Techmeme: AOL dethrones Google at top of video-ad ranking (Joan E. Solsman/CNET)

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October 17, 2013, 12:50 PM

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Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:

Windows 8.1 now available! — Less than a year ago we were preparing to launch Windows 8, which introduced our vision of highly personalized mobile computing. And here we are today announcing the global availability of Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 demonstrates our commitment to continuously improving …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows 8.1 review — It's take two for Microsoft's ambitious operating system — A year ago, Microsoft “reimagined” the look and feel of Windows, and placed a risky bet on the future of computing. Touch is everything, it said, and nearly everything about Windows 8 was designed to be used …

More: ReadWrite, Ars Technica, Wired, BetaNews, LAPTOP Magazine, Digital Trends, Ars Technica, BGR, Computerworld, bub.blicio.us, LiveSide.net, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, CNET, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Pureinfotech Newsletter, The Next Web and Softpedia News

Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:

Windows 8.1: Best Experience of Your Web with Sites and Apps together

More: Inquirer. Tweets: @theromit

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Twitter Plans to Revamp Its Private Messaging Product — Twitter's entire premise is based on publicness. “Join the conversation in the global town square!” the company likes to say. — But, over the past year, Twitter has come around to seeing the value of being more discreet.

More: Mobile Marketing Watch, iMore, CNET, The Verge, Venture Capital Dispatch, 9to5Mac, Colin Walker, Pocket-lint, CrackBerry.com, Softpedia News and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @mikeisaac and @samfbiddle

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Twitter Says A ‘Technical Issue’ Is Preventing URLs From Being Sent In Direct Messages For Some

More: ReadWrite, Engadget, The Next Web and Softpedia News

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

iPhone takes 51% share of smartphone activations at Verizon in Q3, unit sales flat compared to Q2 … Verizon has just reported their results for the third quarter, with smartphone sales topping 7.6 million units. While the press release does not disclose details about iPhone performance …

More: Fortune, AllThingsD, GigaOM, Tech Trader Daily, AppleInsider, DSLreports, MacRumors, ReadWrite, The Tech Block, Gotta Be Mobile and iDownloadBlog.com

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Verizon in Q3: $30 billion of revenue and another million users — The giant keeps growing — Fresh off agreeing a multibillion-dollar deal to reacquire Vodafone's large chunk of Verizon Wireless, America's biggest carrier reports its latest quarterly figures today.

More: Verizon Inc., CNET, ZDNet, DailyFinance.com, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, BGR, WebProNews, Engadget and Bloomberg

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

AOL dethrones Google at top of video-ad ranking — With CEO Tim Armstrong's biggest takeover — Adap.tv — in the fold, AOL edges ahead of Google in ComScore's listing of the biggest video-ad properties.—YouTube is still the king of Internet video, but AOL's takeover of Adap.tv last month is making it the richest in that kingdom.

More: TechCrunch, Marketing Land, VideoNuze Analysis, AllThingsD and Softpedia News

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: Mobile Marketing Watch, MacRumors, Cult of Mac, The Mac Observer, Business Insider, TUAW, AdExchanger, AppleInsider, Fast Company, MediaPost, Nanigans, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, AllFacebook and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @aulia

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: Business Insider, TechnoBuffalo, Mashable, Glass Almanac, GigaOM and SlashGear

David Meyer / GigaOM:

Ubuntu launches on mobile - but without some key elements — Thursday sees the release of Ubuntu “Saucy Salamander” 13.10, the first version of the Linux distribution to explicitly support smartphones and tablets, as well as desktop PCs and servers. There aren't any Ubuntu mobile devices on sale yet …

More: Kubuntu, Ars Technica, Ubuntu Wiki, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Lifehacker, Geek.com, Softpedia News and Softpedia News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Motorola hopes to tempt iPhone users to Moto X with iCloud migration tool — Motorola's Moto Maker site is primarily meant to help customize and purchase a new Moto X, but today the company is adding another feature: the option to transfer your contacts and calendars from an Apple iCloud account to a Google account.

More: GigaOM, MacRumors, TechHive, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Cult of Mac, TechnoBuffalo, Pocket-lint, Gotta Be Mobile, The Droid Guy, Phandroid, CNET, The Next Web and Ubergizmo

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Samsung proposes five-year patent lawsuit hiatus to escape EU antitrust warnings — Almost 20 months after the European Commission (EC) formally launched an investigation into its patent licensing practices, Samsung believes it has come up with an answer. Today, the EC published an open call …

More: EU Press Room, GigaOM, The Verge, BBC, Computerworld, ZDNet, CNET, CNET, Associated Press and FOSS Patents. Tweets: @fosspatents

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 …

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Acer intros the Iconia W4, its second 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet: brings improved screen for $330 (hands-on) — Once Intel shows off an unannounced tablet at one of its press events, the jig is up: the product may as well be official at that point. That's what happened with Acer's Iconia …

More: The Verge, BetaNews, Softpedia News and AllThingsD

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Powered by the crowd, EFF attacks infamous “podcasting patent” — There are lots of patents out there claiming basic Internet functionalities or business practices, but some of them occasionally hit a nerve. That's what happened with the so-called “podcasting patent,” a patent on …

More: Electronic Frontier Foundation, GigaOM, Techdirt and Boing Boing. Tweets: @libsyn

Roger Cheng / CNET:

T-Mobile ad criticized for belittling smartphone theft — T-Mobile CEO John Legere. — (Credit: Lori Grunin/CNET) — T-Mobile is hot water again for one of its “Uncarrier” campaign commercials. — The latest comes in the form of a letter written by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon …

More: GeekWire, Bloomberg, TmoNews and The Register

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, DSLreports, The Register, Ars Technica, WebProNews, Defense One, ZDNet, Forbes, Washington Post, CNET, Federal Computer Week, The Verge and Hillicon Valley

Tweets: @stopwatchingus and @kathrynschulz

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, GigaOM, Wired, New York Times, The Register, Poynter, CNET, TechPresident, Corporate Intelligence, Business Insider, Reuters, Guardian and Scripting News. Tweets: @dgelles. See also Mediagazer

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Glow, The Fertility App Founded By Max Levchin, Partners With MyFitnessPal To Add BMI Data To Babymaking — Glow, the fertility tracking app co-founded by Max Levchin, is announcing today that it's inked a partnership with MyFitnessPal, the popular diet and exercise tracking app.

More: The Next Web, GigaOM and PandoDaily

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.

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

F# wants to turn banner ads into web radio stations — New York-based ad tech startup F# wants you to stop hating banner ads — and it has a pretty clever idea to make those despised ad units more interesting: The company, whose name is pronounced like the musical note F-sharp …

More: Business Insider, hypebot, Xconomy and Digital Journal

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

SwiftKey 4.3 Unifies Tablet & Phone Apps, Adds More Keyboard Layouts — Word-prediction Android keyboard maker SwiftKey, which closed a $17.5 million Series B led by Index Ventures last month and whose keyboard software runs on millions of mobile devices, has launched a new version …

More: SwiftKey, Engadget, The Next Web, TechHive, ZDNet, Android Beat, SlashGear, Gizmodo UK, Phandroid and Pocket-lint. Thanks:@riptari

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Stitch Fix, The Online Personal Shopping Startup, Sews Up $12 Million Series B Led By Benchmark — San Francisco startup Stitch Fix has closed on $12 million in a new funding round led by Benchmark as it looks to further scale out its tech-powered personal shopping and delivery service for women.

More: Above the Crowd, VatorNews, AllThingsD, PandoDaily, GigaOM and Bloomberg

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.

More: GitHub, Guardian, SiliconANGLE, The Register, Beyond Search and Softpedia News. Tweets: @jonrussell

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