Also: Microsoft’s Surface gets priced; Apple to unveil the iPad mini Oct. 23?
Apple event set for Oct. 23. Investors await the iPad mini [FORTUNE]
If the price were right, a smaller tablet that could run 700,000 iOS apps — 250,000 of them customized for the iPad — would be, in the words of Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu, the “competition’s worst nightmare.”
UberTAXI in NYC shutting down for now [UBER BLOG]
Unfortunately, as many of you have noticed, there haven’t been enough available TAXIs. Demand far out-stripped supply, making you feel pretty lucky when you got a yellow from your iPhone. We did the best we could to get more yellows on the road but New York’s TLC (Taxi and Limousine Commission) put up obstacles and roadblocks in order to squash the effort around e-hail, which they privately have said is legal under the rules. We’ll bite our tongues and keep our frustration here to ourselves.
Microsoft Surface RT tablet priced to compete with iPad, not Android [ReadWriteWeb]
Microsoft finally took the wraps off its Windows RT tablet on Tuesday, formally announcing that the 32GB version of the tablet will cost $499, without the innovative Touch Cover that doubles as a keyboard. Adding a Touch Cover tacks on an additional $100, bringing the total price to $599. For the 64GB model, customers will need to shell out $699 – which includes the Touch Cover.
Can Boxee reinvent cable with the help of a TV antenna? [THE VERGE]
But the most important part of the Boxee TV package might well be the small bundled antenna — a little black stick that extends to just over two feet long in exactly the same manner as an old cordless phone antenna. That’s what gives you free access to a world of network television broadcast over the air — ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and a host of other stations that still maintain large transmitters to bathe the country in glorious uncompressed HD. “If you have a digital antenna and good reception, it’s a beautiful picture,” says Avner. “But the challenge is that most people don’t realize they can get it.” If you don’t have good HD reception, Boxee will point you straight to basic cable, which will give you the same networks for a fairly small monthly fee.
Verizon draws fire for monitoring app usage, browsing habits [CNET]
The company this month began offering reports to marketers showing what Verizon subscribers are doing on their phones and other mobile devices, including what iOS and Android apps are in use in which locations. Verizon says it may link the data to third-party databases with information about customers’ gender, age, and even details such as “sports enthusiast, frequent diner or pet owner.”
Quick, hide the BlackBerry, it’s too uncool [THE NEW YORK TIMES]
The BlackBerry was once proudly carried by the high-powered and the elite, but those who still hold one today say the device has become a magnet for mockery and derision from those with iPhones and the latest Android phones. Research in Motion may still be successful selling BlackBerrys in countries like India and Indonesia, but in the United States the company is clinging to less than 5 percent of the smartphone market — down from a dominating 50 percent just three years ago. The company’s future all depends on a much-delayed new phone coming next year; meanwhile RIM recorded a net loss of $753 million in the first half of the year compared with a profit of more than $1 billion a year earlier.
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