Techmeme: Surface users report Touch Cover splits and audio issues (Tom Warren/The Verge)

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November 9, 2012, 7:40 PM

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Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Chinese government blocks Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Maps, Docs, Analytics, Drive, more — The Chinese government has blocked access to Google.com, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Drive, and many other Google services as the Communist Party of China holds the 18th Party Congress …

More: CNNMoney.com, Guardian, PC Magazine, Computerworld, InfoWorld, TechCrunch, CNET, ZDNet, Foreign Policy, Reuters, NYT Bits, Search Engine Land, SocialTimes, Tech in Asia and WebProNews

Jessica Guynn / Los Angeles Times:

Chinese Web monitoring group says Google blocked in China

More: Wall Street Journal, Times of India, Bloomberg, GreatFire.org and WorldViews

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Inside Team Romney's whale of an IT meltdown — Orca, the Romney campaign's “killer” app, skips beta and pays the price. — Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock — It was supposed to be a “killer app,” but a system deployed to volunteers by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign may have done …

More: Techdirt, The Verge, Wired, Computerworld, InfoWorld, msnbc.com, Politico, New York Magazine and Ace of Spades HQ

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Surface users report Touch Cover splits and audio issues — Microsoft's Surface RT tablet has been available for just two weeks, but users are starting to notice some early issues with the device. We noted in our original Surface review that performance was a little hit or miss …

More: The Register, CNET, Guardian, WindowsWave, TechSpot, Neowin, T3 News, Gizmodo UK, Microsoft News, Gotta Be Mobile, MacDailyNews, BGR and Datamation.com

Rene Ritchie / iMore:

iPhone 5, iPod touch 5 touchscreens responding oddly to multiple, rapid diagonal swipes — The iPhone 5 appears to be exhibiting odd touch behavior when it comes to consistent detection of multiple swipe events over time. On an iPhone 4S, you can begin rapidly swiping back and forth and iOS …

More: Examiner, recombu, BGR, SlashGear, Redmond Pie, 9to5Mac, Pocketables, Gotta Be Mobile, CNET, Macgasm, Pocketnow, MacRumors, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, iPhone Hacks, MobileSyrup.com, TechnoBuffalo, App Advice, Gizmodo UK, MacNN and The Next Web. Tweets: @cma_megacorp

Paul McNamara / Network World:

Cisco VP to memo leaker: Finding you is now ‘my hobby’ — Cisco vice president of services Mike Quinn, a former CIA operations officer, believes that whoever recently leaked an internal company memo to a blogger committed corporate treason and violated a “family” trust.

More: Business Insider, The Register, Gizmodo, Wired, GigaOM, ZDNet, Techdirt, Betabeat, TechEye and Slashdot

Samantha Murphy / Mashable!:

Facebook Experiments With ‘Reply’ Button on Comments — Facebook isn't just testing a sound-alert function on the site — it's also experimenting with a reply option for comments posted to Timeline, a Facebook spokesperson has confirmed. — “We are testing a new way to add comments to a post on Facebook …

More: Gizmodo

Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:

Facebook testing new notification sounds — we hate it already

More: Los Angeles Times, Mashable!, Techie Buzz, Gizmodo UK, BGR, The Blog Herald, WebProNews, Softpedia News and Business Insider

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:

Apple donates $2.5 million to Hurricane Sandy relief — We just got the following email via an Apple employee from Tim Cook showing that the Cupertino company is looking after those on the other coast of the US. Apple will donate $2.5M to the Red Cross to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims (myself included? still no power ConEd!)

More: The Next Web, Zealous About Great Gadgets, TUAW, SlashGear, VentureBeat, App Advice, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Macgasm, iPhone Hacks, everythingiCafe, Neowin, WebProNews, Softpedia News, MacNN and MacRumors

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

Microsoft: “We've welcomed more than 15 million customers” to our stores thus far — Today in a piece of dry PR, Microsoft let slip an interesting fact: Some 15 million customers have passed through the doors of its 30 stores. The direct quote: “We've welcomed more than 15 million customers and counting so far.”

More: Microsoft, PandoDaily, WindowsWave, Mashable!, Neowin, Microsoft News and Winsyde

Rob Williams / HotHardware.com News:

Microsoft's Big Hidden Windows 8 Feature: Built-In Advertising — Despite the fact that I've been using Windows 8 for the past three weeks, I somehow managed to overlook a rather stark feature in the OS: ads. No, we're not talking about ads cluttering up the desktop or login screen …

More: Ed Bott, DisplayBlog, MacDailyNews and Slashdot

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Judge to review whether foreman in Apple v. Samsung hid info — A federal court will look into whether the jury foreman in Apple v. Samsung “concealed information” during jury selection. — Federal District Judge Lucy Koh will “consider the questions” of whether the jury foreman in Apple v. Samsung …

More: MacRumors, BGR, Guardian, The Verge, SlashGear, Droid Life, NBC Bay Area, SiliconANGLE, Macgasm, 9to5Mac, Android Community, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone Hacks, LAPTOP Magazine, Los Angeles Times, MacNN, I4U News, The Register and Slashdot

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me: Yahoo's Latest New Homepage Redesign Tries Dramatic Interactive Tile Look — Another week and yet another new design for the Yahoo homepage is being tested out on users — this time, it appears to be one (which you can see below) that looks a lot …

More: CNET, Business Insider, TechSpot, WebProNews, Neowin and Softpedia News

Sam Byford / The Verge:

Video game retail sales fall 25 percent year-on-year in 11th straight month of decline — The video game industry had a rough October — total sales across the board were $755.5 million, a drop of 25 percent year-on-year. Figures released by the NPD Group show that console sales falling 37 percent …

More: BGR, Macgasm, PC Magazine and The Seattle Times

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:

Cray agrees to buy Appro for $25 million cash — Summary: On announcing the firm's third quarter results, in which the supercomputer maker recorded a net loss, Cray will acquire high-performance computing developer Appro for $25m. — Zack Whittaker — Supercomputer maker Cray has signed …

More: Cray Inc. …, The Next Web, bizjournals, insideHPC, Forbes, GeekWire and silicontap.com

Wall Street Journal:

Spotify Nears Financing at Over $3B Valuation — Spotify Ltd. is in the midst of closing a round of financing that will value the Internet music service at slightly more than $3 billion, said people with knowledge of the matter. — The U.K.-based company is raising more than $100 million …

Bruce Upbin / Forbes:

The Niantic Project: What Is Google Up To? — A “leaked” image from the Niantic Project, with a code written in Caesar cipher that translates into: “Every operation reaches a risk-assessment stage. At this point, my determination is that Niantic is causing more trouble than it is worth.”

More: VentureBeat, Mote & Beam, TechSpot, Android Community, TechCrunch, WebProNews and SlashGear. Thanks:@bupbin

Griffin McElroy / Polygon:

November Software acquired by Zynga, working on ‘mid-core’ mobile game Battlestone — November Software, a team of independent developers who previously worked on AAA titles like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, were quietly acquired by Zynga this past spring for an undisclosed sum …

More: Business Insider, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Inside Social Games and AllThingsD

Ryan Tate / Wired:

Family Feud: Tense Thanksgiving for Facebook and George Takei — Facebook's increasingly fraught relationship with small businesses just got more complicated thanks to celebrity user George Takei: The former Star Trek star will publish a book with a chapter taking on Facebook's controversial handling …

More: MOTHERBOARD and AllFacebook. Tweets: @markdittmer and @mting

Erin Griffith / PandoDaily:

How many startups will Facebook Gifts kill? — Each of the many, many gifting startups out there should have spent the summer reconsidering the future of their companies. Since buying Karma in May, Facebook has begun to testing out its social gifting functionality.

More: Venture Capital Dispatch and The Next Web

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Facebook sets out to create better mobile apps by asking teams to own its product experience — We all know that Facebook is facing some challenges with mobile — its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg even admitted it earlier this year. It's not as if the social network isn't being used by anyone on mobile devices …

More: Facebook, AllFacebook, CNET and 9to5Mac

Paul Mozur / Wall Street Journal:

China Telecom Prepares for iPhone 5 — BEIJING—China Telecom Corp. plans to begin offering the iPhone 5 in late November or early December, which would mark the entry of Apple Inc.'s latest smartphone into China. — State-controlled China Telecom, the country's third-largest mobile phone operator …

More: CNET, Apple Bitch, iPhone Hacks, MacRumors, SlashGear, GigaOM and TechCrunch

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