Techmeme
October 17, 2013, 9:50 AM

Top News

Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows 8.1 now available!  —  Less than a year ago we were preparing to launch Windows 8, which introduced our vision of highly personalized mobile computing.  And here we are today announcing the global availability of Windows 8.1.  Windows 8.1 demonstrates our commitment to continuously improving …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Windows 8.1 review  —  It's take two for Microsoft's ambitious operating system  —  A year ago, Microsoft “reimagined” the look and feel of Windows, and placed a risky bet on the future of computing.  Touch is everything, it said, and nearly everything about Windows 8 was designed to be used …
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows 8.1: Best Experience of Your Web with Sites and Apps together  —  This blog post is part of a series of guest posts we're publishing this week from different people in groups across Microsoft who helped us build Windows 8.1. - Brandon  —  With the general availability of Windows 8.1 …
More: Inquirer and TechNet BlogsTweets: @theromit
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:
Twitter Plans to Revamp Its Private Messaging Product  —  Twitter's entire premise is based on publicness.  “Join the conversation in the global town square!” the company likes to say.  —  But, over the past year, Twitter has come around to seeing the value of being more discreet.
More: 9to5Mac
Reuters:
NSA security chief Keith Alexander and his deputy John Inglis expected to depart within the next few months  —  U.S. eavesdropping agency chief, top deputy expected to depart soon  —  (Reuters) - The director of the U.S. National Security Agency and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months …
Mario Aguilar / Gizmodo:
iPhone 5s accelerometer issues may be linked to change in supplier  —  Here's Why the iPhone 5S Accelerometer Is So Screwed Up  —  A few weeks ago we confirmed reports that the iPhone 5S motion sensors were embarrassingly off.  Some enterprising devs have investigated the problem …
John Koetsier / VentureBeat:
Facebook ad profit a staggering 1,790% more on iPhone than Android  —  Nov. 12 - 13, 2013  —  A study of more than 200 billion ads on Facebook says that mobile ads on iPhone generate 1,790 percent more return on investment than ads on Android.  Even worse, advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns.
Pierre Omidyar / Omidyar Group:
My Next Adventure in Journalism  —  As many of you know, I've had an interest in journalism for some time now.  I've been working on Civil Beat for three years and through my philanthropic work at Omidyar Network and Democracy Fund, we've supported many efforts around the world related to media …
Mozilla Hacks:
Introducing TogetherJS, a service to add real-time collaboration features to existing websites  —  Introducing TogetherJS  —  What is TogetherJS?  —  We'd like to introduce TogetherJS, a real-time collaboration tool out of Mozilla Labs.  —  TogetherJS is a service you add to an existing website …
Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:
Ebook subscription startup Oyster expands to iPad and opens to all; some stats from Scribd  —  Oyster, the Peter Thiel-backed startup that aims to be a Netflix for ebooks, was iPhone-only and invite-only for its first six weeks.  On Wednesday, though, Oyster launched its iPad app and opened up to everyone.
Roger Cheng / CNET:
T-Mobile ad criticized for belittling smartphone theft  —  T-Mobile CEO John Legere.  —  (Credit: Lori Grunin/CNET)  —  T-Mobile is hot water again for one of its “Uncarrier” campaign commercials.  —  The latest comes in the form of a letter written by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
F# wants to turn banner ads into web radio stations  —  New York-based ad tech startup F# wants you to stop hating banner ads — and it has a pretty clever idea to make those despised ad units more interesting: The company, whose name is pronounced like the musical note F-sharp …
Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:
The politics of tech transparency: industry reports offer openness — and confusion  —  The tech industry, facing a backlash over an ongoing surveillance scandal, is making up for lost time.  In recent months, companies like Facebook have clamored into court waving civil liberties banners …
Tweets: @ellnmllr
Bruce Schneier / Wired:
How to Design — And Defend Against — The Perfect Security Backdoor  —  We already know the NSA wants to eavesdrop on the internet.  It has secret agreements with telcos to get direct access to bulk internet traffic.  It has massive systems like TUMULT, TURMOIL, and TURBULENCE to sift through it all.
Josh Lowensohn / CNET:
Judge appoints monitor to keep an eye on Apple's e-books biz  —  A US judge on Wednesday appointed an external monitor to keep Apple in compliance with antitrust laws, following the tech giant's loss in court earlier this year.  —  Judge Denise Cote named former Assistant US Attorney …
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:
Galaxy Round simply a prototype test device, will have limited production even in South Korea  —  Your plans to score one of Samsung's Galaxy Round, the world's first smartphone to feature a flexible display might not work out that well, as according to our insider, Samsung is looking to produce …

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Austin Carr / Fast Company:

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