Techmeme: Microsoft merges Windows Store and Windows Phone developer accounts, offers one lower annual price of $19 (Emil Protalinski/The Next Web)

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November 6, 2013, 11:10 PM

Top News

@twitter:

We just priced our IPO. pic.twitter.com/NWXaO4Myq0

More: Digital Trends, The Register, ReadWrite, CNET, Ars Technica, The Technology Chronicles, bizjournals, ZDNet, SlashGear, GeekWire and Mashable

Tweets: @dealintel, @davewiner, @alex, @fmanjoo, @rmac18 and @ampressman

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Twitter announces IPO pricing of $26 per share with a valuation of $18.3 billion — Twitter announced on Wednesday that it will price its IPO at $26 per share when it begins trading on Thursday. The company plans to sell 70 million shares out of a total of 545 million outstanding shares.

Douglas MacMillan / Digits:

Square Exploring 2014 IPO With Banks — Technology entrepreneur Jack Dorsey is trying to pull off two high-profile initial public offerings in the span of one year. — Square Inc., the payments startup with a square credit-card reader that plugs into Apple and Android-based mobile devices …

More: San Francisco Chronicle, MoneyBeat, Inc.com, CNET, Business Insider, The Verge, bizjournals and Electronista

Tweets: @cnbcnow, @scottmaustin, @dmac1 and @danprimack

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Minting Cash: how Square designed a product with no design at all — Is the best interface no interface? — Robert Andersen was feeling flustered. Square founder Jack Dorsey had asked him to design a product that was so simple, it wouldn't even have an interface. “Square Cash” would let people send money over email.

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Google Says Its Mystery Barges May Be Used As Interactive Space Where People Can Learn About Its Technology — Google has issued a statement (finally?) about its months'-long mystery barge project. The barges, which are anchored in both Portland, Maine and San Francisco …

DISH Network:

Blockbuster to End Domestic Retail, DVD By Mail Services — ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) today announced that its subsidiary, Blockbuster L.L.C., will end its retail and by mail DVD distribution operations by early-January 2014.

More: Bloomberg, VatorNews, Polygon, Corporate Intelligence, Gigaom Search, Wall Street Journal, Betabeat, The Next Web, TechCrunch, WebProNews, Forbes, Business Insider, DSLreports and TechHive

Tweets: @qthrul, @levie and @jafurtado

See also Mediagazer

Justin Bachman / Businessweek:

Blockbuster's Death Scene Won't End the Video Rental Store

More: New York Times. See also Mediagazer

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Samsung admits its software needs improving, commits half of R&D workforce — Samsung is just like the Red Sox — Samsung today admitted it needs to work on software, an area it's “not as good” at as hardware. Samsung Vice Chairman & CEO Kwon Oh-hyun compares the company's software efforts …

More: CNET, Ubergizmo, PhoneArena, TechSpot, iDownloadBlog.com, FierceWireless, LAPTOP Magazine, ZDNet and 9to5Google

Stefan Constantinescu / Android Beat:

Samsung's Analyst Day: Custom ARM core, 560 PPI displays in 2014, and 4K phones in 2015

Steven Millward / Tech in Asia:

Samsung says 100 million Galaxy S and Note phones will ship this year, coins terrible word “fonblet”

More: TechCrunch and Gizmodo. Tweets: @darth and @phonewisdom

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook redesigns the Like button for the first time — When you're redesigning the Like button, which appears on over 7.5 million websites, the details count. Every pixel you change, color you swap, and drop-shadow you alter will get seen 22 billion times per day, Facebook says.

More: Facebook Developer Blog, Engadget, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Pocket-lint, AllFacebook, Gizmodo, Soshable and Newsy

Will Connors / Digits:

Full Text of BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins Goodbye Letter — Earlier this week, BlackBerry called off a plan to go private but did make a big change in the executive suite: Chief Executive Thorsten Heins is out, to be replaced by Silicon Valley veteran John S. Chen.

More: The Verge, BerryReview, CrackBerry.com and MobileSyrup.com. Tweets: @wconnors

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

‘Silk Road 2.0’ Launches, Promising A Resurrected Black Market For The Dark Web — The Silk Road is dead. But the dark web dream lives on. — On Wednesday morning, Silk Road 2. came online, promising a new and slightly improved version of the anonymous black market for drugs …

More: Ars Technica, All Things VICE, The Verge, TechCrunch, Examiner, VentureBeat, Daily Dot, Gizmodo, Guardian, CoinDesk, Salon and VICE

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

The Nexus 5 isn't pure Android, it's pure Google — In this, the fifth year of Android's existence, we also have seen the release of the fifth Nexus phone — appropriately enough called the Nexus 5. Meanwhile, it's been two years since we saw the release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich …

More: Computerworld, Gotta Be Mobile, Phandroid, ZDNet, PhoneArena and Droid Life. Thanks:@aashutoshvatsa

Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:

HealthCare.gov's head tech guy is out — A Medicare official who oversaw HealthCare.gov's botched launch will leave the federal government for the private sector, according to an e-mail sent late Tuesday to Medicare employees. — Tony Trenkle is the chief information officer at the Center …

More: New York Times, The Verge and Mashable. Tweets: @fmanjoo

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

Facebook open sources its SQL-on-Hadoop engine, and the web rejoices — Facebook has open sourced Presto, the interactive SQL-on-Hadoop engine the company first discussed in June. Presto is Facebook's take on Cloudera's Impala or Google's Dremel, and it already has some big-name fans in Dropbox and Airbnb.

More: Facebook, GitHub, VentureBeat, AllFacebook, ITworld.com, Business Insider, Computerworld, The Next Web and The Register

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

New Google Maps For Desktop Brings Back Pegman, Adds Waze Data And 3D Earth Tours — http://www.youtube.com/watch? feature=player_embedded&v= N6DrfYHVcXs — Google today launched an update to its new Google Maps for desktop that brings traffic data from Waze to the desktop for the first time …

More: Google LatLong, Search Engine Land, 9to5Google, Engadget, SlashGear and The Next Web

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

YouTube Starts Rolling Out Its New Commenting System Based On Google+ — In September, YouTube announced that it would soon roll out a new commenting system powered by Google+. After testing it on channel discussion tabs for a few weeks, it's now starting to roll it out to all videos on the site.

More: YouTube Blog, The Verge, CNET, The Next Web, Google Operating System, Computerworld, SlashGear, WebProNews, 9to5Google, Android Central, Music Ally, Engadget, Phandroid and Marketing Pilgrim. Tweets: @dujkan. Thanks:@fredericl

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft and Facebook sponsor Internet Bug Bounty program, offer cash for hacking the Internet stack — Microsoft and Facebook today jointly launched a new initiative called the Internet Bug Bounty program. In short, the two companies are looking to secure the Internet stack by rewarding anyone …

More: The Register and ZDNet. Tweets: @csoghoian

James Kanter / NYT Bits:

Details Emerge of Potential Google Monitor in Europe — Wanted: A Google watchdog in Europe. — A 96-page description of the potential job emerged on Wednesday, giving a window into what Google faces if it signs the latest settlement offer from the European Commission and ends the long-running antitrust case against the company.

More: The Next Web

Noel Randewich / Reuters:

Intel creates new business division for connected gadgets — (Reuters) - Intel Corp has set up a business division aimed at making money out of a new technology wave that can link up a host of electronic devices. — The Santa Clara, California chipmaker and other technology companies …

More: ZDNet, HotHardware.com News, TechRadar.com, adafruit industries blog, TechEye and BGR India

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Skype tweaks Desktop API plans: Chat still going away, call recording and device compatibility to stay for now — Skype today announced a change to its plans regarding the retirement of the Desktop API used by third-party developers to extend Skype functionality.

More: Skype, Ars Technica, Pocket-lint, GeekWire and WinBeta

David Ruddock / Android Police:

Verizon: Google, Asus Have Opted To Wait Until Nexus 7 Gets KitKat To Certify For Use On Network, “Systems Issue” With 4.3 To Blame — We've received an official statement from Verizon on the ongoing Nexus 7 LTE / Verizon saga, a story that has gone silent in the months since Verizon promised …

More: BuzzMachine, The Verge, IntoMobile, Droid Life and pocketnow.com

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