Techmeme: Apple's German patent suit shut down by a 2007 video of Steve Jobs (Joe Mullin/Ars Technica)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

September 27, 2013, 4:05 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple hires one of Nike's top Fuel Band designers to work on wearable devices — Apple has lured away top Nike design director Ben Shaffer, according to a source at Nike with knowledge of the details behind Shaffer's departure. At Nike, Shaffer was the Studio Director of the Innovation Kitchen.

More: BGR, AppleInsider, Fast Company, MacRumors, The Verge, GigaOM, Engadget, Yahoo! News, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacDailyNews, TechnoBuffalo, iDownloadBlog.com, pocketnow.com, Electronista, App Advice and iLounge

Tweets: @austincarr and @markgurman

David Meyer / GigaOM:

Samsung: We don't region-lock our phones (apart from when you first activate them) — Samsung shed further light on its region-locking policies on Friday, explaining that the locks only affect users the first time they activate the handset. The manufacturer also said the locks apply …

More: Digital Trends, Mashable, ZDNet, Inquirer, Yahoo! News, Guardian, Softpedia News and The Register. Tweets: @gigaom

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft expanding Office's reach with ‘Reader’ for Windows 8 and ‘Lens’ for Windows Phone — Microsoft is building another Office Windows 8-style application. Sources familiar with Microsoft's Office plans have revealed to The Verge that the app, codenamed Office Reader …

More: WindowsITPro, ZDNet, The Next Web, Pureinfotech Newsletter, WinBeta, WMPoweruser and Electronista

Russell Holly / Geek.com:

Google Glass XE10 update to finally open the door to Glassware apps — Google Glass is about to get one of its biggest updates yet. That's right, Glass is finally getting the long-awaited ability for users to install third party apps. — Google's wearable computer has improved dramatically since …

More: GigaOM, Android Authority, SlashGear, SlashGear, Android Community and 9to5Google

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Ballmer bids tearful farewell to Microsoft, promises it will ‘deliver the next big thing’ — Microsoft's Steve Ballmer bid farewell to employees today at his final company meeting as CEO. After announcing his intentions to retire within the next 12 months, Ballmer's speech today was clearly an emotional moment for him personally.

More: GeekWire, ZDNet, SiliconBeat, Los Angeles Times, Betabeat, WindowsObserver.com, BBC, MSDN Blogs, Gizmodo UK, The Register, memeburn, MacDailyNews, The Next Web, Business Insider, Reuters, GeekWire, Digits, GigaOM, The Atlantic Wire and Datamation.com

Tweets: @stevekovach, @karaswisher, @siracusa, @ftrain and @tomwarren

Thanks:@jimmyjonesboy

VentureBeat:

Google Glass competitor ships 50K devices, takes Intel investment, hints at Apple connection — Google Glass competitor Recon, which sells the Recon Jet heads-up display and bills itself as the Google Glass for athletes and professionals, has secured an investment from Intel Capital.

More: AllThingsD, CNET, Glass Almanac, ZDNet, bit-tech.net and MacDailyNews

Bloomberg:

HTC to Sell Back Stake in Beats Electronics for $265 Million — HTC Corp. (2498), the Taiwanese smartphone vendor whose stock has plunged 90 percent since 2011, is selling its remaining stake in headphone maker Beats Electronics LLC for $265 million. — HTC will close the sale …

More: Wall Street Journal, DealBook, AllThingsD, Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo, The Straits Times, Macgasm, GigaOM, TechCrunch, Android Beat and hypebot

Paul Thurrott / WindowsITPro:

Delta to Distribute Surface 2 to Pilots — Original plan was to use the Nokia Windows RT tablet — Delta will distribute Microsoft Surface 2 tablets to its pilots and not Nokia's “Sirius” tablet as originally planned. The move comes in the wake of a deal to distribute Nokia Lumia 820 smart phones …

More: AppleInsider, Engadget, GeekWire, Examiner, SlashGear, Cult of Mac, Softpedia News, Windows Phone Central and WinBeta

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Intel Pushes Internet TV Launch to 2014 as It Seeks Partners: Source — Netflix among potential partners with desired ‘synergies’ the chipmaker has approached — Intel's launch of an over-the-top TV service that would compete with cable and satellite giants will be delayed until 2014 …

More: VentureBeat and SlashGear

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Intel Looking for Help from Amazon or Samsung to Keep Its Web TV Project Alive

More: DSLreports, PC Magazine, Business Insider, SiliconANGLE, The Tech Report, PC Pro, Mashable, Engadget, Softpedia News, InvestorPlace, Bloomberg, GigaOM, SlashGear, The Verge and Digits

Tweets: @counternotions, @stevecheney, @trengriffin and @tcarmody

See also Mediagazer

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Apple's German patent suit shut down by a 2007 video of Steve Jobs — A German court has declared an early Apple photo-management patent invalid because of evidence in a video in which Steve Jobs presented the original iPhone back in January 2007. — Apple had won injunctions against both Samsung …

More: FOSS Patents, MacRumors, Engadget, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider, MacNN, TechEye, TUAW and MacDailyNews

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

China approves plans to lift 13-year ban on the sale of video game consoles — China has officially approved plans to lift a 13-year ban on the sales of video game consoles in the country, heralding in a huge market for game console developers such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

More: Wall Street Journal, Tech in Asia, PC World, SlashGear, The Verge, Polygon, Benzinga, WebProNews, Softpedia News and AllThingsD

Wall Street Journal:

John Thompson, the Man Picking Microsoft's Next CEO — John Thompson, Lead Independent Director, Vows Not to Be ‘Pawn’ for Gates — Plenty of people wanted to buttonhole Steve Ballmer last week after what was probably his final analysts meeting as Microsoft Corp.'s chief executive.

More: Digits. See also Mediagazer

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Is Ford's Alan Mulally Now in the Lead to Be New CEO of Microsoft?

More: CNNMoney.com, Network World, TechSpot, Pocket-lint, TheStreet.com, StrictlyVC, SiliconANGLE, I4U News, VG247, Softpedia News, LiveSide.net, GamesIndustry International, PC Magazine, SlashGear, GeekWire, GigaOM, Tech Trader Daily, Business Insider and The Seattle Times

Chris Velazco / TechCrunch:

BlackBerry Reports $1.6B In Revenue And A $965M Loss In Q2 2014 — Things have been looking awfully bleak for BlackBerry lately, and today the company revealed just how rough things have gotten in its newest earnings release. In fiscal Q2 2014, BlackBerry raked in a measly $1.6 billion in revenue …

More: Marketwired, Computerworld, Reuters, BGR, AllThingsD, Wall Street Journal, CNET, ZDNet, MobileSyrup.com, Globe and Mail, Engadget, Electronista and AllThingsD

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Received 37,196 Gov Requests For Data Impacting 66,539 Accounts In First Half Of 2013 — Today Microsoft reported the number of data requests it received from various law enforcement agencies around the world in the first half of (calendar) 2013: 37,196. Those requests dealt with, at most, 66,539 accounts.

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Facebook is tweaking its News Feed ads algorithm to consider user feedback, including what you report or hide — Facebook today announced it is tweaking its News Feed algorithm in the coming weeks to show fewer annoying and irrelevant ads. Specifically, the company says it is placing …

More: Facebook Newsroom, AllFacebook and Forbes

Associated Press:

France sanctions Google for breaking privacy rules — PARIS — France says it will fine Google (GOOG) more than $400,000 for breaking rules on data privacy. — The French agency that regulates information technology says Google hadn't satisfactorily responded to its June decision giving …

More: PC World, Electronista, Reuters and Bloomberg

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Unmasking the trolls: FTC announces investigation into “patent assertion entities” — The Federal Trade Commission on Friday called for public comments on a proposed investigation into approximately 25 “patent assertion entities,” — more commonly known as patent trolls — and how they affect innovation and competition.

More: Federal Trade Commission, The Verge, VentureBeat, New York Times, Electronista and Patent Law Blog

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

U.S. officials dodge questions on scope of surveillance — U.S. officials declined to directly answer lawmakers' questions on Thursday about the full scope of the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' data, including whether it has ever sought to acquire large volumes of cellphone location information or other records.

More: New York Times. Tweets: @csoghoian. See also Mediagazer

Joan Lowy / Associated Press:

As expected, FAA panel recommends easing ban on electronic devices during takeoff and landing — Panel backs easing electronic device use on planes … WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee recommended Thursday that airline passengers be allowed to use smartphones …

More: Examiner, iMore, PadGadget, The Verge, BostInno, SlashGear, Engadget, The Switch, Android Community, Gotta Be Mobile, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, I4U News, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena, Electronista, 9to5Mac, iLounge, AppleInsider, Boing Boing and Gizmodo UK

Tweets: @rafat, @kimon and @rafat

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Good Eggs Nabs $8.5 Million from Sequoia and Others for Local Farm-to-Fridge Effort (Video) — Good Eggs, the local farm-to-fridge local grocery delivery startup, has nabbed $8.5 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, which it will use to expand its sustainable food service to more cities.

More: Forbes, TechCrunch, bizjournals and VentureBeat

Tweets: @sequoia_capital and @schreier

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.

Equals:

Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.

Zoho:

App Spotlight: Grow Payments for Zoho CRM — App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools. Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Access:

The AI writing app fighting AI slop

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Lenny's Podcast:

Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Great Chat:

SPVs have a brand problem

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Big Technology Podcast:

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth: Our Path To Frontier AI, Renting Models, Consumer AI's Struggles

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

"We're in a Race Against Time," Joe Kahn on Running the New York Times in the Age of AI Slop

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:05 PM ET, September 27, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.