Techmeme: Microsoft gearing up to make smartphones, tablets and PCs in company-saving strategy shift (Jonathan S. Geller/BGR)

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October 11, 2012, 11:20 PM

Top News

Kirk Koenigsbauer / The Microsoft Office Blog:

Office Reaches RTM! — Today we reached an important milestone in the development of the new Office. — Moments ago, the Office engineering team signed off on the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build. This milestone means the coding and testing phase of the project is complete …

More: Engadget, The Register, Computerworld, The Next Web, CNET, PhoneArena, WPDang, Seattle Times, Ars Technica, WinBeta, MSDN Blogs, Neowin and TechNet Blogs

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft completes Office 2013 development, available in mid-November for businesses

More: SiliconANGLE, bink.nu and WebProNews

Don Clark / Digits:

Chip Design Luminary Leaves Samsung for Apple — Samsung recently raised eyebrows by beefing up its team of Texas-based chip designers, including those whose backgrounds pointed to an interest in chips for server systems. Now one of the most prominent of those recruits has left the South Korean company for Apple .

More: The Register, 9to5Mac, CNET, Gizmodo, BGR, Pocketables, Macgasm, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, GigaOM, MacNN and Business Insider

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.

More: CNET, MarketBeat, Forbes, Deal Journal, Quartz, The Tell, FierceWireless, The Register, Droid Life, DailyTech, SlashGear, Reuters, WSJ Blogs, Digits, PhoneNews.com, Reuters, SlashGear, PhoneArena and CNET

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.

More: Corporate Intelligence, Examiner, Know Your Cell and DSLreports

Reuters:

Japan's Softbank in talks for $12.8 billion Sprint stake - source

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 …

More: Computerworld, CNET, Gotta Be Mobile, Pocketables, MobileSyrup.com, 9to5Google, Droid Life, Android Community, Ars Technica, SlashGear, Android News, Rumours … and PhoneArena

Reuters:

Exclusive: Ellison eyes fellow billionaire's AEG empire - sources — (Reuters) - Oracle Corp's Larry Ellison, known for his taste for the finer things in life, is now intrigued by a multibillion dollar sports and entertainment empire. — Ellison, who recently bought a Hawaiian island …

More: CNET

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 …

More: VentureBeat, CNET, BGR, BetaNews, Engadget, PC World, HotHardware.com News, TechRadar.com, PC Magazine, I4U News, BGR and Ubergizmo

Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:

Sony revamps VAIOs for Windows 8, prices Duo 11 and Tap 20, adds touchscreen to T series

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, AllThingsD and Mashable!

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.

More: SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, Business Insider, AllThingsD, IntoMobile, BetaNews, WebProNews and Gizmodo

BBC:

Samsung announces Galaxy S3 Mini

Jun Yang / Bloomberg:

Apple Wins Delay of South Korea Sales Ban on IPhone, IPad — A Seoul court granted a request by Apple Inc. (AAPL) to delay a sales ban imposed on some iPhones and iPads after an August ruling that the U.S. company infringed on Samsung (005930) Electronics Co.'s patents.

More: AllThingsD, CNET, Mashable!, iDownloadBlog.com and InvestorPlace

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Apple's US injunction on Samsung Galaxy Nexus reversed by appeals court

More: GigaOM, Mercury News, AllThingsD, Reuters, DSLreports, CNET, iDownloadBlog.com, Fortune, Guardian, Edible Apple, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Droid Life, MacRumors, 9to5Google, ZDNet, PhoneArena, Wired, BGR, The Verge, OSDir.com and Ars Technica

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

Microsoft gearing up to make smartphones, tablets and PCs in company-saving strategy shift — Microsoft (MSFT) is currently in the midst of a major transition unlike anything the company has dealt with in the past. According to our own sources and multiple subsequent reports, Microsoft is working on its own smartphone.

More: Pocketnow

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 …

More: Los Angeles Times, BGR, itu.int, nbcnews.com, IntoMobile and 24/7 Wall St.. Tweets: @qthrul

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 …

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.

More: VatorNews, Hillicon Valley, Gotta Be Mobile, Poynter, Mashable! and WebProNews

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Instapaper creator Marco Arment launches The Magazine, a different kind of periodical for Apple's Newsstand — Back in July, Instapaper creator Marco Arment started thinking about what to do with The Feature. It was a section of the app in which he placed a curated selection of stories worth sharing …

More: Marco.org, MacStories, Marco.org, Daring Fireball, Fortune, ReadWriteWeb, The Magazine and Gizmodo. Tweets: @marcoarment. Thanks:@martinsfp. See also Mediagazer

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Microsoft tells German court it will amend Motorola lawsuit to hold Google Inc. liable — Today the Munich I Regional Court, which has already identified five patent infringements by Android-based devices, held a first hearing on a Microsoft complaint against wholly-owned Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility …

More: ZDNet, The Register, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena, WMPoweruser and AppleInsider

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Peek launches with $1.4M from Jack Dorsey and Eric Schmidt to help you discover and book activities — Have you ever had a time when you went to a new neighborhood or city and you were looking for cool things to do? Often when you're in search of things to do, it can be really hard to find a listing to browse.

More: NYT Bits, Laughing Squid, Forbes, VentureBeat, Betabeat, Mashable, SiliconBeat, TechCrunch and Wired. Tweets: @jack

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.

More: Betabeat, New Statesman, BuzzFeed and Guardian. See also Mediagazer

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 …

More: Facebook, VentureBeat, CNET, TechCrunch and AllFacebook

iFixit:

iPod Touch 5th Generation Teardown — We got our hands on Apple's new iPod Touch. First thing we do: get inside to see just how much “funner” the new generation is compared to the older generations. Join us for all the fun to come by following iFixit on Twitter or friending us on Facebook.

More: Pocketnow, Ars Technica, Mashable!, Macgasm, CNET, iClarified, The Verge, iLounge, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Engadget and IntoMobile

BBC:

Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite sales make Amazon no profit — Amazon boss Jeff Bezos discusses the Kindle Fire HD — Amazon has confirmed it will not make a profit from sales of its latest Kindle tablet and e-reader devices. — “We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware …

More: Gizmodo, Reuters and CNET. Thanks:@leokelion

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