Techmeme
December 21, 2012, 10:15 AM

Top News

Kevin Systrom / Instagram:
Updated Terms of Service Based on Your Feedback  —  Earlier this week, we introduced a set of updates to our privacy policy and terms of service to help our users better understand our service.  In the days since, it became clear that we failed to fulfill what I consider …
Bloomberg:
HTC Said to Plan Windows Tablets to Challenge Apple-Led Market  —  HTC Corp. (2498) plans to make tablets based on the Windows operating system, giving Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) another ally in its challenge to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $63.2 billion market, people familiar with the matter said.
Nokia:
Nokia and RIM enter into new patent license agreement  —  RIM payments to Nokia settle all legal actions between the companies  —  Espoo, Finland - Nokia has entered into a new patent license agreement with Research In Motion.  The agreement will result in settlement of all existing patent …
Manuela D'Alessandro / Reuters:
Google executives acquitted in Milan autism video case  —  (Reuters) - An Italy appeals court acquitted three Google executives of charges of having violated the privacy of an Italian boy with autism by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006.
Ian Austen / New York Times:
A Million Users Desert BlackBerry, and Revenue Falls 48%  —  OTTAWA — Research in Motion said on Thursday that it lost a million BlackBerry owners worldwide during the company's last financial quarter, the first such decline in the device's history.  —  It reported other bad news as well …
Eli Dourado / Ars Technica:
Behind closed doors at the UN's attempted “takeover of the Internet”  —  Eli Dourado is a research fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a co-founder of WCITLeaks, and a member of the US delegation to the WCIT.  The views expressed here are his own.
More: The Verge
eMarketer:
As Tablets Surge, Ereaders Struggle  —  Despite strong demand for smart connected devices, consumers may be passing over ereaders  —  The connected device market continues to see substantial growth worldwide.  The International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that in Q3 …
More: NYT Bits and PhoneArena
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
TV Everywhere, for Real, for Now: NimbleTV Starts a New York Trial Run  —  “TV Everywhere” is supposed to let you watch whatever you want, wherever you want to watch it, on any device you want - as long as you pay for TV.  —  But the cable guys have been working at this for more than 3 years, and they still can't really deliver.
John Koetsier / VentureBeat:
Apple kills a Kickstarter project: Portable power project POP refunding $139,170 to backers  —  Edison Junior, the technology and design lab behind the POP portable power station, is returning the full $139,170 in funding it received from Kickstarter backers to develop the device.
evleaks / Unwired View:
BlackBerry Z10: first BlackBerry 10 handset pictured in black, white  —  As the January 30th launch draws closer, more details are coming to light regarding the upcoming BlackBerry 10-powered handsets Research in Motion plans to announce.  Both a Torch-like full-touch device …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Netflix Facebook Sharing Bill Clears Senate, Waiting for Obama's Okay  —  Want to tell your Facebook pals what you're watching on Netflix?  Netflix wants to help you do that.  —  And it's now very close to doing that for American users: The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would give …
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Microsoft killing off Expression suite of Web and design tools  —  Microsoft has quietly announced that its Expression suite of Web and design-oriented tools is being killed off and phased out.  —  Vector graphics drawing tool Expression Design 4 has been end-of-lifed.
More: TechEye, ZDNet and WinBeta
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Instagram for iOS gets new Mayfair filter and returns ability to share photos from any album  —  Instagram may have been under a lot of pressure of late but the Facebook-owned photo service has updated its iOS app with a new filter — Mayfair — and the return of the option to share photos from any album …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Tries Letting You Pay To Guarantee Message Delivery, Changes Messaging Privacy Settings  —  Sometimes you need to message a non-friend, and today Facebook starts testing if it can make a little money and cut spam by asking you to pay to ensure the recipient sees that message.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
A Big Misunderstanding  —  Cliff Edwards's 2001 “Sorry, Steve: Here's Why Apple Stores Won't Work” piece for Businessweek is deservingly notorious in the annals of claim chowder, but there are a few things about it worth keeping in mind even today.  There's more to it than just a few guys …
Tweets: @om and @rianvdm
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Senator introduces bill to regulate data caps  —  Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced Thursday's legislation.  —  Flickr user Sam Craig  —  Earlier this week we covered a new white paper from the New America Foundation arguing the recent proliferation of data caps instituted by broadband providers …

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Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:

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