Techmeme: ToyTalk, the AI toy company founded by Ex-Pixar talent, gets $11.5M from Charles Rivers Ventures (Matthew Panzarino/The Next Web)

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November 10, 2012, 1:50 AM

Top News

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

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: Engadget, BGR, NYT Bits, Foreign Policy, ZDNet, Mercury News, PC Magazine, Computerworld, CNET, SocialTimes, InfoWorld, TechCrunch, CNNMoney.com, Guardian, Web 2.0 Asia Blog, Search Engine Land and WebProNews

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

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

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

ToyTalk, the AI toy company founded by Ex-Pixar talent, gets $11.5M from Charles Rivers Ventures — ToyTalk, the artificial intelligence toy company founded by ex-Pixar and SRI talent has recieved $11.5M in Series-A funding from Charles Rivers Ventures. The funding round was discovered …

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat and GigaOM. Thanks:@panzer

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

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: TechnoBuffalo, MacDailyNews, Ed Bott, DisplayBlog and Slashdot

Mat Honan / Wired:

Teenage Hacker ‘Cosmo the God’ Sentenced by California Court — “Cosmo the God” in a park near his home in Long Beach, California. Photo: Sandra Garcia/Wired — The 15-year-old UG Nazi hacker known as Cosmo* or Cosmo the God was sentenced in juvenile court on Wednesday in Long Beach, California.

More: The Register, Techdirt, The Verge and Gizmodo

Robin Wauters / The Next Web:

After $368.2m award in patent lawsuit, VirnetX files another complaint against Apple — VirnetX, the Internet security software company that was awarded $368.2 million after a jury decided that Apple had infringed several of its patents, has filed another complaint against the Cupertino, CA-based consumer electronics giant.

More: AppleInsider, The Verge, PR Newswire, Guardian, MacRumors, SlashGear and Forbes

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Study Shows Airbnb Is Good for San Francisco, Says Airbnb — Peer-to-peer accommodation site Airbnb commissioned an independent economic development study to show that it's having a positive effect on the San Francisco economy. — Airbnb helps freelancers and lower-income residents pay …

More: TechCrunch and Forbes

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 …

More: VentureBeat, Reuters and SocialTimes

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

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