October 18, 2013 06:00 PDT | 09:00 EDT | 13:00 UTC
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>> DRIVING THE DAY: Google beats expectations, posts $10.74 EPS on revenue of $14.9 billion in Q3, by Brad Reed: "The $14.9 billion in revenue represented a 12% year-over-year increase from the revenue the company posted in the third quarter of 2012. One of the few negatives for Google on the quarter was that its cost-per-click -- a key metric used to determine how much money Google can charge for advertisements -- deceased by 8% year-over-year in Q3 2013. The company also posted some bad news from its Motorola Mobility segment, which saw its revenues decline from $1.78 billion in Q3 2012 to just $1.18 billion in Q2 2013 while posting a $248 million loss on the quarter." BGR
>>>> Google shares jump $53 after strong results, adding $17B in value VentureBeat
>>>> Google flies high -- but Motorola sinks further InfoWorld
>>>> YouTube traffic from mobile devices nearing 50% CITEworld
>>>> Google's infrastructure spending skyrockets to $2.3B in third quarter GigaOM
>>>> Google Nexus 5 listing appears in the Play Store, teases 16GB for $349 Engadget
>> ROTTEN TOMATOES: Reconciling two worlds with Windows 8.1, by David Pogue: "The more you work with Windows 8, the more screamingly obvious the solution becomes: Split it up. Offer regular Windows on regular computers, offer TileWorld on tablets. That way, everyone has to learn only one operating system, and each operating system is suited to its task." NY Times (paywalled)
>>>> "Dear David Pogue, what a classic Pogue piece. Funny, inaccurate, opinionated in the skewed way only you can bring." Tweet from Microsoft PR head Frank X. Shaw
>>>> "What a classic @fxshaw tweet. Acerbic, vague, and insulting in the superior way only he can bring. (@nytimes @Pogue)" Kevin Fox
>>>> Windows 8.1 is the first rough draft of 'One Microsoft' Time
>>>> Users hit by Blue Screen, 0xC1900101 - 0x40017 error with Windows 8.1 update InfoWorld
>> PRO TIP: Want Office on your iPad or Android tablet? Try Microsoft's new Remote Desktop app for iOS, by Kevin Tofel: "Until Microsoft releases a touch-optimized version of Office for iPad, the next best solution might be the new Remote Desktop app for iOS. Microsoft released the free software on Thursday for iOS and Android, allowing users to remotely connect and control a Windows PC from a phone or tablet. There are a number of uses for such a product but the first one that came to my mind was using Office on an iPad via the Remote Desktop client. Microsoft is working on a version of Office for Apple's tablet but there's no release date information yet available." GigaOM
>>>> Microsoft takes RDP to Android, iOS, but not Windows Phone ZDNet
>> OPEN SOURCE CLOUD: OpenStack Havana rolls out networking, orchestration, and metering upgrades, by Serdar Yegulalp: "OpenStack has generally become the way for an enterprise to create its own private cloud solution, but its sprawl and complexity have been daunting. Vendor interest in OpenStack hasn't necessarily translated into broader interest in the three years it's been around. And since most of the changes to OpenStack in Havana are incremental -- lots of little details here and there, as opposed to a few big game-changers -- the song remains mostly the same." InfoWorld
>> DEADPOOL: Lenovo approaches BlackBerry, by Dana Mattioli, Dana Cimilluca, Liz Hoffman: "A Lenovo purchase of BlackBerry would be one of the biggest and most noteworthy Chinese acquisitions of a Western company. It would again highlight the desire of companies in the world's second-largest economy to become bigger players in the West, where they stand to gain both industrial expertise and a wider array of products to sell their customers." Wall Street Journal (paywalled)
>>>> Lenovo will face obstacles in any BlackBerry deal Reuters
>> CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS: Infosys prepares U.S. settlement over visa use, as it faces new class action suit, by Patrick Thibodeau: "One of the largest users of H-1B visas, Infosys, is facing a federal class action discrimination lawsuit filed against it by four people, and may be close to reaching a potential multimillion dollar settlement with the U.S. government over allegations it misused visitor visas. In the class action suit, four IT and sales people broadly claim that Infosys, an India-based IT services provider, has a U.S., workforce that consists of 'roughly' 90% South Asian, primarily Indian, citizens." Computerworld
>> DEMOTIVATIONAL POSTER: Troubled Obamacare website wasn't tested until a week before launch, by Richard Pollack: "The root cause of the problems was a pivotal decision by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials to act as systems integrator, the central coordinator for the entire program. Usually this role is reserved for the prime information technology contractor.... As a result, full testing of the site was delayed until four to six days before the fateful Oct. 1 launch of the health care exchanges." Washington Examiner
>> Silk Road's main competitor shuts down indefinitely The Verge
>> The streak is over: Xbox 360 dethroned by PS3 after 32 months atop U.S. market GeekWire
>> Samsung set-top box uses mediocre Smart TV software to compete with Roku, Apple TV The Verge
>> AMD reports Q3 profit after reducing reliance on PCs Computerworld
>> E-Loan specialist Wonga buys BillPay, the PayPal of Germany, to move deeper into payments TechCrunch
>> The 'good enough' mobile app is on the rise -- but develop with caution InfoWorld
>> AT&T announces $5 tablet day passes, deal to power Tesla's in-car wireless AllThingsD
>> Programmers at Juniper -- not Google or Facebook -- rake in the most dough PCWorld
>> Where it makes sense to avoid the cloud InfoWorld
>> What's driving the Internet of things? GigaOM
>> Really? Java developers love writing non-Java InfoWorld
>> Algorithms for the traveling salesperson problem Peter Norvig
>> TWEET O' THE DAY: "Google has around one billion users. You're one of them. So *you* create about $60 of revenue and $12 of profit for them annually. Fun fact." @mikko
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