Techmeme: The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career (Kyle VanHemert/Wired)

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August 18, 2014, 11:35 AM

Top News

Kellex / Droid Life:

Moto 360 listing at Best Buy reveals features and specs, priced at $249 — Moto 360 Shows Up at Best Buy for $249, Outs List of Features — We are expecting to get official Moto 360 launch details when Motorola hosts press at a September 4 event in Chicago, but Best Buy may have gone ahead …

David Gelles / New York Times:

Tech M&A deals increasingly conducted by corporate development teams with less input from investment banks — In Silicon Valley, Mergers Must Meet the Toothbrush Test — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — When deciding whether Google should spend millions or even billions of dollars in acquiring a new company …

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @sobendito, @epicureandeal, @jeffrey_cane and @nytimesbusiness

Kyle VanHemert / Wired:

The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career — Jim Yurchenco was responsible for squeezing the guts inside the impossibly slim Palm V. He helped build the mouse for the Apple Lisa, which was significant in that it was the first mouse ever used by regular people.

More: 9to5Mac. Thanks:@srikardr

Carole Cadwalladr / Guardian:

Kim Dotcom: from playboy entrepreneur to political firebrand — He was the flamboyant founder of the popular Megaupload site. But when the US got New Zealand police to arrest him on charges of internet piracy, Kim Dotcom began a remarkable fightback — There are no hot-tubs. No super-yachts.

Tweets: @hkanji

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

In the Sharing Economy, Workers Find Both Freedom and Uncertainty — Just after 4 a.m. on a recent Friday, while most of the neighbors in her leafy Boston suburb were still asleep, Jennifer Guidry was in the driveway of her rental apartment, her blond hair pulled back in a tidy French braid, vacuuming the inside of her car.

More: Forbes, The Awl, Gigaom Research, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Washington Post and VentureBeat

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @shriverreport, @guardianjessica, @rishad, @xor, @megan, @anandwrites, @dtunkelang, @mattbuchanan and @johnsaveland

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

Rumor suggests Apple is working on its own reversible USB cable — A strange new type of USB cable that aims to solve an age-old problem. — Dianxinshouji.com.cn — If reader reaction is any indication, most of you are looking forward to the new reversible USB Type-C connector spec that was finalized earlier this week.

More: MacRumors, MacRumors, The Verge, TUAW, TechCrunch, Guardian, MacRumors, SlashGear and MacDailyNews

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Twitter's latest experiment turns favorites into retweets (and it's annoying lots of people) — Twitter is back in experimental mode, but its latest test is annoying people. A sizable number of users are seeing tweets favorited by others in their timeline, just like retweets.

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

How Verizon lets its copper network decay to force phone customers onto fiber — The shift from copper landlines to fiber-based voice networks is continuing apace, and no one wants it to happen faster than Verizon. — Internet users nationwide are clamoring for fiber, as well …

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Xbox One August update starts rolling out today, bringing new activity feed and mobile purchases — Microsoft promised a series of new features would land in its next Xbox One system update, and now users can finally get their hands on a newly-revamped activity feed and mobile purchases, among others.

More: Xbox Live's Major Nelson, CNET, Inquirer, VG247, Windows Phone Central and Eurogamer.net

Brad Linder / Liliputing:

Xiaomi launches MIUI 6, makes Android look more like iOS 7 — Chinese device maker Xiaomi offers phones, tablets, smart TVs and other products that are known for their high quality and low prices. But Xiaomi is also known for its MIUI software which gives Google Android a fresh coat of paint …

More: MIUI Official English Site, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Android Authority, Gizmodo, The Next Web, OSNews, GSMArena.com, AndroidOS.in and Daring Fireball

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Chinese Hackers Stole Info on 4.5 Million U.S. Hospital Patients — If you've been to a hospital in a small town or anywhere in the southeastern portion of the United States in the last few years, it's worth keeping an eye on your personal information. — Community Health Systems …

More: PandoDaily, Reuters, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Tennessean.com, bizjournals, ABC News, Knoxville News-Sentinel, HealthITSecurity.com, Becker's Hospital Review and Healthcare Dive

Mayumi Negishi / Wall Street Journal:

SoftBank Picks Sharp as Partner for Low-Cost Smartphones — SoftBank Hopes Aquos Crystal Will Help Differentiate It and Sprint From Rivals — TOKYO— SoftBank Corp. and its U.S. unit, Sprint Corp. , picked Sharp Corp. as their partner to develop low-cost smartphones to broaden their lineup …

More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, PhoneArena, Gigaom, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Geeky Gadgets, Compare Mobile Phones …, TabTec, FierceWireless, Android Police, Phandroid, AndroidOS.in, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint and AndroidHeadlines.com

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