Techmeme
October 24, 2012, 9:50 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Apple's Schiller defends iPad mini's price tag  —  (Reuters) - Apple marketing wizard Phil Schiller defended the $329 price of the new iPad mini tablet, saying consumers will be willing to pay for quality not found in less expensive devices from rivals like Google and Amazon.
Richard Shim / DisplaySearch Blog:
Supply Issues to Initially Limit iPad Mini  —  Apple revamped its mobile PC lineup on Tuesday, announcing additions to its iPad and MacBook Pro lines.  As DisplaySearch had anticipated, the company introduced the iPad Mini, a refreshed iPad (the iPad with Retina Display), and a 13.3" MacBook Pro notebook.
Kim Zetter / Wired:
How a Google Headhunter's E-Mail Unraveled a Massive Net Security Hole  —  It was a strange e-mail, coming from a job recruiter at Google, asking Zachary Harris if he was interested in a position as a site-reliability engineer.  —  “You obviously have a passion for Linux and programming,” the e-mail from the Google recruiter read.
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:
Facebook's final Instagram purchase price: $715 million in cash and stock  —  Today Facebook detailed the final Instagram purchase information in its 10-Q. The company stated that the final purchase of Instagram will sit in its accounting as $521 million.  —  That figure was arrived …
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple wins preliminary ruling from U.S. ITC that Samsung violates 4 design and touch patents  —  Apple has won a preliminary ruling against Samsung in an ITC case that had begun last year, reports Bloomberg.  The ruling states that Samsung has violated four Apple patents related to iPhone design …
Reuters:
Knowlton Thomas / Techvibes.com:
Salesforce Laying Off Radian6 and Buddy Media Employees and Execs  —  We learned this morning that Salesforce was “decimating” Radian6's marketing and social community departments.  According to a source familiar with the matter, people from the vice-president level down are facing layoffs …
Mathew Honan / Wired:
Microsoft Dives Deep to Surface a Hit  —  Nobody asked me about my Surface.  I tried flashing it all over the place.  But despite my best efforts, no one seemed curious.  —  At Victrola Coffee Roasters in Seattle, I sat in the front window, with a hot pink Touch Cover attached, intentionally conspicuous.
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple confirms that 12W adapter will charge iPads quicker than older 10W adapters  —  The morning of Apple's iPad mini event earlier this week, we told you there was a handful of new accessories coming including four new Lightning adapters and a 12W USB power adapter.
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Samsung Series 3 Chromebook review  —  With ARM, has Google's cloud-based laptop finally found its soulmate?  —  People laugh when I pull the old Samsung Series 5 Chromebook out of my bag.  I almost feel the need to apologize for it when I turn it on: “Here's a $450 laptop that just browses the web.
Moritz Jaeger / ZDNet:
Google, Microsoft and Nokia launch one-stop ‘hide from maps’ service in Germany  —  Summary: Google, Microsoft and other companies have come together to help Germans to blur pictures of their properties in mapping services like Google Street View.  The service has been made necessary …
More: BetaNews
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
‘Letterpress’ for iOS: Tweetie creator emerges from year of silence with addictive word game  —  The inventor of ‘pull-to-refresh’ and Twitter for iPad takes a stab at gaming  —  Almost one year ago Loren Brichter left Twitter, largely leaving the public eye “to figure out what's next.”
Danielle Kucera / Bloomberg:
EBay Teams Up With FedEx on Shipping to Compete With Amazon  —  EBay Inc. (EBAY), owner of the world's largest online marketplace, is joining with FedEx Corp. (FDX) to offer shipping discounts and label printing as the company competes with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)'s vast delivery network.
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
All code on Raspberry Pi's ARM chip now open source  —  The makers of the Raspberry Pi credit card-sized computer today announced every last piece of code running on the computer's ARM chip has been open sourced.  While the computer could already run several Linux-based operating systems, not all the drivers were open source.
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Sprint 4G LTE may not show up in NY, SF until March  —  There could potentially be a long wait for Sprint customers looking to tap into the faster 4G LTE network.  —  Sprint Nextel's super-fast 4G LTE network could show up to major markets such as New York and San Francisco as late as March, CNET has learned.
Jason Cohen / A Smart Bear:
The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company  —  It's appalling what passes for “successful entrepreneurship” in the press or the Valley, but it's not their fault.  —  Witness, for example, this terrific Fast Company article on Bill Nguyen, serial entrepreneur who's seventh startup …
Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:
Japan's GREE Acquires Game Developer Pokelabo For $173M  —  Bolstering its arsenal of first-party games for the Japanese market, GREE acquired developer Pokelabo for $173 million in an all-cash deal.  Asia-focused venture capital firm DCM gets a win with this acquisition as it had a little over 20 percent of the company.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows released with Facebook and Microsoft login options  —  A Windows 8 and RT-specific version of Skype will be coming in a few days, but current Mac and Windows users are getting an update now.  Version 6.0 of Skype for desktop offers some helpful design tweaks …

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Daniel Cooper / Engadget: