Techmeme: The Airbnb Economy in New York: Lucrative but Often Illegal (Elizabeth A. Harris/New York Times)

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November 5, 2013, 10:40 AM

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Om Malik / Gigaom:

To live and die in public: That's Twitter — My affair with Twitter, the idea, began over seven years ago. — It was at a party, a few blocks from where I live and work — San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. I was hanging outside, sucking on a stogie, and chatting with Twitter's forgotten co-creator, Noah Glass.

Tweets: @narendra, @jasonhiner, @raanan, @jocke and @joshmedia

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

The Three Reasons Twitter Didn't Sell To Facebook — Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg tried to acquire Twitter not once but twice, through official channels and via co-founder Jack Dorsey. The details of the efforts are revealed in Nick Bilton's new book Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal.

More: The Switch, TechHive and AllThingsD

The Independent:

Revealed: Britain's ‘secret listening post in the heart of Berlin’ — Claims that GCHQ has maintained spying operations even after US pulled out — Concerns were raised tonight that Britain operates a top-secret listening post from its Berlin embassy to eavesdrop on the seat of German power.

More: Softpedia News

L'Espresso:

Cyprus: the home of British/American Internet surveillance in the Middle East — British and US Internet surveillance in the Middle East and surrounding regions occurs from a secret base on the island of Cyprus, as l'Espresso, the German daily “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, the Greek daily “Ta Nea” and the Greek channel “AlphaTV” can reveal.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @csoghoian and @csoghoian

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Google Launches Helpouts, Paid Video Chats With Experts To Address Whatever Is Bothering You Right Now — Helpouts, Google's fusion of Google+ Hangouts, Google Wallet, and its identity tools is now live. A ‘Helpout’ is a Hangout-like video chat, but instead of speaking with a friend …

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Responding to MacKenzie Bezos's One-Star Slapdown — One of the gratifying and terrifying things about writing a book in 2013 is that anyone can immediately publish their review of it. Yesterday, a reader of my book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, did just that.

More: CNET and AllThingsD. Tweets: @pkafka and @mikeisaac

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Jeff Bezos' Wife Trashes The New Book On Amazon, Gives It 1 Star, Says The Author Got Lots Of Facts Wrong

Brad Molen / Engadget:

LG's G Flex actually flexes (video) — We've known for a while that LG's upcoming G Flex smartphone features a pretty noticeable arc from top to bottom, but thanks to a source who's spent some time with the device, we now know that the phone is more aptly named than we first suspected.

More: The Verge, Business Insider, Phandroid, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, Android Beat and PhoneArena

The Switch:

How we know the NSA had access to internal Google and Yahoo cloud data — The Washington Post reported last Wednesday that the National Security Agency has been tapping into the private links that connect Google and Yahoo data centers around the world. Today we offer additional background …

More: BBC, The Verge, Softpedia News, eWeek, New York Times, Ars Technica, Washington Post and rc3.org

Tweets: @wblau, @barjack, @ioerror and @postbaron

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:

NSA chief likely to lose cyber war powers

More: The Verge, SlashGear and Softpedia News

Tweets: @bethritterguth and @20committee

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Target Offering $200 Gift Card for iPad Trade-in, Including First Generation — From November 3 to November 9, Target is running an in-store promotion for its trade-in program that provides customers with a gift card worth at least $200 for any iPad, including low value first-generation models. iPads …

More: Engadget, Gigaom, The Verge, Business Insider, Mashable, everythingiCafe, TUAW, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com and Lifehacker

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Introduced at iPhone 5s event, M7-integrated Nike+ Move fitness app launches — Introduced by Apple at the September 10 iPhone 5s event, Nike has launched its Nike+ Move application for the iPhone 5s. The app was originally scheduled to arrive on November 6th alongside the new FuelBand SE hardware …

More: The Next Web, PC Magazine, Gigaom, Engadget, AppleInsider, The Verge, Laughing Squid, MacDailyNews, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, MacRumors, iMore, Phones Review and TUAW. Thanks:@markgurman

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple to build new manufacturing facility in Arizona with solar-power, will create 2000+ jobs — The State of Arizona today announced that Apple is planning to build a new manufacturing facility in the city of Mesa, Arizona. The facility will create 700 jobs for manufacturing …

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Justin Bieber invests $1.1m in teen-focused social network “Shots Of Me”, launching this week — Exclusive: Justin Bieber invests in new social network — Justin Bieber backs new teen-focused platform from founders of RockLive games. — FORTUNE — A new teen-focused social …

More: Telegraph, The Verge, Valleywag, The Next Web, hypebot, SlashGear, memeburn, TIME, VentureBeat and Betabeat

Daniel Cooper / Engadget:

Acer CEO resigns as company posts record loss — Just 24 hours after one tech heavyweight lost its CEO, another has been forced to bow out of the game. After his company posted a huge loss and wrote off a chunk of value from sub-brands Gateway and Packard Bell, Acer CEO and Chairman JT Wang has decided to resign.

More: Reuters, VentureBeat, Gigaom, Tech in Asia, Computerworld, CITEworld, InfoWorld, ZDNet, The Verge, The Next Web, Reuters and whatmobile.net

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

HTC Quarterly Sales Forecast Misses Estimates on Weak Demand — HTC Corp. (2498), the Taiwanese smartphone maker which had its first loss on record last month, forecast sales that missed analyst estimates for a second straight quarter as new models fail to spur demand.

More: Reuters, The Verge, CNET, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and PhoneArena

Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:

The Airbnb Economy in New York: Lucrative but Often Illegal — Tama Robertson is an artist who sells paintings and makes jewelry, but this being New York City, she also works in real estate. She has worked as an associate broker and invested in some properties of her own, but in recent years …

More: Inc.com. Tweets: @sai

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:

T-Mobile US: 1M net customers, 5.6M smartphone sales — Summary: The fourth largest U.S. cell network posted positive results for the second consecutive quarter, thanks to strong net customer additions and smartphone sales. — Zack Whittaker — For the second consecutive quarter as a public company …

More: Business Wire, AllThingsD, 9to5Mac, Gigaom, CNET, The Verge, GeekWire, VentureBeat, BGR, Engadget, Bloomberg, PhoneArena, WebProNews, TmoNews, AllThingsD and Reuters. Tweets: @inafried

Reuters:

New BlackBerry boss John Chen out to prove skeptics wrong — (Reuters) - John Chen, the man charged with breathing life into struggling BlackBerry Ltd, says he has no intention of killing the money-losing BlackBerry handset as he looks to turn around the smartphone maker.

Steven M. Davidoff / DealBook:

What a Big Investment Says About BlackBerry's Endgame

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

AOL Q3 Beats Street On Sales Of $561M; Net Income Weighed Down By $25M Patch Restructuring — AOL (owner of TechCrunch) today reported its Q3 earnings with a 6% rise in revenues over a year ago to $561 million, led by growth in its advertising business, specifically around the premium ad formats …

More: CNET, AdExchanger, Reuters, WebProNews and Softpedia News. Tweets: @mattlindner. See also Mediagazer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Nokia preparing an 8-inch Lumia tablet for early next year — Nokia is currently preparing its next Windows-based Lumia tablet. Twitter account Evleaks first revealed the codename for Nokia's 8-inch Windows tablet — Illusionist - and The Verge can confirm the Finnish smartphone maker is readying it for a release early next year.

More: LiveSide.net, ZDNet, Gearburn, Softpedia News, IntoMobile, Gizmodo UK, Gizmodo, SlashGear, PhoneArena, Pocket-lint, Electronista, Ubergizmo, Unwired View, pocketnow.com and Engadget. Tweets: @evleaks

Daniel Rubino / Windows Phone Central:

Revealed - The Nokia Lumia 929, Verizon's 5 inch 1080P Windows Phone

More: Digital Trends, LiveSide.net, IntoMobile, whatmobile.net, BGR, Engadget, Unwired View, Gigaom and Ubergizmo

Tim Worstall / Forbes:

Even Paul Allen Thinks That Microsoft Should Be Broken Up — This is an interesting intervention into the discussion about what the next CEO should do with Microsoft . The investment house that manages Paul Allen's money, including his stake in Microsoft, is suggesting that they …

More: SlashGear and BGR

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Full-service selling app Sold shuts down as the team joins Dropbox — The team behind Sold, an app that was supposed to make selling things easier, is closing the service and joining Dropbox. — Beginning today, Sold will no longer accept new items. Users with existing items in the system …

More: TechCrunch, BetaNews, Cult of Mac, gHacks Technology News, App Advice, CNET and Softpedia News

Tweets: @usesold and @scottkirsner

Wall Street Journal:

China Buys Its Way Into Silicon Valley — Tencent's Push for Stake in Snapchat Is Latest Effort to Gain Foothold in U.S. — China's homegrown Internet giants are buying their way into Silicon Valley. — The Chinese firms, which have little consumer business outside their home market …

Tweets: @jasonzweigwsj

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