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4:30 PM ET, October 31, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Imtiyaz Delawala / ABC News:
Bill Gates Dismisses Criticism in Steve Jobs Biography  —  Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates dismissed criticisms of him by long-time competitor Steve Jobs in the new biography released after Jobs' death, saying “none of that bothers me at all,” while praising the impact the Apple executive had on the world.
RELATED:
Preston Gralla / Computerworld:
Bill Gates — I helped Steve Jobs create the Mac  —  Steve Jobs had some very harsh things to say about Bill Gates in the just-published biography of him.  In an interview yesterday, Gates responded quite kindly to that criticism, but also took credit for helping Steve Jobs invent the Mac.
Discussion: Electronista and Seattle Times
Soledad O'Brien / CNNMoney.com:
Michael Arrington is right (about one thing)  —  Michael Arrington thinks there should be more effort made to improve diversity in Silicon Valley.  I agree.  But that important message is being drowned out by a heated online debate.
RELATED:
Mitch Kapor / Mitch's posterous:
Beyond Arrington and CNN, Let's Look at the Real Issues  —  On November 13 CNN will be airing Black in America 4 — The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley, a documentary focusing on eight African-American entrepreneurs and their quest for success in Silicon Valley.
Discussion: dylan tweney and Pulp Tech Blog
Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:
SimpleGeo To Be Acquired By Urban Airship  —  SimpleGeo, the once promising location startup, has been acquired, I've heard.  The buyer is Urban Airship.  —  This is an all stock acquisition apparently, totaling around $3.5 million in value.  Since SimpleGeo has raised nearly $10 million …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Business Insider
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Retail Stores to Allow Self-Checkout via iOS App for Accessory Purchases  —  MacRumors has learned that Apple is planning to launch an update to its retail store iOS app that will allow consumers to utilize self-checkout for purchases of accessories and other shelf-stocked items at the company's retail stores.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Job Cuts to Cost Motorola Mobility $31 Million  —  Disposing of 800 positions will cost Motorola Mobility $27 million in severance and $4 million for facility closures as it prepares to be acquired by Google  —  (Bloomberg) — Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the mobile-phone maker that agreed …
Matt McLernon / YouTube Blog:
Life in a Day now available on YouTube  —  On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world recorded videos of their lives to take part in Life in a Day, a cinematic experiment to document a single day on earth.  From more than 4,500 hours of footage recorded and uploaded to YouTube …
Discussion: Gizmodo and The Next Web
Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Amazon Builds Up Kindle Fire Content With Disney-ABC Deal  —  In last week's earnings call, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) said it will continue to push hard into streaming video.  Now, in a new licensing deal with Disney-ABC (NYSE: DIS) Television Group, Amazon Prime members can stream shows like Grey's Anatomy, Lost and Spider-Man for free.
RELATED:
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Netflix renews ABC contract
Erica Ogg / GigaOM:
Apple spending big next year on retail and cloud  —  Apple is doubling down on its retail and cloud operations.  The company says it will spend about $8 billion in capital expenditures in 2012, which is almost twice as much as the $3.4 billion it spent during fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple looking to bring AirPlay Mirroring, iMessage application to Mac OS X  —  AirPlay Mirroring shown with an iPad 2 and an Apple TV  —  Sources familiar with the future of Mac OS X say that AirPlay Mirroring and an iMessage application are currently in development.
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
The Entire $1.65B Acquisition Of YouTube Took A Week, Was Negotiated At Denny's  —  In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing today, YouTube co-founder Steven Chen reminisced about selling his company to Google.  “Was there any way you could not have sold?”  Sarah Lacy asked?
Discussion: Softpedia News
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple airs impressive new iPhone 4S iCloud, Siri, and Camera TV ads  —  Following up on the first iPhone 4S Siri TV advertisement from last week, Apple has just released three new advertisements surrounding the iPhone 4S.  The iCloud iPhone 4S advertisement shown above shows the out of the box iCloud integration for the iPhone 4S.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Test Page For GDrive Appearing In Google Search Results  —  In case there was still any doubt about the long-rumored “GDrive's” existence, a page now appearing on Google's search results offers a pretty clear indication that something is going on.  On Writely.com - the online word processing …
Suzanne Kapner / Wall Street Journal:
Hackers Press the ‘Schmooze’ Button  —  Chris Patten called a large investment-management firm to report that he was going through a divorce and was worried that his wife had set up an account under a false name.  —  And with that story—entirely plausible but in this case a lie …
Discussion: Digits and NBC Bay Area
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Something New From Nook, Coming in a Week  —  Barnes & Noble will be announcing ... something at a New York City press conference in a week.  —  About what?  The oblique invitation I just got in my inbox doesn't say a word, other than promising that it will be a “very special announcement.”
Sui-Lee Wee / Reuters:
China denies it is behind hacking of U.S. satellites  —  (Reuters) - Beijing on Monday denied a U.S. commission's claim that China may have been responsible for hacking incidents on U.S. environment-monitoring satellites, saying that the committee had “ulterior motives” in writing such a draft report.
Discussion: Guardian and The Register
James Temple / San Francisco Chronicle:
Microsoft attorney outlines Android patent tactics  —  It takes flowcharts to keep track of all the mobile patent lawsuits under way.  —  Apple sued HTC, while Kodak sued Apple, Samsung and Sony.  RIM filed suit against Kodak and Motorola.  And what are called nonpracticing entities …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Go Daddy Supports E-PARASITE Legislation Even Though Its Own Site Is Dedicated To Theft Of Property Under Terms Of The Bill  —  The supporters of the new E-PARASITE Act (the even worse version of the already dreadful PROTECT IP) have been pretty desperate trying to find any “tech” companies to support these bills.
Discussion: The Domains
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Commercial version of Kinect for Windows development kit due in early 2012  —  Summary: Microsoft is planning to launch a version of its Kinect for Windows software development kit (SDK) licensed for commercial use in early 2012.  —  Microsoft delivered a beta of a software development kit …
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Korea's Pantech to Use Kinect-Like Gesture Recognition in Android Phones  —  Korean phone maker Pantech, best known in the U.S. for low-end Android and messaging phones, hopes to make a name for itself by adding gesture recognition a la Microsoft's Kinect.  —  The technology …
Discussion: VentureBeat and Android Phone Fans
Matt Burns / TechCrunch:
Google TV Update Rolls Out Today, Already Hitting Select Sony Internet TV Devices  —  The much-anticipated Google TV update is systematically rolling out today.  Sony Internet TV devices are first in line followed by Logitech Revue units shortly thereafter.  But wait patiently.
J.B. / Fusible.com:
Google quietly reveals GOMO, a service that mobilizes your site on demand  —  Early last month, I wrote about Google registering the domain names Howtogomo.com, Howtogomo.net, and Howtogomo.org, and I wondered why the search engine giant went out and bought the web addresses.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Betabeat, Thanks:fusible
Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:
How Google is quietly experimenting in new ways for readers to access publishers' content  —  Google appears to be experimenting with a new paywall-esque content roadblock for publishers, and it's not One Pass.  For lack of a better name, let's call it a “survey wall,” because instead …
 
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 More Items: 
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Outsmarted: Captcha security not much of a gotcha
Michael Connor / Reuters:
Battles by states over online taxes may yield little
Todd Haselton / BGR:
Samsung Galaxy S II LTE Skyrocket landing on AT&T November 6th for $250
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple completes testing of 15-inch LCD for ultra-thin MacBook Pro?
Ari Levy / Bloomberg:
Groupon IPO a Must as Cash Needs Climb With Investor Tally: Tech
Discussion: @eghosao and Betabeat
 Earlier Items: 
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Kai-Fu Lee On Why China Isn't Ready For The Next Mark Zuckerberg
Amar Toor / Engadget:
HTC releases Q3 earnings report: profit up 68 percent, shipments soar 93 percent
Tomio Geron / Social Markets:
Marc Andreessen: Building Startups Is Like Baking A Cake In 3 Minutes
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
New MobiUs Browser For iOS Makes Mobile Web Apps Act More Like Native Apps
Discussion: App Advice and ReadWriteWeb
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
It's Time For Google To Let Google Voice Live Up To Its Promise
Jack Neff / AdAge:
Why More of Your Facebook Fans are Seeing Fewer of Your Messages
Discussion: We Are Social
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Sources: Disney worried that it had a flawed case in Trump's ABC lawsuit, and fighting it could hurt the Disney brand and damage press protections for others

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney confirms pulling a transgender storyline from animated series Win or Lose, saying “many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects” with their kids

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:
Letter: The Scott Trust's deal to sell the Observer to Tortoise came despite a last-minute bid from Ecotricity founder Dale Vince to thwart the deal

 
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