Techmeme: Softbank to Buy 70 Percent Stake in Sprint: Source (David Faber/CNBC)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

October 15, 2012, 12:15 AM

Top News

David Faber / CNBC:

Softbank to Buy 70 Percent Stake in Sprint: Source — Softbank and Sprint have reached a deal under which Softbank will pay $20 billion for a 70 percent stake in the wireless telecom operator, according to people close to the situation. — The deal is expected to be announced Monday morning …

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Microsoft To Compete Against Spotify With Xbox Music, Available Soon On Xbox, Windows 8, And Windows Phone Devices — Microsoft will soon become the next player to enter the streaming music business, with a service that will see it competing against the likes of Spotify and Rdio.

More: CNET, GeekWire, VentureBeat, Engadget, The Verge and The Verge

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong — Here's a pocket history of the web, according to many people. In the early days, the web was just pages of information linked to each other. Then along came web crawlers that helped you find what you wanted among all that information.

More: TechCrunch, A VC, Chris Saad and Felix Salmon

Tweets: @dannysullivan and @buzzfeedben

Thanks:@megangarber. See also Mediagazer

Brad Sams / Neowin:

Windows 8 campaign kicks off with first official television commercial — Microsoft has just released its first official Windows 8 commercial that highlights the upcoming release of Windows 8. The advert, which you can see above, first ran at about 12:50 PM EST.

More: The Verge, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Digits, CNET and GeekWire

Tweets: @walterelly and @galenward

Thanks:@bdsams

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

Do-Not-Track Movement Is Drawing Advertisers' Fire — THE campaign to defang the “Do Not Track” movement began late last month. — Do Not Track mechanisms are features on browsers — like Mozilla's Firefox — that give consumers the option of sending out digital signals asking companies …

Tweets: @stkonrath and @dangillmor. See also Mediagazer

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

SNL's Sketch Pits iPhone 5 Factory Workers Problems Against The Tech Critics — Saturday Night Live's latest parody sketch gives life to that oft-quted phrase ‘first world problems’. (Here's an alternative link if the one above doesn't work). In a biting take-down of some of the legitimate …

More: SiliconBeat, Mediaite, AllThingsD, The Loop, Examiner, TUAW, 9to5Mac, Computerworld, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, The Verge, The Huffington Post, BetaNews, CNET and Mashable!. Tweets: @darrenmurph

Michael Humphrey / Forbes:

Red Bull Stratos On YouTube Live Topped 8 Million Concurrent Views — It's Sunday in October: That means football, presidential politics and Sunday brunch. But never mind any of that. — If you were watching the YouTube live coverage of the Red Bull Stratos, in which skydiver Felix Baumgartner dropped …

More: AllThingsD, Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, PC Magazine, CNET and Pocket-lint

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

AT&T Starts Six-Strikes Anti-Piracy Plan Next Month, Will Block Websites — Last year the MPAA and RIAA teamed up with five major Internet providers in the United States to launch the Center for Copyright Information (CCI). — The parties agreed on a system through which subscribers …

More: TechCrunch, Joho the Blog, Engadget and SlashGear

Fruzsina Eördögh / ReadWriteWeb:

[Infographic] YouTube's Top 1,000 Channels Reveal An Industry Taking Shape — YouTube is still the pesky younger sibling of television, which is the wicked uncle of Hollywood. But the social video site is slowly becoming a formidable medium in its own right, creating new business models …

Tweets: @benwerd

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Apple, other thin laptop makers pass latest round of EPEAT tests after summer mini-drama — Apple gave eco-friendly computer fans a brief jolt this July after it backed out of EPEAT certification, only to restore most devices just days later. While we can't say we're completely shocked at the follow-up …

More: EPEAT, Electronista, PC World, iClarified and AppleInsider

Joab Jackson / Computerworld:

Apache Lucene/Solr expands across many servers — The Apache Software Foundation's widely used open source Lucene/Solr search engine package has been upgraded to accommodate its users' seemingly insatiable need to collect and use ever-larger amounts of data.

More: TechCrunch and The H Open Source

Ben Geman / Hillicon Valley:

Reid vows fresh effort to pass stalled cybersecurity bill in November — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he will try and revive stalled cybersecurity legislation on the heels of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's warning that the U.S. is at risk of a devastating cyber-attack.

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

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:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

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.

Access:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Great Chat:

So what happens after AGI?

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:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:15 AM ET, October 15, 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.