Techmeme
September 26, 2013, 2:15 PM

Top News

TechCrunch:
EBay's PayPal Acquires Payments Gateway Braintree For $800M In Cash  —  Ebay's PayPal has acquired Chicago-based payments gateway Braintree, in an all-cash deal worth $800 million.  We had originally reported that Braintree was on the block, with Square and PayPal both in acquisition talks for the company.
David Meyer / GigaOM:
Seriously, Samsung?  Sorry, roamers, but the new Galaxy Note 3 is region-locked  —  People buying the unlocked Galaxy Note 3 in regions such as Europe or North America will not be able to a SIM card from another region in it, meaning they will have to pay exorbitant roaming fees if they travel outside the region.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Finally: Bill Gates admits Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake  —  Bill Gates made many exceptional decisions while he was leading Microsoft to immense success.  He did, however, make a few errors.  —  Bill Gates chats with David Rubenstein, Harvard Campaign co-chair.
Eric Chemi / Businessweek:
Listen Up Apple Haters: iPhone Sales Eclipse Microsoft and Amazon  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken plenty of flack for running a company that is supposedly well past its glory days—and the iPhone smartphone franchise is sometimes dismissed as a spent force, losing ground to other more innovative brands like Android and Samsung.
Dana Wollman / Engadget:
Stir's Kinetic Desk is a standing desk that learns your sitting habits, moves when you need a break (video)  —  If Apple were to build a desk, it would look like this.  Much like Nest, maker of the world's sexiest thermostat, Stir is a company founded by someone who worked on the first iPods …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Hopster Promises Netflix for Kids, and No One Else  —  If you're a certain kind of parent, then you know that Netflix is a pretty excellent babysitter.  But Netflix, and rival services like Amazon's Instant Prime, have lots of movies and TV shows that aren't aimed at kids.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
BlackBerry Manufacturing Partner Looking to Bail  —  BlackBerry's ongoing collapse is becoming a serious drag on the company's manufacturing partner Jabil Circuit.  So much so that Jabil is considering ending its business relationship with the struggling smartphone pioneer.
More: Engadget
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mobile Deal-Finding App Shopular Raises $6.4 Million Series A From Sequoia  —  While most mobile applications today are heavily concerned with getting users to remember to open them regularly, mobile deal-finding application Shopular has been content to run in the background …
Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:
Dolphin browser goes local, partnering with Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo Japan and DuckDuckGo  —  MoboTap, the company behind the Dolphin Browser for Android smartphones and tablets, has teamed up with search engines in China, Japan, Russia and the US, as it seeks to appeal to more local users in those markets as an alternative browser.
More: TechCrunch
Bloomberg:
Twitter Investors Williams to Branson Await IPO Windfall  —  Twitter Inc.'s initial share sale is poised to generate riches for its founders and venture investors — as well as celebrities from Richard Branson to Ashton Kutcher and a host of lesser-known backers who bet early on the microblogging service.
John Markoff / New York Times:
Researchers Build a Working Carbon Nanotube Computer  —  PALO ALTO, Calif. — A group of Stanford researchers has moved a step closer to answering the question of what happens when silicon, the standard material in today's microelectronic circuits, reaches its fundamental limits for use in increasingly small transistors.
Reuters:
T-Mobile US will no longer stock BlackBerry in stores  —  (Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc, the No. 4 U.S. wireless service provider, plans to stop carrying BlackBerry Ltd smartphones in its stores and instead ship the devices directly, according to an executive for the company.
Greg Sterling / Marketing Land:
Who Are The 15 Percent Of Adults Who Don't Use The Internet?  —  According to new survey data from the Pew Research Center, 15 percent of US adults don't use the internet or email.  If there are roughly 250 million adults in the US that would mean just under 38 million people are “non-internet users.”
Tim Stevens / CNET:
Ford acquires in-car connectivity startup Livio in sub-$10M deal  —  Ford has paid an undisclosed amount to acquire Detroit-based Livio with the goal of better augmenting its capabilities in the world of smartphone connectivity.  —  At the 2013 International CES, Ford brazenly offered …
Michael Lee / ZDNet:
Google Hangouts/GTalk glitch sends chats to wrong recipients  —  Summary: [UPDATE] Be careful what you say over Google's instant messenger, as they may be sent to the wrong person.  Google has acknowledged an issue and is looking into it.  —  Michael Lee  —  [UPDATE] Google's Hangouts …
Guardian:
NSA reform bill to trim back US surveillance unveiled in Congress  —  Ron Wyden says Snowden disclosures have ‘caused a sea change’ and announces most comprehensive package so far  —  Four senators at the vanguard of bipartisan efforts to rein in US government spying programs announced …
Michael Gorman / Engadget:
Google gives search a new engine and card UI, outs new iOS search app  —  Google's feeling a bit nostalgic these days, as today is the company's 15th anniversary.  However, its look at the past is a fleeting thing, and Big G is very much focused on the future, so it revealed a host of new features for search.
Ian Austen / New York Times:
BlackBerry Cancels Call to Discuss Its Results  —  OTTAWA — The management of the ailing smartphone maker BlackBerry canceled a conference call scheduled for Friday to discuss the company's quarterly financial results.  —  While BlackBerry said on Wednesday evening that those results …

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