mobile operating systems. Kindel, however, expressed confidence on Monday that his colleagues at Microsoft had all …

Some upcoming changes in Apple's iOS 5 point to a bright future for the iPhone as a camera, TechCrunch suggests. "We're likely to see an explosion of photo apps as a result." In particular, iOS 5 is expected to include Core Image, which will give all iOS 5 developers access to many advanced tools. "Simply put, it should make image/photo processing much simpler to implement and execute," TechCrunch explains. Already, apps like Instagram, Hipstamatic, and Camera+ are already exploding in usage, despite being supported on by the iPhone. Going forward, the market will likely see more apps that …

These days, how is content piracy being addressed online? Well, since the beginning of 2010, some 200,000 BitTorrent users have been sued in mass file-sharing lawsuits by "copyright trolls," according to TorrentFreak. Copyright trolls, if you're not familiar, are small businesses that hire teams of lawyers to go after illegal file swappers. The perceived purpose behind these mass lawsuits is to gather the personal info of the targeted BitTorrent users, at which point the copyright troll organizations often offer violators the opportunity to "settle" their case for a few hundred up to a couple thousand dollars. As a result, …

Purely as a personalized iPad magazine, Fast Company thinks AOL Editions is great, and should present serious competition to Zite, Flipboard, and other such service. As a booster of AOL's content strategy, however, AOL Editions is wanting. "The app culls content from around the Web based on your interests, and treats AOL properties like any other news source--that is, it does not specifically leverage AOL content, nor does it put competitors of AOL subsidiaries ... at any disadvantage," Fast Company writes. "Editions is a remarkably unselfish product -- but it's unclear why it's good for AOL's business." …

How can a brand bolster its online marketing efforts through in-store purchases? For one, by offering electronic versions of receipts, either e-mailed or uploaded to password-protected Web sites. Not only is the practice spreading among retailers, but, as The New York Times reports, an increasing number of customers are opting for paperless receipts. "To the rubbish pile that the Internet is creating, alongside the road maps, newspapers and music CDs, add one more artifact of consumer life, the paper receipt," NYT writes. Major retailers getting on board the paperless train include Whole Foods Market, Nordstrom, Gap Inc. (which …

What do you get when you add a flood of venture capital, lower barriers to entry, and the lure of great fame and fortune? A generation of tech professionals -- including Web engineers, developers, and designers -- that's getting increasingly harder to corral. According to an informal poll conducted by TechCrunch, the majority of techies (21%) would choose to work at their own start-up, rather than Facebook (7%), Twitter (8%), Foursquare (5%), Quora (2%), or Yelp (1%). Forget about media companies and ad agencies, which, while not on TechCrunch's list of employer options, we can assume are hardly …

After a month with Google+, Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng is completely sold on the service's unique ability to compartmentalize social media interactions. "I was one of the first people to loudly declare that you can do the same thing on Facebook, but so few people know this that it's basically a nonexistent feature," Cheng writes. "That's the problem with Facebook. With Google+, sending out certain updates to some people and other updates to other people is right at the forefront of the experience. You are always asked to make a conscious decision about your social circles." …