Techmeme
February 15, 2012, 1:30 PM

Top News

David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:
Twitter stores full iPhone contact list for 18 months, after scan  —  Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the “Find friends” feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including names, email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months.
Nick Wingfield / Bits:
Apple Chief Unveils a New Product: Himself  —  When he was alive, Steven P. Jobs, Apple's former chief executive, treated investors as if they were biohazards, rarely deigning to meet with them.  The disdain was not mutual, as an Apple stock chart for the last ten years shows.
Terril Yue Jones / Reuters:
Apple iPad plant conditions better than the norm: agency  —  (Reuters) - Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc's iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.
Reuters:
Exclusive: Proview says any ban of iPad exports hard to impose  —  (Reuters) - A Chinese technology firm seeking to ban all shipments of Apple's popular iPad tablet into and out of the country has been told that China's customs authorities are unlikely to intervene in the trademark battle.
Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:
Apple Asks for Court Approval to Sue Bankrupt Kodak in N.Y. Over Patents  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to sue Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) over allegations it's infringing patents that Apple says cover technologies used in printers, digital cameras and digital picture frames.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Clear: Why This Simple To Do List App Has Everyone Talking  —  Clear, the heavily-anticipated touch-based to-do list app, is launching in the iTunes App Store tonight.  And by heavily anticipated, I mean this app was getting tech blog coverage based on demos, previews and teaser videos.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Exclusive: HTC rumored to be working on a streaming music service  —  HTC Corp., one of the earliest champions of Android-based smartphones seems to have fallen on hard times, thanks to growing power of Samsung and Apple.  But the Taiwanese phone maker isn't ready to call it quits …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Gartner: Apple's iPhone Stole The Smartphone Show In Q4, 2011  —  We've seen handset makers like HTC, LG and Nokia all warning of declines in smartphone sales.  But if there is a slowdown affecting some, it's not because people are not buying smartphones; it's because they're all buying iPhones.
Kunur Patel / AdAge:
Apple Slashes iAd Pricing Again as Mobile Ad Share Declines  —  Moves Are Reaction to Competition From Google and Realities of Mobile-Ad Market  —  Apple is once again slashing the minimum amount it charges advertisers to run a campaign on its iAd mobile ad system and boosting the amount …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Judge: Microsoft's Android tactics were ‘hard bargaining,’ not patent misuse  —  We learned a couple weeks ago that Barnes & Noble lost a key preliminary decision to Microsoft in their patent dispute.  A new court filing explains the judge's reasoning, and sheds light on some of the legal …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Siri leaks her own upcoming ability to speak Japanese  —  Siri is many things, but it seems she is not a good secret keeper.  A few tipsters reached out and told us that Siri now speaks Japanese.  Rumors earlier this month said Apple's AI speech recognition interface would gain Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and possibly Russian.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Kindle Touch breakthrough: Startup debuts handwriting recognition in puzzle book  —  Puzzle technology startup Puzzazz is giving Amazon's Kindle Touch a capability that even Amazon didn't envision — letting users input numbers and letters by writing them naturally with a finger on the screen …
Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Size Clouds Market  —  To Get a Picture of Corporate Health, Analysts Cut Tech Giant Out of the Frame  —  In analyzing U.S. corporate earnings and stock-market trends, apples-to-apples comparisons may now require tossing out the Apple.  —  Apple Inc.'s success selling consumer gadgets …
More: 9to5Mac
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Walter Isaacson's ‘Steve Jobs’  —  What is Apple at heart: a software company, or hardware company?  —  This is a perennial question.  The truth, of course, is that Apple is neither.  Apple is an experience company.  That they create both hardware and software is part of creating the entire product experience.
Jon Mitchell / ReadWriteWeb:
Google+ For iPhone Gets Instant Photo & Video Uploads  —  Google has updated the Google+ iOS app today, adding a key mobile feature, which was previously only available to Android users.  Instant Upload, once enabled, automatically sends all photos and videos taken from the Google+ app to a private Google+ album.
More: eWeek and Anton Lopyrev
Jesse Hamilton / Bloomberg:
AT&T Must Let Beastie Boy Vote on Net Neutrality, SEC Says  —  Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has told AT&T Inc. and other telecommunications companies they must include a resolution supporting wireless net-neutrality in annual shareholder votes.
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Cisco Appeals Europe's Approval of Microsoft's $8.5 Billion Skype Acquisition  —  Networking giant Cisco Systems today appealed to European regulators to reconsider their approval of Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of the Internet calling service Skype.  The EU approved the deal without conditions in October.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Control before consequence: Governing enterprise email with Zoho Mail rules  —  At 9:17 AM, the CFO receives an email.It looks legitimate.It references an ongoing vendor payment.It uses the correct company logo …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Training Data:
Chai Discovery's Bitter Lesson: Drug Design Is Another Scaling Problem
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Gavin Baker - AI Market Jitters
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'What's in Louie's Wallet', With Louie Mantia
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
Leopold Blows Up, OpenAI Drastically Cuts Prices, Microsoft's Best Day
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:30 PM ET, February 15, 2012.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Eric Eldon / TechCrunch: