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4:30 PM ET, October 20, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Alan Green / Official Google Reader Blog:
Upcoming changes to Reader: a new look, new Google+ features, and some clean-up  —  In the next week, we'll be making some highly requested changes to Google Reader.  First, we're going to introduce a brand new design (like many of Google's other products) that we hope you love.
RELATED:
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:   Google Reader: It's Still Alive and Getting a Facelift, But Will Lose its Social Features
CBS News:
Biographer: Jobs refused early and potentially life-saving surgery  —  Apple CEO Steve Jobs refused to allow surgeons to perform what could have been life-saving surgery on his pancreatic cancer, says his biographer Walter Isaacson.  In one of his deepest discussions with him …
RELATED:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: Exclusive bio excerpt in Fortune Monday  —  They were the best of frenemies for nearly 30 years.  Walter Isaacson has the inside story.  —  Click to enlarge.  Image: Time Inc.  —  The first excerpt from the year's most eagerly awaited — and carefully guarded …
AT&T:
AT&T Activates One Million iPhone 4S'  —  Activations Surpass All Previous Launches; Customers Prefer AT&T Speed Advantage  —  AT&T today announced it activated more than 1 million iPhone 4S' as of Tuesday, making it the most successful iPhone launch in the company's history.
RELATED:
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Slowing iPhone Demand Hits Profit at AT&T
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
AT&T third quarter on target: iPhone, Android split improves
Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:
Microsoft to Help Halve Phone Costs Next Year in ‘Volume’ Drive  —  Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. expects production costs of handsets using Windows Phone 7 software next year to drop by more than half from when the platform was introduced.  —  Cooperation with parts makers including Qualcomm Inc …
RELATED:
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Microsoft's Andy Lees: Nokia will announce ‘its Windows Phones’ at Nokia World
Ben Rudolph / The Windows Blog:
First Look: AT&T's new HTC TITAN, Samsung Focus S and Samsung Focus Flash
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
A New Look for Gmail  —  A video from Google's YouTube channel (update: the video is now private, but there's a mirror here) introduces a new Gmail interface.  It's based on the Preview theme that's already available in Gmail, but there are many other changes: an action bar that uses icons instead …
Feross Aboukhadijeh / Feross.org:
HOW TO: Spy on the Webcams of Your Website Visitors  —  Update (10/19): CNET says that Adobe is working on a fix and it could be ready by end of week.  —  Update (10/19): Adobe emailed me and said “our product team is wrapping up their investigation and is now working on a fix, which should not require a Flash Player update”.
RELATED:
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Adobe to plug Flash-related Webcam spying hole  —  A video demonstrates how the attack could be accomplished.  In this screenshot, a series of blue buttons are clicked on as part of a game and the webcam is turned on.  —  Adobe Systems is working on a fix for a Flash-related vulnerability …
Discussion: Threat Level
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Revenue Up 7% To $17.37B, Earnings At $0.68 Per Share  —  Microsoft just reported its first quarter 2012 earnings today with revenues of $17.37 billion, an 7% increase from the same period of the prior year.  Microsoft's operating income was $7.20 billion, its net income was $5.74 billion …
RELATED:
Mark Gongloff / MarketBeat:
Microsoft Earnings Meet Forecasts, Stock Falls
Discussion: GeekWire and Tech Trader Daily
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Android Chief Says Your Phone Should Not Be Your Assistant  —  Andy Rubin thinks there is a lot of potential for phones to be more useful companions, but says he is not interested in turning Android devices into personal assistants.  —  “I don't believe that your phone should be an assistant …
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Let's Take This One With a Grain of Salt
Discussion: Computerworld and GottaBeMobile
Andrew Rassweiler / iSuppli®:
iPhone 4S Carries BOM of $188, IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Reveals  —  On the outside, the iPhone 4S may have disappointed some with its perceived lack of new features.  But on the inside, the latest member of the iPhone line includes a wealth of innovation, including a new wireless module …
Yun-Hee Kim / Wall Street Journal:
Samsung Beats Apple in Smartphone Shipments  —  HONG KONG—Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday, beating close competitor Apple Inc., which sold 17.1 million units in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 24.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
ASUS' Jonney Shih unveils Transformer Prime Android tablet: 10-inch, 8.3mm, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3  —  Whoa, Nelly!  ASUS head honcho Jonney Shih just revealed the “next-generation Transformer tablet” here at AsiaD!  It's the same one that we saw teased just yesterday …
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Not Just Google: Siri Searches Bing And Yahoo Too  —  Earlier tonight Danny Sullivan discovered that Siri will also search Bing and Yahoo, though it searches Google by default.  If you say, “Search the web for . . .” or you ask Siri a question it can't answer it will search Google (the iPhone's default search engine).
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Visual.ly Raises $2 Million To Make Even More Infographics  —  Visual.ly, the team built from the infographics team behind Mint's spectacular infographics, has raised $2 million in seed funding, led by Crosslink Capital, SoftTech and 500 Startups as well as angels Kapor Capital, Giza Ventures …
Discussion: VatorNews, VentureBeat and VizWorld.com
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Google+ Guru Bradley Horowitz On Products, Platforms and that Pesky Memo  —  While Google has struggled mightily in its early efforts to “get the social thing,” it has managed to get more than a few people to try out its latest effort, Google+.  —  But the question of just how compelling …
Matt Rosoff / Business Insider:
This Is The Google Music “Twist”: You Can Share Songs After Buying Them  —  Yesterday, Google mobile head Andy Rubin said that the company's long-awaited music store will have some kind of twist.  —  Now we know what it is.  —  A person in the recording industry who has been briefed …
Discussion: VentureBeat
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Working on a Thinner MacBook Pro Design  —  While Intel is obsessed with pushing their Ultrabooks into the market to attack Apple's MacBook Air, Apple is working on producing a thinner MacBook Pro for road warriors who need the convenience of an optical drive.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple taking iOS 5 on a world tour for developers November through January  —  In past years, Apple has held “Tech Talk World Tours” for developers, covering their latest version of iOS.  Now that iOS 5 has been released into the wild, Apple has announced that the iOS 5 Tech Talk World Tour …
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Yahoo's Jerry Yang: There Are Plenty of Options Beyond Sale  —  Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang said on Thursday that the company's board continues its strategic review process, but that there are a number of options beyond just selling the company.  —  “The intent going in is not to put ourselves for sale,” Yang said, speaking at AsiaD.
 
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 More Items: 
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Google Apps hasn't met LAPD's security requirements, city demands refund
Discussion: Network World
Tim Bray / Android Developers Blog:
New Public APIs in ICS
Discussion: PC Magazine, The Next Web and thinq_
Clare Baldwin / Reuters:
Groupon to list shares on Nasdaq: sources
Amar Toor / Engadget:
Sony Music Unlimited arrives for Android tablets, bearing gifts of unlimited music
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
On the scene: Microsoft opens its first Seattle store
Discussion: WinRumors
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Foursquare's Crowley Reveals The Strategy Behind Radar, Siri, And Mobile's New Push Interface
 Earlier Items: 
comScore, Inc.:
Social Networking On-The-Go: U.S. Mobile Social Media Audience Grows 37 Percent in the Past Year
Mark Kleinman / Kleinman:
Exclusive: Kingdom Eyes Twitter Stake
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
The Multitasking Jack Dorsey on the Inspiration of Steve Jobs
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Coupon Craze Continues With CouponCabin Raising $54 Million
Discussion: CNET News
Laura Kusisto / Wall Street Journal:
Google Hits Space Bars
Discussion: @amir_efrati
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
National World, one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, gets a £56.2M buyout offer from shareholder Media Concierge, a 40% premium to its Nov. 21 stock price

Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The English Premier League ends its content partnership with IMG and plans to bring content production and distribution in-house in 2026
 
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