Techmeme: American Eagle, Target, and other retailers follow Wal-Mart in opening labs in Silicon Valley (Anne D'Innocenzio/Associated Press)

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November 17, 2013, 12:25 PM

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: iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone Hacks, App Advice, MacRumors, I4U News, iDownloadBlog.com and iClarified

Tweets: @howardlindzon, @markgurman and @markgurman

Chris Davies / SlashGear:

Apple reportedly acquires PrimeSense, company behind original Kinect 3D sensor tech, for $345 million — Apple reportedly buys Kinect tech-creator PrimeSense — Apple has reportedly acquired PrimeSense, the motion-tracking company responsible for the technology in the original Xbox 360 Kinect …

More: MacRumors, The Verge, The Next Web, VentureBeat, iMore, Business Insider, GeekTime, Forbes, TechnoBuffalo, Reuters, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, everythingiCafe, iDownloadBlog.com, Yankee Sabra Limey, Softpedia News and App Advice

Tweets: @markgurman and @joshblake

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 …

More: The Verge, HotHardware.com News, Joystiq, Softpedia News, IGN and destructoid

Tweets: @yosp and @amboyes

Adario Strange / Mashable:

Some PlayStation 4 Owners Reporting Defective Consoles — Sony's PlayStation 4 has been widely praised by reviewers as a significant step up from its predecessor, but some early consumers are reporting major problems with the console — Most of the reports are popping up as reviews on Amazon, as well as on Sony's own support forum.

More: The Verge, SlashGear, Tapscape and The Next Web

Anne D'Innocenzio / Associated Press:

American Eagle, Target, and other retailers follow Wal-Mart in opening labs in Silicon Valley — Retailers Take On Silicon Valley — SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Software engineers wearing jeans and flip flops test the latest smartphone apps. Walls and windows double as whiteboards where ideas are jotted down.

Tweets: @andreawass and @qthrul

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: @nytimesbusiness and @xamat

Glenn Peoples / Billboard:

Rap Genius and Sony/ATV Reveal Licensing Deal (Exclusive) — Rap Genius, the online lyric site with financial backing from Silicon Valley heavyweights, has signed its first licensing deal. Billboard has learned the Brooklyn-based startup has a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

More: NME, A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, The Trichordist, Digital Trends, The Verge and hypebot

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, LAPTOP Magazine and MacRumors. Tweets: @drbarnard

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

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

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, 9to5Google, Pocket-lint, SiliconBeat and Droid Life

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

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