iMessage is apparently down for some users, while others report the outage also affects iTunes Match, Game Center, and the App Store. Everything is fine with all of my services.

The Atlantic:

With Hurricane Sandy, the nation’s eyes are turning to its largest city. Photos of storms and flooding are popping up all over Twitter, and while many are real, some of them — especially the really eye-popping ones — are fake.This post, which will be updated over the next couple of days, is an effort to sort the real from the unreal. It’s a photograph verification service, you might say, or a pictorial investigation bureau. If you see a picture that looks fishy, send it to me at alexis.madrigal[at]gmail.com. If you like this sort of thing, you should also visit istwitterwrong.tumblr.com, which is just cataloging the fakes.

Steve Ballmer’s response when asked how the reception for the Surface was in the first few days:

Numerically there’s not really much that’s interesting to report.

Well that is interesting. After the first three days on the market Apple announced the iPad 3 sold three million units.

“In every category Apple competes, it’s the low-volume player, except in tablets.’

Oh, and that iPhone thing that’s as big as your entire company. Stay classy Ballmer.

The exit of Apple Inc’s longtime mobile software products chief may be a surprise, but a band of able executives led by Tim Cook and a bigger role for design boss Jonathan Ive meant the company was in good hands, analysts said on Tuesday.

And that’s why Tim Cook put Ive in that position. It instantly calmed everything down.

This has always been my favorite app for screen recording. I haven’t used the new version yet, but I’ll take a look in the next little while.

Some interesting thoughts from Cuban on what it will take to win in the TV market.

I’ve been hearing similar things.

“Wednesday was the $199 Kindle Fire HD’s biggest day of sales since launch and up 3x week over week.”

Does that mean they sold 20 Kindles? Could be, who knows. Without the numbers, Amazon’s word means nothing.

Adam Lashinsky for CNN:

I also heard that Forstall refused to sign the letter apologizing for the mapping fiasco, sealing his fate at Apple.

Lots of speculation going around tonight.

The Pentagon is planning to open its network for the first time to Apple iPhones and devices running Google’s Android operating system, a threat to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

A threat? No, that’s devastating for RIM.

Om Malik may have the best line of the day on Scott Forstall being fired.

Apple today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company’s world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.Additionally, John Browett is leaving Apple. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook.

Wow.

MG Siegler on Google’s reasons for shipping the Nexus 4 without LTE.

My buddy Bill Lonero and his band are heading out on a 25 city tour across the United States with original Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno starting on December 21st and ending January 20th. Bill set up a page at Indiegogo to help raise some money for the tour. Help him out if you can.

Looking for the best listening experience for your iTunes Library? Look no further than LouderLogic – the Advanced Audio Player, featuring audio enhancement technology, crossfading, a 4-band parametric EQ, Spectrum Animation Mode, and dynamic Play Queues for interacting with your iTunes library on the fly.

LouderLogic brings the fullness you crave out of every song, using patent pending Audio Level eXtension (ALX) technology by McDSP. With the push of one button, LouderLogic minimizes volume fluctuations between songs while maximizing all the musical details the artist intended you to enjoy. Simply put, you’ll get more from your music!

The phone survey of nearly 1,200 adults in the U.S. found 52 percent hadn’t even heard of Windows 8 leading up to Friday’s release of the redesigned software.Among the people who knew something about the new operating system, 61 percent had little or no interest in buying a new laptop or desktop computer running on Windows 8, according to the poll. And only about a third of people who’ve heard about the new system believe it will be an improvement (35 percent).

So most people have never heard of it and the ones that did don’t want it. This is a firecracker release for sure.

This is what their canceled press conference was all about.

Other companies could only wish for this kind of success.

Rene Ritchie copyedited Amazon’s Kindle ad comparing it to the iPad mini.

BroBible:

There’s a lot of really cool webcams on which to watch the impending doom of Sandy. Quartz found around 30, and we’ve highlighted 10 that we think will be worth watching tonight and tomorrow. Consider these your chance to watch a massive, historic storm roll in without having to see Anderson Cooper bravely squint in a camera while rain whips around him.

The Coney Island cam looks like it will provide some dramatic images.

Gizmodo:

If you had any doubts about the scale of frankenstorm Sandy, check out NASA’s latest image to see its size compared to the entire planet. It was taken by NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite this morning, October 28 at 9:02AM EDT.

Hoping everyone on the east coast of both the USA and Canada stay safe during this incredible storm.

The Guardian:

It is one of the world’s largest hedge funds, with $121bn under management, but its name is virtually unknown in financial circles. Braeburn Capital is not operated from the top floor of a Manhattan skyscraper or a plush Mayfair townhouse. It is located in a quiet suburb of Nevada’s capital, Reno, and it belongs to Apple.Much of Apple’s money is trapped overseas, sheltered from the US taxman, who would demand a 35% cut were the money to be repatriated. But it can be invested at home. Apple’s financial reports show it holds $21bn of US government debt – a vast sum for a single private investor. Foreign governments like investing in US securities, but Apple owns more than the $19bn held by Malaysia, and just $4bn less than Spain.

“Problem”? We should all have such problems.