Techmeme
December 25, 2013, 10:00 PM

Top News

Jenny W. Hsu / Wall Street Journal:
Taiwan Fines Apple for iPhone Price-Plan Meddling  —  Island's fair-trade body says Apple told mobile-service providers how to charge for handsets  —  TAIPEI— Apple Inc. has been fined 20 million New Taiwan dollars (US$670,000) and ordered to stop interfering with mobile service providers …
Adam Harrington / CBS New York:
Target Denies Report That PINs Were Stolen In Data Breach  —  NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Target on Tuesday denied a report claiming that personal identification numbers were also stolen in a data breach that affected up to 40 million credit cards.  —  A Reuters report Tuesday quoted …
More: CNNMoney.com, TwinCities.com and TIME.  Tweets: @netik
Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:
Online retailers mine transaction data to discourage returns, a growing problem  —  Rampant Returns Plague E-Retailers  —  Sellers Suggest Sizes and Redirect Discounts to Break Bad Habits  —  Free shipping and lenient return policies have given online retailing a huge boost.
More: ABC News.  Tweets: @notaxation
Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:
Surge of online orders causes fulfillment, delivery delays, frustrates customers on Christmas  —  Shipping Delays Left Many People With Little to Put Under Tree … Many shoppers are blaming online retailers for stealing Christmas.  —  Companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Kohl's Corp …
More: UPS and BetaNews.  Tweets: @eholmeswsj
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution  —  Google Destroys Rap Genius' Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam, But Resolution In Progress  —  Google hit back hard today after it learned lyrics site Rap Genius had been using dubious SEO tricks to attain top spots in search results.
Reuters:
Analysis: In telecom merger mania, skeptical eye from Obama administration  —  (Reuters) - A pair of potentially transformative U.S. telecoms and cable deals could run afoul of Obama administration regulators who worry that mergers among market leaders would hurt consumers.
More: Slashdot.  Tweets: @hintjens
Steven Sinofsky / Learning by Shipping:
Designing for exponential trends of 2014  —  Rather than predict anything that will suddenly appear at the end of 2014, this post offers some trends that are likely to double by some measure this next year.  —  This will turn out to be an exponential year in many technologies …
Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:
Google sues to protect Android device makers from Rockstar patent infringement suits  —  Google sues to protect Android device makers from Apple-backed patent hell  —  Google has filed a new lawsuit to challenge an Apple-backed consortium known as Rockstar that is using dubious patents …
Carmel Deamicis / PandoDaily:
Lyft ends donation payments, launches surge pricing and East Bay service  —  Tonight, Lyft sent out an email to its user base announcing big changes.  The company is launching service in the East Bay, from Oakland to Castro Valley.  It's expanding its Los Angeles coverage to Pasadena, Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley, and Malibu.

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Earlier Picks

Jonathan Cheng / Wall Street Journal: