Techmeme
September 20, 2012, 2:10 PM

Top News

BBC:
New Apple maps app under fire from users  —  Apple's map app renames the town of Hagley as Dudley - which is more than seven miles away  —  Inaccuracies and misplaced towns and cities in Apple's new map software have provoked anger from users.  —  In June Apple announced it would stop using Google Maps …
Reuters:
Exclusive: Wal-Mart stops selling Amazon Kindles  —  (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will no longer sell Amazon.com Inc's Kindle products, making the world's largest retailer the second major chain to stop selling Amazon's devices, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the situation.
Reuters:
Exclusive: Facebook to charge merchants to run Offers  —  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said it will start charging businesses to run Offers on its social network, turning a previously free service into a potential revenue generator at a time when Wall Street is demanding new sources of growth and profit from the company.
Richard Rubin / Bloomberg:
Microsoft Avoided Billions in U.S. Tax, Senate Memo Says  —  A U.S. Senate committee memo said Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) used aggressive international tax maneuvers to avoid billions of dollars in taxes over the past three years.  —  The report, released in advance of a 2 p.m. hearing in Washington today …
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Facebook tests automatic ‘Photo Sync’ uploads on Android  —  Facebook has begun testing a new feature for Android owners that syncs photos you shoot on your phone straight to your Facebook account.  It's a hybrid of Google+'s instant photo-upload feature and Apple's Photostream …
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Microsoft wins third German injunction against Google's Motorola over high-power patent  —  Google just suffered a strategically very important defeat at the Munich I Regional Court, where Presiding Judge Dr. Peter Guntz just announced a ruling in Microsoft's favor against wholly-owned Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Netgear Debuts New NeoTV, NeoTV PRO and NeoTV MAX Streaming Players To Take On Roku  —  Netgear unveiled an all-new lineup of streaming media players today, including the NeoTV, NeoTV PRO and NeoTV MAX, available for $49.99, $59.99 and $69.99 respectively beginning today, September 20.
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Samsung to add iPhone 5 to U.S. lawsuits vs Apple  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co plans to add Apple Inc's iPhone 5 to existing patent lawsuits against its U.S. rival, stepping up its legal challenge to Apple as the two smartphone leaders seek to assert rights to key technologies.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Major League Baseball Hopes iPhone Tickets Will Be a Hit  —  While riding to San Francisco's AT&T Park on Wednesday, an alert popped up on my phone letting me know that the Giants game was nearby, even though I was still on the train nearing the ballpark.  —  As I neared the gate …
Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Apple and publishers subpoena Amazon in ebook pricing case  —  Apple wants the Department of Justice to turn over the interviews it conducted with Amazon employees as part of the ebook pricing lawsuit.  In an August filing, Apple wrote, “Amazon was the driving force behind the Government's investigation …
Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:
US government and Stack Exchange launch crowdsourced patent process  —  A new partnership between the US government and a popular Q&A site may help rid the country of the low quality patents that have produced an endless series of lawsuits that threaten to stunt parts of the technology sector.
Brad Stone / Business Week:
Is Amazon Preparing to Get Fresh in California?  —  Last weekend was a momentous one for about 12 percent of the country.  The state of California started requiring online retailers to collect state and local sales tax from residents.  That means that prices on Amazon, the world's largest Internet store …
Tweets: @lihall
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Financier Files For Bankruptcy, Focus Shifts To Peter Sunde  —  Following their earlier convictions for copyright infringement, Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, former site spokesman Peter Sunde, and financier Carl Lundström all owe a considerable amount in damages.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
HP marches out an army of Windows 8 consumer and business PCs  —  Hewlett-Packard is introducing a dozen new computers and accessories today that represent the core of its line-up for Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system coming on Oct. 26.  —  This new pack of computers isn't even HP's whole line-up.
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
iCloud for Windows 2.0: An improvement, but not much has changed  —  iCloud gets a lot of attention in reviews of iOS and OS X, and with good reason—it's one of Apple's biggest services, and with every new version of its desktop and mobile operating systems, iCloud expands to store just a bit more of your stuff.
More: TUAW and Softpedia News
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:
Microsoft announces YouthSpark, a program to help 300 million kids get a better education and start a business  —  Today Microsoft announced YouthSpark, a program designed to help 300 million children in 100 countries “get a great education, find work or start their own business.”
Technology Review:
History, As Recorded on Twitter, Is Vanishing From The Web, Say Computer Scientists  —  Almost 30 per cent of recorded history, shared over social media such as Twitter, has disapeared, according to a new study of the Egyptian uprising and other significant events
Matthew Moskovciak / CNET:
Roku Streaming Stick coming in October for $99, Roku 2 boxes get Vudu app, plus mobile app adds AirPlay-esque streaming  —  Roku's Streaming Stick will be out in time for the holidays, but it only works with a handful of TVs.  —  Roku's Streaming Stick was one of the most interesting home theater products …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft's Surface challenge: Proving it's a premium product worth a premium price  —  Summary: I think there's a market for premium, differentiated PC/tablet hybrids that aren't trying to compete primarily on price.  I'm hoping Microsoft's Surface proves this category exists.

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