Techmeme
December 14, 2012, 12:25 PM

Top News

Ryan Tate / Wired:
Why Google Just Made iPhone King: Ads  —  By releasing new versions of Google Maps and Gmail for iOS this month, Google helped make the iPhone the best mobile phone on the planet.  Why is Google, the owner of Android and Motorola, helping its ostensible rival?  —  The answer boils down to advertising.
Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:
How Google's Maps App for iPhone Hurts Nokia  —  Apple isn't the only company that should feel nervous about Google's release of a new maps app for the iPhone.  Nokia may have lost whatever chance it had to get iPhone owners hooked on its mapping service.  —  Just hours after the Google Maps app …
More: Fortune and TechCrunch
BBC:
US, UK and Canada refuse to sign UN internet treaty  —  The UN's telecommunications treaty will not be ratified by the US, UK or Canada  —  The US, Canada and UK have refused to sign an international communications treaty at a conference in Dubai.  —  The three countries had objected …
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Google launches 18 new Google+ features focusing on mobile, photos, events and Hangouts  —  As Google begins to wind down its operations before Christmas, some of its teams have been working hard to get their new features out before the festive season truly begins.
Reuters:
Exclusive: Softbank caps Sprint's Clearwire bid; investors want more  —  (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp's $2.1 billion offer to buy out Clearwire Corp appeared to be running into trouble on Thursday, as some shareholders said they wanted more money while Softbank Corp set a cap on how much Sprint could pay.
Josh Ong / The Next Web:
Apple kicks off iPhone 5 sales in China  —  Apple has begun sales of the iPhone 5 in China, its second-largest market.  Doors opened at official retail stores at 8am, though the company's reserve-and-pick-up system dampened launch crowds.  —  A rare Beijing snowstorm didn't help matters …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Max Levchin Says Marissa Mayer's “Very Ballsy Move” to CEO of Yahoo Was the Reason He Finally Took Board Seat  —  When I asked him to talk to me about why he decided to finally became a director at Yahoo after what was a very long mulling that started even before former Google exec Marissa Mayer became CEO …
Allen Huang / Google Mobile Ads Blog:
Combating accidental clicks in mobile ads  —  Ads on smartphones are effective, but many of us have at some point clicked on an ad by accident, which ultimately is a bad experience for the user, the publisher, and the advertiser who pays for clicks that may not be valuable.
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Guardian kills its Facebook social reader, regains control over its content  —  A little over a year ago, a big topic of discussion in the newspaper business — apart from the ongoing cataclysmic decline in print advertising revenue, of course — was how to leverage Facebook as a platform for content …
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Samsung and Apple Duel in Enterprise Tech  —  Last summer, health-care startup Preventice asked Samsung Electronics if it would create a custom version of its popular Galaxy S II phone.  Preventice was putting the finishing touches on a product that used a smartphone to transmit data …
Tweets: @pburrows
Julia Angwin / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens  —  Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal.  Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime.
More: ACLU
Will Richmond / VideoNuze Analysis:
Comcast App Now Allows Video Downloads to Mobile Devices for On-The-Go Viewing  —  Comcast has announced that Xfinity TV subscribers who use the Xfinity TV Player app on their Android and iOS mobile devices can now download certain TV shows and movies, so they can watch when they're not connected to a broadband network.
Anil Dash:
The Web We Lost  —  The tech industry and its press have treated the rise of billion-scale social networks and ubiquitous smartphone apps as an unadulterated win for regular people, a triumph of usability and empowerment.  They seldom talk about what we've lost along the way in this transition …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Facebook for iOS gets faster News Feed and Timeline, lets you choose an album when uploading photos  —  Facebook on Thursday updated its native iOS app, on the same day it launched its native Android app.  To get the latest speed enhancements for your News Feed and Timeline …
Steven Musil / CNET:
Microsoft investigating possible IE mouse-tracking flaw  —  All versions of the Web browser are vulnerable to flaw that allows attackers track cursor movements on the screen, a security researcher warns.  —  Microsoft is investigating a possible flaw in its Internet Explorer Web browser …

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Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web: