Techmeme
May 21, 2013, 11:10 AM

Top News

Reuters:
Ireland rejects blame for Apple's low tax rate  —  (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple's tax strategy portrayed by Senate subcommittee as a unique ‘absurdity’  —  In opening remarks of a hearing Tuesday morning, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused Apple of being the mastermind of elaborate tax evasion practices that are unique to the iPhone maker.
More: 9to5Mac and CNET
Tony Romm / Politico:
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
The One-Person Product  —  In 2006, I moved to New York and started working for David Karp doing web development for various media companies.  That fall, in a brief gap before starting a new client, David said that we were going to make a prototype of an idea he'd had for a while.
Markus Spiering / Flickr Blog:
A better, brighter Flickr  —  In the beginning, Flickr innovated the way people share and discover photos.  Today, we are shifting the photo-sharing landscape again.  We're releasing a Flickr that's more spectacular, much bigger, and one you can take anywhere.  —  Biggr.  A free terabyte of space
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Bruce Upbin / Forbes:
IBM's Watson Now A Customer Service Agent, Coming To Smartphones Soon  —  IBM's question-answering Watson supercomputer is building quite the résumé.  First it won a much-publicized showdown against the two greatest Jeopardy! champions of all time, then it went to medical school and emerged as a budding oncologist.
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Customers not as happy with iPhone as they were last year  —  The American Customer Satisfaction Index shows Apple remains on top, but it's declining while Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung are rising.  —  The iPhone 5  —  More customers are satisfied with Apple's phones than any other handsets …
Donna Tam / CNET:
NY official: Airbnb stay illegal; host fined $2,400  —  An administrative law judge decides that a man leasing a condo broke New York's laws after he rented out part of his home on Airbnb.  —  New York officials have determined that a man who rented out part of his apartment on Airbnb …
Giles Tremlett / Guardian:
The man who ‘nearly broke the internet’  —  Sven Olaf Kamphuis is accused of global cybercrime, but Spanish police found him in a squalid flat with his name on the letterbox  —  The day Sven Olaf Kamphuis parked his huge orange Mercedes van with its German numberplates outside Bar Javis …
Michael Carney / PandoDaily:
You are your data: The scary future of the quantified self movement  —  Few if any consumers who fell behind on their credit card payments in the early 2000s thought that half a decade later employers would use their credit score to determine their job worthiness.
Rich Trenholm / CNET UK:
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active leak-proof S4 now leaked on video … If yesterday's pictures of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active have whet your appetite, then eyes down for the first leaked video of the waterproof Samsung Galaxy S4.  Whet!  Get it?  'Cos it's waterproof!  Oh forget it.
Wall Street Journal:
Hazards of the Buzzy Startup in Light of Tumblr Buy  —  Yahoo's Purchase of Tumblr Puts Spotlight on Highfliers Like Pinterest, Quora With Little Revenue  —  Yahoo Inc.'s $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr Inc. is a fairy-tale ending for the blogging site, which fetched a rich price despite its meager revenue.
Melissa Grey / Engadget:
Microsoft launches The Music Room, an interactive TV series on Xbox Live  —  A day ahead of its hotly anticipated Xbox event, Microsoft has announced a new interactive TV series entitled The Music Room, exclusively on Xbox Live.  As a part of Microsoft's drive to beef up Xbox's entertainment content …
Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:
Fab Raising At Least $250 Million  —  The billion-dollar startup club may soon get a new member.  —  Online design retailer Fab Inc. is in advanced talks to raise $250 million to $300 million in venture capital in a deal that would value the fast-growing but unprofitable company at $1 billion …
Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify to Share Top-50 Song Lists  —  Music-streaming service Spotify AB Tuesday will begin publishing lists of its top 50 most-streamed songs and most-shared songs, embedded with links that allow fans to listen without registering or signing into the service.

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Adi Robertson / The Verge: