Techmeme
February 15, 2013, 1:10 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Skype Video Messages launches for Mac, iPhone, and Android (hands-on)  —  Microsoft is launching a new Video Messages feature for Skype this week.  The company has been working on the feature for a number of months, having previously revealed it a little early, and it debuts on iOS, Android, and Mac.
BBC:
Jonathan Ive gets gold Blue Peter badge  —  Sir Jonathan Ive was presented with the award by Blue Presenter Barney Harwood  —  The BBC's Blue Peter programme has honoured Apple's design chief Sir Jonathan Ive with its highest accolade - a gold Blue Peter badge.
Nick Gray / HTC Source:
Exclusive: HTC One (M7) U.S. retail availability and price revealed  —  Nearly a week and a half ago, we broke the news that HTC would start selling the HTC M7 in Europe on March 8th.  That date was later confirmed by another source, along with a price tag of of €649.99 (roughly $880).
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Staples executives confirm company will soon sell Apple products in the U.S.  —  In January we reported that Staples appeared set to begin selling Apple products via its U.S. distribution channels.  However, Staples' official comment on this (since 2011) was that Apple would not sell Staples its products for U.S. distribution.
Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:
Judge allows case over HuffPo ownership to go forward, adds fraud claim  —  In a major development in the bitter court fight over the founding of the Huffington Post, a New York judge has for the second time refused the request of media moguls Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer to dismiss the case.
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Opera buys mobile video optimization specialist and browser maker Skyfire for up to $155m  —  Opera revealed plans to transition its Web browsers to WebKit this week, and the Norwegian firm is making more moves after announcing the acquisition of Skyfire Labs, a mobile video optimization specialist …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
The Science of Investing: Hearst's New Venture Arm in $30 Million Funding Deal With Los Angeles Tech Studio  —  Hearst Ventures, the investment arm of media giant Hearst Corporation, said it was making a minority equity investment in Science, the Los Angeles area tech “studio.”
Nicole Lee / Engadget:
US Cellular to spread its LTE wings to 87 percent of customers by year's end  —  While it's only the nation's eighth largest carrier, US Cellular is said to be well on its way to covering 87 percent of its customer base — that's more than 3,800 additional cities and towns — with the sweet speed of LTE by the end of 2013.
Sharif Sakr / Engadget:
Livescribe renames Sky smartpen after losing trademark dispute with BSkyB  —  Livescribe v BSkyB was one of the stranger trademark battles we've seen recently, because the two companies operate in such different spheres — one makes smartpens, the other runs TV and internet services.
Michael Zhang / PetaPixel:
Source Code for Original 1990 Version of Adobe Photoshop Released  —  Starting today, you can download a free and legal copy of Photoshop.  That's right — free and legal.  There's a catch, though: it's the original 1.0.1 version of the program that was released back in 1990.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon to investigate claims of worker mistreatment at German warehouse  —  Amazon has agreed to look into complaints from staff at one of the online retailer's fulfillment centers in Germany.  The investigation comes after a German TV station aired a documentary that depicted temporary …
Loek Essers / ITworld.com:
Facebook can stick with its real name policy for now, German court rules  —  It is the first step in a litigation process that can take years, the regulator said  —  Facebook can stick with its real name policy in Germany, and doesn't have to allow nicknames on its platform for now.
Mercury News:
Xoom pays off for PayPal Mafia, sets $100 million IPO  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Online payments company Xoom will receive a large payment of its own in its initial public offering, deciding Thursday to push its price higher and bring in $100 million.  —  Xoom, a startup that helps people transfer …
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Does Apple really assign engineers to “fake” projects as a loyalty test?  —  “Apple Makes New Employees Work on Fake Products Until Apple Can Trust Them”, blared a headline—and many others like it—last January.  In the Apple-watching world, it has since become common wisdom that the company assigns …
Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Google must act quickly on libellous Blogger posts, says appeal court  —  Landmark ruling that tech giant could be liable for comments if it has been notified of them and failed to remove them  —  Google may have to act quicker to remove potentially libellous posts from its Blogger platform following …
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Iceland Wants to Ban Internet Porn  —  “If we can send a man to the moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the internet.”  Those are the now immortal words of Halla Gunnarsdóttir, the political advisor to Iceland's Interior Minister Ögmundur Jónasson.  Iceland wants to block all internet porn.

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Earlier Picks

John M. Broder / Wheels:
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD: