Techmeme: SolarCity guns for a $201M IPO (Ucilia Wang/GigaOM)

October 5, 2012, 8:50 PM

Top News

EXCLUSIVE: More details on LG's forthcoming Nexus — More details are starting to appear about the forthcoming LG Nexus device! Some of which are, well, rather shocking. — Although it's still not known whether it will be the ONLY Nexus to get a release, various sources are starting to fill us in on the specs.

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Google, LG to unveil Nexus phone at the end of the month — CNET has confirmed that the phone will be a modified version of the Optimus G. Other handset manufacturers could also release their own Nexus phones as well. — LG will finally get its own Nexus smartphone based on its recently unveiled flagship Optimus G, CNET has learned.

More: Los Angeles Times, Android and Me, Pocketnow, Droid Life, SlashGear, Gotta Be Mobile, BGR, IntoMobile, 9to5Google, Gizmodo and BetaNews

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Words With Friends co-creators leave Zynga — Well, this isn't going to help Zynga's stock price. — Paul and David Bettner, the creators of Zynga's enormously successful Words With Friends game and its subsequent Zynga With Friends titles, are leaving Zynga.

More: Business Insider, The Blog Herald, WebProNews, Inside Social Games, Mashable!, The Verge, GamesIndustry International, GamePolitics blogs and Joystiq

Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:

ZYNGA Falls 11%, But Analysts Cheer Facebook's Ad Focus

More: TechCrunch, The Next Web, GeekWire, Benzinga, VentureBeat and Business Insider

Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:

Apple's new iOS 6 Maps support automatic offline use for a wide area — Vector maps in iOS 6 are so efficient that Apple can cache a very large surrounding area for offline browsing and GPS navigation under Airplane Mode or when traveling outside of data coverage. — Going offline with vector maps

More: App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, iClarified, iPhone and MacNN

AppleInsider:

Apple improving 3D Flyover visuals in iOS 6 Maps — This week Apple began quietly enhancing the 3D Flyover feature of its new iOS 6 Maps application, giving users updated images with more accurate recreations. — In one example highlighted to AppleInsider by reader Sal …

More: VentureBeat, The Verge, 9to5Mac, PhoneArena, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Mashable!, Pocketnow, BGR, MacRumors and DailyTech

Élyse Betters / 9to5Mac:

Apple remembers Steve Jobs on anniversary of his passing — A message from Tim Cook, Apple's CEO Steve's passing one year ago today was a sad and difficult time for all of us. I hope that today everyone will reflect on his extraordinary life and the many ways he made the world a better place.

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:

The ghost of Jobs: Apple's challenge to decide “what would Steve do?”

More: CNET, Fortune, Business Insider, IntoMobile, TUAW, Mashable! and Digits

Robert Scoble / BBC:

Viewpoint: Steve Jobs is missed by Silicon Valley

More: Digits, TechCrunch, Examiner and GigaOM

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Amazon buying Seattle HQ from Paul Allen for $1.16B — Amazon's HQ in the South Lake Union neighborhood. — This just in: Amazon.com is purchasing its existing Seattle headquarters campus in South Lake Union from Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. for more than $1.1 billion, according to a regulatory filing just made public.

More: CNET, Business Insider, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, The Seattle Times and Reuters. Tweets: @jonerlichman. Thanks:@johnhcook

Joanna Stern / ABCNEWS:

MySpace CEO Interview: ‘There is No Point To Compete with Facebook and Twitter’ — Justin Timberlake unveiled the new MySpace last week with a tweet containing a link to a video preview of the new site. In addition to a very catchy song, the video revealed a beautiful website with a clean, Pinterest-esque design.

More: CNET, The Verge and The Next Web

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Come Back as a Netflix Rival — Billionaire Charlie Ergen is giving up on his plan to turn the once-mighty Blockbuster LLC video- store chain into a Netflix (NFLX) Inc. competitor and gadget retailer. — When Ergen's Dish Network Corp. (DISH) …

More: PC Magazine, VentureBeat, Engadget, DSLreports, The Verge, SlashGear, fierceonlinevideo.com and Biz Beat Blog. See also Mediagazer

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Twitter's Elizabeth Weil Joins Andreessen As Partner, Will Set Her Sights On Social — Andreessen Horowitz continues building its arsenal. Days after the announcement that the firm had invested $15 million in innovative hip hop annotations startup Rap Genius, we learn that it's hired Elizabeth Weil away from Twitter.

More: VentureBeat, AllThingsD, Business Insider, The Next Web, AllThingsD and PandoDaily. Tweets: @elizabeth. Thanks:@alexia

Reuters:

Motorola wins German patent case against Microsoft — (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Motorola achieved a rare victory against software giant Microsoft in a patent case before a German court on Friday, the latest in a wave of patent lawsuits by technology firms fighting over market share.

More: ITworld.com, Wall Street Journal, FOSS Patents, Engadget, AllThingsD, DailyTech, PC Magazine, Android News, Rumours …, IntoMobile, Inquirer, 9to5Google, SlashGear, TechCrunch, ZDNet, AndroidOS.in, CNET, Ars Technica, PhoneArena and VentureBeat

Robin Wauters / The Next Web:

The royalty squeeze: Why Spotify booked a $59m net loss on $244m in revenue in 2011 — Subscription-based online music streaming and discovery giant Spotify is suffering mounting losses as it grows bigger and aggressively eyes new markets. — That's not necessarily news, nor should it be a surprise …

More: PrivCo, PandoDaily, Business Insider, CNET, Mashable! and The Industry. See also Mediagazer

Sponsor Posts

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Windows Store Weekly — This week we take a look at: Star Trek App, Box, Fling Theory, StumbleUpon, and wordBrush.

Cloud Foundry:

Static.com Adds Hadoop Support for Cloud Foundry — In this guest post, Jake Farrell, CTO for Static.com, explains how the major shift in the hosting industry towards platforms for high developer productivity …

Rackspace Blog:

An Army Is Forming To Battle Patent Trolls — For the past several months, we've exposed the flaws in the patent system and how they're being exploited by opportunistic patent trolls looking to extort a quick buck …

Hortonworks » Blog:

Get Started with Hadoop on Hortonworks Data Platform 1.1 for Windows — We are excited to release the Hortonworks Data Platform 1.1 for Windows as a Generally Available product.

Unison's blog:

Skype in the browser — Whether you like the Skype app or not, until now, you've had no choice but to download something to make voice and video calls — either an app like Skype, or a Flash plugin (yikes) for your browser.

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