Techmeme
October 11, 2012, 10:00 PM

Top News

Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:
Softbank in Advanced Talks to Acquire Sprint Nextel  —  TOKYO—Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Corp. is in advanced talks to buy U.S. operator Sprint Nextel Corp. in a deal expected to exceed ¥1 trillion ($12.81 billion) in value, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said Thursday.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Sprint Confirms Talks With Softbank Over “Substantial Investment”  —  Sprint confirmed Thursday that it is in talks with Japan's Softbank about a possible deal.  —  The No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier said the discussions are about a “substantial investment by Softbank” but offered few other details.
Reuters:
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Samsung Galaxy S III mini pops up, we go hands-on (video)  —  When word first started trickling out that Samsung planned to make a mini version of the Galaxy S III, it had the air of plausibility — we've heard from many a person about the too-large size of that phone for their hands.
BBC:
Samsung announces Galaxy S3 Mini  —  Device Vital information What the experts say  —  • Cost: £529 for pay-as-you-go 16GB model from Apple  •Full specification  —  “If you have an iPhone 4S the only real feature is the new screen, as most of iOS 6 will be available to you …
Russell Holly / Geek.com:
Uncovered: Google creating a “Nexus Call Center” for device support  —  One of the big complaints surrounding the Nexus 7 launch was the lack of customer support when dealing with the device.  Google was not initially prepared to handle the volume of users that required support …
Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:
Acer's touchscreen-equipped Aspire M5 ultrabook and V5 laptop available October 26th starting at $749.99  —  There's no question that manufacturers are gearing up for Windows 8's launch on October 26th with all different kinds of convertible laptops, but there will also be a more traditional route …
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
One-in-Ten ‘Dual-Screened’ the Presidential Debate  —  TV Trumps Digital Sources for Debate Coverage  —  OVERVIEW  —  The vast majority of Americans say they followed coverage of the first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, including 56% who followed the debate live.
Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:
Talk is cheap: Cell phones hit six billion worldwide  —  It's something that we all knew but perhaps didn't fully appreciate—just about all of us have cell phones now, and we use them a lot.  —  According to new figures published by the International Telecommunications Union on Thursday …
Ken Yeung / The Next Web:
How an intern created Facebook's slick new mobile ad interface  —  Earlier this month, Facebook launched a significant update to its Page Manager app.  One of the things within the app was the ability for businesses to manage their pages — for brands, this is incredibly important …
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Reddit, freedom of speech and the dark side of community  —  Unless you spend a lot of time on Reddit, the discussion-forum community that more or less took over after Digg sank beneath the waves, you may have missed the latest storm of controversy over content posted on the site's various “sub-Reddits” or topic pages.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Motorola Droid RAZR HD and RAZR Maxx HD launching October 18th in US  —  Motorola's Droid RAZR HD and RAZR Maxx HD phones have finally gotten a US launch date.  A day after going on sale in Canada, the 4.7-inch Android 4.0 phones are officially set to arrive on Verizon October 18th.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple's US injunction on Samsung Galaxy Nexus reversed by appeals court  —  The US injunction on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus that Apple earned by way of a patent judge earlier this year has been reversed by an appeals court, reports Reuters.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit …
Glenn Peoples / Billboard.Biz:
Business Matters: The Truth About Pandora's Payments to Artists  —  Pandora mounted an effective publicity campaign Tuesday by revealing the amounts of royalties some artists' songs generate on its service (as opposed to how much money those artists are actually collecting).
Antonio Regalado / Technology Review:
Nathan Myhrvold's Cunning Plan to Prevent 3-D Printer Piracy  —  A patent that covers digital encryption of “objects” could bring copy protection to 3-D printing.  —  Sometime in the none-too-distant future, replacing your favorite coffee mug or creating a new iPhone case might be as simple …
Luke Timmerman / Xconomy:
Exclusive: OVP Venture Partners, NW's Oldest VC Firm, To Shut Down  —  OVP Venture Partners, the Kirkland, WA-based venture firm that has invested $750 million in more than 125 high tech, biotech and clean energy companies in its history, won't raise any new funds and is gradually winding …

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Earlier Picks

Drew Olanoff / TechCrunch:
Aaron Souppouris / The Verge: