* How HP's (HPQ) $100 TouchPad fire salecould affect the company's reputation and retail partnershipsmoving forward. (ZDNet)
* Meanwhile, Robert X. Cringely on why the HP he knewdied many years ago, starting with the spin-off of Agilent Technologies in 1999. (I, Cringely)
* Skypeis acquiringgroup-messaging startup GroupMe for a reported$85 million. (TechCrunch and All Things D)
* As CNN reported a month ago,Google+ rolled out"verification badges" for profiles of celebs, public figures, or those have been added to a high number of Circles. (CNN viaTechCrunch)
* Marc Andreessen argues that software is (and will) take over the world. As the venture capitalist sees it, Borders' decline and Amazon's (AMZN) success, or Netflix's (NFLX) crushing of Blockbuster, are just a few great examples of this kind of disruption at work. (Wall Street Journal)
* Zynga hired away Electronic Arts VP Jeff Karp,who will serveat the social gaming startup as Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer. (TechCrunch)
* Why companies arerushing tobuild a "discovery engine" (think Flipboard, Zite, or News.me), and why it's proving to be such a challenge. (Fast Company)