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7:20 PM ET, October 31, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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 …
RELATED:
Scott Kveton / Urban Airship:
Urban Airship Acquires SimpleGeo  —  Today I'm excited to the acquisition of SimpleGeo.  You can read Jay Adelson's post here.  —  Both Urban Airship and SimpleGeo started two and a half years ago and I'll never forget when Crash Corp Inc. (the original SimpleGeo) launched as we both went live …
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Despite new CPU options, Apple reportedly questioning future of Mac Pro  —  Despite the coming availability of a new generation of Sandy Bridge desktop CPUs suitable for advancing Apple's Mac Pro line, the company has reportedly been evaluating whether to continue to invest in furthering …
Alan Green / Official Google Reader Blog:
New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing  —  Today we're rolling out the new Reader design, and the Google+ features that we mentioned just over a week ago.  Before the day's over, all Reader users will be able to enjoy the following improvements:  — A new look and feel that's cleaner, faster, and nicer to look at.
Gabe Rivera / Techmeme News:
Revealed: Why Techmeme links to them instead of you!  —  Over time, nearly every major tech news publisher has asked us a variant of “Why do you always post them and not us?” or “Why did you pick them over us for that story when we posted first?”  So it's probably time to address this issue in a general way.
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
Discussion: InfoWorld, TechFlash and Electronista
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.
Phil McKinney:
Goodbye HP  —  Earlier today, I announced that I will be retiring from HP.  —  This is not the traditional retirement.  I'm not planning on spending my days playing golf or sitting around the house driving my wife crazy.  I have far too much passion, energy and ideas to sit on the sidelines.
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.
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 …
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 …
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.
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
Susan Wojcicki / The Official Google Blog:
Increasing transparency and choice with ads on search and Gmail  —  Our advertising system is designed to show the right ad to the right person at the right time.  Because ads should be just as useful as any other information on the web, we try to make them as relevant as possible for you.
Discussion: Inside AdWords and Gmail Blog
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Airbnb Is Thinking About Partnering With Car-Sharing Services  —  Airbnb, a marketplace that allows people to rent their homes and apartments via the web, is considering entering the car-sharing space.  In a survey sent to us by an Airbnb host, the startup is asking hosts if they would rent out their cars along with their residences.
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 …
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 …
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Outsmarted: Captcha security not much of a gotcha  —  Elie Bursztein says he was able to decode 66 percent of the anti-bot tests used by Visa's Authorize.net payment site.  —  PALO ALTO—A team of Stanford University researchers has bad news to report about Captchas, those often unreadable …
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.”
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 …
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 Daily Caller and The Domains
Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Discontinues Official Mp3 Music Player, Pushes Users to Streaming Partners  —  Facebook has begun alerting Page admins that the official Music Player app it developed years ago will no longer be available after today.  The app allowed Page admins to upload an MP3 and add track information …
Discussion: The Next Web
 
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 More Items: 
Jeremy Kirk / Computerworld:
South Korea fines flat-panel LCD display makers
Discussion: TechEye
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Major Book Publisher Files Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuit
Discussion: paidContent
Michael Connor / Reuters:
Battles by states over online taxes may yield little
Matt Burns / TechCrunch:
Google TV Update Rolls Out Today, Already Hitting Select Sony Internet TV Devices
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Commercial version of Kinect for Windows development kit due in early 2012
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
The Entire $1.65B Acquisition Of YouTube Took A Week, Was Negotiated At Denny's
Discussion: Softpedia News
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple completes testing of 15-inch LCD for ultra-thin MacBook Pro?
 Earlier Items: 
Sui-Lee Wee / Reuters:
China denies it is behind hacking of U.S. satellites
Discussion: Guardian and The Register
Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Amazon Builds Up Kindle Fire Content With Disney-ABC Deal
Amar Toor / Engadget:
HTC releases Q3 earnings report: profit up 68 percent, shipments soar 93 percent
Suzanne Kapner / Wall Street Journal:
Hackers Press the ‘Schmooze’ Button
Discussion: Digits and NBC Bay Area
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: WBD and the NBA settle a lawsuit and agree to let WBD develop new shows with NBA content and grant rights in parts of Northern Europe and Latin America

Anna Merlan / Mother Jones:
Attorneys for X entered an appearance during the November 14 court hearing about Infowars' auction and asked to be included on future case communications

Michael Gold / New York Times:
President-elect Donald Trump announces he has chosen Karoline Leavitt, who served as his campaign's press secretary, to be his White House press secretary

 
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