The heart of Jeff Bezos’ mission has always to circumvent the traditional “gatekeepers” of commerce. He started with books, an industry ripe for disruption, and moved onto, well, everything else. At this point, his vision has come true

Nokia certainly didn’t waste any time when it came to fixing that pesky data connection bug that popped up in a few first-run Lumia 900s. Just two days after Nokia acknowledged the issue and pledged to make things right, they’ve already made that critical update available to those in need. In case you were keeping track, that’s a full three days before Nokia promised to have the fix in the field.

Interaction design and strategy firm ZURB has turned more and more of its internal apps into products for other designers over the last few years. Among these products is Verify , a handy little tool that allows design firms to quickly collect and analyze user feedback on screenshots and mockups. With Verify, for example, a startup could test multiple versions of its homepage or logo and see which one people like best, where they click and even what they remember about the site.

You might not think that something like a website’s Terms of Service wouldn’t be all that interesting, but you’d be wrong. After that post about how awesome 500px’s Terms of Service are (tl;dr: they translate them into human speak), the inbox kind of blew up with questions

Freemium visual voicemail service YouMail never forgot their roots — they first launched in late 2007 with the mission of making visual voicemail available to the masses, but soon focused their attention on what was then the market-leading smartphone platform: BlackBerry. I don’t need to tell you that RIM’s fortunes have changed since then, but the YouMail crew dutifully updated their BlackBerry app even though registrations from users of that platform began to dip. Until now, that is

One of the best things about the iPhone is its design. It’s beautiful — slim, sleek, and finished in piano black with a hint of brushed aluminum.

Editor’s note: Surya Yalamanchili was previously a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and has worked at LinkedIn and Groupon. Follow him on Twitter @suryasays .

Gillmor Gang – Dan Farber, Kevin Marks, Robert Scoble, and Steve Gillmor.

With Windows 8 getting ever closer to its release date, Microsoft today announced that it is looking for volunteers to join its invite-only feedback program for active Windows 7 and Windows 8 Consumer Preview users in the U.S. In return for providing feedback to Microsoft – both by sending the company data or by filling out surveys – participants who stay in the program for more than four months will be eligible for “free software and Xbox games such as Microsoft Office 20120, Kinect Disneyland, and Forza Motorsport 4.” In the announcement today, Microsoft communications manager Brandon LeBlanc stresses that this is not meant to be a way to submit bug reports. Instead, the idea here is to help Microsoft “build better software by getting a broader understanding of your perceptions and experiences with our products.” It’s somewhat odd that Microsoft would choose this time to highlight this program.

Nicholas Sparks , the bestselling novelist and screenwriter known for hits such as The Notebook and A Walk To Remember , is currently on a nationwide tour to promote The Lucky One , the latest movie to be adapted from one of his books. Right now he is making the rounds in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and we were really pleased when he agreed to swing by TechCrunch TV for an interview this morning.