MCX forbids participating retailers from accepting any competing mobile payment products, will issue “steep” fine if contract broken  —  Apple Pay Runs Afoul of MCX, a Group With a Rival Product  —  One week after its debut, Apple's new mobile wallet is showing promise with consumers.

Unclassified White House network breached, no system damage or evidence of classified network hack  —  Hackers breach some White House computers  —  Hackers thought to be working for the Russian government breached the unclassified White House computer networks in recent weeks, sources said …

Microsoft aims to release Office 16 in second half of 2015; Mac preview and Android tablet versions expected “soon”  —  Microsoft's latest target release date for Office 16: Second half 2015  —  Summary: Microsoft is targeting the second half of calendar 2015 as its latest release target …

Facebook Reports Third Quarter 2014 Results  —  Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2014.  —  “This has been a good quarter with strong results,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.  “We continue to focus on serving …

HP Sprout: $1899 all-in-one Win 8 PC with 3D scanning cameras, projector, and a touch-mat  —  If Da Vinci Had A Desktop, It Would Be HP's $1,899 Sprout  —  Push aside your keyboard.  Get rid of your mouse.  Desktop computing's traditions are being upended by the $1,899 Sprout …

Reddit Gets Into Crowdfunding With Redditmade  —  Reddit is continuing to expand its presence beyond its wildly popular sharing site — known as the front page of the internet for many — after it jumped into the world of crowdfunding with Redditmade, a service that allows moderators to set up projects which can be backed by Redditors.

Former Google Wallet Head Launches Poynt, A “Future-Proofed” Payment Terminal  —  The former head of Google Wallet and longtime PayPal exec, Osama Bedier, is this morning revealing his new company Poynt, a “future-proofed” payment terminal that combines an Android-based tablet with a hardware docking station …

Apple exec: Don't expect Apple SIM to show up in iPhones  —  HALF MOON BAY, Calif.—Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) decided to put its Apple SIM card inside its new iPads because it didn't know which wireless carriers its customers would choose and because the company wanted to give its customers more choice, according to an Apple executive.

Apple's Greg Joswiak blames iOS 8.0.1 issues on software distribution  —  In a rare interview on Tuesday, Apple VP of iPhone, iPod, and iOS Product marketing Greg “Joz” Joswiak mostly towed the company line, but did reveal that issues with last month's iOS 8.0.1 rollout were caused by software distribution issues.

Verizon's tech news site SugarString won't let writers report on US spying or net neutrality  —  Verizon is launching a tech news site that bans stories on U.S. spying  —  Verizon is getting into the news business.  What could go wrong?  —  The most-valuable, second-richest telecommunications company …

Nintendo on track for its first annual profit in 4 years on strong Mario Wii U sales, weak yen  —  Nintendo beats forecasts on Mario Wii U lift, on track for full-year profit  —  (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co vaulted to an unexpected quarterly operating profit as new game …

Cycling-Centric Fitness App Strava Raises $18.5 Million in Venture Capital Funding  —  Strava, maker of a popular mobile app for cycling and other athletic endeavors, has raised $18.5 million in Series D funding and brought in a renowned venture capitalist as an advisor.

Ruckus launches its first small business router: Could this be Google's new Wi-Fi hardware?  —  Ruckus Wireless will supply the gear for Google's planned business Wi-Fi service, Gigaom has learned.  The catch is Ruckus has never sold any small business products — not until today, that is.

Stripe Hires Top Google Ops Exec Claire Johnson to Lead Business Operations  —  Stripe has nabbed longtime Google exec Claire Johnson as its new head of business operations, in one of the first major management hires by the online payments software startup.  —  Johnson, who has been at the …

OneNote for iOS gets cloud storage attachments and Touch ID, OneNote for Mac gets SharePoint Server support  —  Microsoft today announced updates to OneNote for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a slew of new features.  You can download the first two directly from Apple's App Store (iPhone, iPad) and the third from the Mac App Store.

OPPO launches two smartphones: N3, with auto-rotating 16 MP camera, and world's thinnest R5  —  Oppo N3 launches alongside 'world's thinnest smartphone'  —  Features a 16MP motorised camera … We've known for some time that the Oppo N3 was in the pipeline, but today the company officially revealed …

LG Shipped A Record 16.8 Million Smartphones In Q3 2014, Up 39% Year-On-Year  —  Samsung is under-pressure as a long-period of growth continues to flatten out, but things couldn't be going much better for fellow Korean phone-maker LG, which just announced that it shipped a best-ever 16.8 million smartphones in Q3 2014.