Techmeme: To Bolster Search, Facebook Nudges its Users to Help Index the Real World - and Build a Data Store to Rival Google's (Tom Simonite/MIT Technology Review)

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February 28, 2013, 9:25 AM

Top News

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

Groupon tanks on missed Q4 revenue of $638.3 million, unexpected loss of $0.12 per share — Today Groupon reported its fourth quarter financial performance, including revenue of $638.3 million, and earnings per share of -$0.12. Analysts had expected revenue of $640 million, and earnings per share of $0.03.

Alistair Barr / Reuters:

Groupon shares crumple after dismal outlook, take-rate cut

More: Forbes

Wall Street Journal:

Groupon's Loss Widens; Stock Dives

More: Business Insider, nbcchicago.com, NASDAQ.com, RTTNews, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, CNNMoney.com and MarketBeat

Anton Troianovski / Wall Street Journal:

Unsold IPhones Piling Up at Leap Wireless — For one of the country's prepaid cellphone carriers, a big bet on the iPhone is becoming a big headache. — Leap Wireless International Inc., which operates the Cricket cellphone brand, said it is on pace to sell half as many iPhones as it committed …

More: AllThingsD, TUAW, CNET, iPhone Buzz, The Verge, SlashGear and MarketBeat

Apple:

iTunes U Content Tops One Billion Downloads — CUPERTINO, CaliforniaFebruary 28, 2013Apple® today announced that iTunes U® content downloads have topped one billion. iTunes U features the world's largest online catalog of free educational content from top schools and prominent libraries …

More: The Next Web, Engadget, GigaOM, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, The Verge and TUAW

Casey Newton / CNET:

Sergey Brin: Smartphones are ‘emasculating’ — During a talk at TED, the Google co-founder says Glass improves on the smartphone experience. — Mobile phones may generate the fastest-growing segment of Google's revenue, but the experience of using them still bothers Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Avram Piltch / LAPTOP Magazine:

E Ink Android Phone Lasts a Week, Weighs Next to Nothing — Who would want a smartphone with a grayscale E Ink screen? Anyone who want days of battery life, superior outdoor readability and low cost should be interested in using the technology in a phone.

More: Gizmodo, PhoneArena and GigaOM

Dave Lee / BBC:

Court orders UK ISPs to block more piracy sites — The BPI says blocking sites helps protect the revenue streams needed to create new music — The High Court has ordered the UK's major internet service providers to block three websites offering links to pirated material.

More: TorrentFreak, The Next Web and Neowin

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

UK judge who issued extreme ruling for Samsung against Apple hired by... Samsung! — By far and away the weirdest ruling in the worldwide smartphone and tablet wars came down last year in the UK, where a publicity order forcing Apple to promote Samsung's products and to make itself ridiculous …

More: Fortune, Gizmodo, Macgasm, SlashGear and Patently Apple

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Time Warner Cable says there's no consumer demand for gigabit internet — Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference moments ago, Time Warner Cable's Chief Financial Officer Irene Esteves seemed dismissive of the impact Google Fiber is having on consumers.

More: DSLreports, The Tech Report and TechSpot

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

I.B.M. Exploring New Feats for Watson — I.B.M.'s Watson beat “Jeopardy” champions two years ago. But can it whip up something tasty in the kitchen? — That is just one of the questions that I.B.M. is asking as it tries to expand its artificial intelligence technology and turn Watson …

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Comcast Punishes BitTorrent Pirates With Browser Hijack — Earlier this week when the six strikes system launched, little was known (officially) about the punishments ISPs were planning for persistent pirates. — Since then Verizon reinstated their copyright alerts section, revealing the mitigation measured that leaked last month.

More: DSLreports, Comcast and Softpedia News

MIT Technology Review:

An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network — Following the collapse of the social network Friendster, computer scientists have carried out a digital autopsy to find out what went wrong — Friendster is a social network that was founded in 2002, a year before Myspace and two years before Facebook.

More: Gizmodo, Daily Dot, Wired.co.uk and BuzzFeed

Evelyn M. Rusli / Wall Street Journal:

LinkedIn: The Ugly Duckling of Social Media — Shares of Facebook Inc., Zynga Inc. and Groupon Inc. tanked after their rocky stock-market debuts. But LinkedIn Corp.'s stock is still soaring, closing at an all-time high of $168.55 on Wednesday. — That may be because of people such as Chris Hoyt …

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Cook: Forget About Our Share Price, Apple Has Some Great Stuff Coming — If you're an Apple shareholder dismayed by the downward trajectory of the company's stock price lately, CEO Tim Cook feels your pain. — Remarking on the value of Apple's stock, which has plummeted by roughly …

More: ZDNet, Reuters, memeburn, Businessweek, Bloomberg, Digits, Betabeat and Associated Press

Sam Gibbs / Gizmodo UK:

Tweetbot Shows You How to Shame Bottom-Feeding Pirates (Updated) — You're a developer. You work your arse off to make a rock-solid product and charge a modest fee for people to use it, like the awesome Tweetbot for instance. So you're annoyed when people pirate the hell out of it. So, what do you do?

More: iDownloadBlog.com, The Verge, PadGadget, TUAW, TweakTown News, Cult of Mac, everythingiCafe, PhoneArena, Daily Dot and App Advice

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Placed study reveals how Amazon is impacting brick-and-mortar retailers — Online shopping has brought upon a new phenomenon called showrooming, a term describing the act of browsing brick-and-mortar stores and then later making the purchase it online often at a cheaper price.

More: VentureBeat, Location Analytics, Screenwerk, NYT Bits, TechCrunch, AdExchanger and Adotas

Tom Simonite / MIT Technology Review:

To Bolster Search, Facebook Nudges its Users to Help Index the Real World - and Build a Data Store to Rival Google's — Facebook Nudges Users to Catalog the Real World — Taking aim at Google, the largest social network wants a database describing as many things as possible. — WHY IT MATTERS

More: Softpedia News. Thanks:@tsimonite

Bernard Vaughan / Thomson Reuters:

Inventor argues Nintendo infringed his 3-D patent — A patent infringement trial over 3-D display technology has pit an inventor against videogaming giant Nintendo Co. — The patent relates to technology that inventor Seijiro Tomita developed for providing 3-D images without the need for 3-D glasses.

More: Geek.com, GamesIndustry International, Polygon, GeekWire, Edge Online, Ubergizmo and VG247

Scott Webster / CNET:

Big screens and Jelly Bean mark Android trends at Mobile World Congress — The annual conference yields plenty of new Android products but what do they have in common? — As expected, the annual Mobile World Congress has delivered an army of new Android device devices.

More: VentureBeat

Tom Phillips / Eurogamer.net:

EA putting micro-transactions “into all of our games” — “Consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of business.” — EA is building micro-transactions into all of its PC and console games, the company has announced. — The decision comes despite the recent controversy surrounding micro-transactions …

More: GamesIndustry International, The Verge, NowGamer, PC Gamer, Geek.com, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Forbes and Gamasutra

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

AOL Confirms Susan Lyne As CEO Of Brand Group, Artie Minson Out As COO Role Goes (Memo) — AOL today confirmed a couple of big changes at the top of the company, as first reported yesterday by Bloomberg and AllThingsD. Susan Lyne, the exec who had previously been CEO of Gilt Groupe and an AOL board member …

More: Bloomberg, AllThingsD, Deadline.com and Business Insider. Thanks:@sohear. See also Mediagazer

Phil Wahba / Reuters:

Barnes & Noble's Nook, ebook sales fall 25.9 percent in quarter — (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc reported a quarterly net loss on Thursday, hurt by a sharp decline in sales in its Nook device and e-books business, as well as lower sales at its bookstores and college bookstore chain.

More: TechCrunch, paidContent, Bloomberg and Deal Journal

Steve Dent / Engadget:

T-Mobile Q4 2012 revenue drops 5.2 percent to $4.9 billion, customers and income also fall — It might be a good thing that T-Mobile's in the crosshairs of a MetroPCS merger, as the company again shed revenue, customers and profits. Total revenue dropped to $4.9 billion from $5.2 billion last year …

More: The Verge, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, FierceWireless, AllThingsD and SlashGear

Alex Fitzpatrick / Mashable!:

ISPs Finally Explain How ‘Six Strikes’ Anti-Piracy Program Will Work — Internet Service Providers are finally revealing how they will implement a new anti-piracy system known as “Six Strikes” which has been rolling out this week. — The program, officially called the Copyright Alert System …

More: Examiner and Daily Dot

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Pandora Resurrects Its 40-Hour (Monthly) Limit On Free Music, But This Time It's Capping Mobile Usage — As it struggles to deal with rising royalty costs, streaming radio service Pandora is bringing back an old idea by capping free mobile usage at 40 hours per month.

More: Pandora, LAPTOP Magazine, Gotta Be Mobile, Pocket-lint, Music Ally, Apple Bitch, Mashable!, CNET, Engadget, The Next Web, Digits and Electronista. See also Mediagazer

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

With $1.8M From Andreessen, Chris Sacca & More, Rental Marketplace Getable Digs Into The $32B Construction Market — When we last caught up with Getable, the startup formerly known as Rentcycle, it was announcing that Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph was joining Collaborative Fund founder Craig Shapiro …

More: VatorNews

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

GDRs and Microsoft's road to Windows Phone Blue — Summary: The Windows Phone team seems to be doubling down on secrecy. But that doesn't mean an end to rumors about what's next for the platform on the OS front. — Leaks about an alleged new HTC Windows Phone in the works have a number …

More: PC Magazine, BetaNews, Engadget, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, TechCrunch, Know Your Mobile, PhoneArena, WinBeta, Electronista, The Full Signal, The Windows Blog, Pocket-lint, LiveSide.net, WMPoweruser and Neowin

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