Techmeme: And whomp, here it is: The Pivotal Initiative brought to you by VMware and EMC (Barb Darrow/GigaOM)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

December 4, 2012, 4:10 PM

Top News

Matthew Izatt / Gmail Blog:

The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0 — Six months ago, our team set out to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad to give you you a faster, sleeker, and easier experience on iOS. The result? Version 2.0. With version 2.0 of the app, you'll get a totally new look and feel …

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Facebook Messenger for Android drops account requirement, taking on SMS and WhatsApp — The race to replace SMS is on — Facebook has entered the race to replace SMS in earnest today, announcing that its messenger app for Android will no longer require a Facebook account to sign up.

More: Facebook Newsroom, Forbes, CNET, BGR, CNET, Los Angeles Times, GigaOM, SlashGear, memeburn and WebProNews. Tweets: @nunomaia

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

If Facebook's Not Buying WhatsApp, It Sure Seems Like It's Building It

More: VatorNews, Mobile Marketing Watch and Inside Facebook

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Netflix scores US subscription service exclusive to Disney's first-run films in multi-year deal — Today, Walt Disney studios and Netflix entered into a multi-year agreement that makes the online video distributor the only US subscription service with licensing to show first-run live-action and animated films from the studio.

More: PR Newswire, BGR, CNET, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Forbes, DailyFinance.com, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Business Insider, GigaOM, Engadget, Tech Trader Daily, Macgasm, WebProNews and Mashable!. See also Mediagazer

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft opens its Socl social-search site to any and all testers — Summary: Microsoft is opening up its Socl social-networking research project. There are still no public plans as to when, how and if Microsoft will take Socl commercial. — On December 4, Microsoft's FuSE team took …

More: Microsoft Fuse Labs Blog, GeekWire, Neowin, WinBeta, TechNet Blogs and WebProNews

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Mary Meeker's Latest Must-Read Presentation On The State Of The Web — Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker is doing a year-end presentation on the state of the web at Stanford tonight. — We have the slides of her presentation here. — As usual, it's a must read for anyone in the industry, or anyone with interest in technology.

More: VentureBeat, Daring Fireball, The Next Web, AllThingsD and CNET

Tweets: @stevecheney, @benontech and @runchal

See also Mediagazer

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

iTunes Music Store Launches in 56 New Countries, Movies Arrive in Four — Earlier today, we noted that the iTunes Music Store had gone live in Russia and Turkey, but now that changes have propagated throughout iTunes and we've had time to collect reports, it now appears that Apple …

More: AllThingsD, SiliconANGLE, 9to5Mac, Mashable!, Engadget, everythingiCafe, iDownloadBlog.com, paidContent, digitaltrends.com and iPhone Hacks

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg Tech Blog:

Apple's ITunes Would Be One of World's Biggest Media Companies

More: TUAW

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

US Patent & Trademark Office Grants Apple Registered Trademarks for “Retina” & “Game Center” Icon — On December 4, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple two Registered Trademarks. The first trademark covers the word “Retina” representing Apple's brilliant Retina display …

More: CNET and Redmond Pie

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Google I/O 2013 dates announced: starts May 15th, registration to open early next year — Hope your calendar's clear for next May. Google has just announced the dates for I/O 2013, with the event kicking off on May 15th and concluding on May 17th. After setting up shop in San Francisco this June …

More: CNET, The Next Web, BGR, 9to5Google, The Verge, ReadWrite, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, Know Your Cell, Droid Life and Mashable!. Tweets: @googleio

Douglas Macmillan / Bloomberg:

No VC: Why Techmeme's Gabe Rivera Resists Investors — This is the fifth in a five-part series called “No VC,” which highlights startups that have succeeded without venture capital, the lifeblood of Silicon Valley. — Gabe Rivera often hears from Silicon Valley's elite …

Tweets: @davemcclure, @gaberivera, @rafat, @jordandhudson, @mathewi and @jtemple. Thanks:@skaseyfarrar

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Evernote Expands Its Premium Offerings: Evernote Business Now Live In 7 Countries With Sharing, More Data And A New Searching Algorithm — Evernote, the popular personal information and productivity app that last week announced another $85 million in financing and more than 45 million users …

More: Evernote Blogcast, PC World, CNET, ZDNet, AllThingsD, Social News Daily, Engadget, Mashable!, MacStories, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, The Next Web and CITEworld

Bloomberg:

Nokia Is Said to Reach Deal With China Mobile on Lumia 920 — Nokia Oyj (NOK), the Finnish mobile-phone maker trying to win back customers of Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone and devices using Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android, is set to unveil a version of its flagship smartphone for China's largest wireless carrier …

More: Seattle Times, Tech Trader Daily and AllThingsD

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

John McAfee confirms he is in Guatemala after all, and is planning a press conference tomorrow — It was only yesterday that we reported that man-on-the-run fugitive John McAfee was claiming to have falsified the metadata of a photo that placed him in Guatemala.

More: Who is McAfee?, Examiner, Business Insider, SiliconBeat, Guardian, Forbes, Betabeat, SecurityWeek and WebProNews. See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

Microsoft-Intel Push to Rival Apple in Tablets Sputtering — A push by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Intel Corp. (INTC) to combat Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPad in the $63.2 billion tablet market is getting off to a slow start. — Of more than a dozen tablets Microsoft and Intel touted for the new version …

More: TG Daily, Tech Trader Daily and IntoMobile

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Soundcloud revamps site as users hit 180 million — The ‘YouTube of audio’ claims to now reach 8% of the world's internet population as mobile audio takes off — If the future of the internet is mobile, things are looking very good for Soundcloud, the Berlin-based sound-sharing site.

More: SoundCloud, The Next Web, ReadWrite, BetaNews, The Next Web, CNET, The Verge, GigaOM, Softpedia News, VentureBeat, Business Insider and SocialTimes. See also Mediagazer

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Poshmark Nabs $12M Series B Led By Menlo Ventures To Expand Its Mobile Fashion Marketplace Beyond iOS — Clothing swap meets have been happening for many years, so they are indeed a tried-and-true “industry” of sorts — but can one be worth tens of millions of dollars?

More: VentureBeat, BetaKit, Forbes, GigaOM and AllThingsD

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Urban Airship Acquires Tello, Maker Of PassTools For Apple's Passbook, Because Not All Brands Need Fully Featured Apps — A little over a year after Urban Airship's acquisition of location startup SimpleGeo, the company has moved to once again expand its feature set by acquiring venture-backed Tello in an all-stock deal.

More: GigaOM, GeekWire, The Next Web, Urban Airship, TUAW, VentureBeat, blog.tello.com, Marketing Land and ReadWrite

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Yahoo Acquires Startup OnTheAir — Yahoo has acquired a startup called OnTheAir. — OnTheAir launched in March of this year. — It's been described in the past as a “Skype Meets Google+ Hangouts.” — A Mashable review of the product says this is how it works:

More: TechCrunch. See also Mediagazer

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Nokia selling Espoo headquarters to raise cash, but won't be moving out — Nokia is about to add roughly $220 million to its balance sheet through the sale of its central HQ building in Espoo, Finland. The company will continue to operate within the premises as previously …

More: Nokia, Engadget, TechEye, CNET, VentureBeat, PhoneArena, ZDNet, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Forbes, Electronista, Mashable!, MobileBurn.com and SlashGear

Humayun Khan / BetaKit:

Clarity Adds $1.6M from 500 Startups, Mark Cuban to Be ‘Lifeline for Entrepreneurs’ — BetaKit covered San Francisco and Moncton, NB-based Clarity, which lets anyone get access to entrepreneurial advice over the phone, when it hit 10,000 calls after launching in May 2012.

More: TechCrunch, Mark Evans Tech, GigaOM and The Next Web

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Last.fm Founders' Next Track: Lumi, A Site That Uses Your Browsing History To Help You Discover Things On The Web — Felix Miller and Martin Stiksel, two of the co-founders of the music discovery and streaming site Last.fm, went into a kind of startup hibernation two years after selling their early-moving …

More: Digital Media Wire, GigaOm, Softpedia News, AllThingsD, Mashable! and The Next Web

Barb Darrow / GigaOM:

And whomp, here it is: The Pivotal Initiative brought to you by VMware and EMC — At long last here it is: The long-simmering VMware-EMC spin-off that is. The Pivotal Initiative will focus on bringing resources from the two parent companies to bear on big data and cloud application platforms …

More: VMware Blogs, Inquirer, Business Insider, The Register, InfoWorld, VentureBeat, InfoQ and Channelnomics. Tweets: @qthrul

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Apple hiring ‘dozens’ of former Texas Instruments engineers to boost chip-making operations in Israel — Apple has been expanding its workforce in Israel over the past couple of weeks, tapping a pool of former Texas Instruments (TI) employees in the country to build up research and development centers …

More: CNET and Ubergizmo

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Google Ventures leads $10M investment in firm that measures mobile ads — As more consumers use smartphones to help them shop, advertisers are growing worried about how they will reach those customers. Unlike web sites, which allow brands to target specific users, mobile phones …

More: NYT Bits, AdExchanger and Xconomy

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

More music in your living room: Rhapsody debuts Xbox app — As promised, Seattle-based on-demand music service Rhapsody launched its Xbox Live app today. The service is available for current Rhapsody subscribers and Xbox Live Gold members. — “Many families will be gathering around …

More: The Rhapsody Blog, LiveSide.net, Softpedia News, Neowin and Ubergizmo

Jonathan Rudenberg:

SMS Vulnerability in Twitter, Facebook and Venmo — Update: Twitter has fixed the issue for users of short codes. Users that use a “long code” should enable the PIN code in their account. — Twitter users with SMS enabled are vulnerable to an attack that allows anyone to post to their account.

More: CNET, Ars Technica and Dennis Fisher

Reuters:

U.S. fails to win early limit on Net controls at global gathering — (Reuters) - A U.S. and Canadian proposal to protect the Internet from new international regulation has failed to win prompt backing from other countries, setting up potentially tough negotiations to rewrite a telecom treaty.

Jamie Yap / ZDNet:

Sharp gets $120M investment from Qualcomm — Summary: Both companies agree to jointly develop and commercialize display panel technology, after Qualcomm agrees to inject US$120 million equity investment into Sharp and become a minority stakeholder. — Jamie Yap

More: Wall Street Journal, Sharp, BetaNews, PR Newswire, CNET, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Forbes, Computerworld, Inquirer, TechEye, Electronista, TechSpot, Agence France Presse, SlashGear and BGR India

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Swiss spy agency warns U.S., Britain about huge data leak — (Reuters) - Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland's intelligence service, European national security sources said.

More: The Register, Betabeat, CNET and ZDNet

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

F5:

Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit — Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23. Register now to save your spot.

Zoho:

Website traffic analytics: How to read your data and take action — Traffic is up. Sessions look healthy. The dashboard is full of green arrows and yet — conversions are flat, revenue targets are slipping, and the leads coming through aren't closing.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:

Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

The Upstarts Podcast:

Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

Great Chat:

Who are the billboards for?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:10 PM ET, December 4, 2012.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.