Techmeme: Wikimedia's 36 “stewards” use their global editing rights to police and manage all Wiki sites (Stephen Lurie/Matter)

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November 9, 2014, 10:30 AM

Top News

Startup L. Jackson / Startups and S**t:

Good startup ideas are not counterintuitive, but in fact obvious, if you talk to users and develop a better model of the world — The Counterintuitive Thing About Counterintuitive Things — There is a great (as in large) memes swirling around the startup world these days which posits …

Tweets: @monkbent, @davemcclure, @seanbwalter, @davemcclure and @joewallin

Stephen Lurie / Matter:

Wikimedia's 36 “stewards” use their global editing rights to police and manage all Wiki sites — The 36 People Who Run Wikipedia — What the weirdest, wildest, most successful participatory project in history tells us about working together.

Tweets: @jamestylerespn and @readmatter. Thanks:@srikardr

Leo Mirani / Quartz:

How tech firms use language, typography, color to make the web usable for non-English speakers — Why you probably won't understand the web of the future — This item has been corrected. — The giants of the connected world are finally waking up to one of the biggest obstacles …

More: The Loop. Tweets: @benrito and @danielpink

Keith Gessen / Vanity Fair:

How Did Amazon End Up as Literary Enemy No. 1? — Amazon's war with publishing giant Hachette over e-book pricing has earned it a black eye in the media, with the likes of Philip Roth, James Patterson, and Stephen Colbert demanding that the online mega-store stand down.

More: The Awl. Tweets: @pernillet, @sethmnookin and @mattzeitlin. See also Mediagazer

Financial Times:

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi in talks to raise close to $1.5B at valuation exceeding $40B — Xiaomi lines up $1.5B in fresh capital — Xiaomi, the fast-rising Chinese smartphone maker, is in talks to raise close to $1.5 billion in new capital at a valuation set to exceed $40 billion …

More: Forbes, BGR, CER, Barron's Online, Business Insider and International Business Times

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Qualcomm quietly dominates mobile: every major smartphone in the US contains its hardware — This is Qualcomm's world and we're all just living in it — Guess who puts the turbo in the Droid Turbo's name — Qualcomm is the mobile industry's equivalent of a god: omnipotent and omnipresent, yet invisible to the naked eye.

Joshua Ho / AnandTech:

iPad Air 2 review: A8X's extra core and clock speed bump make for class-leading performance — The Apple iPad Air 2 Review — Introduction — As we approach the holidays, Apple has launched a new iPad as expected. As one might expect from the name, the iPad Air 2 is more of an evolution …

More: MacDailyNews. Tweets: @codinghorror

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Withings Activité Pre-Order Puts A New Price On The Undercover Activity Tracker: $450 — French health and fitness device-maker Withings has kicked off pre-orders for its Activité watch/activity tracker, with a special pre-order page it publicized today to customers who registered interest in availability.

More: Digital Trends, Gizmodo, I4U News, SlashGear, TechRadar.com, Connectedly and Gigaom

Dawn Chmielewski / Re/code:

In unsealed court documents, Apple says it “bent over backwards” for GT Advanced, which accuses Apple of “bait-and-switch strategy” — GT Bankruptcy Provides Rare Look at Apple's Relationship With Suppliers — Apple is known for its incredibly tough contract terms …

Dan Thorp-Lancaster / Android Central:

Project Ara gets a competitor in modular phone startup ‘Vsenn’ — It looks like Project Ara isn't the only modular phone project on the block anymore. Vsenn, a company co-founded by a former Nokia Android X program manager, is getting in on the game as well. — Details are pretty light on what we can expect from the company.

More: MobileSyrup.com, Engadget, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo, Android Community, Greenbot, Digital Trends, Ubergizmo, Tom's Hardware Guide, AndroidHeadlines.com, Tech Times, TechSpot, Slate, HotHardware.com News, TechnoBuffalo and Pocketnow

Jordan Maglich / Forbes:

Texas Man Arrested For $4.5 Million Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme — A Texas man has been arrested on wire fraud and securities fraud charges for his operation of what authorities allege was a Bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme that raised millions of dollars through a purported online digital hedge fund.

More: SlashGear and CryptoCoinsNews

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft offers prorated Office 365 refunds to paid subscribers after making mobile editing free — Following Microsoft's announcement yesterday that you can now create and edit documents using its mobile Office apps for free, there is some good news for Office 365 subscribers regretting their purchase.

More: PCMag Australia Feed, Electronista, iMore, Gigaom, iPhone Hacks, PC World, Redmond, BetaNews and WinBeta

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