Techmeme: How Amazon is building substations, laying fiber and generally doing everything to keep cloud costs down (Derrick Harris/Gigaom)

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November 17, 2013, 6:15 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple Stores to implement iBeacon location technology to improve service, boost sales — iOS 7's flashy launch earlier this year with an entirely new design and streaming music functionality overshadowed a breakthrough new feature: iBeacons, a location-based technology with profound implications for industries such as retail.

More: MacRumors and iClarified. Tweets: @markgurman and @markgurman

Anand Lal Shimpi / AnandTech:

Apple iPad mini with Retina Display: Reviewed — I suppose there's only one way to start this review, and that's by looking back at last year's iPad mini review. In that review I had a section dedicated to the possibility of an iPad mini with Retina Display.

More: PC Magazine, Engadget, Ars Technica, iPhone in Canada Blog, Daring Fireball, SlashGear, MacRumors and LAPTOP Magazine. Tweets: @drbarnard

Nick Wingfield / New York Times:

Case of Georgia Tech professor illustrates risks in taking university research commercial — Reaching for Silicon Valley — Joy Laskar was not what you'd typically think of as a threat to public safety. — At the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where he was a professor …

Tweets: @etzioni and @xamat

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Several companies race to build specialized chips for mining Bitcoins — Bitcoin Mining Chips, a High-Tech Arms Race — The easiest way to get a Bitcoin is to buy one. You can join drug dealers, speculators, and the curious by hopping onto an online exchange and purchasing one unit …

More: Valleywag. Tweets: @bw, @valleyhack and @valleyhack

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

How Amazon is building substations, laying fiber and generally doing everything to keep cloud costs down — If there's anyone still left wondering how it is that large cloud providers can keep on rolling out new features and lowering their prices even when no one is complaining about them …

More: NYT Bits

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Google opens Winter Wonderlab pop-up shops showcasing latest gadgets — Google is opening a series of pop-up shops for the holiday season to show off the Nexus 7, Chromecast, and the latest Chromebooks. The shops, called Winter Wonderlabs, are in six cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sacramento, Washington, DC, and Paramus, NJ.

More: Mashable, Business Insider, AllThingsD, TechnoBuffalo, Pocket-lint, SiliconBeat, 9to5Google and Droid Life

PR Newswire:

PlayStation 4 Sales Surpass 1 Million Units In North America In 24 Hours — Gamers Immerse Themselves In a New Era of Gaming and Entertainment Only Available on the PS4 system—Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the highly anticipated launch of the PlayStation®4 …

Tweets: @amboyes

Monica Langley / Wall Street Journal:

Exclusive Interview: Steve Ballmer on His Retirement as Microsoft CEO … REDMOND, Wash.— Steve Ballmer paced his corner office on a foggy January morning here, listening through loudspeakers to his directors' voices on a call that would set in motion the end of his 13-year reign as Microsoft Corp.'s chief executive.

More: Ars Technica, VentureBeat, Global Nerdy, VatorNews, PhoneArena, Daring Fireball, WinBeta, TechCrunch, Digits, CITEworld, CNET, The Register, DisplayBlog, GeekWire, Computerworld, Pocket-lint, Engadget, The Verge, Digits, Business Insider and BGR

Tweets: @preetatweets, @brierdudley, @timjhanrahan and @jyarow

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Twitter Ditches Redesign Involving Swipeable Streams, Reverts Alpha & Beta Testers To Old, Four-Button Interface — Twitter's tests involving a new mobile interface that would do away with the app's standard four buttons in favor of a “swipeable” menu at the top, have come to a halt.

More: Softpedia News and Engadget

Scott Sayare / New York Times:

A tuition-free programming school in Paris promotes entrepreneurship and skirts tradition — A Computer Academy in France Defies Conventional Wisdom — PARIS — In a nation of schools typically christened with sensible acronyms or the names of dead Frenchmen, 42 seems an odd title for an institution of higher learning.

More: SlashGear. Tweets: @elanazak

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Postmates Launches In Brooklyn And Adds David Sacks, Dave Morin, And Bill Lee As Investors — Postmates is expanding its service in the New York City area, crossing the bridge and making its mobile delivery service available in Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan.

Tweets: @jeff, @basti and @davemorin

ProPublica:

A sampling of the images Sina Weibo censors reveals the political points China's elite fear most — How to Get Censored on China's Twitter — The word “tank.” Photos and names of Chinese dissidents. Images of rubber ducks. Any mention of Tibetan protests or Bo Xilai, the disgraced senior member of China's Communist Party.

More: The Huffington Post, TechPresident and BBC. Tweets: @loisbeckett

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:

Lyft and Sidecar moving from requesting donations to requiring minimum fares in California — Lyft also will instate fares in California, ditching donation system — Despite receiving a cease and desist letter from Los Angeles, Lyft said it plans to continue to operate. (Lyft)

More: Sidecar, SiliconBeat, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times and HBR.org

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Lyft Tests Its Own Version Of Surge Pricing In LA, Passing All ‘Prime Time Tips’ To Drivers

More: AllThingsD

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