Techmeme: IBM Tops Microsoft to Become Second-Most Valuable in Technology (Bloomberg)

11:55 AM ET, September 30, 2011

Top Items:

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

Amazon has Palm in its shopping cart — will it click Buy? (exclusive) — Who will save what's left of Palm from HP's bumbling? It could be Amazon, as the online retailing giant is in serious negotiations to snap up Palm from HP, VentureBeat has learned. — A well-placed source tells us …

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Amazon buying Palm? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense — A report by VentureBeat overnight quotes an anonymous source saying that Amazon.com is “in serious negotiations” to buy Palm from HP, acquiring assets including the well-regarded webOS software for smartphones and tablets.

Discussion: Bits and SlashGear

Bloomberg:

IBM Tops Microsoft to Become Second-Most Valuable in Technology — Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) — International Business Machines Corp. passed Microsoft Corp. to become the world's second-most valuable technology company, a reflection of industry changes including the shift away from the personal computer.

Discussion: Digital Trends, Wall Street Journal, CNET News, TechEye, Inquirer, Electronista, Geekosystem, Gizmodo, GMSV, Neowin.net and Datamation.com

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

‘iPhone 5’ Silicone Sleeves Already Arriving at AT&T Retail Stores — Earlier today, we noted that Case-Mate cases for the redesigned “iPhone 5” had appeared in AT&T's inventory database. The addition yielded the interesting observation that AT&T is apparently placing orders for the cases despite …

Discussion: BGR, The Toybox Blog, Real Dan Lyons Web Site, GigaOM, Business Insider, everythingiCafe, Techland, O'Grady's PowerPage, AppleInsider, PhoneArena, GottaBeMobile, Gadgetsteria, Fudzilla, The Next Web, Electronista, iClarified and techeblog.com

Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:

Chrome poised to take No. 2 browser spot from Firefox — StatCounter's data points to a December 2011 take-over by Google's browser — Google's Chrome is on the brink of replacing Firefox as the second-most-popular browser, according to one Web statistics firm.

Discussion: Inquirer, PC World, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Business Insider, Neowin.net, Mashable!, The Tech Report, TechEye, Gizmodo, Computerworld and thechromesource

Joe Schneider / Bloomberg:

Samsung Electronics Gives Apple Proposal to End Australia Patent Dispute — Samsung Electronics Co. made a proposal to Apple Inc. to resolve their patent dispute in Australia regarding touch-screen technology, a Sydney court was told today. — Samsung lawyer David Catterns didn't give details …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, FOSS Patents, Fortune, mocoNews, GigaOM, Inquirer, Engadget, The Next Web, SlashGear, PhoneArena, MacPost, TheAustralian, paidContent and iTnews.com.au

DigiTimes:

Amazon likely to outsource 10.1-inch tablet PCs to Foxconn — Amazon is expected to outsource the production of 10.1-inch tablet PCs to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), and shipments of the 10.1-inch tablets are likely to begin before year-end 2011 for holiday-season demand, according to industry sources.

Discussion: The Digital Reader, SlashGear, PhoneArena, The Next Web, T3 News, AppleInsider, Electronista and The Tech Report

Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:

Number of Circles you're in on Google+ showing up in Google search — If you're an author and decided to take the markup steps that Google+ announced a while back, your Google+ follower numbers are showing up next to your profile in Google search results. — In June, Google explained the new markup language this way:

Discussion: Digital Inspiration …

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Former Googler Builds Site That Shows You What Top Tech Companies Pay — Last night at an informal gathering of tech people, someone likened Silicon Valley to a “Las Vegas for people who want to make crazy s**t” equating VCs and angel investors to gamblers of sorts.

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:

So it begins...AT&T starts sending out throttling warnings — Reddit user skelatwork shows the text he just got from AT&T. He was over 11GB (!!) today for the month which is pretty hefty to say the least. Next month, he's probably going to get throttled as per the news we broke in June.

Discussion: Electronista, TUAW, Business Insider, App Advice, PhoneArena and GottaBeMobile

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Next iPhone to likely come in 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB capacities — Following the news that Apple's new iPhone N94 device has appeared in the Apple internal inventory system, we are now hearing that this new iPhone will come in three storage capacities. Given that we've also heard …

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Widespread MobileMe Outage Affecting Mail, Me.com, and Find My iPhone — A number of Apple's MobileMe services appear to have been down for several hours now, and Apple's system status page indicates that the company is experiencing issues with MobileMe Mail, me.com web apps, and Find My iPhone.

Discussion: AppleInsider, O'Grady's PowerPage, Fortune, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, The Next Web and TiPb

Vlad Savov / This is my next:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus official: 1.2GHz dual-core processor and thinner body coming at end of October — Unwilling to be outdone by Amazon and its new 7-inch Android tablet, Samsung has gone back to the form factor of its first slate device and updated it with a new Plus model.

Discussion: PC World, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, GigaOM, CNET News, Samsung Mobile Press, 9to5Google, Engadget, GottaBeMobile, Appolicious Advisor, IntoMobile, Electronista, The Next Web and SlashGear

Alex Williams / SiliconANGLE:

Oracle to Launch NoSQL Database at OpenWorld — Oracle plans to launch and demo a NoSQL database at Oracle OpenWorld next week along with a Hadoop data builder and in-memory data store. — According to information from the Oracle Open World Web site, the new offering will be part of keynotes from Intel and Cisco.

Discussion: GigaOM, Between the Lines Blog and Between the Lines Blog

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Apple exploring accelerometer, gyro stabilization for iPhone video recording — Using the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, future iPhones could compensate for shaky video recordings with new software-based stabilization. — Apple's interest in allowing users to record better video …

Discussion: Patently Apple, TiPb, MacNN, Mobile Entertainment, App Advice and iClarified

Brian Winter / Reuters:

Brazil's $12 billion iPad deal is in trouble: sources — (Reuters) - A much-hyped $12 billion plan for Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn to produce iPads in Brazil is “in doubt” due to stagnant negotiations over tax breaks and Brazil's own deep structural problems such as a lack of skilled labor, government sources tell Reuters.

Discussion: thinq_, Guardian, Examiner, TechEye, PC Magazine, Digital Trends, AppleInsider, PadGadget, SlashGear, TUAW, iDownloadBlog.com, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, CNET News, MacStories, I4U News, The Next Web, TechCrunch and iClarified

Noah Davis / Business Insider:

AOL's Seed Is ‘Defunct’ — AOL launched Seed, its platform for freelancers, to great fanfare in late 2009. — It was intended as a way for AOL to solicit content from freelancers. Editors would post stories, and writers would get them written. It was an efficient, seamless way to generate articles …

Alistair Barr / Reuters:

Amazon's $199 Fire sparks supply, margin questions — (Reuters) - The rock-bottom price of the new Kindle Fire tablet computer is raising questions about Amazon.com Inc's ability to keep up with demand and the device's effect on the company's already razor-thin profit margins.

Discussion: Bits, BGR, CNET News and DigiTimes, more at Mediagazer »

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Apotheker's Exit Is Cheaper Than Expected for HP (But Still Pricey, Considering) — Léo Apotheker is gone from Hewlett-Packard, but he left so suddenly that the board of directors didn't have time to finalize his severance package. That is until today.

Discussion: The Tech Trade, TechCrunch, The Register, The Next Web, CNET News and The Tech Trade

Shira Ovide / Deal Journal:
Meg Whitman Will Work for $1 a Year

Discussion: Neowin.net

Rob Malda / CmdrTaco.net:

The Slashdot Effect from the Other Side — Today I got my first ever taste of the Slashdot Effect from the other side. A fluffy little rambling I wrote voicing some concerns about the Silk web browsing component of Amazon's Fire tablet actually got linked by my old home base.

Thanks:hornokplease

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

This Guy Built His Own iPhone 5 “Design Prototype” — Oh, you think you're a hardcore Apple fan? Sure, you might have plastered the back window of your hybrid with Apple stickers. Yeah, you've got something MG Jobs said painted on the wall above your bed.

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

Is Apple Shoring up their Multi-Touch Patent Claims for Battle? — On September 29, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two multi-touch related patent applications from Apple that revealed a very odd twist. Apple had just been granted two identical patents in June and it appears …

Discussion: MacDailyNews

Nitasha Tiku / Betabeat:

Two New Tech Funds Prepare to Launch In New York and One of Them Is Massive — Former Greycroft venture partner, Mr. Sheynkman — Two new funds have emerged with plenty of rations to get you through the coming startup winter, and they're both led by some familiar names.

Discussion: Fortune and Business Insider

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Timelines.com Sues Facebook, Says Its New Timeline Feature Could “Eliminate” Them — Timelines Inc., a small venture capital-backed Chicago company that operates the Timelines.com website, has launched a trademark-infringement suit against Facebook on Thursday, claiming that the latter's …

Discussion: paidContent, Thanks:robinwauters

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Report: Google Remains ‘Most Attractive Employer’ Among Business, Engineering Students — Universum, a company that specializes in employer branding, has published some findings based on the preferences of over 160,000 career seekers with a business or engineering background from the world's 12 largest economies (based on nominal GDP).

Discussion: TechFlash, Business Week, 9to5Google, The Microsoft Blog and PR Newswire

Roger Cheng / CNET News:

GetJar: We've given away $1 million worth of premium apps — Independent app store GetJar said today that it had given away $1 million worth of pay applications through its Gold program. — GetJar is just one of many alternative app stores that have sprung up catering to Android and other smartphone platforms.

Discussion: TechCrunch

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