Techmeme: Microsoft pulls ‘fly on the wall’ anti-iPhone ads (Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

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September 14, 2013, 7:30 PM

Top News

Gregory Ferenstein / TechCrunch:

Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams Lays Out His Plan For The Future Of Media — Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams has an ambitious new plan: to shift our daily reading habits away from consuming incremental news bites and towards engaging with enlightened ideas curated by an intelligent algorithm.

More: GigaOM. Tweets: @jsnell, @ryan, @mathewi, @felixsalmon, @hunterwalk and @panzer. See also Mediagazer

Reuters:

Exclusive: BlackBerry bidders may want to carve up business - sources — (Reuters) - A handful of potential bidders, including private equity firms, are lining up to look at BlackBerry Ltd, but initial indications suggest that interest is tepid and buyers are eyeing parts …

More: VatorNews, IntoMobile, TechnoBuffalo, Gotta Be Mobile, Electronista, The Verge, The Next Web and MobileSyrup.com

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Layoffs hit HTC America as the company struggles to turn itself around — About twenty percent of HTC America employees were let go — The bad news for HTC keeps rolling in. The Verge learned today that the company has laid off about thirty employees and contractors out of its HTC America division.

More: GeekWire, SlashGear, TechSpot, HotHardware.com News, I4U News, TechnoBuffalo, 5by5 Master Audio Feed, 9to5Google, Engadget and PhoneArena

New York Times:

At Twitter IPO, Williams, Sacca, USV, and Spark will each hold stakes likely exceeding $1B — The Payday at Twitter Many Were Waiting For — SAN FRANCISCO — In June 2007, Evan Williams was looking for investors for a quirky Internet communications service called Twitter that he had co-founded.

More: Currency. Tweets: @mathewi, @davewiner, @dom and @scottkirsner

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Nearly two years after launch, Siri seems to exit ‘beta’ with iOS 7 — With the iPhone 4S launch nearly two years ago, Apple introduced the Siri voice control system to its customers. At launch, Siri was a gimmicky feature at best, being released with bugs, a highly-computerized voice …

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

When A Startup Worth Hundreds Of Millions Goes Dark: Klout's Quiet Year Of Growth And Struggle — “What do you want to be when you grow up?” — It's a question all startups have to answer between giant fundraises and figuring out business models. — Some growing companies, like Twitter and Facebook, handle adolescence well.

Tweets: @ajs, @delrey and @owenthomas. Thanks:@ajs

Josh Lowensohn / CNET:

Microsoft pulls ‘fly on the wall’ anti-iPhone ads — Microsoft's online video ads that mocked Apple's latest crop of iPhones have been yanked, following what appears to be a poor reception by viewers. — Microsoft has removed a series of online video advertisements that were critical …

More: VentureBeat, The Next Web, MacRumors, T3 News, Global Nerdy, The Verge, Business Insider, Gawker, Electronista, TechCrunch, GeekWire and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @tomwarren, @m4tt, @tcarmody and @panzer

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

How Zynga went from social gaming powerhouse to has-been — In Zynga's July 2011 prospectus to future shareholders, company founder and CEO Mark Pincus outlined his firm's ambitious plan to take over the gaming world. — “My kids decided a few months ago that peek-a-boo was their favorite game,” he wrote.

More: I4U News and SocialTimes. Tweets: @alexisohanian and @nytimesbits

Marcia Hoffman / Wired:

Apple's Fingerprint ID May Mean You Can't ‘Take the Fifth’ — There's a lot of talk around biometric authentication since Apple introduced its newest iPhone, which will let users unlock their device with a fingerprint. Given Apple's industry-leading position, it's probably not a far stretch …

More: I4U News, Techdirt and Yahoo! News

Tweets: @jeresig, @kevinmitnick, @ryan and @trevortimm

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Tech's Rising Stars Push Into the Online-to-Offline Era — Although startups like Pinterest, Uber and Airbnb may not seem to have much in common except their lofty valuations, they share a similar purpose that could help describe the current era of consumer technology: Bringing the online world to the offline world.

Thanks:@maringuy

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

Meet Hacking Team, the company that helps the police hack you — Hacking Team may not have any clients in the US yet, but it's not for lack of trying — In 2001, a pair of Italian programmers wrote a program called Ettercap, a “comprehensive suite for man-in-the-middle attacks” …

More: Wired

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

“Patent troll” claiming playlists and podcasts scores license with SanDisk — Some patent trolls hide in the shadows, avoiding reporters and setting up complex mazes of shell companies to avoid scrutiny. James Logan, the owner of Personal Audio LLC, isn't like that.

Tweets: @grok_

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