Techmeme
October 9, 2014, 3:20 PM

Top News

Carl Icahn / Shareholders Square Table:
Carl Icahn says Apple is “dramatically undervalued” in open letter to Tim Cook, asks for an accelerated stock repurchase program  —  Sale: Apple Shares at Half Price  —  “IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION”  —  As a large Apple shareholder with approximately 53 million shares …
Jay Yarow / Business Insider:
Apple says it's already “executing the largest capital return program in corporate history”  —  Apple Responds To Carl Icahn's Letter With A Killer Chart  —  Carl Icahn wrote an open letter to Apple and its CEO Tim Cook.  —  In it, he asks Apple to accelerate its stock repurchase …
More: CNBCTweets: @cnbcnow
Wall Street Journal:
Apple suppliers postpone production of 12.9" iPad from December to early 2015 in order to cope with strong iPhone demand  —  Larger Apple iPad to Be Delayed  —  Apple Suppliers Concentrating on Meeting Demand for New iPhones  —  Apple Inc. suppliers have pushed back plans to mass produce …
Wall Street Journal:
Amazon opening first brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan in time for holidays, will handle pickups and returns  —  Amazon to Open First Store  —  The New York City Location to Handle Same-Day-Delivery Inventory, Product Returns  —  Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. plans to open …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Unity, one gaming development platform to unite them all, up for sale  —  A presentation pitching Unity has been circulating around the games industry, sources say.  The potential buyer gets popular software that powers games, large and small.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft makes slew of commitments to get businesses hooked on Surface  —  Microsoft today made a slew of announcements as part of a new commitment to Surface for business.  —  The company says firms have been asking it about a longer-term commitment to Surface for businesses of all sizes.
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Snapchat CEO Spiegel Says Untargeted Advertising Is Coming Soon  —  Snapchat, the popular mobile app for disappearing messages, is close to launching its first disappearing ads as the company sets out to prove its $10 billion valuation.  —  Evan Spiegel, the startup's 24-year-old co-founder …
Kim Zetter / Wired:
Google's Eric Schmidt: US spy programs may “end up breaking the internet” if not reformed  —  US Spy Programs May Break the Internet if Not Reformed, Google Leader Says  —  PALO ALTO — You own your data.  And the government needs to start respecting that.
Sarah / The Imgur Blog:
Imgur now converts GIF uploads to more compact MP4 format, increases upload limit 10X to 50MB, plans to standardize new “GIFV” container format  —  Introducing GIFV  —  GIFs are no longer about .GIFs-the culture of the GIF now trumps the file format.
Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
WeatherSignal, OpenSignal's crowdsourced weather reporting app, comes to iOS 8  —  OpenSignal brings its crowdsourced weather reporting app to iPhone  —  In May last year, we brought you news on WeatherSignal, a new crowdsourced weather reporting tool.  The Web and Android app came courtesy …
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Google launches Google+ polls, putting its Polar acquisition to use  —  Today Google announced a new feature for its oft-ignored social network: polls.  —  The introduction of this feature comes with little surprise, as it closely follows Google's high-profile purchase of Polar …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Skype's new design on Windows and Mac focuses on messaging  —  Mobile look and feel reaches the desktop  —  Microsoft's Skype client has traditionally focused on video and voice calls, but with the rise of mobile it has started to shift to target instant messaging.
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Alibaba Invests $50 Million in TV Remote App Peel  —  Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant, continues to place financial bets outside of its core e-commerce focus, investing $50 million into entertainment app maker Peel.  —  The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup makes apps for smartphones …
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Box Acquires Y Combinator-Backed MedXT To Bolster Its Healthcare Push  —  Box, an enterprise-focused cloud storage and productivity company, announced this morning that it has acquired Y Combinator-backed MedXT, a firm that provides a cloud-based file storage system for medical imaging.
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
HTC introduces Desire Eye, with highest resolution front-facing camera on a smartphone, 13MP front and back  —  HTC's Desire Eye wants to be the king of selfies  —  The Desire Eye has the most powerful front-facing camera ever put on a smartphone  —  It's no secret that taking selfies …

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Earlier Picks

Kara Swisher / Re/code: