Techmeme
October 24, 2013, 1:30 PM

Top News

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
Samsung fined $340,000 for faking online comments  —  After being caught paying for false praise and negative comments about competitors, Samsung has been fined just over $340,000.  The issue first arose internationally in April, when Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced it was opening an investigation into the allegations.
Alex Pham / Billboard:
YouTube preparing a $10/month premium on-demand music service, may come this year  —  YouTube Close to Launching Subscription Music Service (Breaking)  —  YouTube is preparing a premium on-demand music service — akin to a Spotify, but with video — to launch later this year, according to several sources familiar with the plans.
Min-Jeong Lee / Digits:
Patent Filing Shows Samsung Preps Electronic Eyewear  —  Samsung Electronics Co. appears to be creating a Google Glass of its own.  —  A design patent registered with Korean authorities in October shows an electronic device in the form of spectacles.  It has been categorized as a type of “sports glasses.”
Globe and Mail:
Former Apple CEO Sculley mulls BlackBerry bid  —  John Sculley, the former Apple Inc. CEO who famously clashed with Steve Jobs, is exploring a bid for beleaguered BlackBerry Ltd. with Canadian partners, sources have told The Globe and Mail.  —  Mr. Sculley said he could not comment on the matter …
Lee Hutchinson / Ars Technica:
Blackberry's Android BBM app drawing lots of suspicious 5-star ratings  —  Blackberry's standalone BBM messaging app debuted on Android yesterday, and it has already received more than 150,000 reviews on the Google Play Store.  However, as first pointed out on Twitter by Matt Baxter-Reynolds …
AllThingsD:
Pinterest Does Another Massive Funding — $225 Million at $3.8 Billion Valuation (Confirmed)  —  According to several sources, Pinterest has completed another enormous funding, this time nabbing $225 million with late-stage investor Fidelity Investments in the lead.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Microsoft slashes Surface Pro's price by another $100: 64GB for $699, 128GB for $799, and 256GB for $999  —  Microsoft has slashed the price of its original Surface Pro by $100.  While the tablet has been largely dropped from the broader Surface product line, it's still available on the Microsoft Store …
Lucian Constantin / PC World:
Flash Player now sandboxed under Safari on Mac OS X  —  Adobe has worked with Apple to sandbox Flash Player under Safari in Mac OS X, restricting the ability of attackers to exploit any vulnerabilities they might find in the browser plug-in.  —  “With this week's release of Safari in OS X Mavericks …
Bloomberg:
Hewlett-Packard Said to Be Seeking to Sell Mobile Patents  —  Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) is seeking buyers for some of its mobile-computing patents, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, as Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman tries to bolster the company's financial position.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Amazon's set-top box runs into further delays  —  Amazon has been been rushing to finalize and release a set-top box in time for the holidays, designed to compete directly with the Apple TV and Roku.  However, The Verge has learned that the company recently made the decision to delay the device, possibly beyond the holiday season.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Why would anyone buy an iPad 2 now?  —  For $399, Apple's iPad mini with Retina display is a far better choice  —  Yesterday, Apple announced two new iPads: the iPad Air, and the iPad mini with Retina display.  Both carry Apple's speedy new A7 processor, and both come with high-resolution screens.
More: AppleInsider and 9to5MacTweets: @verge and @starfire2258
Wall Street Journal:
The Boss Is Watching: Tracking Technology Shakes Up Workplace  —  Dennis Gray suspected that workers in his pest-control company were spending too much time on personal issues during the workday.  So the general manager of Accurid Pest Solutions in southern Virginia quietly installed a piece …
Tweets: @wsj
Linette Lopez / Business Insider:
Here's Carl Icahn's Letter To Tim Cook Saying He Wants Apple To Buyback $150 Billion In Stock Immediately  —  Yesterday Carl Icahn tweeted that he sent a letter to Tim Cook, and would put it on a new website he was launching called Shareholder's Square Table — now the site is live.
Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:
Netflix needs to invest in content to gain subscribers, but that hurts profit growth  —  The Netflix Conundrum  —  The company needs to spend money on content to continue growing its subscriber base.  But the cost of content is hurting its profit growth.  —  Orange Is the New Black promotional poster.
Tweets: @elamin88
Ben Drawbaugh / Engadget:
TiVo Roamio DVRs can stream or download TV to iPhones, iPads  —  It's just over two months since the release of the TiVo Roamio Plus and Pro, and the namesake feature is now available.  Beginning today, iOS device users can update their TiVo apps and start streaming live or recorded content …

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