Techmeme: Ebook subscription startup Oyster expands to iPad and opens to all; some stats from Scribd (Laura Hazard Owen/GigaOM)

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October 16, 2013, 9:20 PM

Top News

Reuters:

NSA security chief Keith Alexander and his deputy John Inglis expected to depart within the next few months — U.S. eavesdropping agency chief, top deputy expected to depart soon — (Reuters) - The director of the U.S. National Security Agency and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months …

More: The Switch, Ars Technica, The Verge, Hillicon Valley, Federal Computer Week, Forbes, VentureBeat, Techdirt and Nextgov

Tweets: @kathrynschulz and @dannysullivan

Patrick May / Mercury News:

Cupertino council clears huge Apple ‘spaceship’ campus for liftoff — CUPERTINO — Apple's (AAPL) proposed new spaceship-shaped headquarters got a super-charged blast-off Tuesday night when the Cupertino City Council voted unanimously to approve the 2.8-million-square-foot behemoth beside Interstate 280 …

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

What comes next after Windows 8.1? — Summary: Microsoft's Windows 8.1 will be commercially available starting this week. What will Microsoft do for an encore on the Windows front? — Microsoft is making Windows 8.1 commercially available over the next day-plus (depending on your time zone).

More: LAPTOP Magazine, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, WinBeta, BGR, BetaNews, PC World and WMPoweruser

Lorraine Luk / Wall Street Journal:

Apple Cuts iPhone 5C Orders — Move Raises Concerns About Demand, Pricing Strategy for Low-Cost Device — A customer looks at an Apple iPhone 5c at a store in Palo Alto, Calif., on Sept. 20. Bloomberg News — HONG KONG— Apple Inc. has notified its two assemblers for the low-cost iPhone 5C …

Tad Hirsch / Public Practice Studio:

Early status-sharing service TXTmob inspired Twitter; Jack Dorsey's contribution overstated — TXTmob and Twitter: A Reply to Nick Bilton — 2004 Ruckus Society SMS Summit, Oakland California. That's me on the couch in the black T-shirt with white lettering. Evan is in the foreground, with pony tail.

More: The Next Web. Tweets: @rabble, @noii, @chanders, @mattrosoff and @pkafka

Mario Aguilar / Gizmodo:

iPhone 5s accelerometer issues may be linked to change in supplier — Here's Why the iPhone 5S Accelerometer Is So Screwed Up — A few weeks ago we confirmed reports that the iPhone 5S motion sensors were embarrassingly off. Some enterprising devs have investigated the problem …

More: RealityCap, BGR, MacRumors, Macworld, GigaOM, iPhone in Canada Blog, iLounge, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, iMore and Electronista

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

IBM's Q3 mixed, hardware business thumped — Summary: IBM's earnings were better than expected for the third quarter, but sales fell short. The systems and technology division saw sales fall 19 percent from a year ago. — IBM delivered mixed third quarter results with earnings …

More: IBM, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Reuters, Tech Trader Daily and Business Insider

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Usermind raises $7.6M from Andreessen Horowitz to build software for enterprise business operations — Andreessen Horowitz Partner Scott Weiss was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal article talking about his firm's interest in enterprise software-related companies.

More: VatorNews, VentureBeat and Seattle Times blogs

Blair Hanley Frank / GeekWire:

Watch out, Nike: Adidas announces smartwatch for runners, starting at $399 — SAN FRANCISCO - Another big shoe brand just joined Nike in the wearable technology race: Adidas. — At today's GigaOM Mobilize conference in San Francisco, Paul Gaudio, the Vice President in charge …

More: SlashGear, The Verge, TechHive, GigaOM, Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gizmodo and Mashable

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Ebook subscription startup Oyster expands to iPad and opens to all; some stats from Scribd — Oyster, the Peter Thiel-backed startup that aims to be a Netflix for ebooks, was iPhone-only and invite-only for its first six weeks. On Wednesday, though, Oyster launched its iPad app and opened up to everyone.

More: The Verge, Oyster HQ Blog, AppleInsider, iMore, The Next Web, MacRumors, VentureBeat, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena, Gotta Be Mobile, Mashable, Engadget and Electronista. See also Mediagazer

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Facebook Aims to Court Teens With More Public Posting Options — The adage should be familiar by now: Teens may have a Facebook profile, but they sure don't think it's cool anymore. — In a move on Wednesday afternoon, however, Facebook is starting to become a bit like its younger, hipper competitors.

More: Facebook, CNET, Inside Facebook, New York Times, The Verge, Mercury News, Digits, The Next Web and TechCrunch

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

eBay Barely Beats Investor Expectations With Revenue Of $3.9B, Stock Falls 5% In After-Hours Trading — eBay reported its third-quarter financial performance today, including revenue of $3.9 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.64. The company's revenue was up 14 percent …

More: Business Wire, Tech Trader Daily, CNET, VentureBeat, Business Insider, ZDNet, Tech Trader Daily, WebProNews, internetretailer.com and AllThingsD

Josh Lowensohn / CNET:

Judge appoints monitor to keep an eye on Apple's e-books biz — A US judge on Wednesday appointed an external monitor to keep Apple in compliance with antitrust laws, following the tech giant's loss in court earlier this year. — Judge Denise Cote named former Assistant US Attorney …

More: Fortune and AppleInsider

Sarah Kessler / Fast Company:

Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes — Nico Sell, the cofounder of a secure communication app called Wickr, has appeared on television twice. Both times, she wore sunglasses to prevent viewers from getting a full picture of what she looks like.

More: GigaOM. Thanks:@_trendspotter

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Slick mobile e-mail app Boxer closes $3M — Nov. 12 - 13, 2013 — Boxer, a mobile e-mail client for iOS, just finalized a $3 million round of funding, the startup revealed to VentureBeat today. — Boxer's app is built for people who have high volume inboxes.

More: TechCrunch and PandoDaily

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Lenovo intros the Miix2, its first 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet; coming soon for $299 — Remember when we reviewed Acer's (sorta crappy) W3 tablet, and assured you it wouldn't be long before we saw more 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets? Well, with that latest Windows update due out tomorrow …

More: Lenovo Newsroom, ZDNet, Electronista, GigaOM, PC World, PC Magazine, Gotta Be Mobile, LAPTOP Magazine and BetaNews

Brad Chacos / PC World:

Microsoft reveals Windows 8.1's mysterious Movie Moments app, other app improvements — Movie Moments, the proverbial white whale of Windows 8 apps, has finally been hauled into the light on the eve of Windows 8.1's release, courtesy of a Microsoft blog post that introduces the new app …

More: The Windows Blog, Windows Phone Central, The Verge, Softpedia News, Pocket-lint, BetaNews and WinBeta. Tweets: @gaborfari

Lora Kolodny / Venture Capital Dispatch:

Google Maps Open-Source Challenger MapBox Raises $10M From Foundry Group … To challenge Google Maps, Esri Global Inc. and other map tech providers, a startup called MapBox Inc. raised $10 million in Series A funding from Foundry Group. — Chief Executive Eric Gundersen said MapBox's software …

More: bizjournals, Washington Post, Pulse 2.0, All Points Blog, Tech Cocktail, VentureBeat and Fast Company

Lester Victor Marks / AppleInsider:

AuthenTec cofounder shows off early prototype of Apple's Touch ID — F. Scott Moody, the cofounder of Apple-acquired company AuthenTec, gave a presentation this week on the origins of what is now the Touch ID technology found in the iPhone 5s, and AppleInsider was present for a hands-on with an early prototype fingerprint scanner.

More: SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone Hacks and iClarified

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