Techmeme: Mobile Barcode Scanning up 700% This Year (Sarah Perez/ReadWriteMobile)

2:00 PM ET, October 14, 2010

Top Items:

Verizon Wireless Offers iPad at Stores Nationwide on October 28 — BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey and CUPERTINO, California—October 14, 2010—Verizon Wireless and Apple® today announced that iPad™ will be available at over 2,000 Verizon Wireless Stores nationwide beginning Thursday, October 28.

Darrell Etherington / TheAppleBlog:

iPad Coming to AT&T, Verizon Stores Oct. 28 — An official press release from Apple reveals that a new partnership between it and Verizon Wireless will see the iPad make its way to the wireless provider's store shelves on Oct. 28. In a separate press release, Apple also said the iPad will be available at AT&T stores on the same day.

Discussion: Reuters and blogs.chron.com

Electronista:

Verizon to sell Wi-Fi iPads with MiFi bundles, special plans — Verizon surprised the industry today by striking an official deal with Apple to carry the iPad in its stores. The deal will use the Wi-Fi models of each but bundle them with a Novatel MiFi 2200 to share a 3G connection with both the iPad and four other devices.

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, Bits, PC World, InformationWeek, BaltTech, Ars Technica, Crave and MobileWhack.com

AT&T:
Apple's iPad Coming to AT&T Stores on October 28

Wall Street Journal:

AOL, Private-Equity Firms Explore Bid for Yahoo — AOL Inc. and several private equity firms are exploring the possibility of buying Yahoo Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. — Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group LP are among the firms that have expressed interest …

Bloomberg:

Yahoo Said to Hire Goldman to Handle Takeover Approaches — Yahoo! Inc., which spurned an unsolicited offer from Microsoft Corp. in 2008, is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help defend against possible takeover approaches, said three people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Tech Trader Daily and Reuters

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Skype 5.0 For Windows Debuts With Facebook Integration, Call Recovery And More — Skype is about to become much more social with the launch of Skype 5.0. Today, the company announced that the new version of Skype 5.0 for Windows will include a deep Facebook integration …

Discussion: All Facebook, Guardian, Mashable!, Engadget, The Toybox Blog, Facebook Blog, Inquirer, Skype Journal, MacStories, Electronista, Geeky-Gadgets, WebProNews, Boy Genius Report and SlashGear

Rick Osterloh / The Big Blog:

Skype with Facebook integration and group video calling — We're excited to announce a brand new version of Skype for Windows, which will help bring you and your friends, family and co-workers together like never before. Download it now, or read on to find out what's inside.

Discussion: Computerworld, ReadWriteWeb, About Skype, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Telegraph, Disruptive Telephony, Softpedia News, Erictric, Techie Buzz, Ubergizmo and Covering Web

Miguel Helft / Bits:

Mozilla Taps SAP Executive as New Chief — Mozilla, the maker of the open-source Firefox Web browser, said Thursday that it would appoint Gary Kovacs, a veteran software executive, as its new chief executive. The appointment ends a nearly six-month search that began after John Lilly …

Discussion: SiliconANGLE and Mashable!

Shannon Prior / The Mozilla Blog:
Introducing our new CEO: Gary Kovacs

Discussion: John's Blog, Between the Lines Blog and TechCrunch

Greg Peters / PlayStation Blog:

Netflix on PS3: Disc-free Next Week — If you instantly watch movies and TV shows from Netflix on your PS3, here is the news you've been waiting for: starting Monday, October 18 you'll be able to instantly watch movies and TV shows without inserting an instant streaming disc into your console.

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Opera Mobile coming to Android within a month, bearing hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom — Forget all that Mini stuff, Opera is bringing its full-flavored mobile browser to Android some time very soon indeed. To tempt people on board, the new software will support hardware acceleration …

Discussion: CNET News, TechCrunch, The Register, Web Browsers and iThinkDifferent

Espen André Øverdahl / My Opera:
Opera 11 will have Extensions

Discussion: eWeek, Sean Michael Kerner, TechCrunch, Download Squad, gHacks Technology News, Opera Press Room and Web Browsers

Aleksander Aas / My Opera:
Opera Mobile for Android coming soon

TmoNews:

T-Mobile Reducing Data Cap, Will Throttle Speeds After 5GB Of Usage — Bad news for those of you that use more than 5GB of data each month. Starting October 16th, T-Mobile will enforce a new policy that will reduce data speeds once the subscriber exceeds 5GB of data usage in a billing cycle.

Discussion: Computerworld, TheUnlockr, Engadget, DSLreports, DailyTech, blogs.chron.com, Android Community, The Next Web, pocketnow.com, WPCentral.com, PhoneDog.com, MobileCrunch and Know Your Cell

Glenn Fleishman / Wi-Fi Networking News:
T-Mobile Plans Prepaid Data Plans

Discussion: Electronista, PC World, IntoMobile, InformationWeek, DSLreports and jkOnTheRun

Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:

Mac Users Are Getting New Outlook From Rival — A new, faster, better version of Microsoft Office is coming out Oct. 26. But it isn't for Microsoft's own Windows operating system. It is for the Macintosh computers made by the software giant's archrival, Apple.

Discussion: MacStories and AppleInsider

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:

Adobe tops 1 million Flash downloads on Android — Adobe has more than 1 million downloads of Flash Player 10.1 on the Android market, but still has a few kinks to work out on the mobile front. — Since Flash Player 10.1 launched on Android the reception has been solid.

Discussion: AndroidGuys, Android Phone Fans, PhoneDog.com, Geek.com, Android Community and Erictric

Brad Sams / Neowin:

Steve Jobs sends Chilean miners iPods — The story of the Chilean miners is nothing short of extraordinary. After surviving the collapse of the mine and then surviving for 69 days underground, 33 men have quickly captured the hearts of all who followed this incredible rescue operation.

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

For Eventbrite, Each Facebook Share Is Worth $2.52 — How much is a shared link on Facebook worth? For online ticketing service Eventbrite, each time someone shares a link to a paid event with their Facebook friends it results in $2.52 worth of ticket sales.

Discussion: SelectStart, All Facebook, VentureBeat, Mashable! and Voices on All Things Digital, Thanks:erickschonfeld

Christopher Mims / Technology Review:

Why CPUs Aren't Getting Any Faster — Making computers faster means relying on the central processing unit (CPU) less than ever before. — The Central Processing Unit (CPU)—the component that has defined the performance of your computer for many years—has hit a wall.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Intuit's New Version Of Quicken Gets Mintified With Financial Data Insights And More — One of the reasons Aaron Patzer founded personal finance site Mint.com was because of his frustrations with Intuit's financial management software Quicken. Quicken, says Patzer wasn't user-friendly …

Discussion: Macworld and BetaNews

Jeff Kunins / The Windows Blog:

Messenger Connect is out of beta and available worldwide — Continuing with our ongoing partnering strategy, Messenger Connect enables our 500 million users to easily share what they're doing across the web with their friends in Messenger & Hotmail. It also makes it easy for our partners …

Discussion: All about Microsoft Blog, SiliconANGLE and Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life

Mahesh Sharma / ZDNet Australia:

Undercover report hits Apple manufacturer — An undercover investigation has unveiled the working and disciplinary conditions in place at Apple's Chinese technology manufacturer Foxconn, including allegations that staff worked 12-hour days for almost an entire fortnight in the six months before the launch of the iPad.

Discussion: ZDNet

Jon C. Ogg / 24/7 Wall St.:

A Deep Google Earnings Preview and Review (GOOG) — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is set to report earnings right after the close of trading today. With fresh industry merger rumors abound, investors and traders alike will be paying very close attention to the biggest Internet giant on the planet.

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, OptionsHouse Brokerage 2.0, MediaMemo and Comtex SmarTrend® News Briefs

Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:

VLC for iPhone Hands-On — The popular media player, VLC, made its way to the iPad just a few weeks ago, and the company behind the application, Applidium, has just submitted a version for the iPhone. Here's our exclusive hands-on of VLC Media Player for iPhone: Oh, and as you see in the video …

Discussion: Covering Web, Shoutpedia and MacNN, Thanks:branden3112

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