Techmeme
October 17, 2013, 12:50 PM

Top News

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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …

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Austin Carr / Fast Company: