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Techmeme
October 19, 2012, 7:25 PM
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9to5Mac:
Estimated prices on 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros: Starts around U$1,699  —  Alongside the new mini/iPads, Mac Minis, and iMacs, Apple will reveal a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display on Oct. 23.  We have now received pricing information on the base model and the “best” model.
Mike Rogoway / Oregonian:
Apple starts work on massive Prineville data center  —  Apple has begun work on the first, $68 million phase of its new Prineville data center, clearing and flattening land for the one of two, 338,000 square-foot buildings atop the bluff that overlooks town.  —  Each building is more than twice the size of a typical Costco store.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Officially Begins Shutting Down “Questions” Product, May Refocus On Search  —  It was no Quora.  Today Facebook finally confirmed it is retiring Questions, which originally launched in July 2010.  The Questions Dashboard and option to share a poll to the news feed are being removed.
Will Oremus / Slate:
Minnesota bans Coursera: State takes bold stand against free education  —  Honorable mentions go to New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission for driving out Uber's online taxi-hailing service and to automobile dealers' groups in four states for trying to have Tesla dealerships declared illegal.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Facebook: We Weren't Moving Fast Enough in Mobile  —  One of Facebook's mottos is “Move Fast.”  Indeed, there are posters extolling that mind-set throughout the company's offices.  —  But when it comes to mobile, even Facebook wasn't moving fast enough.  That was the message on Friday from Facebook Mobile VP Vaughan Smith.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
New Samsung Chromebook also available with 3G for $329.99  —  We were under the impression that Google's new Samsung Chromebook would only be able to hook up to the internet via Wi-Fi, but it seems that something got lost in the announcement.  A 3G model will in fact be available …
Fruzsina Eördögh / ReadWriteWeb:
YouTube Networks: An Inside Look At Their Unsavory Business Practices  —  Ray William Johnson, the world's most successful YouTuber, announced he is leaving his signed network Maker Studios earlier this week via video.  The news sent the YouTube-o-sphere abuzz with gossip as both Johnson …
Mat Honan / Wired:
Why Windows Just Can't Win  —  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks about the future of Windows at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011.  Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com  —  Microsoft is about to have its biggest product release in nearly 20 years.  Before the end of the month, Windows 8 …
Ilya Pozin / Forbes:
Is Pheed the New Twitter?  —  Miley Cyrus seems to think so.  As does Ashley Tisdale, David Guetta, Paris Hilton, Chris Brown, and thousands of others who have joined the site in a matter of days.  —  So what is Pheed?  —  In short, think of it as Twitter, with a business plan.
Jessica E. Lessin / Wall Street Journal:
Thiel in Talks to Invest in Airbnb at $2.5B Valuation  —  Online room rental service Airbnb Inc. is in discussions with venture capitalist Peter Thiel about a roughly $150 million investment that would value the company at around $2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Airtime, a Pedigreed Start-Up, Is Struggling  —  It sounds like a recipe for success for a new start-up: Two famed entrepreneurs, tens of millions of dollars in the bank and endorsements from celebrities like Alicia Keys and Jim Carrey.  —  But Airtime, the much-hyped video chat site created …
Connor Simpson / The Atlantic Wire:
Watch Reddit's Biggest Troll Defend Himself  —  Michael Brutsch, a 49-year-old man who posted on Reddit under the name Violentacrez until Gawker's Adrian Chen outed him, went on Anderson Cooper 360 to defend himself on camera for the first time.  —  Brutsch's Reddit persona became famous …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
GitHub hit by DDoS attack second day in a row  —  GitHub is having one hell of a week, with four outages in five weekdays.  The social coding site is currently being hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, the second one in two days.  The site's engineers are working on fixing the issue …
More: The H Security and Softpedia News.  Tweets: @github
Pamela Parker / Search Engine Land:
Google Gives Update On Shopping Going Full Paid Inclusion, Hints At AdWords' Future On Q3 Call  —  Now that Google's new pay-for-play Shopping is in full swing (the changeover took place October 17), the company used its earnings call to share thoughts on its success thus far, and its future vision for the product.
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
Microsoft offers only one-year Surface warranty, despite EU law  —  Summary: Microsoft is offering only one-year warranty for the enterprise-favored Surface tablet, while EU law dictates it should be “at least two.”  Didn't Apple recently get stung for this kind of behavior?  —  Zack Whittaker
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
How Many Techies Does It Take to Reelect a President?  T4O Launches “Innovator Series” Videos for Obama.  —  A large group of tech luminaries — including LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, Path's Dave Morin, JLab's Judy Estrin, Dropbox's Drew Houston, Craigslist's Craig Newmark and Box's Aaron Levie …
More: Mashable!.  Thanks:@beet_tv
Alex Williams / TechCrunch:
Jeff Bezos: The Smart People Change Their Minds  —  Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos stopped by the 37signals office yesterday and offered some wise thoughts about strategy.  His views are especially refreshing in a time when people who change their views often get portrayed as weak and lacking confidence.
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:
Microsoft announces Office 365 University, bringing subscription-based productivity apps to students  —  This morning Microsoft announced Office 365 University.  Due in the first quarter of calendar 2013, the product offering is the Office 365 suite, tweaked for students, and priced so that anyone heading into school can afford it.

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From Mediagazer

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: the DOJ says states suing to block the WBD deal must post a “proper bond” to cover potential damages, backing Paramount's request for a $1.88B bond

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Nielsen: 60 Minutes' season premiere drew 7.94M viewers, down 21% from 10.02M for last season's premiere; viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 fell 33%

The New York Times Company:
The NYT brings back its media column, hiring Michael Hirschorn to lead it; he co-founded Inside.com, edited outlets such as Spin, and produced TV shows

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