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Was that a meteor over New York (and zipping across Twitter)?

Apparently the bright object that people reported seeing shooting over the East Coast of the United States last night -- and that left a glittery trail across Twitter -- may well have been a meteor.

Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environmental Office told the Associated Press that, "going on visual reports," the flash was "a single meteor event."

"The thing is probably a yard across. We basically have (had) a boulder enter the atmosphere over the northeast," he added.

The object lit up Twitter last night at about 8 p.m. East Coast … Read more

Blizzard reveals HearthStone strategy card game

BOSTON--World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment today announced HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft, a free-to-play collectible card game for PC, Mac, and iPad.

Gamers can sign up to beta-test the title today. The beta will launch this summer, with the full game due out sometime in 2013.

"We wanted to do something a little different," a Blizzard representative said while explaining the game during a presentation at gaming conference PAX East. The game, described as "really small," was built by a team of 15 developers at the Irvine, Calif., developer. … Read more

No strategy shift ahead for ARM, incoming CEO says

ARM Holdings will have a new CEO soon, but the chip designer's strategy won't be changing.

Simon Segars, ARM's president who will take over the CEO role from Warren East in July, told CNET today that he'll be focused on executing the current plans in place, rather than overhauling ARM's strategy.

"What we've been doing is a very appropriate strategy for responding to the dynamics of the market in which we operate," Segars said. "There will be no fundamental shift in strategy. It's about execution and making sure we take … Read more

ARM CEO East to retire in July; Segars waiting in wings

ARM Chief Executive Warren East will retire on July 1, leaving the company in the hands of its president.

The news came down today from the company, saying that Simon Segars, ARM's current president, will succeed East. The company's current chief executive joined ARM in 1994 to head up its consulting business. He became chief executive in October 2001.

East will be no easy act to follow. During his tenure as ARM's chief executive, the company's revenue has soared from $213 million in 2001 to $913 million last year. Only 420 million ARM-based chips were produced … Read more

Windows RT must work with more chips to take off, ARM CEO says

LAS VEGAS -- Microsoft's newest operating system that runs on cell phone chips is off to a slow start, but it's only a matter of time before it gains more traction, the chief executive of chip technology designer ARM Holdings said.

Warren East, speaking today in an interview with CNET at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, said that for that to happen, Microsoft needs to make its software, dubbed Windows RT, work with more ARM-based processors. He said it eventually will do so, but it's unclear when that will be.

Currently, Windows RT runs only … Read more

iPad Mini launches with mini lines

While CNET's New York office waits for power to come back after the storm, we're bringing you the Update show from our San Francisco office. Friday's top tech stories include:

- iPad Mini launch day: Lines were smaller compared to a typical iPhone or iPad launch, but there were still some crowds. New York saw a long lines at the 5th Avenue store, which was sold out of iPad Minis two hours after it opened. One analyst estimates Apple might sell as many as 1.5 million iPad Minis over the weekend.

- Apple released its first … Read more

Sandy knocks snark out of Twitter -- for a day

That awkward moment when your Twitter feed shifts from hurricane booze sarcasm to genuine fear. #sandy

— Ben Rossen (@benrossen) October 29, 2012

As someone writing on the West Coast, it's easy to feel at once a bit detached about Hurricane Sandy and deeply concerned for friends and family -- and everyone else -- stuck in the path of that once-in-a-generation natural disaster bearing down on the East Coast.

But for those hunkering down in places like New York City, Sandy represents real personal consequences -- and it would be natural to assume that those who've spent days nervously waiting to see if the hurricane is for real aren't laughing about it now that they're in the thick of it.

Yet, a quick look at Twitter today reveals that at least as many people have been tweeting quips about the storm as have been expressing real worry. The real question, though, seemed to be: How might the mood change once Sandy hit land and anticipation was replaced by the reality of being in the middle of a major natural disaster that's actively wreaking havoc? … Read more

Sandy is a disaster, but these photos are ridiculous

As almost everyone knows, Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the East Coast, and when all is said and done, its likely to leave a wide, expensive, and potentially fatal path of destruction in its wake. Yet despite a massive number of legitimate photos of the storm being uploaded to every social network you can think of -- including 10 a second to Instagram -- a number of sensational photos seem to be dominating the conversation.

The photos show incredible images like the eye of the hurricane floating over the top of the Statue of Liberty. Or of a very … Read more

Wikipedia now totally free to mobile users in the Middle East

A full 25 million mobile users in the Middle East can now use Wikipedia without worrying about data charges.

The Wikimedia Foundation and Saudi Telecom (STC) have teamed up to offer the free access through a program known as Wikipedia Zero. The goal behind this initiative is to help people in developing countries more easily get information through Wikipedia. Many users in these countries surf the Internet via mobile devices, so the Wikimedia Foundation tries to work with local carriers to eliminate data charges and other obstacles.

The foundation has given high priority to Arabic-language countries but has reached out … Read more