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1:15 PM ET, October 21, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Associated Press:
Jobs questioned authority all his life, book says  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a skeptic all his life - giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple “corrupt” and delaying cancer surgery in favor of cleansings and herbal medicine.
RELATED:
Marcus Baram / The Huffington Post:
Steve Jobs Biography Reveals He Told Obama, 'You're Headed For A One-Term Presidency' … In one of the most hotly-anticipated biographies of the year, “Steve Jobs,” author Walter Isaacson reveals that the Apple CEO offered to design political ads for President Obama's 2012 campaign despite …
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
New Book Details Jobs's Fight Against Cancer  —  In his last years, Steven P. Jobs veered from exotic diets to cutting-edge treatments as he fought the cancer that ultimately took his life, according to a new biography to be published on Monday.  —  His early decision to put off surgery …
Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Steve Jobs biography reveals he thought Bill Gates “ripped off other people's ideas”
Discussion: Digits and Computerworld
CBS News:
Steve Jobs met his biological father before he knew he was his real father, biographer says
Henry Blodget / Business Insider:
HEY, GROUPON HATERS, ANALYZE THIS: Groupon Breaks Even In Q3  —  For the past six months, just about every pundit in the world has piled on Groupon, denouncing it as a crappy, fraudulent Ponzi scheme that will ultimately collapse in a heap.  —  At the heart of this collective dismissal …
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Groupon Sets Nov. 4 IPO  —  Groupon Inc. set a Nov. 4 date for its long-anticipated IPO, saying it seeks to raise as much as $621 million, valuing the company at up to $11.4 billion.  —  It's a scaling back of the daily deals company's earlier plans.  Groupon once sought to raise …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Video: Tie-Wearing Groupon CEO Andrew Mason Pitches IPO To Investors
Discussion: The Register
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Anyone with a Smart Cover can break into your iPad 2  —  Talk over an iPhone 4S security flaw regarding Siri working from the Lock screen has made the rounds the past few days, but this “security flaw” is not so much a flaw, but an indented feature from Apple.
Steve Yegge / Google+:
Last week I accidentally posted an internal rant about service platforms to my public Google+ account (i.e. this one).  It somehow went viral, which is nothing short of stupefying given that it was a massive Wall of Text.  The whole thing still feels surreal.  —  Amazingly, nothing bad happened to me at Google.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Amazon Throws A Minor Curveball With HTML5-Powered Kindle Format 8  —  Amazon has announced an update to the Kindle file format integrating many HTML5 tags and CSS attributes.  Many expected a concession by Amazon in the form of an EPUB-compatible upgrade, and this comes as a slight surprise …
Jun Yang / Bloomberg:
Android Tablets Gained on IPad in Third Quarter, Researcher Says  —  Sales of tablet computers running Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android software rose last quarter at the expense of Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPad, after companies led by Samsung Electronics Co. introduced new models, according to a researcher.
RELATED:
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
1 in 4 tablets from last quarter run on Android? Hmmm.....
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Al Gore on Steve Jobs: He's The Kind of Guy That Comes Along Once Every 250 Years  —  As an Apple board member, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore spent a lot of time with company co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away earlier this month.  During an interview at AsiaD today …
Discussion: CNET News, SlashGear, Pulse2 and Digits
RELATED:
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Verizon sold 2M iPhones last quarter, 700K less than AT&T  —  Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., sold two million iPhone 4 units last quarter, falling 700,000 short of rival AT&T. The carrier also declined to reveal its launch numbers for the iPhone 4S.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Verizon's third quarter: 1.4 million LTE devices boost wireless unit
Andrew Goldman / New York Times:
Reed Hastings Knows He Messed Up  —  Part of Steve Jobs's legacy is how incredibly well he managed the Apple product rollouts.  What do you think Jobs, who never minced words, would say about how Netflix has operated in the last three months?  —  I'm not going to put words in a deceased man's mouth.
Discussion: VentureBeat
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple airs its first amazing iPhone 4S Siri commercial  —  Apple has aired their first television commercial about the iPhone 4S and it is amazing.  The commercial is about the iPhone 4S Siri voice command feature and the ad goes through a few real-world uses of the feature.  Some Siri examples from the commercial:
Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny!:
A Google TV 2.0 Sneak Peak  —  After reading my Google TV 2.0 lament, our friend Scott Greczkowski of Satellite Guys passed us a few dozen action shots of the upcoming lean back experience.  —  The original Google TV initiative, comprised of Sony and Logitech hardware, wasn't exactly well received in the marketplace.
Egle Mikalajunaite / research2guidance:
Android Market reaches half a million successful submissions  —  37% of published apps have been removed from the Android Market.  —  Download our free Android Market Insights Vol. 6.  —  Over the past few months, the Android Market has been maintaining an exponential growth …
Ashlee Vance / Business Week:
Building a Firewall for the Facebook Generation  —  Palo Alto Networks is updating the corporate firewall to handle modern Web services like social networks, Skype, and Google Docs  —  For the past 15 years or so, security pros have relied on the trusty firewall and other hardware …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
BitTorrent Throttling Internet Providers Exposed  —  Hundreds of ISPs all over the world limit and restrict BitTorrent traffic on their networks.  Unfortunately, most companies are not very open about their network management solutions.  —  Thanks to data collected by Measurement Lab …
Dante Cesa / Engadget:
Sprint to nix ‘unlimited’ from mobile broadband and hotspot plans in November  —  We'd heard rumblings that unlimited data for Sprint's mobile hotspot plan was going the way of the dodo, but come November folks, it'll be official.  Data sent and received over tethering — not smartphone usage — will now be measured against a 5GB cap.
Matt Burns / TechCrunch:
Nintendo Gets Serious About Streaming, Announces Hulu Plus Will Soon Hit The Wii, 3DS  —  Hulu Plus has long been missing from the Wii leaving Netflix as the only major streaming service on the gaming console.  But that changes soon.  Nintendo just announced that Hulu Plus will soon be available on both the Wii and the 3DS.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Exclusive: Yahoo Overhauls Marketing Unit — The Internal Memo  —  Yahoo is drastically rejiggering its marketing division, according to an internal memo sent today to employees from its Chief Marketing Officer Elisa Steele, in a move that seems to leave her future role unclear.
Nick Triggle / BBC:
Mobile phone brain cancer link rejected  —  Mobile phone safety has been much debated over the past two decades  —  Further research has been published suggesting there is no link between mobile phones and brain cancer.  —  The risk mobiles present has been much debated over the past 20 years as use of the phones has soared.
 
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 More Items: 
Dave Williams / AdAge:
The Inside Scoop on Facebook's $1.6 Billion Ad Machine
Discussion: Business Insider
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Could Lodsys turn its sights on Microsoft Windows 8 developers?
Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:
Veokami: A new way to watch concert videos online
Ben Parr / Mashable:
AdJitsu Does What Apple Should Have Done With iAds
Thanks:markwang99
 Earlier Items: 
Seth Rosenblatt / CNET Download.com:
15 years of Download.com, the original app store
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
RIM facing mass defection over BlackBerry blunders
Discussion: Digital Trends
Alex Heath / Cult of Mac:
AT&T: We're Seeing “Tremendous, Tremendous Demand” for the iPhone 3GS
Discussion: MacRumors, TiPb, Neowin.net and Electronista
Rob Crossley / Develop:
Sources point to 2013 launch for ‘Xbox Next’
Steve Clayton / TechNet Blogs:
Microsoft Research shows Holodesk
 

 
From Mediagazer:

New York Times:
Court docs detail a smear campaign against actor Blake Lively via media articles and social media posts after she accused director Justin Baldoni of misconduct

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: WaPo's Matt Murray lays out plans for WP Ventures, the “third newsroom”; Krissah Thompson will be editor and Samantha Henig will be general manager

Jack Dunn / Variety:
Trump appoints Mark Burnett, the British TV executive who created and produced the reality show The Apprentice, as a special envoy to the UK
 
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