Techmeme
October 30, 2012, 3:50 PM

Top News

Jessica E. Lessin / Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Forstall Refused to Apologize  —  Apple Inc. executive Scott Forstall was asked to leave the company after he refused to sign his name to a letter apologizing for shortcomings in Apple's new mapping service, according to people familiar with the matter.
Matt Drance / Apple Outsider:
Regime Change  —  Apple cannot afford to get too big or too disorganized.  That's my takeaway from yesterday's shocker that not only is Scott Forstall out at Apple, but also that his fiefdom is being split between Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, and Jony Ive.  We learned a lot about Tim Cook yesterday.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft Build attendees get a Surface RT, Lumia 920, and 100GB of SkyDrive storage  —  Microsoft has just announced that developers at its Build 2012 conference will receive 100GB of SkyDrive storage, and a free 32GB Surface RT. Speaking enthusiastically about the developer opportunity ahead …
Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:
Ballmer's New Mission for Microsoft  —  Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is betting on one of Microsoft Corp.'s busiest years ever to keep the company relevant in a new age of mobile technology.  —  On Monday, Microsoft formally introduced new smartphones that will use a revamped version of the company's mobile-phone operating software.
Phil Sharp / Gmail Blog:
Introducing the new compose in Gmail  —  We're always trying to make Gmail faster and easier to use, so today we're introducing a completely redesigned compose and reply experience that does just that.  —  Faster  —  How many times have you been writing an email and had to reference something in another message?
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
Massive Flooding Damages Several NYC Data Centers  —  Flooding from Hurricane Sandy has hobbled two data center buildings in Lower Manhattan, taking out diesel fuel pumps used to refuel generators.A third building at 121 Varick is also reported to be without power.
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Google Says 700,000 Applications Available for Android  —  Google Inc. (GOOG) said there are about 700,000 applications available for downloading onto mobile devices that run the Android operating system, challenging Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s lead in the race for software tools.
Arnold Kim / MacRumors:
4th Generation iPad Benchmarks Show 1.4GHz Dual Core Processor, 1GB of RAM  —  John Poole of Primate Labs posts about some 4th Generation iPad benchmarks that appeared in their Geekbench database on Sunday night.  —  True to Apple's claims, the 4th Generation iPad benchmarks about twice as fast as the 3rd Generation iPad.
Natalie Huet / Reuters:
Acer delays Windows RT tablets after Microsoft moves into market  —  (Reuters) - Taiwanese computer maker Acer is putting off the launch of tablets using Microsoft's new Windows RT operating system to give itself time to see how Microsoft's own Surface tablet fares.
CHINAdaily:
Apple blocks Siri's prostitute-finder function  —  SHANGHAI - Apple Inc.'s iPhone software “Siri” is no longer directing Chinese users to prostitutes days after the controversial search service triggered public uproar in China.  —  The inactivation came after Siri users found the popular voice-activated …
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
EMC to Acquire Silver Tail Systems  —  Data storage giant EMC just announced that it has reached a deal to acquire Silver Tail Systems.  —  This is the privately held company that specializes in detecting fraud on the Web, and the reason venture capitalist Marc Andreessen was speaking …

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