Techmeme
February 15, 2012, 4:10 PM

Top News

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Apple: App Access to Contact Data Will Require Explicit User Permission  —  After a week of silence Apple has finally responded to reports that dozens of iOS applications have been accessing, transmitting and storing user contact data without explicit permission.
David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:
Twitter stores full iPhone contact list for 18 months, after scan  —  Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the “Find friends” feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including names, email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months.
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Congress sends letter to Apple questioning the Path debacle, developer data access  —  Having been the subject of questions regarding its collection of user locations in the past, Apple has been sent a letter over concerns that developers may be accessing and storing user data on its products.
Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:
Apple Asks for Court Approval to Sue Bankrupt Kodak in N.Y. Over Patents  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to sue Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) over allegations it's infringing patents that Apple says cover technologies used in printers, digital cameras and digital picture frames.
Reuters:
Exclusive: Proview says any ban of iPad exports hard to impose  —  (Reuters) - A Chinese technology firm seeking to ban all shipments of Apple's popular iPad tablet into and out of the country has been told that China's customs authorities are unlikely to intervene in the trademark battle.
Terril Yue Jones / Reuters:
Apple iPad plant conditions better than the norm: agency  —  (Reuters) - Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc's iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Did Samsung just reveal a Galaxy Note 10.1 for MWC?  —  Samsung's official website may have revealed the name of a heretofore unannounced product: a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.  The name appears on the company's invitation to a Samsung Developer Day at MWC this year, alongside the Galaxy Note …
Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:
Motorola Android 4.0 upgrade schedule released, many have a long wait ahead  —  Motorla has just updated its large chart detailing its upgrade plans, including specifics on what part of the upgrade process each phone is at and rough availability dates by region.
Paul O'Brien / MoDaCo:
EXCLUSIVE: LG to attack the high-end with Tegra 3 powered P880 / X3 (screenshots!)  —  Well, it looks like the HTC Endeavor (or whatever it shall eventually be called) won't be the only device appearing at MWC sporting a Tegra 3 chip... as it will be joined by the LG X3 (internal name P880), LG's new flagship device!
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Judge: Microsoft's Android tactics were ‘hard bargaining,’ not patent misuse  —  We learned a couple weeks ago that Barnes & Noble lost a key preliminary decision to Microsoft in their patent dispute.  A new court filing explains the judge's reasoning, and sheds light on some of the legal …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Exclusive: HTC rumored to be working on a streaming music service  —  HTC Corp., one of the earliest champions of Android-based smartphones seems to have fallen on hard times, thanks to growing power of Samsung and Apple.  But the Taiwanese phone maker isn't ready to call it quits …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Gartner: Apple's iPhone Stole The Smartphone Show In Q4, 2011  —  We've seen handset makers like HTC, LG and Nokia all warning of declines in smartphone sales.  But if there is a slowdown affecting some, it's not because people are not buying smartphones; it's because they're all buying iPhones.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Kindle Touch breakthrough: Startup debuts handwriting recognition in puzzle book  —  Puzzle technology startup Puzzazz is giving Amazon's Kindle Touch a capability that even Amazon didn't envision — letting users input numbers and letters by writing them naturally with a finger on the screen …
Brittany Darwell / Inside Facebook:
Open Graph launch partners see early success with Timeline apps  —  A number of sites and applications, including Pinterest, Foodspotting and Rockmelt, experienced significant increases in referral traffic and activity in the month since launching Timeline apps, according to a blog post by Facebook.
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Copyright enforcement and the Internet: we just haven't tried hard enough?  —  Kaleidescape, one of the many examples of innovative products squelched by copyright restrictions  —  On Tuesday, Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum suggested that we don't have effective copyright enforcement …
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.
Jon Mitchell / ReadWriteWeb:
Google+ For iPhone Gets Instant Photo & Video Uploads  —  Google has updated the Google+ iOS app today, adding a key mobile feature, which was previously only available to Android users.  Instant Upload, once enabled, automatically sends all photos and videos taken from the Google+ app to a private Google+ album.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 03/28 - Claude 3 Opus Surpasses GPT-4 For The First Time
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:10 PM ET, February 15, 2012.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks