Top Items:
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Zynga's stock ‘scandal’ — What did I do? — There is no joy in Cityville — the mighty Pincus was called a lout. — Zynga this morning woke up to a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, accusing the social gaming company and its CEO Mark Pincus of strong-arming employees into giving up previously-granted stock options.
Discussion:
Kotaku, Washington Post, @rk and Broken Toys
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Zynga Leans On Some Workers to Surrender Pre-IPO Shares — SAN FRANCISCO—Zynga Inc. Chief Executive Mark Pincus often gave shares rather than high salaries to his top talent as he built his online-game start-up. — But as Zynga grew into a multibillion-dollar company with hot games like …
Discussion:
ITworld.com, Washington Post, Business Insider, CNET News, Betabeat, TechFlash, DealBook, Associated Press, Neowin.net and I4U News
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Exclusive: Mark Pincus memo to Zynga employees — Earlier today the Wall Street Journal suggested that social gaming giant Zynga had strong-armed employees into giving up previously-granted stock options. I wrote a follow-up post, arguing that the WSJ made things sound much worse than they really were.
Discussion:
The Technology Chronicles
Wall Street Journal:
Facebook, FTC Near Privacy Settlement — Facebook Inc. is finalizing a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it engaged in deceptive behavior when changing its privacy settings, according to people familiar with the situation.
RELATED:
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Facebook to make all sharing related privacy settings ‘opt-in’ instead of ‘opt-out’ — Facebook is near an agreement that will settle a case with the Federal Trade Commission by making all of its privacy settings opt-in instead of opt-out, reports the WSJ. That means that you will not share anything …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Lance Whitney / CNET News:
Voice behind Siri goes public despite warning from Apple — The voice behind the U.K.'s Siri speaks. — Former technology journalist Jon Briggs has revealed himself as the voice of Siri in the United Kingdom, despite a warning from Apple to keep silent. — In an interview …
Discussion:
Telegraph, App Advice, GottaBeMobile, iDownloadBlog.com, everythingiCafe, TUAW, Technologizer and The Next Web
RELATED:
Matt Warman / Telegraph:
The voice behind Siri breaks his silence — Jon Briggs only discovered he was the voice of Apple's Siri in the UK when he saw it on television. He speaks openly for the first — Jon Briggs, the voice of Siri — Apple has been keeping a secret from iPhone users: the company may call its new …
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Reveals New Powerful Gestures in the Works for iOS Devices — On November 10, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a series of new gestures that will provide users with a number of advantages. It will allow users to view clusters …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Gizmodo, CNET News, SlashGear and iDownloadBlog.com
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google Acquires Katango, The Automatic Friend Sorter — Back in September we broke the news that Google was in talks to acquire Katango, a small Kleiner Perkins-backed startup that launched this past summer. Today, they've made it official: Katango just announced that it's been acquired by Google …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, AllThingsD, SiliconFilter, ReadWriteWeb, SlashGear and MediaFile
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google Buys Contextual Rich News Browsing Startup Apture To Beef Up Chrome — Google has acquired Apture, a startup that brings instantaneous search to content on the web, we've confirmed with both companies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Discussion:
MediaPost, ReadWriteWeb, Digits, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, CNET News, @rafat, WebProNews, MarketingVox News & Trends, silicontap.com, socalTECH.com and AllThingsD
Brian Ambrozy / Icrontic Gaming:
Steam user database compromised — Today a message will be going out to all Steam users. According to Valve, the Steam forums were compromised on November 6th, but further investigation revealed that the damage went further than just the forums: The Steam user database was also compromised.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, GeekWire, Technologizer, Kotaku and TechCrunch, Thanks:icrontic
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Exclusive: Nokia, AT&T collaborating on Lumia 800 with LTE — We've learned from people familiar with the matter that Nokia's delayed entry into the US is partly due to the fact that it wants to attack with LTE — and that's a feature that Windows Phone 7.5 doesn't presently support.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Apple Releases Software Updated Designed to Fix iOS5 Battery Issues — Apple on Thursday issued a minor software update to the operating system that powers the iPhone designed to fix several bugs that Apple says are to blame for the lower-than-expected battery life some users have been seeing.
Discussion:
LAPTOP Magazine, eWeek, The Next Web, Mashable!, TechCrunch, @0xcharlie, BetaNews, Ars Technica, GigaOM, BGR, The Loop, The Verge, IntoMobile, Gizmodo, Macworld, The Seattle Times, Engadget and Lifehacker
Mary Himinkool / The Official Google Blog:
Supporting entrepreneurs around the world with Startup Weekend — We recognize the transformative power of startups and the entrepreneurs behind them that have the passion and courage to pursue a dream; the impact they can make on society can be significant.
Discussion:
GeekWire, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and Google Code Blog
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Google+ Isn't Going Away — There sure are a lot of Google+ haters out there. — “Google+ Is Dead,” Farhad Manjoo, a writer for Slate, proclaimed this week. Mr. Manjoo wrote, “Google might not know it yet, but from the outside, it's clear that G+ has started to die — it will hang on for a year …
Discussion:
FierceCIO News, Datamation.com, Digiday and GigaOM
ACLU Blog of Rights:
It Was Close, But We Won: Viva Net Neutrality! — Today in the Senate there was a major win for freedom of speech and the Internet. In a largely partisan vote Senate Democrats defeated a resolution introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) which would have overturned …
Discussion:
paidContent, Threat Level, InfoWorld, NationalJournal.com, Reuters, @timkarr, DSLreports, GMSV, Blog of Rights, Ars Technica, L.A. Times Tech Blog and Betabeat
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Tech Start-Ups Rethink Worth of Patents — As Silicon Valley behemoths such as Apple Inc. engage in what some fear is patent Armageddon by challenging competitors' technology, smaller tech companies and venture capitalists are changing their long-held view that it isn't worthwhile for start-ups to file for patents.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Pandora CTO Reveals Half of The U.S. Pays $0 For Music — Today at GigaOm's RoadMap conference in San Francisco, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad revealed that his company aims to monetize the vast majority of listeners who pay little or nothing per year for music. Conrad explained that …
Discussion:
IntoMobile
Ashton Kutcher / A+K:
Twitter Management — Up until today I have posted virtually everyone of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become to big to be managed by a single individual. When I started using twitter it was a communication platform that people could say what they are thinking in real …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Gizmodo, Mashable!, Hollywood Reporter, @mathewi, The Next Web and CNET News
Seth Fiegerman / Mainstreet.com:
Exclusive: Amazon's $79 Kindle Costs $84 to Make — NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Amazon's new $79 Kindle e-reader isn't just undercutting all competitors on price, it's also undercutting Amazon. — The soon-to-be-released e-reader costs $84.25 to manufacture, according to a new report …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Mashable!, Gizmodo, Inquirer, Electronista, Business Insider, SlashGear and Computerworld
Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Against Apple Over ‘iBrick’ — A California woman accused Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) last year of using an underhanded trick to force iPhone users to buy a newer model. This week she struck out in court after a federal judge concluded that Apple's software upgrades are free and do not qualify as a sale.
Discussion:
Electronista
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Nuance speech recognition comes to Mac App Store with Dragon Express — Nuance just dropped a new Dragon dictation product in the Mac App Store called Dragon Express ($49 introductory price), a scaled-back, less expensive version of their Dragon Dictate software.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, The Loop, Softpedia News, Computerworld, MacRumors and GigaOM
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Google's Chief Works to Trim a Bloated Ship — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Larry Page, Google's chief executive, so hates wasting time at meetings that he once dumped his secretary to avoid being scheduled for them. He does not much like e-mail either — even his own Gmail …
Discussion:
Business Insider, NBC Bay Area, Bits, CNET News, Gawker and Pursuitist
Matias Duarte / Google+:
Hello Roboto — When we announced Ice Cream Sandwich I also got a chance to introduce Android's new typeface Roboto. Today I'd like to talk about how Roboto was born — why we decided to create it, and the design choices we made in the process. — Why replace Droid?
Emil Protalinski / Friending Facebook Blog:
German state to sue Facebook over facial recognition feature — Summary: German authorities are looking to sue Facebook over its use of facial recognition technology. The argument is over opt-in versus opt-out. Facebook insists the latter is compliant with the law.
Discussion:
Deutsche Welle and The Next Web
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
T-Mobile USA Sees iPhone 4S Leading to More Customer Defections — As part of its earnings report on Wednesday, T-Mobile USA warned that it could see a rise in churn as contract customers leave for one of its iPhone-carrying competitors. — The arrival of the iPhone 4S …
Discussion:
Business Wire, Telekom.com, BGR, GigaOM, GottaBeMobile, TUAW, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, Between the Lines Blog, Electronista, The Next Web and iClarified
