Techmeme
October 11, 2012, 11:15 AM

Top News

Reuters:
Japan's Softbank in talks for $12.8 billion Sprint stake  —  (Reuters) - Softbank Corp (9984.T), Japan's third-largest mobile carrier, is in talks to buy a majority stake in U.S. telecoms company Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) in a deal worth more than 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) …
Dennis K. Berman / WSJ Blogs:
Sizing Up a Softbank Takeover of Sprint  —  Japanese mobile carrier Softbank — the country's premier technology investor — is mulling a takeover of the struggling US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. in a deal expected to exceed $12.81 billion.  —  An early read on what such a deal would mean.
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Eric Schmidt: Android-Apple Is the Defining Fight in the Industry Today  —  The fight between Google and Apple over mobile devices is great for consumers, but the patent wars that have resulted are awful, said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, in conversation tonight with our own Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Eric Schmidt Can't Wait for Self-Driving Cars, Won't Predict When Google Maps Come Back to Apple  —  You wanted new news from Eric Schmidt about the state of the Apple-Google war?  So did all of us.  But the Google chairman was mostly mum on that subject.  He was happy, however …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Apple iPod nano review (2012)  —  Here's the thing: you can't really write a review of the new iPod nano.  What is there to say?  It is a small slab of aluminum with a multitouch screen that plays music files exactly as well as every iPod before it.  —  That is to say, it plays MP3 and AAC files extremely well.
More: MacRumors and TUAW
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
RockMelt For iPad: A Browser Built For Touch That Turns The Web Into A Feed So Content Comes To You  —  Surfing the Internet can feel like you're running in circles, constantly checking your favorite sites for updates.  The RockMelt team believes that content should be delivered, not hunted …
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Google Starts To Downplay Zagat Scores; It Should Ditch Them Altogether  —  Google is changing the way it collects local business reviews and displays them in search results, making the Zagat score a less prominent piece of information.  —  That's a good thing in my opinion, and many people …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google Gives Street View A 250K-Mile Update Across 17+ Countries, Its Biggest Update Ever; Maps API Now Features Time Zones  —  Google is continuing to gain points on the mapping front, today launching yet more features for the product at a time when Apple's offering continues to appear weak by comparison.
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
A $12 Billion Move In Apple Stock Seems To Have Started With Tweets From A Single Anonymous Source In China  —  Apple's stock dropped 2.21 percent on Monday.  —  A few analysts blamed the drop - worth more than $12 billion - on a strike of 4,000 Chinese workers at Apple's manufacturer.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Google Chrome exploit fetches “Pinkie Pie” $60,000 hacking prize  —  An image displayed on a computer after it was successfully commandeered by Pinkie Pie during the first Pwnium competition in March.  —  A hacker who goes by “Pinkie Pie” has once again subverted the security of Google's Chrome browser …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google+ Mobile Apps Now Support Pages, iOS App Gets iPhone 5 Support And Finally Lets You Edit Your Posts  —  Google just launched the latest version of its Google+ apps for Android and iOS.  The most important new feature in this update is support for Google+ pages.
Steven Musil / CNET:
Thousands of student records stolen in Florida college breach  —  The confidential information of nearly 300,000 students, faculty, and employees accessed in hack, education officials warn.  —  Hackers have accessed the confidential information of nearly 300,000 students, employees …
Simon Goodley / Guardian:
Facebook accused of taking UK for a ride  —  Figures suggest only 11% of sales in UK are declared, with company benefiting from basing its HQ in Dublin  —  Facebook has been accused of taking the British taxpayer for a ride after experts suggested the company had depressed sales figures …
Alistair Barr / Reuters:
Amazon gets FCC's OK to sell Kindle Fire 4G tablets  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc received approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to sell its high-end Kindle Fire 4G tablets, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.  —  Amazon unveiled the new tablets last month, but the devices had not secured FCC clearance.
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
Huawei's U.S. competitors among those pushing for scrutiny of Chinese tech firm  —  Companies in the cutthroat field of telecommunications received a remarkable marketing document recently, one aimed at causing suspicion about one of their biggest competitors, the Chinese firm Huawei.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Website traffic analytics: How to read your data and take action  —  Traffic is up.  Sessions look healthy.  The dashboard is full of green arrows and yet — conversions are flat, revenue targets are slipping, and the leads coming through aren't closing.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
Who are the billboards for?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:15 AM ET, October 11, 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

Mike Dano / FierceWireless: