November 7, 2013 06:00 PDT | 09:00 EDT | 13:00 UTC
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>> TWTR > FB: Twitter raises $1.82B, pricier value than Facebook, by Sarah Frier, Lee Spears: "Twitter yesterday sold 70 million shares at $26 each, putting the microblogging service at 12.4 times estimated 2014 sales of $1.14 billion... That is higher than the 11.6 times that Facebook was trading at yesterday and similar to LinkedIn Corp.'s multiple of 12.2 times sales." [Yes, the universe is mad. Echo chamber count: 50.] Bloomberg
>>>> DATAVIZ: Brilliant look at Twitter IPO winners EquityZen
>>>> How Biz Stone's biggest mistake spawned Twitter TechCrunch
>> DORSEY DAY: Square exploring 2014 IPO with banks, by Douglas MacMillan: "Technology entrepreneur Jack Dorsey is trying to pull off two high-profile initial public offerings in the span of one year. Square Inc., the payments startup with a square credit-card reader that plugs into Apple and Android-based mobile devices, has held discussions with banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, about a 2014 IPO.... No bank has been hired and the timing of a deal could change.... Square Chief Executive Officer Dorsey co-founded both San Francisco companies [Twitter and Square] and remains chairman of the microblogging website." Wall Street Journal (paywalled)
>>>> Minting Cash: How Square designed a product with no design at all The Verge
>> SOFTIE CLOUD: Microsoft expands Office Web Apps functionality, by Tony Bradley: "Peers, friends, or family can create, add, and modify content simultaneously in the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint Web Apps. Microsoft added real-time presence that identifies where your various collaborators are currently working in the document, so you can make sure two people aren't editing the same thing and easily avoid conflicts." PCWorld
>>>> Microsoft adds Yammer to Office 365 Enterprise, introduces real-time co-authoring to its Web apps TNW
>> HIGH RENT: Microsoft is making an astonishing $2 billion per year from Android patent royalties, by Jay Yarrow: "... says Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund in a new note on the company... This money, says Sherlund, helps Microsoft hide the fact that its mobile and Xbox groups are burning serious cash. For the past few years, Microsoft reported the revenue and operating losses of Entertainment and Devices, which was the group that housed Xbox, Windows Phone, and those Android royalty payments. That group always seemed to be profitable, but Sherlund says it's largely because of the Android money." Business Insider
>> MICROSOFT MISCHIEF: Skype tweaks Desktop API plans: Chat still going away, call recording and device compatibility to stay for now, by Emil Protalinski: "Instead of retiring the Desktop API later this year as it originally announced, Skype is now keeping what it says are the most widely used features: call recording and compatibility with hardware devices. Unfortunately, Chat functionality is still going away. The changes mean that software supporting headsets, cameras, and other hardware that work with Skype should continue to function. Third-party applications that connect with Skype are, however, still out of luck." TNW
>>>> Skype offers partial API reprieve to call recorders and hardware apps Ars Technica
>> STAT DU JOUR: Lenovo profit up 36 percent on smartphone, tablet demand, by Michael Kan: "The company is still ranked as the world's largest PC vendor, and makes most of its revenue in notebooks. But a growing source of revenue for the company has been tablets and smartphones. For two consecutive quarters, Lenovo's combined shipments of smartphones and tablets crossed those of its PCs. The company's mobile and home products business, which includes smart TVs, now makes up 15 percent of its total revenue." PCWorld
>> GOOGLE OGLE: Google says its mystery barges may be used as interactive space where people can learn about its technology, by Matthew Panzarino: "The barges, four discovered in all (going by registration numbers) at this point, are floating structures that comprise shipping containers, which Google has a history of using in its data centers. The current structures are said to have large windows cut in them, which could form a presentation space. As we mentioned last week, having a physical demonstration location for products like Google's head-mounted Glass computer would make sense. Effectively demonstrating their capabilities is key to getting any widespread adoption rolling." TechCrunch
>> WORST OF BREED: Adobe users' purloined passwords were PATHETIC, by Simon Sharwood: "Adobe's security breach just got worse for the company and the world, after a security researcher revealed that 1.9 million of the company's customers us the string '123456' as their password." The Register
>> BEST OF BREED: Facebook goes open source with query engine for big data, by Joab Jackson: "Potentially raising the bar on SQL scalability, Facebook has released as open source a SQL query engine it developed called Presto that was built to work with petabyte-sized data warehouses... The company has scaled the software to run on a 1000-node cluster... Unlike Hive, Presto does not use MapReduce, which involves writing results back to disk. Instead, Presto compiles parts of the query on the fly and does all of its processing in memory. As a result, Facebook claims Presto is 10 times better in terms of CPU efficiency and latency than the Hive and MapReduce combo." InfoWorld
>>>> Facebook open sources its SQL-on-Hadoop engine, and the web rejoices GigaOM
>> GHOST SIGHTINGS: Foxconn testing bigger iPad production ahead of 2014 launch?, by Ashleigh Allsopp: "Chinese site PadNews cites sources who have 'learned from Foxconn' that Apple is working on a tablet with a 11.4in or 12.9in display that could be ready for release in spring 2014. At present, Apple's iPad Air sports a 9.7in display, while the iPad mini has a 7.9in display." Macworld
>> COMING ATTRACTIONS: Samsung admits its software needs improving, commits half of R&D workforce, by Aaron Souppouris: "It's true that software imperfections have yet to hamper Samsung's march to global dominance... Samsung isn't taking any chances; [Samsun CEO] Kwon says that half of his Research and Development (R&D) workforce is focused on software, and the efforts to improve software are likely to grow moving forward. Given the company is currently spending over $3 billion per quarter on R&D, that represents a colossal investment in software." The Verge
>>>> Samsung: 2014 phones to have twice the pixels, folding displays by 2015 Gizmodo
>> Microsoft and Facebook sponsor Internet Bug Bounty program, offer cash for hacking the Internet stack TNW
>> Always be coding: The ABCs of acing an interview Microsoft JobsBlog
>> Google starts testing ART, a potential replacement for Dalvik in Android GigaOM
>> Google walks away from Microsoft's IE9 Computerworld
>> Yes, parts of KitKat are exclusive to the Nexus 5. Here's exactly what that means Computerworld
>> Google crawler tricked into performing SQL injection attacks using decade-old technique Ars Technica
>> Blockbuster goes bye-bye: It's all kiosks & digital now GigaOM Research
>> Amazon Source offers indie booksellers the opportunity to sell Kindles GigaOM
>> Silk Road online drug marketplace resurfaces InfoWorld
>> Bitcoin goes on overnight nuclear melt-up as price soars past $300 Business Insider
>> The Internet Archive seeks donations after fire destroys $600,000 of equipment The Verge
>> TWEET O' THE DAY: "Someone should write a piece about the death of APIs for web services. Google, Skype etc turning them off." @BenedictEvans
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