Techmeme
November 12, 2013, 10:30 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft axes its controversial employee-ranking system  —  Microsoft is killing off its controversial stack-ranking system today.  While it could be viewed as an internal change that won't affect consumers directly, it will have a broad effect on current and future Microsoft employees that may just shape the future of the company.
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Twitter Announces Custom Timelines For Hashtags Or Topics On Tweetdeck, Launching API Too  —  Twitter will let you create custom timelines based on topics, hashtags and more from Tweetdeck, it announced today.  Twitter is also providing an API to allow developers to build this functionality into their products.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Justin Bieber-Backed “Shots Of Me” Launches Selfie Sharing App  —  Sunsets?  Landscapes?  Latte art?  Look back at your old photos and you'll notice they're boring unless there's a human face in them.  Now think about teens on social media.  Immaturity fuels bullying and drama-filled comment reels.
Edvard Pettersson / Bloomberg:
Apple Heads to Trial With Inventor Over Smartphone Patent  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, faces a trial over claims by a California inventor that a patent he holds covers key features of the iPhone.  —  Apple maintains the NetAirus Technologies LLC patent …
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Google Glass Will Expand Its Features Into Music  —  To sell Glass, its augmented-reality form of eyewear, Google has already tried to make it a fashion accessory and a must-have video device for any parent or sky diver.  Now it is also presenting this $1,500 piece of wearable technology as a way to interact with music.
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Steve Jobs Inducted Into Bay Area Business Hall of Fame, Eddy Cue Gives Heartfelt Acceptance Speech  —  Steve Jobs was posthumously inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame last Thursday, and Apple SVP Eddy Cue tweeted a link to the video, and was at the ceremony to accept the award …
Ken Yeung / The Next Web:
Now in 34k cities, Airbnb unveils redesigned iOS and Android apps that show how to be a better host  —  Airbnb today announced a series of new features for hosts in its iOS and Android mobile apps.  As the company strives to become a better hospitality company, it is enabling hosts …
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
After 30 Years of Silence, the Original NSA Whistleblower Looks Back  —  The four-story brownstone at 141 East 37th Street in Manhattan has no remarkable features: a plain building on a quiet tree-lined street in the shadow of the Empire State Building.  In the summer of 1920, Herbert O. Yardley …
Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine:
Android Nabs Milestone 81 Percent of Smartphone Market  —  Google's Android platform had a milestone third quarter, topping 80 percent of global smartphone shipments for the first time, according to IDC.  —  The analyst firm also said Microsoft's Windows Phone had an “amazing” quarter with 156 percent year-over-year growth.
Wall Street Journal:
Hulu Wants to Be Offered With Pay-TV Bundles  —  Online Video Outlet Could Be Centralized Location for Full Seasons of Shows … Online video outlet Hulu LLC is in early discussions with several pay-TV providers about potential partnerships, said people familiar with the situation …
More: The Verge and GigaomTweets: @pkafka
Joseph Volpe / Engadget:
BlackBerry Z30 hits Verizon on November 14th for $200 on-contract  —  We knew the BlackBerry Z30 was headed to Verizon as a US-exclusive, but now we actually have a date for it: November 14th.  Starting this Thursday, BlackBerry's 5-inch flagship will be made available to Big Red subscribers …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Grow Payments for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
The AI writing app fighting AI slop
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
SPVs have a brand problem
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth: Our Path To Frontier AI, Renting Models, Consumer AI's Struggles
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"We're in a Race Against Time," Joe Kahn on Running the New York Times in the Age of AI Slop
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 PM ET, November 12, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Zack Whittaker / CNET:

Earlier Picks