Wall Street Journal reports that Carl Icahn has softened his stance on Apple’s cash

The activist billionaire had originally urged the technology company to repurchase $150 billion of its stock immediately. He called a previously announced buyback by Apple, which the company said was the biggest buyback authorization in history, too small and too slow.

Now, he is asking for $50 billion in buybacks on top of Apple’s previous program, according to people familiar with his latest overture to Apple. The proposal would call for the buybacks to be done by the end of September, these people said.

That is a big reduction in the amount he is asking for. But the new figure is probably something that Apple would be more likely to consider.

Digital Trends reports that Facebook’s new News Feed will give priority to quality posts.

“Starting soon, we’ll be doing a better job of distinguishing between a high quality article on a website versus a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook when people click on those stories,” Facebook says. ”This means that high quality articles you or others read may show up a bit more prominently in your News Feed, and meme photos may show up a bit less prominently.”

Some memes generate more social engagements than a long article, and they might convey a more powerful message too.

ReadWriteWeb reports that Google Ups The Ante Against Amazon’s Cloud, And That’s A Good Thing For Business – ReadWrite.

Google has spent $2.9 billion on hardware alone to get its service up and running. The company says it designed its Compute Engine to be simple enough for people to understand and manage, much the same way they manage their Gmail accounts, upload videos to YouTube, and share files within Google Drive.

To entice business people to use its Compute Engine, Google is offering a 10% discount for standard services; support for more Linux operating system types; and improvements to its maintenance services including an “automatic restart” feature should there be a major catastrophe.

Amazon is leading the cloud-computing market, with forecasts suggesting that Amazon Web Services will bring in over $3 billion in revenue.

Darrell Etherington writes for TechCrunch about the use of iBeacons to deliver location-based access to iOS Newsstand publications.

The tech is very handy in a number of scenarios, as in a coffee shop for instance, where the establishment could subscribe and enable access to full magazines to patrons who come in. It’s made even more convenient with the addition of iBeacons on iOS, as the whole digital handshake can happen automatically, providing the user with the best possible and most frictionless experience. Another possible use is in modernizing the doctor’s office, offering up publications in the waiting room that are more useful and more current than five-year old issues of Good Housekeeping.

When iBeacons for iOS 7 was announced, there was talk of using the technology to provide location-based marketing and triggers. It can also be used to help with indoor navigation. Incidentally, Apple’s recent acquisition of PrimeSense also points towards the possibility of Apple moving into indoor mapping and navigation.

The use of iBeacons is still in its infancy. I’m very excited by the prospect of what it can bring in the future. Imagine walking into a restaurant and the menu is pushed to your phone. You get to place your order on your phone and you get billed via your digital wallet.

Lightstrap is a new kickstarter project that brings a ring flash to your iPhone.

Lightstrap is a photographic lighting tool for iPhone 5 and 5S that enables you to shoot stunning photos and videos at night. No more blur and grain, just crisp vibrant photos with the distinctive look of a professional ring light. Lightstrap follows the flash on your phone so it works seamlessly with all camera apps.

This is a great concept. I hope it can meet its funding goal. The sample images look impressive. It claims to have 10 times the power of the built-in iPhone flash, but instead of packing it into a single spot the flash is a large rectangle. This would give a more diffuse light that would make portraits look more flattering.

But the makers Brick & Pixel do not stop there. They have also included the option to choose six different colour temperatures for different lighting conditions, and seven brightness levels so that you can specify the flash power you need. On top of that, it also functions as a video light.

I can only think of one more way to improve this product. Have a mirror in the middle of the ring flash for the selfie addicts.

Business Insider reports that popular finance app Mint is now available on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.

The biggest difference with this app compared to the Android and iOS alternatives is it takes advantage of a core element within the Windows 8 operating system: Live Tiles, which are app icons that update in real time with information.