Techmeme: Unboxed: Making the Case for a Government Hand in Research (Steve Lohr/New York Times)

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October 7, 2012, 8:05 AM

Top News

Nick Bilton / New York Times:

Dick Costolo of Twitter, an Improv Master Writing Its Script — WELCOME to the Dick Costolo Show. — The audience, le beau monde of cinema, has gathered at the Debussy Theater on this unseasonably cool May morning on the French Riviera. The event, officially the opening of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival …

More: GigaOM and TechCrunch. Tweets: @pkafka and @owenthomas

Chris O'Brien / SiliconBeat:

NY Times: Jack Dorsey role at Twitter reduced because he's “difficult” and indecisive — Nick Bilton has a nice profile of Dick Costolo today in the New York Times. But perhaps the most intriguing passages, for me, had to do with his characterizations of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Tweets: @qthrul

Tom Simonite / Technology Review:

Google Puts Its Virtual Brain Technology to Work — A powerful new approach to artificial intelligence is ready to improve many Google products. — This summer Google set a new landmark in the field of artificial intelligence with software that learned how to recognize cats, people …

More: ExtremeTech, Rough Type and Slashdot. Thanks:@tsimonite

Mat Honan / Wired:

Why We'll Never Stop Talking About Steve Jobs — Steve Jobs is our era's Edison, Ford or Tesla. Illustration by Simon Lutrin — Let's talk about Steve Jobs. I know, I know. It's been a year since his death. What is there possibly left to say about him, and why are so many people still saying it?

More: parislemon, Forbes, Rogers RedBoard, DailyFinance.com, DVICE, TechSpot and nbcnews.com

Reuters:

Foxconn denies China iPhone plant hit by strike — (Reuters) - Foxconn, the Taiwanese made-to-order electronics giant that assembles Apple Inc's products, denied reports that a plant in China was crippled by a strike, saying on Saturday that its production is on schedule at an important time for Apple.

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Why Zynga Failed — The year was 2008 and Zynga had it all figured out. Facebook became a portal to games for those who had never played. Viral growth there was unchecked. Facebook ad rates were low, so buying traffic was cheap. And most games were played on the desktop.

More: Forbes, Reuters, Penny Arcade, CNET, The Blog Herald, The Next Web, Business Insider, WebProNews, Mashable!, VentureBeat and Tech Trader Daily

Declan McCullagh / CNET:

Robert Bork on antitrust: Google is no Microsoft — The onetime Supreme Court nominee, who once attacked Microsoft over antitrust, says competitors are “seeking to use antitrust law” to punish Google. Meanwhile, the FTC is beginning to wrap up its probe. — Robert Bork, the fiery former …

More: TechCrunch, CNET and PR Newswire

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Android users outraged over Motorola's broken promise — Company concedes some customers got “a raw deal” in decision not to upgrade 2011 flagship devices to Ice Cream Sandwich — Doran Else bought his Photon 4G last October, lured by the fast dual-core processor and by the close relationship …

More: Techland and parislemon

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Amazon once offered to buy Netflix for $12 million — In late 1990s, Netflix was still a struggling start-up when CEO Reed Hastings flatly rejected Amazon's acquisition offer, according to an upcoming book. — Jeff Bezos might have saved his company some money — and a lot of trouble …

More: HotHardware.com News, Business Insider, PC Magazine and fierceonlinevideo.com. See also Mediagazer

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

Unboxed: Making the Case for a Government Hand in Research — LUIS VON AHN, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, sold one Internet start-up to Google in 2009, and is now on to another. With the new company, Duolingo, he hopes to tap the millions of people learning languages online …

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Still Not Enough iPhone 5s to Go Around — If iPhone 5 sales have not yet spiked to the heights investors had hoped, it's not because of limited demand. It's due to a continuing shortfall in supply. Two weeks after its retail debut, Apple's latest iPhone continues to be difficult to come by …

More: Macgasm, iPhone in Canada Blog, TodaysiPhone.com, TUAW and InvestorPlace

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Little Bird Takes Flight: Marshall Kirkpatrick Launches His Influence-Finding Startup, Raises $1M — Little Bird, a startup that helps PR agencies, marketers, and media companies identify influencers on virtually any topic, is launching in private beta today.

More: digitaltrends.com, Marshall Kirkpatrick's Blog, CNET, Silicon Valley Watcher, VentureBeat and GigaOM

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