Techmeme: Skype 2.5 for Android adds more supported handsets and enhanced video experience (Dan Chastney/The Big Blog)

11:25 AM ET, September 29, 2011

Top Items:

Chris Espinosa / cdespinosa's posterous:

Fire — I don't comment on Apple products or development here, but I'm absolutely fascinated by the Amazon Fire announcement today, and it has nothing to do with the iPad. — Lost in the “Is it an iPad Killer?” hype is the audacious introduction of the Silk browser.

Discussion: SplatF, Business Insider, Fusible.com, GigaOM, Trends in the Living Networks, Tracy and Matt's Blog, Computerworld, Ars Technica, InfoQ, I4U News, SlashGear, Guardian, The Next Web and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Chester Wisniewski / Naked Security:

Amazon Kindle Fire's Silk browser sounds privacy alarm bells — Amazon announced the newest addition to their Kindle line today named Fire. The Fire is a tablet based on the Android software stack with a customized Amazon interface layered over the top. — The focus appears …

Discussion: Hardware 2.0 Blog, Inquirer, Guardian, The Register, mike.mainguy, Computerworld, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Neowin.net, Hack Education and Daring Fireball, Thanks:sophoslabs

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Amazon's New Kindles — Kindle Fire — The Kindle Fire's slogan …

Discussion: Business Insider, Mobile Opportunity, Business Insider, PC Magazine, Between the Lines Blog, TeleRead, GigaOM, The Apple Core Blog, Thought Clusters, broadstuff, Bloomberg, GigaOM, Guardian and PalmAddicts, more at Mediagazer »

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Analyst: Amazon is likely losing $50 per Kindle Fire

Discussion: Fast Company, paidContent, This is my next, AllThingsD, PhoneArena, PC World, TechSpot and GigaOM

Sarah Rotman Epps / Forrester Blogs:
Amazon Kindle Fire: Tablet Product Strategy Done Right

Discussion: Computerworld

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Kindle Fire will be successful, but it's not an iPad killer

Discussion: PE Hub Blog

Brad Molen / Engadget:

Ice Cream Sandwich gets a two-minute tour, courtesy of a lucky eBay shopper (video) — The one Android update to rule them all — better known as Ice Cream Sandwich — is penciled in for an official launch sometime in the next two months, so it's only natural for some shots to leak out.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Google And Samsung Announce October 11 Event: Nexus Prime Imminent — It looks like the wait for the elusive Nexus Prime may soon be over. Samsung has just started sending out invites for a special Samsung/Google event that's being held on October 11 at 11:30 AM in San Diego.

Discussion: Neowin.net, Techie Buzz, Gizmodo, AllThingsD, This is my next, MozillaWiki, I4U News, Examiner, AppleInsider, GottaBeMobile, Know Your Cell and MobileSyrup.com

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Goldman: Microsoft Is Getting $444 Million Annually From Android Patent Licenses — Microsoft is will generate $444 million in revenue from Android patent deals for fiscal year 2012 (started in July 1, 2011, ends June 30, 2012), according to a note from Goldman Sachs's tech analyst team.

Discussion: paidContent, Gizmodo, Neowin.net, Android Phone Fans, MobileSyrup.com, WinRumors and PhoneArena

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Samsung: We can't rely on Google, so we addressed Android IP issues on our own — With the dust still settling following the announcement that Samsung had become the latest and biggest company to license Microsoft's patent portfolio, the reasons behind the agreement started to emerge …

Discussion: The Korea Times, Softpedia News and SlashGear

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Microsoft cements position as Android's patent toll collector

Discussion: GigaOM, Digits, AllThingsD, Inquirer, Financial Times, Softpedia News, Wall Street Journal, Examiner and The Microsoft Blog

MG Siegler / parislemon:
“Free” — Buried under the massive Kindle news is something arguably …

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, TechCrunch, The Next Web, BGR and TeleRead

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

The Planets Are Aligned: Facebook's Spartan And iPad Projects Set To Launch Early Next Week — Earlier tonight, Alexia found and posted some screenshots of something that sure looked a lot like the mythical “Project Spartan”. Shortly thereafter, Facebook took down the page in question.

Discussion: Business Insider, PadGadget, 9to5Mac, Fast Company, MacPost, SlashGear, I4U News and Electronista

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

This Is Facebook's Project Spartan [Screenshots] — This Facebook mobile developers page is pretty interesting, first of all because it starts with a statistic, “350 million users access Facebook from a mobile device every month,” which was just released and then because it describes Facebook …

Discussion: PhoneArena, VisionMobile and MacStories

Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:

Amazon Announces $199 Kindle Fire Tablet, $149 Kindle touch 3G, $99 Kindle touch and $79 Kindle — Amazon today unveiled its long-rumored tablet: the Kindle Fire. Based on Android, but with a custom-designed user interface, the Kindle tablet will cost $199 and go on sale on November 15.

Discussion: Inside Mobile Apps, Music Ally, Mashable!, Guardian, Gadget Lab, This is my next, Softpedia News and Gizmodo

Brooke Crothers / CNET News:

BlackBerry PlayBook on sale at Best Buy for $299 — That was fast. Best Buy in the U.S. knocked the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet down to $299, apparently in response to the market-upending price of the Amazon's Kindle Fire. — Is RIM feeling the Amazon Kindle Fire heat?

Discussion: Ars Technica, TechCrunch, EE Times, Business Insider, I4U News, PopHerald.com and PhoneArena

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Barnes & Noble: $25 Off the Nook Color if You Leave Our Stock Price Alone!

Discussion: Slate Magazine, The New Persuaders and VentureBeat

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Last year, Steve Jobs tried (and failed) to defuse Samsung patent row — The legal fight between Apple and Samsung over claims the Korean smartphone vendor had copied smartphone and tablet designs entered new territory on Thursday after it was revealed that Apple founder …

Discussion: MacRumors, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, iPhone and MacDailyNews

Sydney Morning Herald:

Apple fears Samsung tablet will ‘seduce’ customers, court told — Asher Moses — Apple fears the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will launch on to the market “with the velocity of a fire hose” and “take away iPad 2 sales so quickly” that customers may be permanently “seduced” away from Apple's iOS platform …

Discussion: Korea Real Time, GigaOM, Dow Jones Newswires, iTnews.com.au, Electronista, Delimiter, SlashGear, MarketWatch, ZDNet Australia, TechEye and ZDNet Australia

Oracle:

Another Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch — Oracle issued the following statement: — “Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch continues to insist that Autonomy was never ‘shopped’ to Oracle. But now at least he remembers and admits to meeting with Oracle President Mark Hurd and Doug Kehring, Oracle's head of M&A, this past April.

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Register, AllThingsD, DealBook, Between the Lines Blog, @m_delamerced, New York Times, Irregular Enterprise Blog, @johnpaczkowski and TechEye

Bloomberg:
HP Said to Have Been Concerned Over Oracle When Switching CEOs

Discussion: CNET News, Wall Street Journal, TechEye and Reuters

David Meyer / ZDNet:
Autonomy: Oracle is ‘confused’ over supposed sale offer

Discussion: Guardian and Digits

Dennis Woodside / Google Public Policy Blog:

An update on our Motorola acquisition — Since we announced our plans to acquire Motorola Mobility, we've been excited about the positive reaction to the proposed deal — particularly from our partners who have told us that they're enthusiastic about our defense of the Android ecosystem.

Discussion: 9to5Google, Inquirer, Network World, Softpedia News, Between the Lines Blog, MobileBurn.com, The Register, SlashGear, paidContent, L.A. Times Tech Blog, FT Tech Hub, The Loop, PC Magazine, CNET News, TG Daily and @tonyromm

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD: Google Calls Justice Department Second Request on Motorola Deal “Pretty Routine” (If Four Percent Is Routine)

Caleb Garling / Wired:

Ex-NASA Man Squeezes Cloud Onto USB Stick — Yes, you can fit a cloud on a USB stick. — Founded by several of the brains who conceived OpenStack - the open source software platform for building Amazon-like “infrastructure clouds” - San Francisco startup Piston Cloud Computing has squeezed …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Walter S. Mossberg / AllThingsD:

Encyclopaedia Britannica Now Fits Into an App — The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been the most prestigious general encyclopedia in the English language for what seems like forever. But it has always been expensive, and a bit stodgy. Today, when people need to look up information …

Kevin Kwang / ZDNet:

HTC: Windows Phone to outpace competitors — SINGAPORE—Microsoft today released Windows Phone 7.5 operating system (OS), codenamed Mango, which focuses on making devices more socially connected and better catering to users' needs such as multitasking. This addressing of the platform's …

Discussion: 9to5Google, Techie Buzz, Neowin.net, Windows 8 Beta and WMPoweruser

Sara Hamdan / New York Times:

All Aboard: Google Bus Seeks Start-Up Ideas — DUBAI — A bus branded with the Google logo will be traveling across 10 governorates in Egypt starting this week, including stops at universities in Cairo and Alexandria, scouting for the next generation of technology entrepreneurs with homegrown ideas on the scale of Facebook or LinkedIn.

Discussion: PC Magazine

Derek Kessler / PreCentral.net:

HP TouchPad Go details galore [exclusive] — So we've seen some FCC details from the 7-inch HP TouchPad Go and even got a few blurry cam photos out of China that revealed a good number of the specs (1.5GHz processor, 16GB storage, etc). But are you ready for the full monty …

Discussion: The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog, Neowin.net and Techie Buzz

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