Techmeme
October 16, 2012, 12:10 PM

Top News

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Surface RT Priced: 32GB For $499 Without Touch Cover, $599 With; 64GB For $699  —  Microsoft today detailed pricing for its Surface tablets, at least those running the scaled down RT version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system designed for use on low-power processors.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Announces New Surface Details  —  Microsoft Corp. today released new details about its highly anticipated Microsoft Surface, a tablet PC designed to be the ultimate stage for Windows.  In addition to pricing and market availability, the company announced a special limited-quantity pre-order …
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Surface pricing: $499 for 32 GB, preordering starts today at 9am PT  —  Magenta is obviously the best keyboard color.  —  Microsoft  —  After maintaining almost complete radio silence about its Windows RT Surface tablets since first revealing them in June, Microsoft has announced pricing and availability.
More: The Verge
Tom Warren / The Verge:
First Microsoft Surface ad airs on national TV ahead of October 26th release  —  Microsoft's first ad for its Surface tablet will start to air on national TV this evening.  The software maker will air the ad during Monday Night Football on ESPN.  Following the initial Windows 8 TV ads …
Anand Lal Shimpi / AnandTech:
Inside Microsoft's Surface RT Tablet  —  Along with the first pricing and availability details, Microsoft gave us some additional insight into Surface in a tour of the design and engineering facility where the project was first hatched.  —  Microsoft wasn't specific about when work began …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:
Samsung reveals lineup, pricing on Windows 8 hybrids & ultrabooks (photos)  —  NEW YORK CITY — Korean electronics giant Samsung has been steadily revealing details about its lineup of Windows 8 PCs and tablet hybrids, but tonight we finally have what appears to be the finalized lineup and prices of these new devices.
Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:
Quick, Hide the BlackBerry, It's Too Uncool  —  Rachel Crosby speaks about her BlackBerry phone the way someone might speak of an embarrassing relative.  —  “I'm ashamed of it,” said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences.
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Foxconn admits it breached Chinese labor laws by hiring 14-year-old interns  —  Apple supplier Foxconn has admitted that it did take on intern students as young as 14 years old at its factories after the Taiwanese manufacturing giant published the findings of a report that followed media reports from September.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
European Data Regulators Slam Google Over Privacy Policy: “Too Large” And Users Need More Control (But Not Illegal)  —  Authorities in Europe today kicked off a fresh wave of scrutiny over Google's privacy policy and called for changes to be made in how Google manages user data, describing Google's scope as “too large”.
Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft's Windows 8 a Turnoff for Some Corporate Users  —  Microsoft Corp. has made big changes to its familiar Windows operating system to stay relevant amid booming sales of mobile devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad.  But some corporate customers worry Microsoft has made its workplace workhorse too unfamiliar.
More: The Verge
Serena Saitto / Bloomberg:
Sprint Said Not to Plan Clearwire Takeover After Softbank Deal  —  Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), which agreed to sell a 70 percent stake to Softbank Corp. (9984) for $20.1 billion, has no immediate plans to take over Clearwire Corp. (CLWR), said people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Richard Lai / Engadget:
ASUS PadFone 2 unveiled in Taiwan, boasts quad-core CPU, LTE, NFC and lighter tablet (video)  —  Today's no doubt a big day for ASUS: while chairman Jonney Shih is gearing up to introduce the PadFone 2 in Milan later today, we just saw CEO Jerry Shen wowing the crowd with the same phone-in-tablet combo back in Taipei.
Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:
Uber is quietly shutting down taxis in New York after fight with regulators, cabbies say  —  Uber denies it, but drivers say the startup is stopping its taxi service after just over a month  —  Uber's “damn the man” strategy may have backfired.  The San Francisco-based startup took a chance …
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple announces special event for Oct. 23  —  Apple on Tuesday announced a special event to be held on October 23, 2012 in San Jose.  The event is scheduled to take place at 10:00 am PT.  —  Unlike other recent events that have been held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco …
David Lee:
Starting v. Building a Company … Fred Wilson has a series of classes on building sustainable companies.  His related blog posts highlight the differences for me between “starting” and “building” companies.  —  It's never been easier to start a company in Silicon Valley and New York.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter Acqui-Hires Mobile App Development Platform Cabana, Shuts Its Down  —  Twitter has made another acquisition to expand its platform development operation.  It has bought Cabana, a platform for making mobile apps.  Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the team behind the app …
Ian Paul / PC World:
Logitech's illuminated Windows 8 keyboard connects to 3 devices at once  —  Logitech announced on Monday a glowing, Bluetooth keyboard that can connect to as many as three devices simultaneously and switch among them at the press of a button.  —  You could, for example …
More: PhoneArena
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Telenav acquires NY TechStars grad ThinkNear for $22.5M  —  Telenav announced it is paying $22.5 million to acquire ThinkNear, a hyperlocal mobile ad startup that helps target consumers with very precise and contextual location-based ads.  It's the first acquisition of a New York TechStars graduate …
Sean Buckley / Engadget:
Xbox 360 Dashboard update hands-on (fall 2012)  —  Is it Fall again already?  Must be time for another Xbox 360 Dashboard update.  Ever year Microsoft Drops the console a little bit of code to match the descending leaves, delivering new features, interface tweaks and additional content to hide behind the Xbox Live Gold paywall.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
File-Sharers Buy 30% More Music Than Non-P2P Peers  —  The major music labels have a clear stance on online piracy, as the following quote from the RIAA illustrates.  —  “While downloading one song may not feel that serious of a crime, the accumulative impact of millions of songs downloaded illegally …

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Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac: