Edited by T. Trent Gegax & Woody Leonhard | September 10, 2013 06:00 PDT | 09:00 EDT | 13:00 UTC
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>> HAPPENING TODAY: 10 things to expect (and not to expect) from Apple's iPhone announcement, by Doug Aamoth: "Apple will announce a new iPhone; will not unveil a smartwatch; will not unveil new iPads; will open the event with an Apple-centric view of the iOS/Android wars; Phil Schiller will be wearing a button-down shirt in the blue/gray/green/tan spectrum; a video of Apple employees in front of a white background will be played; Apple will quietly kill something off; at one point, a guest developer will come on-stage to talk about his or her app; Wild Guess: Apple will unveil a new iPod Nano in a different form factor for no particular reason; at least a dozen superlatives will be used." Time
>>>> Apple to unveil iPhones seeking end to year of struggles, by Adam Satariano: Bloomberg
>>>> All you need to know about the new iPhone, by Galen Gruman: InfoWorld
>> MICROSOFT BIT TORRENT: In reversal, Microsoft gives snarling developers Win 8.1 RTM to chew on, by Juan Carlos Perez: "After developers and IT pros pelted Microsoft with complaints, the company has backtracked and decided to grant them access to the latest Windows 8.1 build instead of making them wait until mid-October. When Microsoft sent to PC and tablet makers two weeks ago the latest pre-release version of Windows 8.1 -- the so-called RTM (release to manufacturers) build -- it broke with tradition and kept developers and IT pros out of the loop, enraging them. Microsoft said at the time that these two camps would get access to the final version of Windows 8.1 when it starts shipping commercially on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18... On Monday, in a surprise reversal, Microsoft announced that it has changed its mind, and that subscribers to MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) and TechNet now have access to Windows 8.1 RTM." And then the servers melted down. InfoWorld
>>>> Windows 8.1 leaks from Wzor two weeks ago same as MSDN and TechNet versions Neowin
>>>> Windows 8.1 says, "Forget all that design stuff from Windows 8.0" Jerry Nixon's blog
>>>> Download Windows 8.1 RTM, Visual Studio 2013 RC and Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM today, by Steve Guggenheimer: Microsoft
>>>> Microsoft sticks to guns, will unveil refreshed Surface on Sept 23: on-sale date likely remains Oct. 18 Computerworld
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>> BREAKING: Alcoa, Hewlett-Packard, and Bank of America to be dropped from Dow Industrials, by Colin Barr: "Alcoa Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Bank of America Corp. will be dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average next week, in the biggest shake-up of the 30-stock index in almost a decade. The changes, which will take effect with the close of trading on Sept. 20, reflect the companies' sliding fortunes and their declining share prices, S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, the company that oversees the Dow, said in a statement. The changes 'were prompted by the low stock price of the three companies slated for removal and the Index Committee's desire to diversify the sector and industry group representation of the index.'" WSJ
>> COMING ATTRACTIONS: New 'Haswell' Chromebooks expected this week at IDF, by Agam Shah: "Chromebooks running Intel's latest Haswell processors are expected to be announced at the Intel Developer Forum this week... Chromebooks are currently sold by Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and Samsung. Additional PC makers are expected to join the fray when the new systems are announced this week" InfoWorld
>> WASHINGTON WIRE: Poland joins anti-corruption probe against HP, by John Ribeiro: "The Polish Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and U.S. agencies are investigating potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by an employee of an indirect subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard in Poland, the company said in a filing Monday... The investigation is in addition to probes by the DOJ and SEC into certain other public-sector transactions in Russia, Poland, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Mexico, among other countries, HP said." PCWorld
>> FISA FIGHT: Facebook and Yahoo join motions to disclose national security requests, by Jared Newman: "Yahoo and Facebook have now filed motions with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, asking for the right to publish more statistics about national security requests. Microsoft and Google filed suits in August, and Google filed an amended motion on Monday." PCWorld
>>>> Crypto prof Matthew Green asked to remove NSA-related blog post Ars Technica
>>>> Could privacy fears burst the dot-com bubble? ZDNet
>> OUR FRIENDS AT THE FED: Steve Jobs was 'big brother,' iPhone users 'zombies,' says NSA, by Charlie Osborne: "The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance scandal keeps reaching new heights, and now a new set of leaked documents hits out at consumers that use Apple technology.... The slides appear to be from an internal NSA presentation, where images from Apple's '1984' commercial were twisted from the company's original message of social freedom.... The leak suggests that the NSA believes the tech giant was both watching and controlling the public with its technological offerings." SmartPlanet
>> #FAIL: Google inexplicably pulls app that mimics Moto X's Touchless Controls , by Florence Ion: "Essentially a voice command shortcut for Google Now, [OpenMic+] mirrored the Touchless Control feature Motorola recently introduced in the Moto X. It worked (for the most part) but as of Friday, the app is no longer listed in the Google Play store. An email to the developer behind the app, Ryan Senanayake, revealed that Google pulled the app without any expressed motive for doing so. Senanayake assumed that it was pulled for mimicking the Moto X's Touchless Controls." TechHive
>> TAP OF THE TIMES: PayPal unveils Beacon device so you can 'pay with your identity', by Rebecca Grant: "PayPal announced a new device called Beacon today that enables people to pay for products in physical retail stores using their mobile phones. Beacon uses Low Energy Bluetooth (LEB) to transmit information from retailers to consumers and vice versa. Beacon can automatically check people in when they arrive to a retail location and deliver them product offers. The customer can then shop as normal and check themselves out via the PayPal app." VentureBeat
>> REDMOND CONCLAVE: Microsoft urged to put Mulally, Lawrie on CEO shortlist, by Nadia Damouni: "At least three of the top 20 investors in Microsoft Corp want a turnaround expert to succeed Steve Ballmer as chief executive and have urged the technology giant's board to consider Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally and Computer Sciences Corp CEO Mike Lawrie for the job." Reuters
>> DEPARTURE LOUNGE: Joyent co-founder Jason Hoffman steps down as CTO of the cloud computing pioneer, by Cahterine Shu: "Hoffman said in a blog post that he will remain connected to Joyent as an advisor. " TechCrunch
>>>> BlackBerry just gutted its salesforce, Cantech Letter
>> GEEK ALERT: Java 8 developer preview ready for testing, by Paul Krill: "Even though a general-release development kit for Java SE (Standard Edition) 8 is not due until next year, Oracle is offering a preview build [of JDK 8] for developers to test right now." InfoWorld
>> BALANCE SHEET BALLAST FOR THE IPO: Twitter buys MoPub for $350M to up the ante in mobile advertising, by Anthony Ha, Kim-Mai Cutler, Ingrid Lunden: "MoPub, a startup that helps mobile publishers manage their ad inventory, has been acquired by Twitter, giving the social network another route into building its advertising business, specifically on mobile platforms. We're hearing that the company was acquired for $350 million in stock… We're also hearing that if you look at the prices that Twitter shares are trading for on secondary markets, the deal could actually be worth significantly more." TechCrunch
>> NEOMONEY: Pioneering Bitcoin hardware company to offer full refunds for all chip orders, by Cyrus Farivar: "Avalon will no longer participate in any kind of pre-ordering" Ars Technica
>> BROGRAMMER BENDER: Business Insider's CTO is your new tech bro nightmare, by Nitasha Tiku: "What has two thumbs and a homophobic, racist, misogynistic, classist worldview? Pax Dickinson. We just noticed this vile Twitter account from Business Insider's chief technology officer today. But he's been at it for awhile." ValleyWag
>> MOTIVATION: To my daughter's high school programming teacher, by Rikki Endsley: "I spent 16 years raising a daughter who had all the tools and encouragement she needed to explore computer programming as a career. In one short semester, you and her classmates undid all of my years of encouragement. I always told my daughter that high school isn't real life. Unfortunately, your programming class proved otherwise. In one semester, my daughter learned why there are so few women in IT, and no amount of encouragement from me is going to change that." Usenix
>> TWEET TV: Coke ad includes live tweets, by Todd Wasserman: "A Romanian Coca-Cola ad appears to have broken new ground in integration between Twitter and TV by including live tweets during an ad.... [It] included a subtitle bar that let the brand run tweets that consumers sent in using the hashtag #LetsEatTogether. Ad agency MRM Worldwide in Romania edited the tweets, five to seven of which made it into each ad placement." Mashable
>> IN MEMORY: John Sculley just gave his most detailed account ever of how Steve Jobs got fired from Apple, by Randall Lane: Spoiler alert: The Board did it. Forbes
>> GAMER DATAVIZ: Game over, mobile takes over the living room, by Horace Dediu, Dirk Schmidt: "Mobile is the clear winner. More people will hire mobile devices for their primary gaming activity. And as mobile devices get inexorably better, they will be hired for use in the setting where consoles have been king: the living room." Asymco
>> TWEET O' THE DAY: "Wow, didn't realize @businessinsider had hired such an asshole in @paxdickinson. Getting memcache to build made him an expert on misogyny!" @anildash
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