Techmeme
December 14, 2012, 12:35 AM

Top News

Ryan Tate / Wired:
Why Google Just Made iPhone King: Ads  —  By releasing new versions of Google Maps and Gmail for iOS this month, Google helped make the iPhone the best mobile phone on the planet.  Why is Google, the owner of Android and Motorola, helping its ostensible rival?  —  The answer boils down to advertising.
More: Wall Street JournalTweets: @ryantate
Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
Why Google Maps Is Better Than Apple Maps  —  There's a simple answer: people.  —  For all of Google's reputation as a data-data-data company, the company's famed mapping product, which arrived on iOS early this morning, is good for a different reason: people.
Allen Huang / Google Mobile Ads Blog:
Combating accidental clicks in mobile ads  —  Ads on smartphones are effective, but many of us have at some point clicked on an ad by accident, which ultimately is a bad experience for the user, the publisher, and the advertiser who pays for clicks that may not be valuable.
Anil Dash:
The Web We Lost  —  The tech industry and its press have treated the rise of billion-scale social networks and ubiquitous smartphone apps as an unadulterated win for regular people, a triumph of usability and empowerment.  They seldom talk about what we've lost along the way in this transition …
Will Richmond / VideoNuze Analysis:
Comcast App Now Allows Video Downloads to Mobile Devices for On-The-Go Viewing  —  Comcast has announced that Xfinity TV subscribers who use the Xfinity TV Player app on their Android and iOS mobile devices can now download certain TV shows and movies, so they can watch when they're not connected to a broadband network.
Josh Ong / The Next Web:
Apple kicks off iPhone 5 sales in China  —  Apple has begun sales of the iPhone 5 in China, its second-largest market.  Doors opened at official retail stores at 8am, though the company's reserve-and-pick-up system dampened launch crowds.  —  A rare Beijing snowstorm didn't help matters …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Speeds Up Android App By Ditching HTML5 And Rebuilding It Natively Just Like The iOS Version  —  Facebook's HTML5 app nightmare is over.  Later today it's releasing Facebook for Android 2., which replaces the hybrid native/webview code with an all-native infrastructure to answer years …
David Goldman / CNNMoney:
Massive bank cyberattack planned  —  Security firm McAfee on Thursday released a report warning that a massive cyberattack on 30 U.S. banks has been planned, with the goal of stealing millions of dollars from consumers' bank accounts.  —  McAfee's research upheld an October report from RSA …
Reuters:
China party chief stresses reform, censors relax grasp on internet  —  (Reuters) - China must deepen reforms to perfect its market economy and strengthen rule of law, Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said in southern Guangdong, echoing groundbreaking comments by reformist senior leader Deng Xiaoping in the same province 20 years ago.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple rolls out new, far more detailed, status page for general Services, Stores and iCloud systems  —  Apple has today launched a new status page for its iCloud, store and general services that provides far more detail about status and uptimes of its various cloud and backend components.
Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
With $46M Now In The Bank, textPlus Looks To Go Big Abroad, Launches Cheap International Calling On Android  —  It's been a big year for the artist formerly known as GOGII.  Back in October, the Southern California-based startup raised $18 million in series D financing from The Raine Group …
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Mailbox for iPhone: a next-generation email app inspired by Sparrow and Clear  —  Cloud to-do list company Orchestra today announced Mailbox, an email client for the iPhone it's been building for the last year.  I've been testing Mailbox for the last few weeks and it's nothing short of spectactular.
BBC:
US, UK and Canada refuse to sign UN internet treaty  —  The UN's communication treaty will not be ratified by the US, UK or Canada  —  The US, UK and Canada say they will not sign an international communications treaty under discussion in Dubai.  —  The three countries had objected to calls …
Bill Callahan / Bloomberg:
Apple, LG Electronics Defeat Alcatel-Lucent Patent Claims  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) and LG Electronics Inc. (066570) didn't infringe an Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALU) unit's patents for electronic devices including phones and computers, a jury said.  —  The verdict today came after a trial that began Nov. 27 …
Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:
Senate panel approves Franken's location privacy bill  —  The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn.) Location Privacy Protection Act on Thursday.  —  The bill would require companies to get a customer's consent before collecting or sharing mobile location data.
Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:
T-Mobile completes iPhone-friendly upgrade in 23 cities  —  T-Mobile on Thursday officially activated its overhauled HSPA+ systems in five more regions of the country, including the greater Chicago area, bringing it that much closer to fielding a nationwide network that can fully support Apple's iPhone.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple returns ability to gift apps from iOS 6 App Store, but makes it a bit obscure  —  Apple has returned the ability to gift apps from the App Store on iOS 6 devices, after mysteriously removing it before the official launch.  The addition, which was noticed by 9to5Mac …
More: 9to5Mac, TUAW and PhoneArena
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Facebook for iOS gets faster News Feed and Timeline, lets you choose an album when uploading photos  —  Facebook on Thursday updated its native iOS app, on the same day it launched its native Android app.  To get the latest speed enhancements for your News Feed and Timeline …
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Legend Max Levchin Joins Yahoo Board, Intuit's Smith And Weather Channels's Kenny Leave  —  Max Levchin has been many things in his long run in Silicon Valley — PayPal cofounder, Slide founder, angel investor, etc. etc. — but now he's trying on something more traditional.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
MobileMobileMobile: Yahoo Eyes Hipster Teen-Founded Summly News App  —  When she's not board-swapping, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been scouring the landscape for trendy mobile “acqhires” to give the sleepy Silicon Valley Internet giant some sizzle.  —  And you can't get more hot than Summly …
More: CNET
Mike Dano / FierceWireless:
Leap Wireless, MetroPCS launch handset financing programs  —  Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) and MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) both recently launched handset financing options that will allow eligible customers to make a down payment on a smartphone and pay off the remainder in the future.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Google Starts Reporting False DMCA Takedown Requests  —  Ever since Google started publishing a transparency report for the DMCA requests it receives, the number of notices being sent have shot through the roof.  —  During the past month copyright holders asked Google to remove 12,045,130 webpages from its search.

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Kim Yoo-chul / The Korea Times:
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