Techmeme: Apple patents Lytro-like refocusable camera suitable for iPhone (Mikey Campbell/AppleInsider)

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November 26, 2013, 6:15 PM

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Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Microsoft's Xbox One Costs $90 More to Build Than Sony's PS4, Teardown Shows — With two significant game console releases recently, research firm IHS has been working a little extra overtime these days. After doing surgery on Sony's Playstation 4, the team gave Microsoft's Xbox …

More: BGR, Examiner, CNET, Geek.com, destructoid, GamesIndustry International, Gotta Be Mobile, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, Gamasutra and Softpedia News. Tweets: @capnsmak

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Improved App Store Search Engine Now Corrects For Users' “Fat Finger” Mistakes & Other Misspellings — A recent change to Apple's App Store search engine now leads to improved search results for misspelled queries with small typos, we've learned. In addition, searchers looking for an app they know by name …

More: Gigaom, Search Engine Land, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, App Advice, AppleInsider, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear and Ubergizmo. Tweets: @tapbot_paul

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Apple patents Lytro-like refocusable camera suitable for iPhone — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday awarded Apple a patent for a camera system that uses a microlens adaptor to enable refocusing of an image after the initial shot is taken, much like the Lytro light-field camera.

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Apple Store a Big Source of Cellphone Sales; Best Buy Is Key for Carriers — The carrier stores are still the dominant place for Americans to get their new cellphones, but two other retailers — Apple and Best Buy — have emerged as significant channels. — Apple, of course, sells only iPhones …

More: Gotta Be Mobile, InvestorPlace and Cult of Mac

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

90% of iPhone 5s models now in stock at Apple retail stores

More: CNET, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, Forbes, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, iClarified, iDownloadBlog.com and Yahoo! News

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Google now inviting developers to buy Glass — Now that Google has offered a preview of Glass' SDK and opened the Mirror API to all developers, it has a strong incentive to get its eyewear in the hands of app writers. Accordingly, the crew in Mountain View is now inviting developers …

More: Glass Almanac, Mashable, TechCrunch, Gotta Be Mobile, VentureBeat, CNET, 9to5Google and Softpedia News

Shira Ovide / Digits:

Microsoft Hires ‘Pawn Stars’ to Bash Google Chromebooks — Microsoft has enlisted the reality-television series “Pawn Stars” in its ongoing campaign to bash rival Google. — An online video ad released Tuesday mimics the plot set up of “Pawn Stars,” which features people toting precious …

More: TechCrunch, BetaNews, GeekWire, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, Marketing Land, Betabeat, The Verge, CITEworld, Electronista, Network World, The Next Web, WebProNews, 9to5Google, WinBeta, Gotta Be Mobile and The Tech Report

Tweets: @segphault, @mmasnick, @codepo8, @zpower and @sjvn

Jessica Lessin:

With PrimeSense, Apple Got Key Mapping Technology — There's a lot of speculation about why Apple bought motion-sensor company PrimeSense. But I think the real reason has been overlooked. — PrimeSense's chips were in early versions of Microsoft's Kinect sensor, the gaming console …

More: NYT Bits, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @panzer

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

Google releases “OK Google” Chrome extension for hands-free voice search on the desktop — Google announced today on Google+ that it's releasing a new extension for Chrome that will enable hands-free activation of the voice search features it rolled out earlier this year.

More: Google, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, The Verge, The Next Web, SlashGear and Pocket-lint

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Google brings Street View inside more than 65 airports and train stations, calls it a ‘first effort’ — Foreign airports and train stations can often be confusing places to find your way around. Perhaps with that in mind, Google today launched an interactive map featuring Street Views of over 65 mass transit hubs.

More: Google LatLong, Engadget, Search Engine Land, CNET, Computerworld, PC Magazine, GeekWire, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Daily Dot and WebProNews

Graham Cluley:

YouTube comment spam on the rise. Google tries to fight back — Long term users of YouTube will know that its commenting system has always been home to some of the most unpleasant, purile and single-braincelled comments in the universe. — But what it didn't have much of a problem with was link spam.

More: TechCrunch, YouTube Creator Blog, Digital Trends, CNET, Computerworld, 9to5Google, ReelSEO Video Marketing, Ubergizmo and Guardian

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Jury: Newegg infringes Spangenberg patent, must pay $2.3 million — Determined lawyers, and the father of modern crypto, couldn't stop TQP patent. — MARSHALL, TX—Newegg, an online retailer that has made a name for itself fighting the non-practicing patent holders sometimes called …

More: Gigaom, Businessweek, Wired, InfoWorld and Techdirt

Tweets: @mattcutts, @pkedrosky, @tapbot_paul, @edbott, @dangillmor, @cipherlaw and @webmink

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Barnes & Noble's Nook business falls more than 32% — Barnes & Noble's Nook business continues to struggle in its competition with Amazon, with revenues in the segment declining more than 32 percent in the company's most recent quarter, according to numbers released this morning.

More: Barnes & Noble, Inc., Tech Trader Daily, ZDNet, BGR, internetretailer.com, New York Times, WebProNews, CNET, Reuters, ABC News, Fox Business and Mashable. See also Mediagazer

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

HP's Q4 Earnings Beat Street and Shares Rise — Computing giant Hewlett-Packard just reported its fourth-quarter results, and they're slightly better than expected, with some bad news mixed in. — HP's profit fell by 13 percent from the same period last year, to $1.01 a share.

More: Mercury News, VentureBeat, The Verge, ZDNet, Tech Trader Daily, Business Insider, Digits and Electronista

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Acer announces touchscreen Chromebook C720P with 32GB SSD and 2GB RAM, coming in early December for $299.99 — Acer today announced the Acer C720P Chromebook, a touchscreen version of the C720 Chromebook the company introduced last month. The new C720P will be available in early December at Amazon.com …

More: Engadget, Ars Technica, 9to5Google, The Verge, Gigaom, Electronista and SlashGear

Michael McWhertor / Polygon:

Xbox One owners with hardware issues get complimentary game — Xbox One owners who found themselves on the receiving end of a defective console are being offered a free game for the inconvenience, according to emails from Xbox support representatives. — According to an email …

More: The Verge, BGR, Kotaku, TechSpot, Geek.com, Gotta Be Mobile, HEXUS.net Latest Content, gameinformer.com and Inquirer

New York Times:

Internet backbone giant Level 3 suspected of giving NSA access to Google and Yahoo users' data — N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot — SAN FRANCISCO — The recent revelation that the National Security Agency was able to eavesdrop on the communications of Google …

More: CNET, Bloomberg, PC World, ReadWrite, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, Nextgov, Business Insider, SiliconBeat and VentureBeat

Tweets: @eastdakota, @declanm and @timothys

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Skype names new partner in China, begins migrating users to updated software — Earlier this month Microsoft ended its partnership with TOM Online, the mobile Internet company that managed its Skype service in China; today it announced Guangming Founder (GMF) as the replacement.

More: Skype, LiveSide.net, WinBeta and Tech in Asia

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Canalys: Half Of All PCs Shipped in 2014 Will Be Tablets; Android 65%, Apple 30% — The growth of tablet sales has been outstripping that of more traditional desktop and laptop personal computers for a while, and now it looks like we are finally approaching the tablet/PC tipping point …

More: Canalys Newsroom, BGR, MacRumors, 9to5Google, eWeek, OStatic blogs, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Benzinga, Inquirer, WinBeta, AndroidHeadlines.com, PC Magazine, CNET, Softpedia News, VatorNews, Computerworld and Digital Trends

Tweets: @bill_gross, @halberenson and @lukew

Thanks:@ingridlunden

Steven Musil / CNET:

Judge denies Samsung motion to stay Apple patent damages trial — Korean electronics giant sought halt to proceedings so that the Patent Office could examine a key patent's validity. — A federal judge has denied Samsung's emergency motion to stay a patent infringement damages trial while the validity of a key patent is re-examined.

More: FOSS Patents, PC World, AppleInsider, SiliconBeat, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Droid Guy, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, SlashGear, BGR and PhoneArena

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It — The TV business is having its worst year ever. — Audience ratings have collapsed: Aside from a brief respite during the Olympics, there has been only negative ratings growth on broadcast and cable TV since September 2011, according to Citi Research.

More: Forbes, TechSpot and The Tech Report. Tweets: @bingchen

Bloomberg:

Apple Defeats Patent Claim Over Invention of Smartphone — Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, was found by a federal jury not to infringe the patent of a 70-year-old electrical engineer who claims he came up with the idea for the smartphone.

More: Examiner, PadGadget, iPhone Hacks, Cult of Mac and iDownloadBlog.com

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