Pinboard

RT @Techmeme: Exclusive: Microsoft's Windows 8 packaging revealed (@tomwarren / The Verge)

RT @Techmeme: Exclusive: Microsoft's Windows 8 packaging revealed (@tomwarren / The Verge)

RT @Techmeme: Acer CEO warns Microsoft to 'think twice' about Surface (@toddbishop / GeekWire)

RT @Techmeme: Acer CEO warns Microsoft to 'think twice' about Surface (@toddbishop / GeekWire)

RT @Techmeme: How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking (@mat / Wired)

RT @Techmeme: How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking (@mat / Wired)

But Apple, famously, hates talking about its own advertising and marketing. That's why it's so interesting to hear one of Apple's senior executives actually say this stuff aloud, on the record.

Foursquare has recently reorganized itself as an exploration app, helping users find and keep track of places to visit, eat, drink and hang out. It has over 20 million users, about half as many as Instagram, which is nothing to sneeze at. But even as it finds new businesses for itself with local deals, it risks being made redundant by bigger social networks.

To back that point up, Bressler, the inventor or co-inventor on about 70 patents, went through how nearly a dozen Samsung devices were similar to Apple's. That includes Samsung's first-- and second-generation Galaxy S devices, as well as the company's Galaxy tablets.

Slashdot flagged a German news story in which an expert noted that mass murderers Anders Breivik and James Holmes both lacked much of a social media presence, leading to the conclusion, in Slashdot’s phrasing, that “not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.”

With that in mind, it’s possible — perhaps even likely — that it was Google and not Apple which decided not to continue the relationship going forward. Maybe we’ll hear the whole story one day, maybe not. At the end of the day though, the reality is that the move is something that both sides probably wanted to some extent. Google for the reasons mentioned above. Apple because Google is now its chief rival in the mobile space.

The element missing from the discussion is that the Olympics are among the only sports broadcasts reviewed by regular TV-beat critics and by viewers not only as good television or not, but as good stewardship or not.

Electronic signature technology company DocuSign recently announced that it had raised $47.5 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, SAP Ventures and an unnamed “large, global institutional investor”. Well-known KPCB partner Mary Meeker also joined the company’s board.

The Bush spy program was first disclosed by The New York Times in December 2005, and the government subsequently admitted that the National Security Agency was eavesdropping on Americans’ telephone calls without warrants if the government believed the person on the other end was overseas and associated with terrorism. The government also secretly enlisted the help of major U.S. telecoms, including AT&T, to spy on Americans’ phone and internet communications without getting warrants as required by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law at the center of the al-Haramain dispute.

Starbucks is going to invest $25 million in Square as well. Prior to the Starbucks agreement, Square was said to be valued at $3.2 billion valuation and was rumored to have raised $200 million in funding. Here are the partnership terms from the press release jointly issued by two companies.

Facebook is supporting the court appeal of a deputy sheriff who lost his job after he ‘Liked’ the Facebook campaign page of his boss’s rival. The case is helping to define the extent of free speech rights in the age of social media.

Our vehicles, of which about a dozen are on the road at any given time, have now completed more than 300,000 miles of testing. They’ve covered a wide range of traffic conditions, and there hasn’t been a single accident under computer control.

Conan pokes fun at Samsung copying Apple | | |

Southwest Airlines Flight SWA3037 - MondoWindow | |

The Romney campaign wants you to download its mobile app to be among the first to find out who Mitt is going to pick as his running mate, but if past history is any guide, you might want to instead be looking at Wikipedia — and whether any of the leading contenders' entries are being suddenly brushed up.

Listings site Craigslist has reportedly asked all general search engines to stop indexing its postings, effectively obsolescing data provider 3Taps and sites and apps which use its API, including the popular PadMapper. According to a post on 3Taps' Twitter account this morning, Craigslist took the action at around midday yesterday. "We are sorry CL has chosen this course of action and are exploring options to restore service," writes the provider. "We may be down for an extended period."

The $2.3 billion Distributed Common Ground System-Army, or DCGS-A, is supposed to serve as the primary source for mining intelligence and surveillance data on the battlefield — everything from informants’ tips to drone camera footage to militants’ recorded phone calls. But after a limited test in May and June, the Army Test and Evaluation Command concluded that the system is “Effective with Significant Limitations, Not Suitable, and Not Survivable.”

Conan pokes fun at Samsung copying Apple | | |

Leo's tool for /8/8

Gmail Search Field Trial | Leo's tool for /8/8 |

The live stream of NASA's Curiosity rover landing garnered more interest than primetime Sunday television, Ustream says. A spokesperson told Mashable that 3.2 million people in total had checked the stream at some point during the landing, with a peak of 500,000 people watching at the same time. That's higher than the estimated viewing numbers for CNN during Sunday primetime, which came in at 426,000, or MSNBC, which had an audience of 365,000 viewers over age two. Ustream's peak audience was lower only than that of Fox, which had an audience of 803,000.

TextMate developer MacroMates announced on Thursday that the code for TextMate 2.0, currently in alpha, is now available via the online GitHub repository. The code is being open sourced with version 3 of the GNU General Public License in order to counteract what some developers see as Apple's increasingly limiting user and developer freedom on the Mac platform.

Still, Blizzard is recommending that all users change their Battle.net passwords and any similar passwords on outside accounts. Users will also be prompted to update their security question/answer pairs and mobile authenticator software in the coming days (physical two-factor authenticators should still be secure, Blizzard said). In the meantime, customer service representatives have been told to use additional methods to verify player identities for those trying to recover their accounts.

Now, just a week later, Craigslist has backpedaled from this position. The Electronic Frontier Foundation noticed Craigslist removed click-through demand today. The site has removed the "exclusive license" language, though the EFF points out it has not reverted all the way to its previously wide open ownership terms of use (in '08 and '11: “craigslist does not claim ownership of content that its users post.”).

1) A cashless economy can make us richer: "One 2003 study estimated that moving from a wholly paper-based network to a completely electronic one could save an economy 1 percent of its annual GDP (a $150 billion sum for the United States)." 2) Hard cash can't talk to us, but virtual cash can -- and it can make us better spenders. You could link a cashless account to a service like Mint that notified you when you went over your monthly self-appointed allowance. 3) ... but it also might increase crime, since software can be hacked and cash will be pushed into the black market: "Financial crime would increase in a cashless society, since it's easier to move electronic currency fast. Paper bills can be unwieldy ... And we shouldn't forget about the hackers who would be delighted by a world in which all financial dealings took place online."