Techmeme
September 27, 2012, 2:05 AM

Top News

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Apple-Google Maps Talks Crashed Over Voice-Guided Directions  —  Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says Apple should have continued to use Google's mapping application in iOS 6 instead of swapping it out for its poorly received home-brewed replacement, and given the sour reception Apple's Maps app has been given, he may have been right.
David Pogue / New York Times:
Apple's Maps Tilt in Strange Directions  —  Last week, I used Apple's new Maps app on my iPhone to guide me to a speaking engagement.  —  The GPS navigation screen was clean, bold and distraction-free.  The voice instructions spoke the actual street names.  The prompts gave me just the right amount of time to prepare for each turn.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
On the Timing of Apple's Map Switch  —  Let's assume the timeframes being reported about Apple and Google's maps license are accurate.  The various reports coming out yesterday and today are in general agreement in this regard, and my own sources (who in this case are, as they say, directly familiar with the matter) back this up:
Chris Heinonen / AnandTech:
The iPhone 5 Display: Thoroughly Analyzed  —  When Apple rolled out the iPhone 5, they announced that it had a full sRGB gamut, which the new iPad almost achieves and would be a substantial improvement over the 4 and 4S displays.  The slight increase in screen resolution and size means …
Kathleen De Vere / Inside Mobile Apps:
Tracking growth: the iTunes app store vs Google Play  —  There are now more than 675,000 apps available in Google Play, a noteworthy figure not for the number of apps, but because it means Android is now within striking distance of overtaking iOS as the mobile operating system with the most apps.
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
To Unlock A Full Price AT&T iPhone 5, Just Restore It In iTunes  —  If you have bought an AT&T iPhone 5 without a contract over the past few days, chances are that you want to unlock it to use it on another carrier.  The traditional process involves filling out an online form on AT&T's website …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Google to remove exporting of old Microsoft Office formats from Google Apps on October 1  —  Google today announced a huge change for Google Apps, including its Business, Education, and Government editions.  As of October 1, users will no longer have the ability to download documents …
Philip Dorling / Sydney Morning Herald:
US calls Assange ‘enemy of state’  —  THE US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States - the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency.  —  Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents …
More: World News and CNETTweets: @eldon
Kim Zetter / Wired:
Maker of Smart-Grid Control Software Hacked  —  The maker of an industrial control system designed to be used with so-called smart grid networks disclosed to customers last week that hackers had breached its network and accessed project files related to a control system used in portions of the electrical grid.
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Amazon seeks to throw out Apple “app store” advertising claim  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has asked a federal judge to throw out Apple Inc's false advertising claim in a lawsuit challenging the online retailer's use of the “app store” name.  —  The claim is part of a March 2011 trademark lawsuit …
More: CNET and The Next Web
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Getting in tune; Samsung to shop for software  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics, which has vaulted the value chain on the strength of its hardware, will go out and buy mobile content providers, a senior executive told Reuters, to compete with Apple, Google and Amazon.com in a global digital music market worth nearly $9 billion.
Wall Street Journal:
Looking for the ‘Next Big Thing’?  Ranking the Top 50 Start-Ups  —  This Year's List Shows a Focus on Business Tech as Health Care and Energy Fade  —  Venture capitalists are still investing in flashy Internet start-ups, but the “Next Big Thing” is more likely to be a maker of humdrum Internet plumbing for businesses.
Erica Ogg / GigaOM:
Apple's new Passbook isn't quite ready for prime time  —  Burning question I have to ask: what is up with Apple's Passbook app?  Since its unveiling at WWDC, it was one of the things I looked forward to most in iOS 6.  As a frequent traveler and someone who detests printing things out …
More: Daring FireballTweets: @panzer
Grant Gross / Network World:
.xxx to launch porn search engine  —  Search.xxx is intended to give porn fans a streamlined, private search experience The company behind the .xxx top-level domain plans to launch a search engine in an effort to drive more traffic to .xxx websites and give pornography fans a more satisfying search experience.
More: Gizmodo, The Next Web and CNETTweets: @jessicakroy
Claire Cain Miller / NYT Bits:
Amazon Starts a Shopping Site for the Environmental Crowd  —  Amazon.com is going after the environmental crowd with a new site called vine.com for buying green products.  —  Vine is part of Quidsi, the company that Amazon bought in 2010 that also runs sites like Diapers.com (baby stuff), Wag.com (pets) and YoYo.com (toys).
David Pakman / Disruption:
Not All Traffic Is Created Equal  —  To build the online media giants of tomorrow, companies need models where the costs of both content and distribution are near zero.  Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and countless others employ this model.  These models allow scale to emerge at very low-cost.
More: Digiday and ECPM BLOGTweets: @hunterwalk and @mathewi
Jun Yang / Bloomberg:
Samsung Sees Stronger Start for Note 2, Unfazed by iPhone  —  Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) expects sales of its new Galaxy Note 2 smartphone to get off to a stronger start than its predecessor even after Apple Inc. (AAPL) sold a record number of the latest iPhone in its debut weekend.
Tom Simonite / Technology Review:
AT&T Trials Text-Message Translation  —  Phone users can sign up to have incoming messages automatically translated from one language to another.  Real-time voice translation could follow.  —  Languages unlocked: Text messages sent in Spanish, right, arrive in English on an unmodified iPhone …
More: GizmodoThanks:@tsimonite
TechCrunch:
Airbnb Is Raising A Big Third Round, Aiming For A Valuation North Of $2B  —  It's the darling of “sharing economy” startups, Y Combinator and a good portion of Silicon Valley's top investors, and a symbol of consumer web startups moving beyond entertainment to solve real life problems.

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Brad McCarty / The Next Web: