// HAPPENING TODAY

Uh, Tim, We Blew Our Budget on U2, but There’s This Great Cover Band in Los Gatos …

Apple has a few more new products to unveil before the year is out, and it plans to show them off in a couple weeks. Sources tell Code/red the company will hold its next special event on Thursday, Oct. 16 — not the 21st. Headlining the gathering: The latest updates to its iPad line, along with that hi-res iMac 9to5Mac told us about earlier this week. Also: OS X Yosemite. Given the breadth and spectacle of Apple’s September event, this one will be a more laid-back affair held at the company’s Town Hall Auditorium in Cupertino, without any mysterious white structures and awkward one-song concerts. Apple declined comment.

E.C. Favs Facebook’s WhatsApp Deal

Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of the Internet messaging service WhatsApp will soon be a done deal. On Friday, the European Commission gave it the green light, despite the objections of some telecom operators who fear it could harm their mobile messaging businesses. The E.C.’s approval follows a similar decision by U.S. antitrust authorities in April and is the final step before the acquisition can close. Worth noting: The E.C. punted on reviewing the possible privacy implications of the deal. “The commission analyzed potential data concentration issues only to the extent that it could hamper competition in the online advertising market,” it said. “Any privacy-related concerns flowing from the increased concentration of data within the control of Facebook as a result of the transaction do not fall within the scope of E.U. competition law.”

Report: Google X Building Best Legos Ever

The Wall Street Journal: “Google’s secretive advanced-projects lab is developing a display composed of smaller screens that plug together like Legos to create a seamless image, according to three people familiar with the project.”

Point/Counterpoint: Neener-neener vs. Ha-Ha

Apple CEO Tim Cook: “At Apple, we believe a great customer experience shouldn’t come at the expense of your privacy. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or Web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. … And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you.”

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: “Someone didn’t brief him correctly on Google’s policies. It’s unfortunate for him. We have always been the leader in security and encryption. Our systems are far more secure and encrypted than anyone else, including Apple. They’re catching up, which is great.”

Leonardo DiCaprio Won’t Ruin Steve Jobs Movie

Leonardo DiCaprio won’t be playing Steve Jobs in the Aaron Sorkin/Danny Boyle biopic of the Apple co-founder.

Pretty Sure It Was Equally Clear When You Were Conducting the Study

Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer on a company research effort that manipulated the news feeds of nearly a million users: “It is clear now that there are things we should have done differently.”

Time for a Tour of Apple’s Facial Hair-Yanking Lab?

Chad Coleman: “Anyone else getting beard hairs pulled by the iPhone 6/Plus? It catches my scruff in the seam and yanks it during calls. #hurts #beardgate”

PETA Insists App Change Its Name to EscapeGoat

Corrina Laughlin, Vice: “eScapegoat gives people a field in which to write a sin in less than 120 characters. It then anonymizes the sin and tweets it out. In 2013, the eScapegoat tweeted over 8,500 sins. This year, over 6,800 people have participated thus far. On Friday, when Yom Kippur starts, the eScapegoat team will symbolically kill the goat and all of the tweets will disappear into the digital wilderness.”

Off Topic

The worst cat: “Why is it so MOIST? This is a terrible cat.”

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