Techmeme
February 14, 2012, 10:35 PM

Top News

Nick Wingfield / Bits:
Apple Chief Unveils a New Product: Himself  —  When he was alive, Steven P. Jobs, Apple's former chief executive, treated investors as if they were biohazards, rarely deigning to meet with them.  The disdain was not mutual, as an Apple stock chart for the last ten years shows.
Bloomberg:
Amazon Has Fewer Prime Subscribers Than Estimated  —  Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)'s Prime service, a linchpin of its effort to keep customers loyal and fuel long- term profit, has attracted fewer than half as many members as analysts estimate, three people familiar with the matter said.
Wall Street Journal:
Apple, Suppliers Test Tablet With Smaller Screen  —  TAIPEI-Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a new tablet computer with a smaller screen, people familiar with the situation said, as it looks to broaden its product pipeline amid intensifying competition and maintain its dominant market share.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Exclusive: Yahoo Asia Deal Talks Off for Now  —  According to sources close to the situation, the discussions between Yahoo and its Asian partners have hit a potentially deal-breaking impasse over the efficacy of the centerpiece of the complex negotiations — a cash-rich split-off — and several other issues.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Why Would You Pay $12 a Month for Free TV?  Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia Explains.  —  If you want to watch TV that comes from one of the broadcast channels, you've got options: You can get it for free, using an old-fashioned over-the-air antenna.  Or you can pay for it as part of your cable TV package.
Kunur Patel / AdAge:
Apple Slashes iAd Pricing Again as Mobile Ad Share Declines  —  Moves Are Reaction to Competition From Google and Realities of Mobile-Ad Market  —  Apple is once again slashing the minimum amount it charges advertisers to run a campaign on its iAd mobile ad system and boosting the amount …
Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:
Download bots were the “well-known secret” of the app ecosystem  —  It's remarkable how widely-known the phenomenon of fraudulent download bots was throughout the iOS developer community.  Essentially, bots or automated programs have been used for well over a year to download apps until …
Jeremy K. Chen / The Official Google Blog:
Google Public DNS: 70 billion requests a day and counting  —  We launched Google Public DNS in December 2009 to help make the web faster for everyone.  Today, we're no longer an experimental service.  We're the largest public DNS service in the world, handling an average of more than 70 billion requests a day.
Tatsuo Nomura / Google LatLong:
An easy way to access directions and locations you care about  —  If you're anything like me, you might use Google Maps to look up the same places and directions more than once, like the location of your hotel while you're on vacation, or directions to a friend's house that you've visited before.
Evan Blass / pocketnow.com:
Motorola's First, Intel-Powered Ice Cream Sandwich Revealed (Images)  —  We've just gotten some imagery and a few details pertaining to a phone that will allegedly be Motorola's first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-powered handset.  What's more, this unnamed device will also be one of Motorola's …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Flaw Found in an Online Encryption Method  —  SAN FRANCISCO — A team of European and American mathematicians and cryptographers have discovered an unexpected weakness in the encryption system widely used worldwide for online shopping, banking, e-mail and other Internet services intended to remain private and secure.
Boonsri Dickinson / Business Insider:
Inside OkCupid Labs: The Modern Matchmakers Of Silicon Valley  —  Inside the new offices of OkCupid Labs, you won't find beakers.  —  The experiment happens here on the couch, where engineers brainstorm ways they can use data to be the ultimate matchmaker.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Worry About an Apple Television?  Don't Make Samsung Laugh.  —  Smug complacency.  —  That seems to be the standard TV industry response to rumors of an Apple HDTV.  Back in December, Sharp's Kozo Takahashi dismissed the potential threat Apple might pose to the TV market …
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Reid Hoffman's New Business Book Tells Everyone to Act Like Entrepreneurs  —  Reid Hoffman is a nice-guy billionaire who founded LinkedIn, was an early backer of many of the most important Internet companies of the last decade and now also invests professionally as a Sand Hill Road venture capitalist.
More: TechCrunch
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Siri leaks her own upcoming ability to speak Japanese  —  Siri is many things, but it seems she is not a good secret keeper.  A few tipsters reached out and told us that Siri now speaks Japanese.  Rumors earlier this month said Apple's AI speech recognition interface would gain Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and possibly Russian.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft's Facebook app for Windows Phone getting an upgrade — thank goodness  —  If you've ever used Microsoft's Facebook app for Windows Phone and tried to find out who clicked ‘like’ on one of your status updates or pictures, well, you can be forgiven for getting a little frustrated.

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Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:
Bloomberg: