Techmeme: Apple introduces us to Siri, the Killer Patent (Jack Purcher/Patently Apple)

5:35 PM ET, January 19, 2012

Top Items:

Tom Neumayr / Apple:

Apple Unveils All-New iTunes U App for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch — Entire Courses from Top Universities Now Available in One App — Apple® today announced an all-new iTunes® U app, giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses.

Discussion: The Register, 9to5Mac, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Webomatica, BGR, Fortune, Shiny Objects, dailywireless.org, CNN, Laughing Squid, MacRumors and Ubergizmo

Dan Wineman / venomous porridge:

The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA — Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks. I haven't played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool. However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:

Discussion: The Ed Bott Report Blog, Business Insider, SiliconFilter, 9to5Mac, PC World, LAPTOP Magazine, Gizmodo, Business Insider, TUAW, VentureBeat, L.A. Times Tech Blog, The Next Web, Matt Gemmell, Daring Fireball, MacStories and iLounge

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Apple's New Math. Or: Why A $15 E-Book Equals a $75 Paper Book. — McGraw-Hill normally sells high-school textbooks for $75 a pop. Now it says it will sell electronic versions of the same books, via Apple, for $15 apiece. How can the publisher make that work?

Discussion: CNET, Gizmodo, MacRumors, SplatF, Dice Blog Network, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, PadGadget and TechCrunch

Darrell Etherington / GigaOM:

Apple announces new iPad textbook experience with iBooks 2 — On Thursday, Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller took the stage to talk about education, and announced Apple's ambitious plan to reinvent the textbook. That plan includes iBooks 2, which Schiller called a “new textbook experience for the iPad.”

Discussion: LAPTOP Magazine, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, paidContent, Engadget, Between the Lines Blog, Apple, The Verge, Ars Technica, Engadget, The Verge, MacRumors, Between the Lines Blog, Gizmodo UK and Gizmodo, more at Mediagazer »

Dana Wollman / Engadget:
Apple announces free iBooks Author app for OS X for publishing books to the App Store

Discussion: GigaOM, Macworld, GigaOM, Washington Post, TechCrunch, LAPTOP Magazine, 9to5Mac, WebProNews, TUAW and MacStories, more at Mediagazer »

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple's new iBook textbooks launch at $14.99 or less from partners Pearson, McGraw Hill …

Discussion: Computerworld, TeleRead, Epicenter, The Verge, Apple, Fortune, GigaOM, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and The Next Web, more at Mediagazer »

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Apple: 20,000 Education iPad Apps Developed; 1.5 Million Devices In Use At Schools

Discussion: PandoDaily, MacRumors, TUAW, ZDNet, BGR, The Next Web, Between the Lines Blog, NBC Bay Area, AllThingsD and 9to5Mac

Google Investor Relations:

Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011. — “Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year. Full year revenue was up 29% …

Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:

Larry Page Is Super Excited To Announce That Google+ Has 90 Million Users — The official numbers are in for Google's new social network, Google+. Beating out most previous third-party estimates that we've seen, the company said today that it now has 90 million users worldwide.

Discussion: Marketing Land

Dan Gallagher / MarketWatch:
Google earnings rise 6%, but miss targets

Discussion: Bloomberg

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:
Google: 250M Android devices activated, 11B Android Market app downloads

Discussion: TechCrunch, 9to5Google and Electronista

Devlin Barrett / Wall Street Journal:

FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy — WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation moved against a group of suspected online pirates Thursday, targeting the popular file-sharing website megaupload.com a day after Washington lawmakers were besieged by complaints about legislation designed …

Discussion: The Next Web, BGR, Associated Press, xda-developers, TechCrunch, Domain Name Wire, The Raw Story, @lawgeeknz, What's Trending …, Gizmodo, Electronista and Nerdcore, more at Mediagazer »

Billboard:

Swizz Beatz's Resume: The History of a Multi-Tasker — In today's fluid economy it's not uncommon to have a second job. A third, fourth, or fifth job though, is something special. And when you're super-producer Swizz Beatz and you have a baker's dozen jobs at once, it's frankly less …

Discussion: Washington Post

Nitasha Tiku / Betabeat:
Surprising New Figure in the Piracy Wars? Swizz Beatz, Megaupload.com's Secret CEO

Discussion: PC Magazine, New York Post, BET.com and FACT magazine

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Justice Department calls MegaUpload an 'international organized criminal enterprise …

Discussion: Ars Technica, Computerworld and GadgeTell

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Anonymous claims DOJ and record label site takedowns in response to MegaUpload suit

Discussion: rt.com, @youranonnews, Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, Hillicon Valley, @anonops, @tomwarren, @mmasnick and Geekosystem

Federal Bureau of Investigation:
Justice Department Charges Leaders of Megaupload with Widespread Online Copyright Infringement

Discussion: Ars Technica, Social Markets, Techdirt, VentureBeat, GigaOM, paidContent, BetaNews, The Not-So Private Parts, CircleID, VentureBeat, Betabeat, GigaOM, Threat Level, The Next Web, WebProNews and Infosec Island Latest Articles, more at Mediagazer »

Summify:

Summify Joins The Flock At Twitter! — You've probably noticed we've been quiet lately. Well, we're extremely excited to announce that Summify has been acquired by Twitter! I know, right? We can hardly believe it ourselves! — Roughly 2 years ago, we moved from Romania to Vancouver …

Discussion: PC Magazine, VentureBeat, The Verge, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Techvibes.com, CNET, Marketing Land, Computerworld, The Next Web, Epicenter, @randfish, @tamar, @johnhcook, Mashable!, AllThingsD, SlashGear and Xconomy

Mike Davidson / mikeindustries.com: Twitter Buys Summify, Gives Everyone a Reason to Use It

Matt Lynley / Business Insider: Twitter Is Making A Gigantic Move (And Going To War With A Board Member)

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Reports Record Revenue: Up 5% To $20.9B, Earnings At $0.78 Per Share — Microsoft just reported its second quarter 2012 earnings with revenues of $20.9 billion, an 5% increase from the same period of the prior year. Microsoft's operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share …

Discussion: The Verge, AllThingsD, BGR, VentureBeat, VentureBeat, BetaNews, Ars Technica, Engadget, Electronista and SlashGear

Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:

Larry Page: Google should be like a family — In an exclusive Q&A, Google's co-founder and CEO explains how he built a No. 1 workplace — and why it matters. — Google also claimed the top spot on our list in 2007 and 2008 - making it the only three-time champion.

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, Guardian, TechFlash, The Register, Larry Page, NBC Bay Area and Business Insider

Jeremy C. Owens / Mercury News:
The opposite of evil: Google named best place to work in America

Discussion: Business Insider

Eric Savitz / The Tech Trade:

Amazon Kindle Fire: More Profitable Than Expected? — The Amazon Kindle Fire might be a more profitable product than you think. — RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler reached that conclusion in a research note this morning, after he assessed the results of a proprietary survey of 216 Kindle Fire owners.

Discussion: WebProNews and dailywireless.org, more at Mediagazer »

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Amazon Makes More Than $100 Off Each Kindle Fire

Discussion: VatorNews, Electronista, AndroidGuys and VentureBeat

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

Apple introduces us to Siri, the Killer Patent — On October 4, 2011Apple launched the iPhone 4S with Siri, just one day prior to Steve Jobs passing. Today, the first killer patent application behind Siri was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Discussion: AppleInsider, BGR, CNET, NBC Bay Area, WebProNews, PadGadget, msnbc.com and SEO by the Sea

The Politico:

On PIPA, Senate in talks to yank search — Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) are in discussions to exempt search-result blocking from the PROTECT IP Act, sources confirmed to POLITICO. — Kyl made the proposal to Leahy on Wednesday. The measure is one of the biggest sticking points …

Discussion: Ars Technica

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
SOPA protest by the numbers: 162M pageviews, 7 million signatures

Discussion: MediaPost, ReadWriteWeb, Computerworld, Search Engine Watch, nytm.org and Bloomberg

Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:

Bing Maps to get Nokia branding on all devices - including rivals' — Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company's own phones. — “You'll starting seeing the word ‘Nokia’ on a map …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Business Insider, Engadget, Neowin.net, IntoMobile, Nokia Windows Phone, PhoneArena and Gizmodo UK

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

IBM's Q4 Revenue Up 2 Percent To $29.5B; Net Income Up 4 Percent To $5.5B — IBM just released fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 earnings today. Non-GAAP earnings came in at $4.71, up 11 percent; GAAP earnings per share were $4.62 per share (up 11 percent) for the quarter.

Discussion: CNET, BGR, The Tech Trade, Between the Lines Blog, paidContent, The Register, WebProNews, 24/7 Wall St. and 9to5Google

Carl Sjogreen / Facebook Blog:

Introducing New Apps for Timeline — New timeline apps are now available from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others. You can now enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies.

Discussion: AllThingsD, GeekWire, AllThingsD, ReadWriteWeb, The Atlantic Wire, Facebook Developer Blog, The Not-So Private Parts, Lost Remote, SocialTimes.com, CNET, L.A. Times Tech Blog, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, Forbes and blog.chron.com, Thanks:malliegator

Bloomberg:

Apple Seeks ‘Clarifying Language’ on Patents in Kodak Loan — Apple Inc. (AAPL) asked a bankruptcy court to attach “clarifying language” to any order approving financing for Eastman Kodak Co. — Apple said in a filing today the order should indicate that no security interests or liens …

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Not a Kodak Moment: Legendary Camera Maker Files for Bankruptcy Protection

Discussion: The Tech Trade, Mashable!, Ars Technica, I4U News, KODAK Digital Cameras … and BGR

Paul Graham:

A Word to the Resourceful — A year ago I noticed a pattern in the least successful startups we'd funded: they all seemed hard to talk to. It felt as if there was some kind of wall between us. I could never quite tell if they understood what I was saying.

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