Google Warns of New State-Sponsored Cyberattack Targets
In June, many Google users were surprised to see an unusual greeting at the top of their Gmail inbox, Google home page or Chrome browser. “Warning: We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer.”

On Tuesday, tens of thousands more Google users will begin to see that message. The company said that since it started alerting users to malicious — probably state-sponsored — activity on their computers in June, it has picked up thousands more instances of cyberattacks than it anticipated.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/google-warns-new-state-sponsored-cyberattack-targets/

Homeland Security ‘fusion’ centers spy on citizens, produce ‘shoddy’ work, report says
The ranking Republican on a Senate panel on Wednesday accused the Department of Homeland Security of hiding embarrassing information about its so-called “fusion” intelligence sharing centers, charging that the program has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars while contributing little to the country’s counter terrorism efforts.

In a 107-page report released late Tuesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said that Homeland Security has spent up to $1.4 billion funding fusion centers — in effect, regional intelligence sharing centers– that have produced “useless” reports while at the same time collecting information on the innocent activities of American Muslims that may have violated a federal privacy law.
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14187433-homeland-security-fusion-centers-spy-on-citizens-produce-shoddy-work-report-says?lite

Appcelerator Launches “Innovation Fund” To Help Startups Speed Up Mobile App Development
Appcelerator is all about speeding the development of rich, native mobile apps. One way it does this is with Titanium, its next-gen mobile app development platform. But now it’s looking to accelerate app development* by helping other startups focused on features, capabilities, or verticals that it’s not focused on itself. With that in mind, the startup is introducing the Appcelerator Innovation Fund, through which it will invest in and provide support to promising startups who build apps based on its platform.

In addition to money, startups chosen for the Innovation Fund will also receive access to Appcelerator facilities, while also receiving a whole bunch of other services. Like other accelerator programs, Appcelerator will provide legal and financial guidance, as well as help with business development, engineering, and sales channel support.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/03/appcelerator-innovation-fund/

Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS agree on $1.5 billion T-Mobile merger
Apparently the “significant issues” that stood in the way of a prospective T-Mobile and MetroPCS deal couldn’t have been too onerous. Just a day after acknowledging that talks were underway both boards have approved the deal according to the Wall Street Journal. Details of the deal haven’t been officially announced yet, but Financial Times Deutschland are reporting that the two carriers will be combined into a single unit in which Deutsche Telekom will hold 74 percent of shares. MetroPCS will have a 26 percent stake in the company and receive a $1.5 billion check for its troubles. Expectations are that this will put the kibosh on a recent deal T-Mobile struck with Crown Castle to lease its mobile towers for $2.4 billion. The new larger carrier will maintain the T-Mobile branding with new CEO John Legere at the helm, though, it appears the deal is structured as a reverse merger. Meaning that MetroPCS is in essence taking over T-Mobile and not the other way around.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/03/deutsche-telekom-and-metropcs-boards-approve-t-mobile-merger/

HotelTonight books its first acquisition, reels in SF tech startup PrimaTable and its ex-Google founders
Having raised over $35 million in funding, last-minute hotel booking app developer HotelTonight certainly has the means to make small, strategic technology and talent acquisitions left and right. And that’s exactly what the company is doing.

Today, HotelTonight is announcing its first acquisition since its inception in 2010, snapping up San Francisco-based PrimaTable.

Co-founded by two former Googlers, PrimaTable develops last-minute perishable inventory-demand forecasting and pricing tools for the restaurant industry.
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/10/03/hoteltonight-books-its-first-acquisition-reels-in-tech-startup-primatable-and-its-ex-google-founders/

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Sold $130 Million in Shares over Last Week
The rise of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been monumental of late. Analysts have been forcing their price targets higher after Google keeps a huge lead in internet search and as Android keeps gaining market share in the smartphone universe.
http://247wallst.com/2012/10/02/google-chairman-eric-schmidt-sold-130-million-in-shares-over-last-week/

Skype takes on BT and Sky with launch of new free WiFi service in the UK and Ireland
Traditionally offering free WiFi access to travelers in airports and during seasonal holidays around the world, Microsoft-owned VOIP giant Skype is looking to expand its wireless footprint in the UK and Ireland in a partnership with wireless broadband specialist Wicoms.

The initiative — called Free Skype WiFi — sees high street retailers, hotels and businesses partner with Wicoms directly, where they will receive a dedicated router and Skype hotspot service for them to roll out their own network and offer it to their customers.
http://thenextweb.com/uk/2012/10/02/skype-looks-to-take-on-bt-and-sky-with-new-free-wifi-service-in-the-uk-and-ireland/

Ellen Pao Says Kleiner Perkins Has Now Fired Her
Ellen Pao, the Kleiner Perkins partner who sued her own firm for gender discrimination and retaliation in May, has been fired, she said late Tuesday night.

In an update to a previous answer she had left on Q&A site Quora, Pao wrote, “I have been terminated from my job at KPCB. On Monday afternoon, senior management told me to clean out my office, leave, and not come back.”
http://allthingsd.com/20121002/ellen-pao-says-kleiner-perkins-has-now-fired-her/

Zuck’s Moscow night: A turn on a Russian talk show
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg yucks it up in an awkward interview about McDonald’s, meeting the prime minister, and why he doesn’t like suits — at least, that’s what his half of the conversation suggests.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is known for his awkwardness during interviews, but his most recent one was bound to be awkward even without Zuckerberg’s usual stiffness.

Appearing on Russian late-night TV show “Evening Urgant,” hosted by Ivan Urgant, Zuckerberg talked about meeting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Facebook’s interest in Russian developers.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57524712-93/zucks-moscow-night-a-turn-on-a-russian-talk-show/

Exclusive: Best Buy founder presses on with buyout plan
Best Buy Co Inc founder Richard Schulze and at least four private equity firms have started examining the books of the world’s largest consumer electronics chain, in early steps toward what could become a potential $11 billion buyout, according to people familiar with the matter.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/03/us-bestbuy-idUSBRE89204U20121003

Facebook revamps its Help Center to actually give you the answers you want
Facebook has just undergone a drastic redesign of one of the most important parts of its site that you probably never have been to. Its Help Center has just been redone to make it easier to find the information you need.

Since its launch in 2007, the Help Center was supposed to curate answers to thousands of questions users had. After making tweaks a couple of years later, the social network is updating it again in a way it claims will make it “even easier for you to find the information you need” so that you’ll be able to get back to using the service.
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/10/02/facebook-updates-help-center/

Google Announces New “Lightbox” Ad Format: Advertisers Only Pay When Users Expand The Ad
At Advertising Week, Google today introduced a new ad format called Lightbox, which is a standard ad unit that expands into a super-sized canvas takeover ad after a user hovers their mouse cursor over the ad. The company says that the ad will offer advertisers a way to pay only for engaged users, as advertisers will only pay when the ad is expanded, as opposed to clicked. For users, the ad is designed to minimize accidental expansions, as it requires the user to hover their mouse over the ad for two full seconds before the expansion occurs.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/02/google-announces-new-lightbox-ad-format-advertisers-only-pay-when-users-expand-the-ad/

The New York Times debuts an HTML5 iPad web app to complement its native apps
Step aside, Financial Times and Quartz — there’s now a higher-profile adherent to the HTML5 web app faith.

The New York Times today debuted an HTML5 web app for iPad users. The FT broke ground by abandoning Apple’s App Store in 2011 and investing in an HTML5-driven experience that could readily cross platforms — and didn’t require giving Apple its 30 percent vig. Quartz drew attention just a week ago by debuting a new business-news site that aimed high demographically but bet on a sharable web platform over native apps. And yesterday’s Pew study — which found mobile news consumers using the web over apps 2-to-1 — would seem to support a web-first strategy.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/10/the-new-york-times-debuts-an-html5-ipad-web-app-to-complement-its-native-apps/

Justice Dept. to defend warrantless cell phone tracking
The Obama administration will tell federal judges in New Orleans today that warrantless tracking of the location of Americans’ mobile devices is perfectly legal.

Federal prosecutors are planning to argue that they should be able to obtain stored records revealing the minute-by-minute movements of mobile users over a 60-day period — in this case, T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers — without having to ask a judge to approve a warrant first.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57524109-38/justice-dept-to-defend-warrantless-cell-phone-tracking/

“Like Eating Glass”: Sean Parker on Airtime’s Bumpy Launch, Exec Departures and More
This is how Sean Parker — the famous and sometimes infamous entrepreneur whose legendary credits include Napster, Facebook and Spotify — described how his newest high-profile venture,Airtime, is going so far:

“Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood.”
http://allthingsd.com/20121002/like-eating-glass-sean-parker-on-airtimes-bumpy-launch-exec-departures-and-more/

Zynga and Hasbro partnership yields board game mash-ups like ‘Cityville Monopoly’
Zynga and toy company Hasbro have partnered up to create board games based on several of the game developer’s more popular properties, merging them with well-known titles like Monopoly and Hungry Hungry Hippos, Hasbro revealed.

The company’s Zynga-themed offerings include Cityville Monopoly, Farmville Hungry Hungry Herd, Draw Something, and Words With Friends formatted like classic Scrabble. Most games will come with digital values that contribute to players’ online or mobile gaming experiences, such as redeemable Farm Cash for use in Facebook social titleFarmville.
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/10/1/3439978/zynga-and-hasbro-partnership-yields-board-game-mash-ups-like

Search Inside Gmail Attachments
Gmail has constantly improved its search technology, but there’s something you couldn’t do until recently: search inside attachments. Sure, you could find an attachment if you knew the filename or some keywords from the message. If someone sent you a text file or an HTML file, Gmail indexed its content, but Gmail couldn’t index PDF files, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and other popular attachment formats.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/10/search-inside-gmail-attachments.html

Internet-Media Employment Fuels Digital Job Growth
When it comes to jobs, internet-media businesses are the new mainstream media.

Internet media this year became the media industry’s second-largest employment sector, according to Ad Age DataCenter’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
http://adage.com/article/media/internet-media-employment-fuels-digital-job-growth/237440/

More Mobile News Consumers Choosing Web Over Apps
Mobile apps were supposed to be the reset button for the news industry. The last fifteen years have shown how hard it is to get consumers to pay for content on websites or pay attention to ads there. In the app environment, all that was going to be different.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/10/01/more-mobile-news-consumers-choosing-web-over-apps/

Hey, @SeattlePD: What’s the Latest?
The business of policing, as cops have known since at least the first bobbies on the beat, is partly about being seen on the job, having a local presence, even if it is just twirling a baton down the avenue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/us/seattle-police-department-uses-twitter-to-report-crime.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Hey, Apple: Mapping Takes More Work than You Think
In response to scathing criticism over its new Maps app for mobile devices, Apple CEO Tim Cook last week apologized and admitted that the company “fell short,” but his statement did not hint at the true scale of the job Apple now faces to fix things, experts say.

Cook did say user feedback would play a role. “The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you,” Cook wrote in a letter to customers.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429365/hey-apple-mapping-takes-more-work-than-you-think/

Larry Ellison Just Took On Amazon With A New Cloud Service
Larry Ellison just announced that Oracle was launching a brand new cloud computing service.

Oracle will now be offering “infrastructure as a service” as the industry calls it, or “hardware as a service” as Ellison dubbed it tonight. He was speaking during the opening keynote of the company’s annual OpenWorld conference being held in San Francisco this week.
http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-just-took-on-amazon-with-a-new-cloud-service-2012-9?op=1

FreedomPop’s pay-as-you-go data service launches in beta, offering 500MB of free WiMAX per month
It was almost a year ago that we first heard about FreedomPop, a startup built on the manifesto that every American (yes, you) should have access to free wireless broadband. Ten months later, the pay-as-you-go service is launching in beta, with “free” meaning 500MB of data per month. For the time being, the touted 4G service will come courtesy of Clearwire’s WiMAX network, but FreedomPop says it will switch to Sprint’s LTE spectrum sometime in early 2013. In the meantime, though, you can expect speeds anywhere between 4 and 10 Mbps down, and 1 to 2 Mbps up.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/01/freedompop-launches-in-beta/

How a rogue appeals court wrecked the patent system
In 1972, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) got a new chief judge named Thomas Markey. At Markey’s investiture ceremony, patent attorney Donald Dunner spoke of the “anguish of the patent bar about the treatment of patents in various federal courts.” The CCPA, a DC-based court that heard appeals from the US Patent & Trademark Office, was considered to be relatively pro-patent—but other federal appeals courts had jurisdiction over actual patent lawsuits and tended to be friendlier to patent defendants. Even worse, in Dunner’s view, the Supreme Court itself seemed unfriendly to patent holders.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/how-a-rogue-appeals-court-wrecked-the-patent-system/

White House confirms cyberattack
The White House confirmed but sought to downplay a report by a conservative website on Sunday that it had been the victim of a cyberattack, volunteering to POLITICO that no harm had been done.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Chinese hackers had attacked a computer system in the White House Military Office.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/81847.html

Google Passes Microsoft’s Market Value as PC Loses to Web
Google Inc. (GOOG) has surpassed Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to become the world’s second-largest technology company as computing over the Internet reduces demand for software installed on desktop machines.

Google rose 0.7 percent to $759.98 at 11:13 a.m. in New York, for a market capitalization of about $249.2 billion. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, fell 0.3 percent to $29.67, about a $248.7 billion valuation.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-01/google-passes-microsoft-s-market-value-as-pc-loses-to-web.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-01/google-passes-microsoft-s-market-value-as-pc-loses-to-web.html
Iran on Monday removed online blocks on Gmail but a government Internet filtering committee official said other, additional censorship was being prepared against YouTube, according to reports.

Internet users in Iran found themselves able to freely access their Gmail accounts for the first time since the blocks were suddenly established on September 24.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hR36K96WD9GYoBp51umwiKBb0nYQ

California universities to produce 50 open-source textbooks
California Governor Jerry Brown gave his pen a workout yesterday. In addition to signing legislation prohibiting social network snooping by employers and colleges, he also signed off on a proposal for the state to fund 50 open source digital textbooks. He signed two bills, one to create the textbooks and the other to establish a California Digital Open Source Library to host them, at a meeting with students in Sacramento.

According to a legislative summary, the textbook bill would “require the California Open Education Resources Council to determine a list of 50 lower division courses in the public postsecondary segments for which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials would be developed or acquired.” The council is to solicit bids to produce these textbooks in 2013. The bill makes clear that the council has the option to use “existing high-quality digital open source textbooks and related materials” if those materials fit the requirements.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/california-universities-to-produce-50-open-source-textbooks/

Shorter .uk internet domain proposed by Nominet
Plans to offer UK-based firms shorter internet domain names backed by added security features have been proposed.

The scheme would give businesses the chance to register www.name.uk as their web address. It would run alongside the current www.name.co.uk service.

Applicants would have to prove they had a UK presence and pay a higher fee.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19767014

Five Big Changes In The iOS 6 App Store (And What Developers Should Do)
Some developers are complaining that since the introduction of the Chomp-inspired App Store redesign in iOS 6, sales have noticeably dropped. Others say the changes are good for indie developers. Is the new iOS App Store a step forward or step back for mobile app developers, users, and the app economy?

Whichever side you’re on, there are a number of reasons why developers are feeling the effects. In the new iOS App Store, the user interface encourages a slower search method (flipping through cards, not scrolling through vertical lists). Less attention is given to new releases and category-based “Genius” recommendations are given a higher billing. What’s more, App Store SEO (ASO) is basically a black box that no one seems to understand.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/29/five-big-changes-in-the-ios-6-app-store-and-what-developers-should-do/

Apple iPad dominates tablet-based web browsing with 98% share, report says
A study released on Thursday claims the iPad accounts for nearly of all web traffic originating from tablets, and 54.5 percent of all traffic from mobile devices, to sites running the touch-centric Onswipe platform.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/27/apple-ipad-dominates-tablet-based-web-browsing-with-98-share-report-says

‘NoHomophobes’ Website Measures Use Of Homophobic Language On Twitter
Canadian university officials say they hope their new, web-based initiative will act as a “social mirror” reflecting the “pervasive and damaging” issue of casual homophobia on the Internet.

The site, called NoHomophobes.com, reportedly measures the number of instances several commonly-used anti-gay terms — including “faggot” and “dyke” — are used daily, weekly and yearly on Twitter. The tally of numbers is indeed staggering: for instance, the term “so gay” was mentioned in a total of 800,000 tweets since July, though the most common was undoubtedly “faggot” (used 2.4 million times in the Twittersphere), according to the site.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/nohomophobes-website-homophobic-language-twitter_n_1919268.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&ir=Technology

Yes, the iPhone 5 does vibrate differently
If you’re the proud owner of an iPhone 5, you may have noticed something different about the way that it vibrates. Well, you’re not imagining it, because there is something different about it: the vibrating motor.

Back when the iPhone 4 was introduced, it was still using the same vibration motor that all earlier iPhones had used. This was a rotational vibrator that basically consists of a cylinder with a wedge cut out of it that spins on a motor. The vibration is created by the imbalance of that counterweight.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/28/yes-iphone-5-vibrate-differently/

Spurned by VCs, a chip startup turns to Kickstarter
It’s hard for chip startups to raise funding, but the demands of mobile and cloud computing are providing a window of opportunity for all kinds of innovative silicon-based designs. Thus, when Adapteva couldn’t find a VC backer, its CEO turned instead to Kickstarter.
http://gigaom.com/cloud/spurned-by-vcs-a-chip-startup-turns-to-kickstarter/

Survey: Younger Shoppers Increasingly Using Mobiles To Buy And Compare
The rising star of mulitchannel retail is mobile, according to a survey of U.S. and U.K. consumers conducted by a digital marketing group Econsultancy. It’s not a particularly surprising finding — given the capabilities and pervasiveness of today’s smartphones — but the findings underline the expanding role mobiles are playing in shoppers’ lives.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/28/survey-younger-shoppers-increasingly-using-mobiles-to-buy-and-compare/

A letter from Tim Cook on Maps
To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/

U.S. Is Tightening Web Privacy Rule to Shield Young
Federal regulators are about to take the biggest steps in more than a decade to protect children online.

The moves come at a time when major corporations, app developers and data miners appear to be collecting information about the online activities of millions of young Internet users without their parents’ awareness, children’s advocates say. Some sites and apps have also collected details like children’s photographs or locations of mobile devices; the concern is that the information could be used to identify or locate individual children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/technology/ftc-moves-to-tighten-online-privacy-protections-for-children.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Exclusive: Groupon reshuffles execs, seeks to fix Europe business
Groupon Inc (GRPN.O), the world’s largest online daily deals provider, is reshuffling senior management roles in an attempt to fix its struggling European business — a shake-up that will also include the departure of its chief of international business.

According to an internal memo obtained by Reuters, Chris Muhr, SVP of sales, will now head the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, while Veit Dengler, SVP International, will be leaving the company.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/28/us-groupon-management-idUSBRE88R04I20120928?irpc=932

Sorry, Marketers, You’re Doing Facebook Wrong
If you’re looking to take a day off from posting on Facebook, choose Wednesday, but don’t rest on Sunday or you’ll miss the best opportunity of the week.

That’s the advice from Buddy Media‘s “Strategies for Effective Wall Posts: A Timeline Analysis,” a report based on activity from 1,800 of the world’s biggest brand pages from April 1 to May 31.
http://mashable.com/2012/09/28/marketers-facebook-wrong/

Sharp says making adequate volumes of display used in iPhone5
Sharp Corp is making “adequate volumes” of displays it is known to supply for Apple Inc’s new iPhone5, a company executive said, indicating that a possible bottleneck in supplies of screens may have eased.

Analysts had blamed a shortfall in supplies of display for leaving Apple with too few iPhones to meet burgeoning demand at its launch this month.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/28/us-sharp-iphone-idUSBRE88R0I420120928?irpc=932

Apple’s new Passbook not quite ready for primetime
Using the app for what it’s advertised for — scanning barcodes — works as intended. But getting to that point was more complex than it should be. In all, the app feels incomplete and perhaps rushed. In other words, it doesn’t feel like an Apple product yet.
http://gigaom.com/apple/apples-new-passbook-isnt-quite-ready-for-prime-time/

Facebook bug creates wall posts that can never be deleted
A recently found Facebook bug lets you post un-deletable messages to friends’ walls.

Here’s how it works: Once you’ve blocked a person on Facebook, he or she can no longer see content you’ve posted on the social network, including posts you’ve made to their own wall. Since the content is no longer visible, it can’t be deleted. The only way either party can see the post again is if the block is removed.
http://mashable.com/2012/09/26/facebook-bug-creates-wall-posts-that-can-never-be-deleted/

TV will be Apple’s undoing
Apple had snafus under Steve Jobs—antenna-gate, MobileMe, the frequently obtuse Siri. Its latest snafu, a faulty maps application installed on the new version of the iPhone, isn’t a testament to the inferiority of Apple’s current management. The snafu will be easily rectified by, if nothing else, Google releasing and Apple approving a version of the Google Maps app for the iPhone 5.

For entirely different reasons, though, the map mess demonstrates why circumstances are turning against Apple’s current business model. Simply, content is king again. However much it might benefit Apple’s business model to force users to patronize its own maps app, the company won’t get far in trying to deny them Google’s far superior app. Apple for a while managed to tame the power of content and make it subservient, but that day is coming to an end.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390444813104578018301108074448-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwNjAyODY3Wj.html

LG Display Files Patent Suit Against Samsung
LG Display Co. said it filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against its biggest rival, Samsung Electronics Co., in a South Korea civil court over the use of advanced OLED displays in smartphones and tablet PCs.

The lawsuit alleges infringements of seven patents on the design of OLED panels, driver circuitry and device design, LG Display said Thursday. It said it would seek damages and a permanent injunction against the sale in South Korea of infringing devices, including Samsung’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy S III, as well as the Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet computer and Galaxy Note hybrid phone-tablet.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390443507204578021572847519276-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwNzAyODc3Wj.html

EU set to charge Microsoft over ruling breach
Microsoft Corp will be charged for failing to comply with a 2009 ruling ordering it to offer a choice of web browsers, the European Union’s antitrust chief said on Thursday, which could mean a hefty fine for the company.

U.S.-based Microsoft’s more than decade-long battle with the European Commission has already landed it with fines totaling more than a billion euros ($1.28 billion).
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/27/us-microsoft-eu-idUSBRE88Q0DW20120927?irpc=932

New Zealand Prime Minister Apologizes To Kim Dotcom
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has apologized to Kim Dotcom after a report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security found that the government illegally monitored the Megaupload founder. The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) carried out surveillance on Dotcom, but did not check out his residency status, instead relying on incorrect information supplied by the police.
http://torrentfreak.com/new-zealand-prime-minister-apologizes-to-kim-dotcom-120927/

Everything You Need To Know About The Startup Ecosystem In Russia And Eastern Europe
As Dave McClure and Geeks on the Plane are touring Moscow, Tallinn and Zagreb this week, I have finally written this post summarizing the result of a year-long research project exploring the Russian and Eastern European startup ecosystem. The results will hopefully help those who weren’t invited to join the GOAP crowd to get a better sense of what is happening in the former socialist countries from Slovenia to Russia.

There is a lot of action in Eastern Europe, but for lack of time I simply cannot tell all the stories. Instead I have pulled together names and links, and created a few social media lists to connect startup entrepreneurs, accelerators, and investors in Russia and Eastern Europe on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/26/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-startup-ecosystem-in-russia-and-eastern-europe/

Infamous AOL Squatter Launches Education Startup
A few months ago, an ambitious 20-year-old tech entrepreneur named Eric Simons made headlines when it was discovered he was secretly living at AOL’s Palo Alto campus, posing as an employee. He gained access to the swanky office by being part of the first class through the Imagine K12 tech incubator back when he was working on a start-up called ClassConnect with a few college partners. He received $20,000 in venture capital, worked up some great energy for the start-up and made some connections with investors. Sounds like a perfect story for a young entrepreneur, doesn’t it?
http://www.technapex.com/2012/09/infamous-aol-squatter-launches-education-startup/

FCC chair grants ATTs wish for a nationwide 4g band
AT&T wants to rejigger a useless hunk of airwaves for LTE use, but to do so it needs special dispensation from the FCC. Today chairman Julius Genachowski signed off its plan and officially set the ball rolling toward opening the WCS band for 4G.
http://gigaom.com/2012/09/26/fcc-chair-grants-atts-wish-for-a-nationwide-4g-band/

Snubbed by Apple, Foursquare makes its maps experience better on iPhone
How does the saying go? The best offense is a good defense.

Fresh off rejection, Foursquare is making a full court press on iOS with the release of an iPhone 5 and iOS 6-ready version of its check-in application that touts — go figure — a more personalized maps experience for better exploring cities everywhere.

In version 5.3, released today for iPhone, the three-year-old startup has made design and feature improvements to the Explore tab to help users more easily find places they might like.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/26/foursquare-iphone-update/

140 Characters of Risk: Some CEOs Fear Twitter
When General Electric Co. GE -0.72% Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt tweeted for the first time this month, his “Hello Twitter” was greeted with some snarky replies, including this one: “@JeffImmelt how come my grandfather got on twitter before you?”
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390444083304578018423363962886-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwNTAyODU3Wj.html

Behind the public mudslinging, lawmakers still trying to work an online poker deal
If the recent airing of the dirty laundry — including the trading of public insults between Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller — is any indication, the delicate effort to legalize online poker is mired in deep political quicksand.

While that show has been playing for the public, however, lawmakers are continuing to work on a backup plan, in which they hope to avoid explosive public fights altogether and quietly resolve the poker standoff behind closed doors.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/sep/26/behind-public-mud-slinging-lawmakers-still-trying-/

FCC Chairman Supports ‘Innovative’ Uber
From some of the comments espoused by certain members of the D.C. Council yesterday about the on-demand livery sedan service Uber, one couldn’t be blamed for thinking some of the District’s legislators operate from an antediluvian mentality.

But Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is all for the troublemaking car service. In a speech todayaddressing the growth of the broadband economy, Genachowski held up Uber as a model of innovation that creates competition for a physical product.
http://dcist.com/2012/09/fcc_chairman_supports_innovative_ub.php

A Deep Dive into Facebook and Datalogix: What’s Actually Getting Shared and How You Can Opt Out
We’ve been seeing a range of reports about Facebook partnering up with marketing company Datalogix to assess whether users go to stores in the physical world and buy the products they saw in Facebook advertisements. A lot of the reports aren’t getting into the nitty gritty of what data is actually shared between Facebook and Datalogix, so the goal of this blog post is to dive into the details. We’re glad to see that Facebook is taking a number of steps to avoid sharing sensitive data with Datalogix, but users who are uncomfortable with the program should opt out (directions below). Hopefully, reporting on this issue will make more people aware of how our shopping data is being used for a lot more than offering us discounts on tomato soup.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/09/deep-dive-facebook-and-datalogix-whats-actually-getting-shared-and-how-you-can-opt

Trade group exposes 100,000 passwords for Google, Apple engineers
The world’s largest professional organization for computer engineers exposed user names, plaintext passwords, and website activity for almost 100,000 of its members, some of whom are employees of Apple, Google, IBM, and other large companies.

The sensitive information was contained in 100 gigabytes worth of website logs that were publicly available for at least a month on servers maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, according to a blog post published by a recent graduate and current teaching assistant at the University of Copenhagen. The 99,979 unique user names Radu Dragusin said he found in the cache comprises about 24 percent of 411,000 members counted in the 2011 IEEE Annual Report.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/09/ieee-trade-group-exposes-100000-password-for-google-apple-engineers/

Cablevision takes side of broadcasters in fight against Aereo
The broadcast industry has received support from an unusual source in its legal battle against Aereo: a new company that distributes local TV signals over the Internet.

In an amicus brief filed late Friday in federal court in New York, Cablevision Systems Corp.said Aereo’s service violates copyright laws. What makes this filing significant is that it is a legal victory Cablevision scored against the TV industry that Aereo has cited in making the case that its service does not violate copyright law.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-cablevision-aereo-20120924,0,2379935.story

For Warren Buffett, the cash option is priceless
If holding cash in your portfolio for little return is driving you crazy, maybe it’s time to look at it the way Warren Buffett does.

Mr. Buffett, the world’s most successful (and richest) value investor, is sitting on almost $41-billion (U.S.) of cash at his Berkshire Hathaway holding company, the most in a year. Partly, that heap of greenbacks is a safety blanket. But it’s something more. As with most matters Buffett, the strategy is more complicated than it looks, Alice Schroeder says.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/for-warren-buffett-the-cash-option-is-priceless/article4565468/?service=mobile

Texas Instruments lessens focus on mobile devices
U.S. chipmaker will not invest as much in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as the market opportunity is “less attractive”, but will focus on industrial customers such as carmakers instead.
http://www.zdnet.com/texas-instruments-lessens-focus-on-mobile-devices-7000004815/

Mayer to Yahoos at Not-So-Radical Confab: Personalization, Mobile, Rule of 100 Million and — Most of All — the Four C’s!
New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer took to the stage today at the Silicon Valley Internet company’s URL’s Café on its Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ campus to outline — in very broad strokes — her plans for the future.

Very broad, as it turned out, and full of corporate bromides that many in attendance said were very well delivered by the former Google exec.
http://allthingsd.com/20120925/mayer-to-yahoos-at-not-so-radical-confab-personalization-mobile-rule-of-100-million-and-most-of-all-the-four-cs/

Cellphones Are Eating the Family Budget
Heidi Steffen and her husband used to treat themselves most weeks to steak at Sodak Shores, a restaurant overlooking a lake near their hometown of Milbank, S.D. Then they each got an iPhone, and the rib-eyes started making fewer appearances.

“Every weekend, we’d do something,” said Ms. Steffen, a registered nurse whose husband works at a tire shop. “Now maybe once every month or two, we get out.”
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390444083304578018731890309450-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwNjAyODY3Wj.html

Xbox Challenged as Cable Plots to Make Consoles Obsolete
AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) are gearing up for a push to deliver video games directly to televisions, said people with knowledge of the matter, a strategy shift that poses a threat to traditional consoles such as the PlayStation, Wii and Xbox.
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-25/xbox-challenged-as-cable-plots-to-make-consoles-obsolete.html

Google Play Books update adds definitions, translations, and Maps integration
Google has updated its Books app for Android with a slew of new features, including in-text definitions, translations, and Google Maps integration. The updated Google Play Books app also makes it easier to highlight and add notes to any text, and automatically syncs them across all devices.

http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386184/google-play-books-app-update-android-maps-translation-dictionary

Oracle woos open sourcers with free Java web framework
Battling against an increasingly crowded field of Java web development frameworks, Oracle – ordinarily never one to turn away a buck – has decided to bite the bullet and offer a version of its Application Development Framework (ADF) as a free download.

Oracle ADF Essentials is a slightly stripped-down version of Oracle ADF, the Java EE framework that Oracle uses to build many of its own applications, including its Oracle Fusion suite of business software. The main difference between ADF Essentials and the full product is that developers can download ADF Essentials – and even deploy it on production servers – without paying any license fees.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/25/oracle_adf_essentials_launch/

With Smartphone Deals, Patents Become a New Asset Class
David Berten has spent his legal career as a mercenary student of technological change. He has educated himself in one field after another: chemical coatings, genetics, navigation systems, semiconductors and digital communications software.

Keeping up is a constant challenge. This month, the 48-year-old lawyer was in his Chicago office, discussing past cases while scanning news Web sites and technology blogs for details on Apple’s iPhone 5, which was being introduced in San Francisco that day.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/with-smartphone-deals-patents-become-a-new-asset-class/

New Report: Governments Grow Increasingly Repressive Online, Activists Fight Back
Brutal attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are among the diverse threats to internet freedom emerging over the past two years, according to a new study released today by Freedom House. Despite these threats, Freedom on the Net 2012: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media found that increased pushback by civil society, technology companies, and independent courts resulted in several notable victories.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/article/new-report-governments-grow-increasingly-repressive-online-activists-fight-back

Watch the First-Ever TV Episode to Premiere on Twitter [VIDEO]
For the first time ever, a full television episode has premiered on Twitter.

This social-media distinction goes to Fox‘s Raising Hope, a comedy that follows the misadventures of the Chance family, as they raise a toddler named Hope, according to its official website. The first episode of the show’s current third season had its Twitter debut on Sept. 21, and will be available until Sept. 27, according to a release. Its official television premiere will be on Oct. 2
http://mashable.com/2012/09/25/tv-premiere-twitter/

StumbleUpon releases new site redesign in beta, featuring Pinterest-like stumbles and lists
Following a traffic nose-dive from last December’s site redesign, the loss of its CEO and the recent release of a redesigned iOS app, StumbleUpon is today revealing a site redesign in beta.

Last week’s iOS redesign introduced a cleaner and livelier look which suggested the company was heading in the right direction. Today, however, the company appears to be looking towards Pinterest’s successful and highly mimicked design for inspiration.
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/09/25/stumbleupon-releases-new-site-redesign-beta-featuring-pinterest-like-stumbles-lists/

Google’s Schmidt Says Up to Apple to Decide on Maps App
Google Inc. (GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company will need Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s approval to offer its maps application for the iPhone, after the software was replaced by an Apple program that’s been criticized by reviewers.

“We haven’t done anything yet with Google Maps,” Schmidt told reporters in Tokyo today. Apple would “have to approve it. It’s their choice,” Schmidt said, declining to say if the Mountain View, California-based company submitted an application to Apple for sale through its App Store.
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-25/google-s-schmidt-says-up-to-apple-to-decide-on-maps-app.html

Survey: Developers say Facebook could face mobile disruption; Windows 8 holds promise but far from sure thing
A majority of mobile developers believe Facebook is at risk of being disrupted by a mobile-first social media startup.

Developers believe Windows 8 “holds significant promise but is far from a sure thing” and they are most interested in the shared development capabilities between Windows 8 desktop and tablet.
http://seattletimes.com/html/microsoftpri0/2019254308_survey_developers_say_facebook_could_face_mobile_d.html

Twitter Cofounder Suggests A Replacement For The Follower Count
Twitter cofounder Ev Williams — who remains on the company’s board — hinted Monday that follower counts may soon become the second most important number to users.

“The thing I think would be more interesting than followers is… retweets,” clarifying that a simple measure of followers “doesn’t capture your distribution.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/twitter-cofounder-suggests-a-replacement-for-the-f

Kicked to the Curb: Kickstarter’s Hidden Wasteheap of Killed Projects
On Friday, Sept. 14, the team at Vinted Goods was riding high. Their Kickstarter project for a line of vintage-style leather bags and accessories had doubled its original goal, Details magazine had dubbed them “Another Kickstarter Success”, and they were closing in on the deadline. Then, 10 hours before the project was due to succeed, it vanished — replaced by a page that simply says, “Sorry, this project is no longer available.”

According to Vinted, the project (which is still cached on Google) was taken down over an intellectual property dispute: Spencer Nikosey, former mentor to Vinted Goods’ product designers and owner of design shop Killspencer, issued a cease-and-desist letter to the team, then invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a notice to Kickstarter. Kickstarter responded by summarily yanking Vinted’s campaign.
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/kickstarter-takedowns/

Frustrated with poor mobile sales, publishers blame ad agencies
Much digital news consumption is moving to mobile devices. But the money isn’t yet following. UK publishers say slow-coach ad agencies still wedded to desktop web ads are at fault.
http://paidcontent.org/2012/09/23/frustrated-with-poor-mobile-sales-publishers-blame-ad-agencies/

http://paidcontent.org/2012/09/23/frustrated-with-poor-mobile-sales-publishers-blame-ad-agencies/
Facebook is working with a controversial data company called Datalogix that can track whether people who see ads on the social networking site end up buying those products in stores.
Amid growing pressure for the social networking site to prove the value of its advertising, Facebook is gradually wading into new techniques for tracking and using data about users that raise concerns among privacy advocates.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/23/business/facebook-datalogix/

Village Voice Management Buyout Leaves Backpage.com Behind
A group of Village Voice Media’s senior managers has agreed to buy from its current ownership the print publications and digital properties — with the notable exclusion of Backpage.com.

A spokeswoman for the buyers declined to disclose terms of the deal, including information about any financial backers. But no one involved with the current ownership of Village Voice Media will hold any part of the new company, to be called Voice Media Group, the spokeswoman said.
http://adage.com/article/media/village-voice-management-buyout-leaves-backpage/237371/

Covering the World of Business, Digital Only
Business titans are generally not prone to self-appraisal, and when they do take stock, it usually begins and ends with a list of their conquests.

David G. Bradley, the owner of Atlantic Media, has never been like that. He built and then sold the Advisory Board and the Corporate Executive Board, two research advisory firms, but he never trumpeted that or his fancy education — he was a Fulbright scholar with a law degree from Georgetown and an M.B.A. from Harvard — as a significant credential.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/business/media/with-digital-only-quartz-atlantic-to-cover-business-world.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www

iPhone 5 First Weekend Sales Top Five Million
Apple® today announced it has sold over five million of its new iPhone® 5, just three days after its launch on September 21, and more than 100 million iOS devices have been updated with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. iPhone 5 is available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on September 28 and more than 100 countries by the end of the year. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeded the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders have been shipped to customers, many are scheduled to be shipped in October.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/09/24iPhone-5-First-Weekend-Sales-Top-Five-Million.html

Google shares hit record high, find favor on Street
Google Inc shares set an all-time high on Monday, with the Web giant’s reliable advertising business back in vogue among Wall Street investors disenchanted with younger social media companies.

The stock reached $748.90 in afternoon trading, inching past a previous record set in November 2007 of $747.24. It traded below $300 in 2009 during the global economic crisis and remained under pressure in the ensuing years as investors worried that Google’s best years were behind it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/net-us-google-high-idUSBRE88N0Q320120924

Groupon Has Bought Restaurant Reservations And Discount Provider Savored
Groupon continues its acquisition march to beef up its service and take itself beyond daily deals. Today it announced that it has bought Savored, a restaurant reservations and discount meal provider. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Savored is used by some 1,000 restaurants and gives diners discounts of up to 40% when they book through the site. Much of Groupon’s existing restaurant business is based around paying for food up front, while this gives Groupon more scope to cover other functions like table bookings. Savored exists in the same category as Pirq, which also offers restaurant discounts to help facilitate “yield management” at restaurants — or the ability to better balance peaks and troughs in customer foodfall, and subsequent supply/productivity issues.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/24/groupon-is-buying-restaurant-reservations-and-discount-provider-savored/

Foxconn Plant Closed After Riot, Company Says
Foxconn Technology, a major supplier to some of the world’s electronics giants, including Apple, said it had closed one of its large Chinese plants Monday after the police were called in to break up a fight among factory employees.

A spokesman said some people had been hurt and detained by the police after the disturbance escalated into a riot involving more than 1,000 workers late Sunday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/technology/foxconn-plant-in-china-closed-after-worker-riot.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Even Sleeping Smartphones Could Soon Hear Spoken Commands
Speech recognition software company Nuance is working with chip makers on how to build a chipset for a mobile device that would let users get assistance from a smartphone without touching it—even when it’s in power-saving “sleep” mode—by simply speaking to it.

Vlad Sejnoha, Nuance Communications’ chief technology officer, says the company is working with “a number of” chip companies who are “thinking very actively” about how to make this sort of persistent listening work in a low-power way.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429316/even-sleeping-smartphones-could-soon-hear-spoken/

Crowds Gather at Apple Stores for iPhone 5 Launch
Customers in nine countries are gathering for the release of Apple Inc.’s AAPL +0.83% latest iPhone amid signs of heavy demand for the high-profile handset.

Crowds started forming earlier this week outside an Apple retail store in New York as eager customers waited to be among the first to get the new smartphone. The iPhone 5 went on sale Friday morning in Australia and Japan, and releases follow at 8 a.m. local time in Singapore, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444032404578008210680421002.html

YouTube Testing Feature To Quiz You While You’re Watching A Video
YouTube videos may soon be getting a little more interactive. There’s now a page on the YouTube website describing a feature called “Video Questions Editor Beta,” which was spotted by the Dutch tech site WebSonic.nl.

The page itself is pretty bare-bones, but it describes the feature as a way for “multiple questions to be displayed on top of your video during playback that a viewer can answer.” So video producers can add an interactive element to their content — imagine adding little quizzes to an educational video or introducing product questions to a video ad.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/youtube-video-questions-editor/

iPhone 5 review
Ah, to review the iPhone 5; what a blessing, and what a curse. It’s actually funny to think that there was a time not that long ago that the iPhone wasn’t even a thing, let alone an iconic part of pop culture. A time when an Apple-made phone was just a fantasy; a blogger’s fever-dream; a secret glimmer in the eye of Steve Jobs and his team of engineers and designers.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/21/3363238/iphone-5-review

W3C announces plan to deliver HTML 5 by 2014, HTML 5.1 in 2016
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the group that manages development of the main specifications used by the Web, has proposed a new plan that would see the HTML 5 spec positioned as a Recommendation—which in W3C’s lingo represents a complete, finished standard—by the end of 2014. The group plans a follow-up, HTML 5.1, for the end of 2016.

Under the new plan, the HTML Working Group will produce an HTML 5.0 Candidate Recommendation by the end of 2012 that includes only those features that are specified, stable, and implemented in real browsers. Anything controversial or unstable will be excluded from this specification. The group will also remove anything known to have interoperability problems between existing implementations. This Candidate Recommendation will form the basis of the 5.0 specification.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/09/w3c-announces-plan-to-deliver-html-5-by-2014-html-5-1-in-2016/

Google Welcomes Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s “The Internship” on Campus
You wouldn’t know that relations between Google and Hollywood are testy by the week they’ve had together.

Google has taken in movie stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn with open arms, lending its campus as the set for their upcoming film “The Internship.”
http://allthingsd.com/20120920/google-welcomes-vince-vaughn-and-owen-wilsons-the-internship-on-campus/

Swiss Federal Railways Says Apple Copied Its Iconic Railway Clock
Switzerland’s Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, or Swiss Federal Railway service, has accused Apple of using their iconic clock in its Clock app for iPad without permission, according to a report in the Swiss newspaper Blick.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/20/swiss-federal-railways-says-apple-copied-its-iconic-railway-clock/

Fear & Loathing in Nerdtown: Apple Maps & Twitter Shutoffs
My Twitter feed is full of people bitching about the new Apple Maps in iOS6 today, plus IFTTT shutting down pushing tweets into other places because of Twitter’s new TOS. Pretty different things, but in my part of the Twittersphere, similar sense of outrage.
http://lilly.tumblr.com/post/31947534763/fear-loathing-in-nerdtown-apple-maps-twitter

Chart This: 160 “Strategic Buyers” of Tech Companies
In the technology world, big companies that buy smaller ones often will map out dozens of potential acquisition targets.

Why shouldn’t the start-ups and their investors be able to size up the potential buyers?

Now they can. Investment banker Terence Kawaja, who previously published the somewhat-infamous charts showing how 1,240 companies in online advertising connect to each other, this time ginned up a “strategic buyer” chart of the 160 largest “relevant buyers of digital media start-ups,” arranged by their propensity for striking deals, among other attributes.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/09/20/chart-this-160-strategic-buyers-of-tech-companies/

Facebook Turns Off Facial Recognition In The EU, Gets The All-Clear On Several Points From Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner On Its Review
The ongoing investigation into Facebook’s transparency on user data and privacy by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner has come to a positive conclusion for the social network. The DPC, whose decisions had wider-ranging implications for all of Facebook’s business in Europe, had made several recommendations earlier in the year to bring Facebook’s policies in line with that of data protection regulations in the region. And it has now officially announced that “the great majority of the recommendations have been fully implemented to the satisfaction of this Office.” Key to Facebook’s success is that it is turning off its facial recognition features, also known as “Tag Suggest”: This feature has already been turned off for new users in the EU, the DPC notes, “and templates for existing users will be deleted by 15 October.”
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/21/facebook-turns-off-facial-recognition-in-the-eu-gets-the-all-clear-from-irelands-data-protection-commissioner-on-its-review/

Verizon CFO says unlimited is ‘going by the wayside’, many customers embrace Share Everything
Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told attendees at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York today that unlimited data plans are no longer relevant and the carrier’s Share Everything plan is doing well.

“We are surprised on shared from many different aspects,” said Shammo, as first reported by CNET. “…More people are going to shared than we actually anticipated. And the thing that really surprised us is we have a lot of people coming off unlimited to go to shared.”
http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/20/verizon-cfo-says-unlimited-thing-is-going-by-the-wayside-customers-embrace-share-everything/

Exclusive: Facebook to charge merchants to run offers
Facebook Inc said it will start charging businesses to run Offers on its social network, turning a previously free service into a potential revenue generator at a time when Wall Street is demanding new sources of growth and profit from the company.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-facebook-offers-idUSBRE88J0N220120920

New Apple maps app under fire from users
Inaccuracies and misplaced towns and cities in Apple’s new map software have provoked anger from users.

In June Apple announced it would stop using Google Maps in favour of its own system, created using data from navigation specialist TomTom.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19659736

F.T.C. Still Expects to Resolve Google Antitrust Inquiry by Year’s End
The Federal Trade Commission intends to decide by the end of the year whether to bring legal action against Google for anticompetitive practices, Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the commission, said on Wednesday in Washington.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/f-t-c-still-expects-to-resolve-google-antitrust-inquiry-by-years-end/

Apple and publishers subpoena Amazon in ebook pricing case
With the ebook pricing settlement recently approved, and the Department of Justice’s trial against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin set to begin next June, Apple has subpoenaed Amazon in a Washington State court.
http://paidcontent.org/2012/09/20/apple-and-publishers-subpoena-amazon-in-ebook-pricing-case/

Pirate Bay Financier Files For Bankruptcy, Focus Shifts To Peter Sunde
It is looking increasingly unlikely that the world’s largest entertainment companies will be able to recover any significant amount of money from the individuals convicted in the Pirate Bay trial. After a movie studio moved last month to have Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij made bankrupt, former Pirate Bay financier and multi-millionaire businessman Carl Lundström has filed for bankruptcy under his own steam. The focus of the studios now falls on former site spokesman Peter Sunde.
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-financier-files-for-bankruptcy-focus-shifts-to-peter-sunde-120920/

History, As Recorded on Twitter, Is Vanishing From The Web, Say Computer Scientists
Almost 30 per cent of recorded history, shared over social media such as Twitter, has disapeared, according to a new study of the Egyptian uprising and other significant events
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429274/history-as-recorded-on-twitter-is-vanishing-from/

How Much Tech Can One City Take?
Last year, when Mayor Ed Lee heard that Twitter was planning to move its headquarters out of San Francisco and down to the peninsula, he quickly consulted with his digital experts—his two daughters, Brianna, 27, and Tania, 30. Was the company important enough to make a top priority? “Of course it’s important, Daddy!” they told him. “We tweet all the time. You have to keep them in town.”
http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/how-much-tech-can-one-city-take

Major League Baseball Hopes iPhone Tickets Will Be a Hit
While riding to San Francisco’s AT&T Park on Thursday, an alert popped up on my phone letting me know that the Giants game was nearby, even though I was still on the train nearing the ballpark.

As I neared the gate, I simply pulled out my just-updated iPhone and a bar code appeared that was scanned in, taking the place of a physical ticket.
http://allthingsd.com/20120919/major-league-baseball-hopes-iphone-tickets-will-be-a-hit/

Facebook tests automatic ‘Photo Sync’ uploads on Android
Facebook has begun testing a new feature for Android owners that syncs photos you shoot on your phone straight to your Facebook account. It’s a hybrid of Google+’s instant photo-upload feature and Apple’s Photostream, which uploads any picture you take to the cloud and syncs it with your other iOS devices and computers. With Facebook’s Photo Sync, any time you take a picture on your Android device, the photo uploads but remains private inside a “Synced from Phone” tab inside the social network’s new Photos page.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/19/3359222/facebook-automatic-photo-sync-uploads-android

Microsoft’s Surface challenge: Proving it’s a premium product worth a premium price
I think there’s a market for premium, differentiated PC/tablet hybrids that aren’t trying to compete primarily on price. I’m hoping Microsoft’s Surface proves this category exists.
http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-surface-challenge-proving-its-a-premium-product-worth-a-premium-price-7000004492/