Techmeme: Scratch Wireless Unveils Free ‘Wi-Fi First’ Mobile Service (Stephanie Mlot/PC Magazine)

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October 17, 2013, 1:25 AM

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

Tweets: @kathrynschulz and @dannysullivan

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, ZDNet, BGR, AppleInsider, MacRumors, GigaOM, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog, iLounge, iMore, Macworld and Electronista

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: The Windows Blog, eWeek, TechCrunch, GeekWire, LAPTOP Magazine, BGR, Softpedia News, PC World, WinBeta, BetaNews and WMPoweruser

Pierre Omidyar / Omidyar Group:

My Next Adventure in Journalism — As many of you know, I've had an interest in journalism for some time now. I've been working on Civil Beat for three years and through my philanthropic work at Omidyar Network and Democracy Fund, we've supported many efforts around the world related to media …

More: Pressthink, New York Times, CNET, Washington Post, Scripting News, TechPresident, Guardian, Forbes, Business Insider, The Drum and Poynter. Tweets: @dgelles. See also Mediagazer

Liam Spradlin / Android Police:

[APK Teardown] Latest Google Glass Firmware Gives A Tantalizing Glimpse At A Ton Of Future Features — Last weekend, I finally got my own Google Glass unit. Since then I've been trying to adapt to using it and all its features, but as always there are a few things no Explorer can do just yet.

More: TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, Glass Almanac, GigaOM, Geek.com and Engadget

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 …

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

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, @chanders, @mattrosoff, @noii and @pkafka

Stephanie Mlot / PC Magazine:

Scratch Wireless Unveils Free ‘Wi-Fi First’ Mobile Service — When you buy a Scratch smartphone, you'll never have to pay a penny for service. No contracts. No ads. No catch. Just free service, according to the new wireless company. — Sound too good to be true? It is, sort of.

More: Scratch Wireless, FierceWireless, VentureBeat, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, CNET, Android Police and Engadget

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, eWeek, Business Insider, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily and Reuters

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

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: AppleInsider, Fortune and Electronista

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: VentureBeat, VatorNews and Seattle Times blogs

Bruce Schneier / Wired:

How to Design — And Defend Against — The Perfect Security Backdoor — We already know the NSA wants to eavesdrop on the internet. It has secret agreements with telcos to get direct access to bulk internet traffic. It has massive systems like TUMULT, TURMOIL, and TURBULENCE to sift through it all.

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Anki Drive Is Racing Google, Not Other Toy Makers — TODAY, ANKI, THE PROMISING ROBOTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANY, RELEASES ITS FIRST PRODUCT, ANKI DRIVE. BUT CEO BORIS SOFMAN SAYS THE TOY CAR IS JUST A STEPPING STONE FOR LARGER INNOVATIONS. — Anki made its debut in June …

More: The Next Web, The Verge, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Anki, USA Today, Fortune, 9to5Mac, Engadget, AllThingsD, Polygon, Mashable and Kotaku. Thanks:@sheevazee

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

Alex Williams / TechCrunch:

Search Engine Giant Yandex Launches Cocaine, A Cloud Service To Compete With Google App Engine — Russian search giant Yandex has launched an — open-source platform as a service (PaaS) called Cocaine that — the company says allows developers to build out their own — app engines.

Tweets: @jonrussell

Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:

Galaxy Round simply a prototype test device, will have limited production even in South Korea — Your plans to score one of Samsung's Galaxy Round, the world's first smartphone to feature a flexible display might not work out that well, as according to our insider, Samsung is looking to produce …

More: TechnoBuffalo, Android Beat, The Droid Guy, AndroidHeadlines.com, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, PhoneArena, Phones Review, pocketnow.com and AndroidGuys

John Koetsier / VentureBeat:

Facebook ad profit a staggering 1,790% more on iPhone than Android — Nov. 12 - 13, 2013 — A study of more than 200 billion ads on Facebook says that mobile ads on iPhone generate 1,790 percent more return on investment than ads on Android. Even worse, advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns.

More: AdExchanger, Fast Company, MediaPost, Nanigans, AppleInsider, Ubergizmo, The Mac Observer, AllFacebook and MacDailyNews

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

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

T-Mobile CEO hints new iPads coming to the carrier at Apple's Oct. 22 event — T-Mobile already confirmed during the summer that it was looking to expand its product offerings from Apple after the carrier first started carrying iPhones back in April of this year.

More: USA Today, MacRumors, MacDailyNews, Gotta Be Mobile, iClarified, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider and TechnoBuffalo. Thanks:@justinkahnmusic

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